Mass Communications and Media Discourse

2024/2025

Academic Year

ENG

Instruction in English

6

ECTS credits

Delivered at:

School of Foreign Languages

Course type:

Elective course

When:

4 year, 1, 2 module

Instructor

Nagornaya, Alexandra

Course Syllabus

Abstract

Mass Communication generally implies dissemination and exchange of information within large groups of people. This information flow has been considerably facilitated by recent advances in communication technologies. A study conducted by the Zenith Optima has revealed that people spend an average of eight hours a day interacting with the currently available forms of the Mass Media. Their daily ‘media diet’ may include watching a news program on TV, browsing through original content on YouTube, playing video games through Stream, leafing through their favorite magazines, reading e-books, listening to music through Spotify, or enjoying a wide variety of podcasts, often in the ‘media multitasking’ mode. This media exposure has changed not only people’s lifestyle, but the very core of their existence contributing to the emergence of a new type of human being, Homo Informaticus, whose life revolves around producing and consuming information. To paraphrase C. Wright, we now live in a second-hand world: we get and process terabytes of information related to events that are beyond our immediate grasp and are delivered to us through multiple and constantly developing channels. This delivery inevitably involves formatting the original information, imbuing it with certain meanings and making it serve a certain purpose. By doing so, the Mass Media largely form our mental images of the world, shape our outlook and spur us to take certain actions. The main objective of the course is to teach students to approach the media content critically, to be able to deconstruct the media text and detect hidden, ideologically loaded messages. The course is based on the most up-to-date theories, methodologies and explanatory models. It involves working with authentic media materials and using different approaches to their analysis. The students’ progress is mainly assessed through their participation in in-class activities and research projects. To enter the course, you need to have 8 or above as the grade for the Practical Course of the English Language.

Learning Objectives

• • to help students form a systemic view of the modern Mass Media, their role and functions in society; • to lay firm theoretic foundations for conducting research in Media Linguistics through teaching specialist terminology and familiarizing students with the most relevant research methods; • to increase media literacy through developing skills of analyzing media products; • to enhance professional discursive skills.

Expected Learning Outcomes

• The students are expected to be able to conduct Transitivity Analysis, Mystification Analysis, and Social Actor Analysis. They are supposed to be able to choose the most relevant type of analysis for each particular media text.
• The students are expected to have a systemic view of the history of the Mass Media in Great Britain and the USA.
• The students are expected to know the scope of Media Linguistics and its methodological principles
• The students are supposed to be able to explain the social functions of the media
• The students are supposed to conduct comparative Critical Discourse Analysis of media texts from English-medium and Russian-medium sources
• The students are supposed to understand the goal and scope of Critical Discourse Analysis
• The students should be able to analyze visuals using the principles of Critical Discourse Analysis
• The students should be able to conduct newspaper text analysis, discussing the newsworthiness of the event, the news value of the article, the type of news (hard/soft), the features of the headline, the function of the subhead, the type of lead-in, the presence or absence of the inverted pyramid style, the internal logic of the article and the role of the visuals
• The students should be able to detect metaphors in discourse and explain their functions
• The students should know and be able to explicate the most influential theories of mass communication
• The students should know the main types of newspaper text

Course Contents

• Media Literacy
• Introduction to the Media. The Mass Media in the Modern World. Media in the English-Speaking Countries
• Media Linguistics as a Discipline

Assessment Elements

• presentation
  Students present a project based on a relevant issue in the theory of mass communication
• participation
• analysis
  The students conduct the analysis of newsworthiness using a template

Interim Assessment

• 2024/2025 2nd module
  0.3 * analysis + 0.4 * participation + 0.3 * presentation

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

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• Analysing discourse : textual analysis for social research, Fairclough, N., 2010
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• Critical discourse analysis. Vol.4: Applications, interdisciplinary perspectives and new trends, , 2013
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• Methods of critical discourse studies, , 2016
• Mzwandile A Mabhala, Asmait Yohannes, Alan Massey, & John A Reid. (2020). Mind your language: Discursive practices produce unequal power and control over infectious disease: A critical discourse analysis. https://doi.org/10.4103/ijpvm.IJPVM_431_17
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• Sekarasih, L., Scharrer, , Erica, Olson, , Christine, Onut, , Gamze, & Lanthorn, K. (2018). Effectiveness of a School-Based Media Literacy Curriculum in Encouraging Critical Attitudes about Advertising Content and Forms among Boys and Girls. Journal of Advertising, 47(4), 362–377. https://doi.org/10.1080/00913367.2018.1545269
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• Массовая коммуникация : западные теории и концепции: учеб. пособие для вузов, Бакулев, Г. П., 2005
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Recommended Additional Bibliography

• A2 media studies : the essential introduction, Bennet, P., 2006
• Afrouzi, O. A. (2020). A Critical Discourse Analysis of News Headlines on Lula’s Corruption Case in Leading Newspapers in Brazilun Análisis Crítico Del Discurso en Los Titulares De Noticias Sobre El Caso De Corrupción De Lula en Los Principales Periódicos De Brasil. Revista de Comunicación de La SEECI, 52, 171–192. https://doi.org/10.15198/seeci.2020.52.171-192
• Alexander C. L. Holden. (2020). Exploring the evolution of a dental code of ethics: a critical discourse analysis. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-020-00485-3
• Cevi Mochamad Taufik, & Suhaeri Suhaeri. (2020). Media Literacy in Information Chaos Era: Qualitative Study Bandung Literacy Activist. MediaTor, 13(1), 90–98. https://doi.org/10.29313/mediator.v13i1.5791
• Communication, cultural and media studies : the key concepts, Hartley, J., 2011
• Dias, M. V. e S., & Pinto, J. D. F. (2020). Racism and identity: a critical discourse analysis of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah.
• Introduction to media literacy, Potter, W. J., 2016
• Media literacy, Potter, W. J., 2011
• Media studies : an introduction, Kolker, R., 2009
• The international encyclopedia of media studies. Vol. 6: Media studies futures, , 2013
• Vlad, E. (2019). Hedging, Critical Discourse Analysis and the Original Brexit Affair. NORDSCI.
• Yaman, M. (2020). Examining Media Literacy Levels and Personality Traits of Physical Education and Sports Students According to Certain Demographic Variables. Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology - TOJET, 19(1), 1–8.
• Массовая коммуникация: сущность, каналы, действия, Березин, В. М., 2003

Authors

• NAGORNAYA ALEKSANDRA VIKTOROVNA