IAM 201 Globalization and Media
The current global media landscape is a complex web of multi-vocal, multimedia, and multi-directional media flows. Through a series of lectures, case studies, discussions, and interactive learning activities, students take an in-depth look at the role of the media and cultural industries in the processes of globalization and at the globalization of the media and cultural industries. Students develop an understanding of key theoretical approaches to globalization that range from claims of a ‘global public sphere’ to claims that ‘globalization is a myth’. Using a theoretically informed lens, reflective practice, and research, students analyze economic and technological changes within the global media and cultural industries, from the perspective of ownership and media policy and regulation. They examine the changing conditions for the production, distribution, and reception of mediated communication with different media in various fields across the globe. Students explore the implications of transnational media and cultural flows through empirical case studies. Throughout the course, particular attention is paid to media production and reception cultures in the Muslim world.
Learning Outcomes
Critically discuss the main theoretical approaches to globalization and media, and how these key approaches relate to each other.
Explain the complex and contradictory globalization, regionalization, and localization processes in international cultural industries and media markets.
Employ the theoretical framework and empirical insights to analyze similarities and differences in political and economic contexts and cultural fields.
Present information and communicate effectively in written and oral forms about issues related to globalization and media.
Illustrate and critically evaluate the effects of globalization on Islamic cultures and the representation based on independent research.
Identify a diversity of global perspectives, not only dominant Western views but also marginalized, alternative, and counter-hegemonic positions, and distinguish between global, transnational, and international communication.
Critically analyze examples of media coverage of different cultural traditions by identifying problems with media representations and offering ethically, culturally, and academically informed solutions to the problems.
Appraise the advantages and disadvantages of the role of English as a global language in the modern world, and assess the relationships between tradition and modernity and the role of globalized media in shifting the relationships.
Demonstrate skills in library research, building a bibliography, and using standard conventions of style for scholarly writing.
Evaluate the validity, reliability, or utility of the acquired knowledge and skills through peer reviews and/or self-assessment (by diaries and weekly reviews).