MDIA 2303 - Global Media: Policies and Practices

This course examines the social and cultural institutions through which production, distribution and consumption of media are organised around the world. It pays particular attention to the working of commercial markets, public institutions (both governmental and non-governmental), and civil society organisations that influence these different aspects of our uses of media. The course focuses on political, economic and sociological characteristics of media institutions and explores how these important aspects of media influence content and innovation in information and communication technologies. The examination of debates about the normative characteristics of media is an important part of the course with particular attention paid to how these debates are reflected in the development of governments' policies on media regulation, censorship and trade. The course explores how researchers integrate an understanding of macro and micro-levels of social action into their work through the use of theories that incorporate analyses of institutional structures and individuals' agency. The more abstract, analytical concerns of the course are consistently examined through the use of concrete examples of the people, policies, practices and places that together make up the global media of the 21st century.