Comparative National Media in a Global Context

Catalog description

COMM 419 Comparative National Media in a Global Context (3) (US;IL)(BA) This course meets the Bachelor of Arts degree requirements. This course is a comparative study of modern mass media systems with focus on the ways in which two or more countries' media have evolved and are structured by the political, economic, social, and cultural environments within which they exist. Students will be exposed to the theories and practices of media systems - as explained in such normative expositions as the four theories of the press and other contemporary iterations. One objective of the course is for students to gain a better appreciation of the structure and location of the media system in the United States vis-à-vis greater awareness of media systems in other political contexts where media cultures may vary from the U.S. matrix. Across the board of sampled countries' media systems, students will be exposed to the ways in which each country's media have developed, are shaped, and are continually shaped by factors that include history, political cultures, evolving legal regimes, media regulations, finances, media economics, new technologies, institutional arrangements, citizens' access to information, or lack thereof. Another objective of this course is to equip students with a toolbox and framework with which they can replicate comparative media systems analyses in other countries and regions of interest as they contemplate study abroad and/or long-term career (employment, graduate studies) engagements. To achieve foregoing objectives students will be exposed to readings in theories of media systems and to academic articles using comparative methodologies to examine structural evolution of media in tandem with countries' transformations over time. Students will analyze historical or contemporary media systems' developments through careful comparisons and applying critical thinking skills. In the process, students develop analytical skills useful in contending with academic and professional environments.