Undergraduate

The course introduces students to critical analytical media studies in its historical and contemporary contexts through an exploration of key concepts and theoretical traditions. It focuses on the nature of mediated communication, the functions and roles of media and institutions that help to define media's place in society.

The course will introduce students to methods of critically analysing different media forms (print, radio, television and new media) and genres using key concepts and theories in Media Studies. The course will closely focus on individual media forms of print and visual cultures, broadcast and new media and their various genres.

The module covers theories and debates about media texts, processes of reception and text/audience relations. Central to the module is a focus on how different theories conceptualize media texts and how they construct audiences and the processes of reception of media texts by audiences/publics. A key element of this focus will be on theoretical and public debates about the power of media to influence publics and the power of publics to negotiate/resist (using a range of resources and in different contexts) the power or effects of the media.

The module covers approaches which treat various kinds of media as social constructions of reality. It focusses on the interrelated processes within media production as well as the external factors that shape forces production and dissemination. The module also focuses on the extent to which structures within and outside media organizations can be constraints, and how media owners and practitioners negotiate the constraints related to production. With a key focus on theory from the Global South, this course pays critical attention to the factors that influence production and dissemination of different texts and messages across South Africa’s contemporary media landscape.

The course seeks to critically engage with media forms and cultural systems from the global South within a demanding 21st century. The course wants to move away from theorizations of media as produced in and steered by the global North, asking questions such as: What is global South media / cultural work? How are these media products distinct? The course takes a distinctly decolonial reading of cultural productions, and takes seriously media forms and systems produced in the global South. The course provokes students to think about media forms such as the web series produced in Africa, Afro-cinematic forms, digital productions in the South, community media , and other kinds of exciting productions that help us understand a decolonial way of reading media products.

This course provides a broad grounding in research methodologies in media and cultural studies, and in so doing offers third year students a toolbox of theoretical perspectives on, and practical training in research methods. The course equips students with the ability to design a research project, identify the appropriate methodologies to employ in the course of that project and develop a convincing and solid research design. The course examines quantitative and qualitative methodologies in researching media texts, audiences and institutions, and covers the precise aspects of key research methods in use in the field: textual analysis, interviewing, ethnography and survey

This course provides students with a critical look at the evolving debates and issues surrounding media and communication policy and regulation from the regional, national and global perspectives. The course will also explore the conflicting interests and tension between the various actors in the media arena and examine the impact of political, economic and cultural institutions in media policy formulation and implementation. To give students a broader understanding of the historical and cultural specifics of media institutions, media policy and regulation, the course also examines the various theoretical frameworks underpinning the relationship between the media and the society. 

The course focuses on theories and debates on the role of the media in promoting democracy and development, with a focus on the global south contexts. This course aims to equip students with a basic understanding of key theories on the complex and dynamic relationship between democracy, development, and the media. The course also provides a critique of the dominant narratives about the interrelationships between the media, democracy and development, particularly within sub-Saharan Africa.

The course seeks to critically engage with media forms and cultural systems from the global South within a demanding 21st century. The course wants to move away from theorizations of media as produced in and steered by the global North, asking questions such as: What is global South media / cultural work? How are these media products distinct? The course takes a distinctly decolonial reading of cultural productions, and takes seriously media forms and systems produced in the global South. The course provokes students to think about media forms such as the web series produced in Africa, Afro-cinematic forms, digital productions in the South, community media , and other kinds of exciting productions that help us understand a decolonial way of reading media products. 

This course is based on democracy theory, emphasising diversity and pluralism. It applies theory to various cases in SA media and journalism with an in-depth look at the State of the Newsroom South Africa, the media freedom landscape and infringements from the state and corporate/commercial impediments on the news media and how this impacts on journalists ability to do their jobs. The main focus in the above section is on print media. How is the media a subject of the state? What kind of resistance does the news media put up against subjectivisation by the state for example today's latest Fake News aimed to distract journalists from their jobs.The course also takes a decolonial turn in thinking to examine identity and how media portray race. In this instance, the course introduces decolonial theorists to students. We further examine independence of the media vis-a-vis broadcasting: what, for instance, is the public broadcaster's mandate and how politics (for example factional politics in the ANC) is impacting on this fulfilment. In the final part of the course we deal with online and cyber bullying and trolling as a major issue of subjection that journalists are experiencing.

This course explores from both empirical and conceptual perspectives key questions about the relationship between consumer culture and the media in South Africa, the global south and beyond. It brings together a variety of theoretical and research perspectives ranging from histories of consumption, the links between consumption and race, class, and gender, as well as the mediated aspects of various forms of consumption, from shopping to tourism and so-called green consumption.

This course provides students with a working knowledge of key theories of new media and society and gives them experience of applying these to a set of global and contemporary case studies. Using ideas from broad theoretical frameworks within Media Studies and other social science and humanities fields, students discuss some of the important ways in which new media influence, reflect and react to significant and pervasive social trends. Scholarly literature and non-traditional media forms are combined to offer a dynamic and immersive perspective of the important position of new media trends, technologies, communities and narratives in shaping contemporary society.