Face-to-face , second term, 30 hours of exercises.

The compulsory texts are in French or in English. For the written work, the students will maybe have to deal with texts in English depending on their research subject or the available documentary resources.

The general aim is to deepen the main theoretical approaches of communication and media.

A more specific objective is to provide the students with reading abilities of scientific texts on communication and media. These are:
- Understanding texts, which means grasping, even deciphering the arguments and concepts developed by the author;
- Summing up texts, this means explaining, in one's own words, the main ideas and the way they articulate. The student should be able to explain the essential structure of the argumentation but keep concise;
- Synthesising some texts, this means proposing an overview of the treated themes, situating and comparing the texts, explaining the resemblances and differences between authors or approaches, etc.

The seminar also aims to encourage the students to be discerning while reading texts about communication and media. These have often an indistinct statute, between the reflected and creative hypothesis strongly argued, and may result in a minimum of verifications and in ideological favourable or unfavourable arguments to any sort of communication practice or technique, but are not very receptive to critical questioning. More generally, it is important to question the encountered texts, e.g. to define its place in the scientific debate, to discuss the contribution and limitation of a reflection or research, etc.

At last, the seminar aims also to train the students to writing, presenting and discussing papers, which should follow the requirements and methods of human and social sciences. Consequently, the students will be asked to write down their result and to present them orally. These presentations will be discussed in group.

For the Bachelor in Information and Communication :

For the Bachelor in Information and Communication :

Since their development in the second half of the twentieth century, studies about communication and media are characterized by a strong heterogeneity considering their research subjects and their theoretic and methodological approach. The seminar will provide the students with the opportunity to develop a range of theoretical approaches for studying at the interactivity and participation of audiences and publics.

The students will be spread out in two groups. The very first session is common to the two groups. For the second week of the seminar, students will be asked to form subgroups of 2 or 3 students. Each subgroup will have to achieve two tasks: an oral presentation and a written work.

a) An oral presentation

For the second week of the seminar, each subgroup should have chosen, in a given list, a text, which they will analyse and present orally (no more than 50 minutes in total)

The oral presentation itself consists in three points. First, the students should present the content of the chosen text, showing a systematic mind and high intelligibility (the presentation should be clear for the students who didn't read the text). Then, the students will have to criticize or question the text, which means, for instance, defining problematic notions, highlighting the place of the author in the scientific debate, assessing the contributions and the limitations of the paper, updating it in light of new developments, developing existing criticisms, etc. The presentation and the discussion of the paper will take up to 25 minutes. Finally, the subgroup will have to interact with the students. On the one hand, the subgroup will ask comprehension questions, in order to check whether the main ideas of the text have been correctly understood. On the other hand, the subgroup will have to choose between (1) developing one example (e.g. related to the news) in order to apply or put into question the main ideas of the text, OR (2) elaborating several links to the theories presented in other courses or seminars. The interaction with the class will take up to 15 minutes.

The students will have to show their ability to communicate orally. They are invited to use visual aids (transparencies, PowerPoint).

In the end, the oral presentation will be collectively evaluated, regarding both content and formal aspects (10 minutes).

b) A written work

Independently from the oral presentation, the students will have to develop a specific theoretical concept, hypothesis, core idea or model that is part of one of the theoretical approaches to media and communication covered by the seminar.

This work should be based on 3 or 4 main texts. It will also request more bibliographic references necessary to a detailed treatment of the three or four texts (here, the texts studied in class may help).

An outline of the written text (maximum 2 pages) will be hand out to the teacher (date will be determined). This includes a temporary formulation of the research question, a short summary of the chosen texts, some ideas to develop further and an account of the main encountered difficulties (these may be theoretical, methodological or practical). This outline will be discussed with the teacher.

The actual work will be composed of about 15. It will include the following parts:
1/ an introduction including an explicit research question and the explanation for the text choice and the documentary research method;
2/ a summary of the three or four key texts (maximum 1/2 page for a text);
3/ the theoretical development of a specific notion, hypothesis, core idea, model, etc. through a critical synthesis of relevant texts. In order to do so, the student might need to clarify problematic notions in light of the approach discussed in the work. Whenever possible, the students will also use the texts presented by the other groups as well as other relevant references ;
4/ a conclusion, with a return to the starting question, and an explanation of the main contribution of the seminar;
5/ a bibliography.

The written work in process will be presented and discussed in class. For each work, a group of discussants will be appointed in order to sustain the discussion.

The assessment is divided in three parts:
- the participation to the seminar: 10 points;
- the oral presentation (its content, its form): 10 points;
- the final written paper: 20 points;
- an oral examination (defence of the written work and mastery of the studied subject): 20 points.

Recommended references will be communicated in due time.

A collection of documents, including a bibliography relating to the themes studied in class, will be available.