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

Second term
Friday from 10:45 to 12:45 at 119 Marais 1200

Dutch

At the end of this course, students are able:

• to iscuss and explain contemporary media relatd developments from a historical and political economic point of view (e.g. the streaming wars, the battle between Trump and Huawei, the development of a Flemish Netflix, the changing role of public broadcasting in Belgium.
• to provide a factual description of the processes that structure the national and international mediascape.
• to discuss the most important institutional features of a selection of traditional and new media from a critical vantage point.
• to name and discuss the different regulatory institutions and processes that have an impact on the production, circulation and consumption of media content
• to use scientific terminology from media studies and the political economy of communication correctly (e.g. horizontal and vertical concentration)
• to discuss news, entertainment and advertising as the result of an institutionalized process
• to follow up on current affairs and to synthesize the news on specific issues

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This course focuses on media from a historical and political-economic perspective. This allows us to critically approach the production, distribution and consumption of media content in Flanders, Belgium and Europe.

What impact does the organization of a media landscape have on the type of content that we see on television or on our smartphone? In which ways are media controlled and regulated by specific institutional actors? Who owns what media? How do media earn their money? What are the most important media groups? How has the role of public broadcasting changed under the influence of liberalization and digitization?

To answer these and other questions, we focus our attention on how the media landscape is regulated and organized locally, nationally and internationally.

We will focus on the following issues:

• The political economy of the media
• The institutional production of propaganda
• The regulation of private and public broadcasters
• Changes in the organization of a number of important media groups
• Changes in the institutional organization of news production
• The institutional logics that reform the media landscape
• Implications of the revenue models of the (news) media
• The impact of digitization on traditional media
• The political economy of digitization and social media
• Political compartmentalization & filter bubbles

Students are encouraged to make comparisons between the Francophone and Dutch/Flemish media landscape in Belgium.

• Lectures supported by visual aids

• Collective discussions of current affairs and academic literature

• One or more guest lectures by experts and/or by media professionals

• A possible excursion to a relevant media related event

First exam session (June)

During the first exam session students will be evaluated on the basis of three components:

• Written exam: 60%
• Tests about current affairs: 20%
• Group assignment: 20%


Second exam session (September)

During the second exam session, students have the possibility to write an individual paper that replaces the points obtainted for the group assignment in the first semester. Students that opt not to write such a paper keep the grade of their group assignment from the first exam session.

• Written exam (80%)
• Individual paper in the second session or group assignment from the first exam session (20%)

The literature below serves as a source of inspiration for this course. Parts of this literature serve as obligatory study material. This list may not be exhaustive.

Downey, J. (2006). The media industries: do ownership, size and internationalisation matter? In D. Hesmondhalgh (Ed.), Media production (pp. 7-48). Maidenhead: Open University Press.
Hardy, J. (2014). Chapter 1: What (is) political economy of the media? In J. Hardy (Ed.), Critical political economy of the media: an introduction (pp. 3-36). New York: Routledge.
Hardy, J. (2014). Chapter 4: Concentration, conglomeration, commercialisation. In J. Hardy (Ed.), Critical political economy of the media: an introduction (pp. 79-107). New York: Routledge.
Herman, E. S. (2000). The propaganda model: a retrospective. Journalism studies, 1(1), 101-112.
Hesmondhalgh, D. (2006). Chapter 2: Media organisations and media texts: prodcution, autonomy and power. In D. Hesmondhalgh (Ed.), Media production (pp. 49-89). Maidenhead: Open University Press.
Maeseele, P., & Raeijmakers, D. (2017). Nothing on the news but the establishment blues? toward a framework of depoliticization and agonistic media pluralism. Journalism, 1-18.
Mosco, V. (2017). Becoming digital. United Kingdom: Emerald Publishing.
Papathannasopoulos, S., & Negrine, R. (2011). Chapter 2: The structure of (old) media in Europe. In S. Papathannasopoulos & R. Negrine (Eds.), European media: structures, policies and identity (pp. 17-36). Cambridge: Polity.
Pedro - Carañana, J. (Ed.) (2018). The propaganda model today: filtering perception and awareness. London: University of Westminster Press. Musschoot, I., & Lombaerts, B. (2012). Media in beweging: handboek voor de mediaprofessional: Lannoo Campus.
Saeys, F. (2007). Statuut, organisatie en financiering van de openbare omroep in Vlaanderen: een geschiedenis. In A. Dhoest & H. Van den Bulck (Eds.), Publieke Televisie in Vlaanderen (pp. 23-51). Gent: Academia Press.
Van den Bulck, H. (2007). Het beleid van de publieke televisie: van hoogmis van de moderniteit naar postmodern sterk merk? In A. Dhoest & H. Van den Bulck (Eds.), Publieke televisie in Vlaanderen: een geschiedenis (pp. 23-51). Gent: Academia Press.
Van den Bulck, H. (2008). De identiteit van de openbare omroep in het digitale tijdperk: een stakeholder analyse. In H. Van den Bulck & A. Dhoest (Eds.), Media Cultuur Identiteit: actueel onderzoek naar media en maatschappij (pp. 5-19). Gent: Academia Press.
VRM (Vlaamse Regulator voor De Media). Mediaconcentratierapport 2018. Retrieved from http://vlaamseregulatormedia.be/sites/default/files/pdfversions/mediaconcentratierapport_2018_def_0.pdf