Session: One
Prerequisites: Basic knowledge of journalism and international politics and fluent understanding of written and spoken English. This course is suitable for professionals and activists working in journalism or media-related fields as well as students. Participants should have studied at least one introductory course in either political science, international relations, sociology, economics or media and communications.
Mr Charlie Beckett
Dr Shani Orgad
Dr Bart Cammaerts
We live in a world where information is an increasingly critical resource. The news media play a crucial role in the production and dissemination of that information. From Twitter to the New York Times, from Al Jazeera to Facebook, journalism is having an impact on our personal and political lives, and so it is vital to understand their role in the modern world. To do so, it is necessary to analyse how the news media are undergoing profound change. Participants in this course will emerge with a better understanding of the shifts taking place in the practices, forms and processes within the news media and their consequences for the role of journalism in contemporary society. As well as the academic lecturers there will be daily talks by leading current news media practitioners.
The first part of the course will introduce students to the current news media landscape and the contexts within which journalism operates. It will highlight the changes journalism is undergoing, particularly in the context of digital and online media and their implications for the concepts underpinning journalism practice. We will look at the core ideas around journalism such as objectivity and the current ethical debates about its practice and effects. How do the news media frame political debates by its coverage of elections, governments and opposition movements? We will examine the challenges and opportunities presented by new media – what difference do they really make for journalistic practice?
The second part of the course will examine the role of journalism in the international context and the relationship between the local, national and global. The discussion will focus on the moral role and the ethical consequences of journalism in reporting on suffering. It will examine questions around the coverage of humanitarian issues from both the societal and newsroom perspectives. It will critically examine the opportunities and challenges of representing 'distant others' who are miles away from Western viewers, looking at the representation of humanitarian emergencies and the role of the news media in war and conflict.
The third part of the course will examine three particular areas where journalism has direct impact on ideology and politics in society: protest, WikiLeaks and celebrity. The question at the heart of this concluding part of the course is: How can the news media make a deeper change in the real world? What is the role of mainstream and alternative media is shaping our sense of identity or challenging orthodoxy? The discussion will enable students to integrate what has been studied in the first two parts and apply it to a critical exploration of journalism's role in the contemporary world.
The lectures and seminars given by LSE staff are supplemented by 12 talks by leading media practitioners from across the news media.
Texts:
C. Beckett, SuperMedia, Blackwell (2008)
R. Silverstone, Media and Morality, Polity (2006)
C. Beckett, WikiLeaks: News In The Networked Era Polity (2012)
Other Sources:
POLIS blog: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/polis/ |
POLIS on Twitter: @charliebeckett|
Lectures: 36 hours Classes: 12 hours
Assessment: Written essay (30%) and one written examination (70%).