6 ECTS credits
160 h study time

Offer 1 with catalog number 1000953ANR for all students in the 2nd semester at a (A) Bachelor - preliminary level.

Semester
2nd semester
Enrollment based on exam contract
Impossible
Grading method
Grading (scale from 0 to 20)
Can retake in second session
Yes
Taught in
Dutch
Partnership Agreement
Under agreement for exchange of courses
Faculty
Faculty of Social Sciences & SolvayBusinessSchool
Department
Communication Sciences
Educational team
Ellen Debackere (course titular)
Activities and contact hours
24 contact hours Lecture
136 contact hours Independent or External Form of Study
Course Content

This course focuses on the history of mass media and mass communication. The course deals with the history of a number of crucial media and communication phenomena and discusses the political, cultural, social, technological, legal and economic actors and developments that characterise and determine this history and its implications for the current situation. Focus is on journalism, film and cinema, broadcasting, and propaganda.

Course material
Digital course material (Required) : Slides en reader, Canvas
Additional info

Not applicable.

Learning Outcomes

General competencies

At the end of the course:

  1. you know the history of a number of crucial media and communication phenomena and institutions: journalism, film and cinema, broadcasting, propaganda
  2. you can identify and discuss the links between the histories of different crucial media and communication phenomena and institutions;
  3. you can identify the main actors in the history of the discussed media and communication phenomena and institutions and discuss their role in that history;
  4. you can identify and discuss the geographical differences and similarities in the development of media and communication phenomena in Belgium, Europe, and beyond.
  5. you can historically contextualize the current situation of the media and communication phenomena
  6. you can historically contextualize a current event in the context of media and communication through independent desk research and literature review, and you can communicate this analysis in a creative, well-written and correct fashion to a broad public through a journalistic long-read article

Grading

The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
Written Exam determines 60% of the final mark.
Other Exam determines 40% of the final mark.

Within the Written Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:

  • Written Exam with a relative weight of 1 which comprises 60% of the final mark.

Within the Other Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:

  • Long-read Article with a relative weight of 1 which comprises 40% of the final mark.

Additional info regarding evaluation
  • Written exam (60%)
  • Individual written assignment: long-read journalistic article on the history of a selected media or communication phenomenon (40%)

If you need to participate in the second session, but scored minimum 10/20 for one of the two parts of the evaluation, the partial result of the part of the evaluation you scored minimum 10/20 for (the individual written assignment or the written exam) is transferred to the second session. If you wish to retake that part you scored minimum 10/20 for in the second session, you need to send an e-mail to bdecleen@vub.be within five days after the publication of the exam results. In case you retake that part in the second session, your first session result is cancelled and the second session result becomes the official result (even if it is lower than the first session result).

If you need to retake the course in the next year, the same rules apply. Partial results from 10/20 are transferred to the next academic year. If you want to retake a part you scored minimum 10/20 for in the previous academic year, you need to request this before the end of February by mail to bdecleen@vub.be.

Allowed unsatisfactory mark
The supplementary Teaching and Examination Regulations of your faculty stipulate whether an allowed unsatisfactory mark for this programme unit is permitted.

Academic context

This offer is part of the following study plans:
Bachelor of Philosophy and Moral Sciences: default (only offered in Dutch)
Bachelor of History: Standaard traject (only offered in Dutch)
Bachelor of History: Minor Minor Human Sciences (only offered in Dutch)
Bachelor of History: minor Social Sciences (only offered in Dutch)
Bachelor of Communication Studies: Standaard traject (only offered in Dutch)