6 ECTS credits
180 h study time

Offer 1 with catalog number 1021099BER for all students in the 2nd semester at a (B) Bachelor - advanced level.

Semester
2nd semester
Enrollment based on exam contract
Possible
Grading method
Grading (scale from 0 to 20)
Can retake in second session
Yes
Enrollment Requirements
Students must have taken ‘Introduction to Communication Studies', before they can enroll in this course. ​
Taught in
English
Partnership Agreement
Under interuniversity agreement for degree program
Faculty
Faculty of Social Sciences & SolvayBusinessSchool
Department
Communication Sciences
External partners
Universiteit Gent
Educational team
Frederik Dhaenens (course titular)
Activities and contact hours
24 contact hours Lecture
12 contact hours Seminar, Exercises or Practicals
144 contact hours Independent or External Form of Study
Course Content

Diversity and identity have become key notions in contemporary societies. Both in popular and academic debate, socio-cultural issues related to social class, racial, ethnic, gender and sexual identities are being broached.

This course is particularly concerned with how media and popular culture have been dealing with (these debates on) diversity and aims to provide students with knowledge and insight into the role media and culture have assumed in the process of making sense of the world. 

The approach of this course is threefold. First, it offers historical perspectives, contexts and milestones in the history of engaging with sociocultural diversity in popular media culture. Second, it provides key theoretical insights from media, communication, and cultural studies and social theory, which should help us make sense of the various ways used to engage with sociocultural diversity in popular media culture. Third, it offers reflections on contemporary trends, transformations and challenges that have emerged in late modern societies. 
To achieve this goal, this course assumes a critical, holistic and contextual approach. It focuses on particular types of popular media culture (mainly film, popular music and television), takes into account the role of production and text in the process of making meaning of diversity and uses historical and timely examples/cases from media and popular culture as illustrations and point-of-references to the issues at stake.
 

Course material
Digital course material (Required) : Downloadable Powerpoint slides
Digital course material (Required) : Mandatory course chapters _ uploaded on Ufora
Practical course material (Required) : Contribution to poster presentation _ about five euros
Handbook (Required) : Represent! Studies of Diversity and Popular Media Culture (title subject to change) _ about 40 euros, Frederik Dhaenens, 2024
Additional info

This course combines different teaching methods:

  • Lecture: offering an introduction to key concepts, important theories, and contemporary debates prevailing in the research on media, culture and diversity.
  • Group work: Students work together on understanding a contemporary case that links up to one or more of the key issues and concepts presented within the course and present the case in class.If group size allows, posters will be used for the presentation. This means an additional cost of about 5 euros per student. 
  • Self-reliant study activities: students individually and independently process and assess additional scholarly literature that deals with the content of the course, as preparation to the formal lectures.
Learning Outcomes

General competences

  1. Being able to describe, explain and reflect on the key concepts, important theories, and contemporary debates prevailing in the research on media, culture and diversity.
  2. Being able to apply key concepts onto contemporary phenomena that relate to media, culture and diversity in order to make a make a scholarly sound and informed judgment and evaluation of these phenomena.
  3. Being able to argue what the relevance is of media, communication and cultural studies for the analysis of contemporary problems and, as such, to demonstrate the societal role and responsibility of a communication scholar.
  4. Being able to successfully conduct a small research project on diversity and popular (media) culture in group.
  5. Being able to clearly and concisely communicate a research project on diversity and popular (media) culture to fellow students.

Grading

The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
Written Exam determines 75% of the final mark.
Other Exam determines 25% of the final mark.

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

  • Written Exam with a relative weight of 75 which comprises 75% of the final mark.

    Note: .

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

  • Group Presentation with a relative weight of 25 which comprises 25% of the final mark.

Additional info regarding evaluation

The written exam consists of questions of reproduction, insight and application:

  • The questions of reproduction and insight test the student’s knowledge and understanding of the key concepts, important theories, and contemporary debates.
  • The questions of application evaluate the student’s abilities to apply the key concepts onto contemporary, relevant events within contemporary media culture.

Evaluation assignment:

  • Create a group presentation based on a topic that relates to the setup of this course

In order to pass the course, students have to participate in the evaluation of both components (i.e. written exam and group presentation).

If students pass the group assignment (score of 10/20 or more) but fail the written exam, students can retain the score of the group assignment in the resit and/or following academic year. The student has to e-mail the lecturer within a week (from the moment the results have been communicated) if they want to redo the assignment, which will be in the form of a modified and individual assignment. Similarly, if the students takes part in the exam and pass the exam but did not partake in the group assignment, the student can retain the score of the exam in the following academic year. 

Note: Further information on the assignments and grading is included in the seminar's guidelines that will be published on Ufora.

Regarding AI: The use of AI is only allowed to support the development of your own original ideas, not to generate ideas. Any use of AI must be properly stated. It is not permitted to use AI to generate output related to the research design and the analysis. Similarly, the creation of the poster must be original and not generated by AI. 

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 Social Sciences: Year 3: Specialisation Communication Studies
Bachelor of Social Sciences: Year 3: Specialisation Political Sciences
Bachelor of Social Sciences: Year 3: Specialisation Sociology
Bachelor of Social Sciences: Year 1 and 2