58226 Media, Mediation, Power

This introduction to media studies examines significant debates about the social, political and psychological power and effects of modern (post-WWII) media: the press, radio, television and the internet. The subject investigates what constitutes a 'medium' of communication and how this has changed through time. It considers how each medium uniquely mediates among key social agencies, the state, communities and citizens. It investigates the questions: how do people use media? How do the media 'use' people? How are the media involved in social and historical change? Through the study of individual and converging media (including television, the press and the internet), students engage with the principal theoretical approaches to understanding media and mediation, technological determinism and the increasingly 'active' use of digital, 'converging' media in students' own lives.