Media Representation

GJ 313 Media Representation focuses on understanding how culture influences interpretation and representation. For journalists it is important to acknowledge how cultural socialization and worldview influence and effect the way one understands and reports about different situations. Insights from semiotics, post-colonial studies and social anthropology, amongst others, will shed light on how the others are represented. Through this course the students are given methods and tools to analyse intercultural media representation.

The course is divided into two main parts, where the first part focuses on how culture and societies and ultimately media products are constructed. The purpose of learning about how cultures and societies are constructed is to show that a journalist's background and experiences influence the understanding and interpretation of a situation and context. The interpretation of a situation influences the representation of it. For journalists, whose goal is to truthfully report situations and realities, it is important to acknowledge and take into account the role of culture, recognizing that the same situation can be understood and interpreted differently. The importance of epistemology and ontology will be presented and discussed.

The second part of the course elaborates on the idea of representation and otherness. Edward Said's idea of orientalism is presented to get a historical presentation of this. The course will also deal with how media portrays and presents certain groups or communities. These issues will be discussed in relation to power structures and under-representation.

Related media theories of framing, agenda-setting and discourse analysis are also explored to strengthen the conceptual and analytical frames in media representation.

Knowledge

The student:

• can identify and explain major issues in media representation
• can explain common concepts used in culture theory and relevant literature in this field
• has knowledge of the theories of representation, otherness, epistemology and ontology
• and other relevant theories in the field

Skills

The student:

• can discuss the idea of representation in a historical and current context
• can by using an analytical approach detect various representation of others and discuss this in light of relevant theory

General competence

The student:

• is able to identify potential challenges when reporting from different cultural contexts and how to apply sufficient skills to report in line with journalistic values
• can critically analyse representation of others in media texts

GJ 313-1: Construction of culture and society

The first section of the course deals with fundamental issues related to culture and society and how humans are influenced by these issues in their interpretation of reality.

GJ 313-2: Representation and otherness - current and historical perspectives

The second section of the course discusses the idea of representation, focusing especially on media representation. A historical approach is taken to show how history influences our current situation and representation.

1. Written assignment/paper: All

2. Oral exam: None