Theories of Media and Communication

This course provides students with an introduction to major themes and issues at the heart of media and communication studies as well as providing a firm theoretical foundation that can be leveraged to explain these developments. The module connects classic concepts and current issues of media and communication and debates, including artificial intelligence, clicktivism, misinformation, fake news, large language models, cancel culture, gaming culture, and virtual reality. Each weekly session discusses a current issue in media and communications and provides a theoretical perspective on the problem. Students are expected to analyse media-related problems from a theoretically-grounded perspective using the theoretical frameworks provided in the lecture and class discussions.