Mass Media and Society

Code:

ICPD0029

Acronym:

MS

Instance: 2021/2022 - 1S

Active?	Yes
Responsible unit:	Department of Communication and Information Sciences
Course/CS Responsible:	Third cycle of studies in Information and Communication in Digital Platforms

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
ICPD	5	ICPD - Study Plan	1	-	6	-

Teaching language

Suitable for English-speaking students
Obs.: Portuguese

Objectives

The central objective of this curricular unit is to increase the student’s knowledge and understanding of media’s social significance. It aims to reveal the work of the media industries, the ways media texts convey their meanings, the ways audiences engage themselves with media, and provide basic knowledge about the theory of networks as well as identify in the new interactive platforms, specific forms of sociability. At the end of the curricular unit, a student should have gained a more extensive and critical appreciation of media’s function in people’s lives and their role as a central institution in contemporary society which helps us to make sense of our world

Learning outcomes and competences

- Be able to critically reflect on the reciprocal relations between media and society

- Be able to develop original research on one of the topics of the course

Working method

Presencial

Program

1. Media and Society - Sociology of Media

2. Production: the media industry and the social world

3. Content: representations of the social world

4. Audiences: meanings and Influence

Part II

1. Elements of general theory of networks

2. Spreading of information in physical social networks versus digital virtual networks.

3. The Lasswell’s model and the two-step theory of mass communication revisited according to the new interactive

platforms

 

4. Production of interactive content and mechanisms of social recognition in new interactive platforms

Mandatory literature

Burton Graeme; Media and Society: Critical Perspectives. Open University Press.
Curran, James and Gurevitch, Michael ; Mass Media and Societ
Huberman, B., Wu, F., & Wilkinson, D; Feeback Loops of Attention in Peer Production.
Wu, S., Hofman, J. M., Mason, W. and D.J. Watts; Who says what to whom on twitter,
António Machuco Rosa; Do broadcasting à Internet: critérios de distinção entre os meios clássicos de comunicação de massas e os novos media’, Communication Studies - Estudos em Comunicação, 13, , pp. 1-36., 2013
Gillmor, Dan; Nós, os media. ISBN: 972-23-3312-7

Teaching methods and learning activities

Expositive teaching, supported by projections, in order to supply the basic theoretical concepts.

 

Evaluation: oral and written presentation of a theoretical assessment.

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation without final exam

Assessment Components

Designation	Weight (%)
Participação presencial	20,00
Trabalho escrito	80,00
Total:	100,00

Amount of time allocated to each course unit

Designation	Time (hours)
Frequência das aulas	39,00
Trabalho de investigação	50,00
Estudo autónomo	73,00
Total:	162,00

Eligibility for exams

Mandatory 75% class attendance, unless established otherwise by law, or in FLUP regulations.

Calculation formula of final grade

Paper work 80 % + attendence and participation 20 %  = 100