Culture in the Media
Code: 100030 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year |
|---|---|---|
| 2502758 Humanities | OB | 3 |
Contact
- Name:
- Anna Tous Rovirosa
- Email:
- anna.tous@uab.cat
Teaching groups languages
You can view this information at the end of this document.
Prerequisites
It is advisable to have some knowledge of communication sciences and journalism.
Objectives and Contextualisation
The subject of cultural communication aims for the student to acquire a mastery of the new cultural practices within the media situation derived from the extension of the mass media and globalisation, to acquire a series of critical tools to analyse this situation and these new practices, to practice a new methodology of analysis of this hybrid society and to acquire a critical vision of the relationships established between people, groups and institutions that, based on socioculturally diverse experiences, discourses and representations, make up what is defined as 'mainstream' culture (main or predominant culture): The challenges of cultural and intercultural communication, the practices and new behaviours of social actors through new networks and new tools for understanding the fluid reality of the 21st century.
Cultural communication, overcoming the elitist vision that practised the analysis of classical communicative networks, explains the complex and dynamic social relations that develop on an interpersonal and collective level, determined by very diverse social and political contexts, in a process of accelerated globalisation. We will show that culture and cultures are neither homogeneous nor static entities, but hybrid and dynamic, from an interdisciplinary perspective as a transversal vector of cultural communication.
Cultural communication requires a differentiated methodology of analysis, in terms of the presence of culture in the media in its various forms, genres and formats. The diversity of this presence and its effects on messages and programmes will be analysed.
Competences
- Critically analysing the contemporary culture.
- Identifying the historical processes of contemporary culture.
- Properly using the resources and methodologies of the study of contemporary culture.
- Respecting the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
- Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
- Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
Learning Outcomes
- Applying the knowledge of the different cultural genres to the media.
- Assessing the implications of photography, cinema, video and television as culture spreading media.
- Defining the value of cultural magazines in the contemporary culture.
- Identifying the production and realisation techniques in printed, audiovisual and hypermedia.
- Questioning the established behaviours concerning audiovisual media.
- Relating the artistic creations from various periods with other cultural phenomena.
- Using the appropriate terminology and style in the drafting of a journalistic text.
Content
Introduction. Mass media
Definition of mass media
Cultural industry, cultural consumption
Elite culture and mass culture
Media ideology
Cultural imperialism and counter-cultures
Contemporary media system
Topic 1. Gender, communication and culture
The representation of gender in Western culture. From patriarchal tradition to the present day.
Theme 2. Culture and media
Cultural programmes
Cultural supplements
Topic 3. Television fiction
Brief history. Hertzian channels, cable, streaming.
Television eras. Concepts and cases
Repetition devices
Topic 4. Narrative as a cultural artefact in the media. Presence, concomitances and differences
Formalism and structuralism
Seriality
Structural homology
Genre and format
Narrative and complex narrative
Plot and story fragmentation
Topic 5. Keys to narrative success
Myths and themes as narrative engines
Intertextuality
Deconstructionism, post-structuralism, post-colonialism
Topic 6. New formats, new narratives
Video games
Podcasts
Transmedia
Activities and Methodology
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Typus dirigis | 0 | 0 | 1, 3, 5, 6, 2 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Supervised tips | 0 | 0 | 7, 4 |
Methodology. There are three types of activities: directed, supervised and autonomous.
Classroom activities such as video projections and text commentaries, presentations of readings, recensions of outings to exhibitions and cultural events, etc. are contemplated.
In the event that the student carries out any type of irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade for a given evaluation act, this will be graded with 0, regardless of the disciplinary process that may result from it. In the event that several irregularities are verified in the evaluation acts of the same subject, the final grade of this subject will be 0.
Note: 15 minutes of a class will be reserved, according to the timetable established by the centre, for students to complete the teacher and subject evaluation surveys.
Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.
Assessment
Continous Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Directed | supervised | 16 | 0.64 | 4, 6 |
| Directed | Supervised | 100 | 4 | 3, 2 |
| Title | Weight | 34 | 1.36 | 1, 7, 5, 6 |
Continued assessment
The course consists of a comprehension exercise at the end of each class and/or lecture presentations (20%), a practical assignment (40%) and a thematic final test (40%). All three activities must be passed with a 5.
In order to participate in the recovery, the student has had to obtain this privilege in a set of activities for which the quals were equal to a minimum of 2/3 parts of the total qualification. Hi haurà recovered for those students who arrived at a mitjana of 3.5 in the final grade
There will be recovery for those students who reach an average of 3.5 in the final grade.
The student will receive the grade of Not assessable as long as he / she has not submitted more than 30% of the assessment activities.
It will also include as a non-evaluable student that has been presented less than 30% of the tests and practices.
On carrying out each evaluation activity, lecturers will inform students (on Moodle) of the procedures to be followed for reviewing all grades awarded, and the date on which such a review will take place.
In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject.
Single assessment
Those students interested in the single assessment system must notify it at the beginning of the course or their application will not be accepted. Substitute work equivalent to the course load of the subject must be delivered and a final exam of the complete syllabus must be taken. The note is divided between the work (40%) and the exam (60%). Both must be approved.
Bibliography
Essential bibliography
BALLÓ, Jordi.; PÉREZ, Xavier (2005). Jo ja he estat aquí. Ficcions de la repetició. Barcelona: Empúries.
BISKIND, Peter (2023). Pandora’s Box. How guts, guile and greed upended TV. New York, Harper Collins.
BUSTAMANTE, Enrique (Coord.) (2003) Hacia un nuevo sistema mundial de comunicación. Las industrias culturales en la Era Digital. Gedisa.
CALABRESE, Omar (1989). La era neobarroca. Madrid: Cátedra.
CIRLOT, Victoria (2005). Figuras del destino. Mitos y símbolos de la Europa Medieval. Madrid, Siruela.
CREEBER, Glen (2001). The Television Genre Book. British Film Institute.
ECO, Umberto (1996). Seis paseos por los bosques narrativos. Barcelona, Lumen.
FRYE, Northrop (1971). La estructura inflexible de la obra literaria. Madrid, Taurus.
GENETTE, Gerard (1989). Palimsestos. La literatura en segundo grado. Madrid, Taurus.
GUBERN, Román (2002). Máscaras de la ficción. Barcelona, Anagrama.
JENKINS, Henry. (2006) Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York University Press.
JULIBERT, Elisenda (2022). Hombres fatales. Metamorfosis del deseo masculino en la literatura y el cine. Barcelona, El Acantilado.
MITTELL, Jason. Complex TV. The poetics of contemporary television storytelling. New York University Press, 2015.
MATTELART, Armand (2006) Diversidad cultural y mundialización. Paidós. Barcelona.
TOUS-ROVIROSA, Anna (2013). Mites en sèrie. Els temes clau de la televisió. Barcelona, Tripodos.
TOUS-ROVIROSA, Anna (2010). La era del drama en televisión. Perdidos, CSI Las Vegas, El ala oeste de la Casa Blanca, Mujeres desesperadas y House. Barcelona, UOC, 2010.
Further Readings
CAMPBELL, Joseph (2017[1949]) El héroe de las mil caras. Psicoanálisis y mito. Fondo de Cultura Económica.
ELIADE, Mircea (1972) El mito del eterno retorno: arquetipos y repetición. Madrid: Alianza, 1972.
GINZBURG, Carlo (1986). Historia nocturna. Barcelona, Muchnik Ed.
PÉREZ, Xavier (2011). “Las edades de la serialidad” en La balsa de la Medusa, Revista Cuatrimestral, Segunda Época, Número 6.
PROPP, Vladimir. Morfologia del cuento. Madrid, Akal, 1998 (1928)
RANK, Otto (1992[1909]) El mito del nacimiento del héroe. Paidós.
SALO, Gloria (2003) Que es eso del formato? Como nace y se desarrolla un programa de TV. Barcelona, Gedisa.
WALLACE, David Foster (1993), “E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction”, Review of Contemporary Fiction, 13:2 (Summer) p.151 DFW_TV.pdf (jsomers.net)
TOUS-ROVIROSA, Anna, HIDALGO-MARÍ, Tatiana, & MORALES-MORANTE, Luis Fernando. (2020). Serialización de la ficción televisiva: el género policiaco español y la narrativa compleja. Cadenas generalistas (1990-2010). Palabra Clave, 23(4), e2342. https://doi.org/10.5294/pacla.2020.23.4.2
TOUS-ROVIROSA, Anna (2020). Intertextuality and police television dramas in Spain (1990-2010). The literary shift to metatelevision and recurrence of the female victim as motif | Communication & Society (unav.edu) 33(4), 89-106. doi: 10.15581/003.33.4.89-106
VOGLER, Christopher (2002[1992]) El viaje del escritor: Las estructuras míticas para escritores, guionistas, dramaturgos y novelistas. Ma Non Troppo.
VILCHES, Lorenzo (1984). “Play it again, Sam”. Anàlisi, Quaderns de Comunicació i Cultura, 19, p. 57-70. 02112175n9p57.pdf (uab.cat)
VOGEL, Adrain (2004) La industria de la cultura y el ocio. Un análisis económico. Datautor.
Additional specialised bibliography will be provided at the beginning of the course, during the sessions and the follow-up of the coursework.
Software
No special knowledge is needed except the normal ones to make a word, a pdf or to present a power point.
Language list
| Name | Group | Language | Semester | Turn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (PAUL) Classroom practices | 1 | Catalan | second semester | morning-mixed |
| (TE) Theory | 1 | Catalan | second semester | morning-mixed |