DEGREE REQUIREMENTS
Media Studies Course Outline
(What follows in English is just an overview of the contents; please contact the exchange student coordinator at the department for details (see Information for Exchange Students).
(P) Basic Studies (25 credits)
P1. Media Culture and Its Development (7)
Students learn how to relate themselves and their lives to contemporary media-saturated environment and its developments. They understand how media institutions and usages have evolved and recognize the connections between media and power.
Mode of studying: Lecture course and group work.
Related literature: Briggs & Burke: A Social History of the Media (2002).
P2. Introduction to Media Studies (6)
Students get a broad understanding of the theoretical approaches and their backgrounds within media studies. They learn the basic concepts and understand both medium specific characteristics and viewpoints that combine them into a compound.
Mode of studying: Lecture course and independent study work.
Related literature: Gripsrud: Understanding Media Culture (2002); Taylor & Willis: Texts, Institutions, Audiences (1998).
P3. Media-analysis
a) Media texts (6)
Students learn the basic analytical and critical skills required in studying different media representations both in terms of form and content.
Mode of studying: A seminar with a course of lectures and presentations, or a book exam and an essay.
b) Contexts of Media (6)
Students learn the basic analytical and critical skills required for studying media production and reception.
Mode of studying: A seminar with a course of lectures and group work with presentations.
(A) Intermediate Studies (45 credits)
A1. Theories and Approaches
a) History of Media Theory (4)
Students become acquainted with the central theoretical traditions in media studies through literature and learn about the important classics in the field.
Mode of Studying: Independent work or participating in a study group; a book exam; or an essay written in a study group (to be negotiated beforehand with the teacher in charge).
Literature for the exam: Two books from the reading list (available on the website).
b) Current approaches (5)
Students achieve basic knowledge of the major trends in media studies; know the contemporary research field and relevant discussions through an overview of the research trends of contemporary media studies.
Mode of studying: Course of lectures, or a book exam.
Related literature: Pietilä: On the Highway of Mass Communication Studies (2005) and additional literature as negotiated with the teacher in charge.
A2. Methods of Media Studies
a) Methodological approaches (3)
Students become acquainted with the various methodological traditions and practices of media studies.
Mode of studying: A series of lectures with a learning diary or a book exam (as indicated by the teacher in charge).
Related literature: Saukko: Doing Research in Cultural Studies (2003).
b) Academic research skills (3 credits)
Students focus on practicing the various research methods of media studies by experimenting with different methodological and analytical approaches as well as rehearsing writing and discussion skills. They also learn academic skills in argumentation and its analysis.
Mode of studying: A seminar in which students outline a research project plus a book exam or an essay (as indicated by the teacher in charge).
Related literature: Stokes: How to do Media and Cultural Studies (2003).
A3. Medium Specific Courses (5 credits each; students can choose two of the following options):
a) The Human Being as a Medium
Students concentrate on issues of human expression as a medium and in the media. This takes place in study groups by observing, analysing and practicing various skills of speaking and interacting. Moreover, human communication in media (such as questions of speech and rhetoric in television and film) will be discussed.
b) Print media
How does print media such as newspapers and periodicals look from the viewpoints of history, economy and cultural conventions? What kind of research questions have been and can be related to journalism for instance in terms of genres, modes of expression, editorial practices, modes of language, narration and visual design?
c) Cinema
Students learn about the major trends of film theory; the basic practices of film analysis; the general history of cinema; the classics in the history of feature films.
d) Television
History of television will be understood through the contemporary situation. The studies also concern the different traditions in television studies and research; television genres and modes of analysing tv-programs.
e) Radio
These studies focus on radio as a medium, institution and object of research. The aim is to understand the existence of contemporary radio from the combined viewpoints of history and theory but also practice.
f) Digital media
The module offers an overview of the different ways of defining digital media with its various sub-fields; how they have been and are being produced and used as well as researched.
A4. Perspectives on Media (5 credits each; students can choose two of the following options; all modules are not taught every year):
a) Media Education
What are the different ways and traditions to define the field? The students get to know discussions on contemporary understanding of media education and media literacy in terms of research and practical experiments.
b) Feminist Media Studies
What are the basic concepts and perspectives in feminist media studies? The students learn about critical analysis of gender, sexuality and ethnicity in various media contexts by concentrating on issues such as spectatorship, images of women, representation, performativity, etc. in print media, film, tv, photography or new media.
c) Theory and Aesthetics of Audio-Visual Media
The module aims at an overview of the ways in which audiovisual media (film, tv, video, videogames) have been and can be studied from the viewpoint of aesthetics and philosophy of art.
d) History of Media Technologies
Students learn about media experience as a historical phenomenon dependent on given technological arrangements. Questions of machine, human being, perception and the body are discussed through contemporary studies in these fields.
e) Genre
Students learn about genre as a broad concept connecting authors, audiences and texts to each other and referring to the socio-cultural codifications of various signifying processes and conventions in the media.
f) The Public Sphere
This module focuses on the relationships between media and the public sphere both historically and from the contemporary perspective. Students learn to analyse the modes of public culture as being dependent on various media conventions.
g) Reception and Use of the Media
Students learn about questions in the history of ideas, theories and methods concerning media reception and use. Different ways of defining and studying media reception are discussed through examples from contemporary research.
h) Workshop on Media Reviews and Criticism
How to write media reviews? The hands-on practical course concentrates on writing critical reviews on films and television programs.
i) Other Optional Modules (which alternate per annum)
In addition to perspectives on media listed above also other kinds of special courses may take place depending on resources and teaching arrangements. Examples of such have been “Questions of Production and Authorship, “Rhetoric and Argumentation, “Cinema and television in Finland, “History and Theory of Documentary Film, as well as the various special courses in Speech Communication.
A5. BA Seminar and Bachelor’s Thesis (10)
[Back to top]
(S) Advanced Studies (80 credits)
S1. Introductory Thesis Studies
a) Philosophy of Science and Art (8)
Studies focus on the basic concepts in the philosophy of art and science as well as on the main trends of philosophy functioning in the background of media studies – such as critical theory, post-structuralism, constructivism, phenomenology, etc. Mode of studying varies depending on the yearly teaching arrangements.
b) Thesis Seminar (7)
The seminar concentrates on preparing and carrying out a research plan on a chosen subject area within media studies. Weekly discussions concern the plans and papers written during the course that goes on for one term.
S2. Project Studies (10)
Project studies may include courses and modules from A3 and A4 and their aim is to support the student’s own research plan offering opportunities to concentrate more deeply on the area of each student’s own interests especially in relation to the planned thesis work.
S3. Master’s Thesis Studies
a) Theories and Methods (5)
Students get acquainted with a particular set of questions within methodology and/or theory of media studies by focusing on contemporary international discussions in the field. Mode of studying varies yearly depending on the teaching arrangements.
b) Master’s Thesis Workshop (10)
During the one-year workshop students outline the plan for their MA-thesis; write and present papers on the chosen theories and perspectives as well as drafts for the chapters of the thesis itself to be discussed in seminar meetings.
S4. Master’s Thesis (40)