Communications and Media - Senior

COURSE #: MDIA 4080

Course Description

The course examines a range of social science research methods and approaches with emphasis on their application to the context of media and communications, and discusses research as means of social inquiry.   It focuses on research design; data collection, quantitative and qualitative data analysis, the critical appraisal and evaluation of primary and secondary research and understanding of ethics from communication and media research perspective.

Course Learning Outcomes

At the conclusion of this course, students will be able to:

• Analyse ethnographic research methods and key approaches to interviewing human participants
• Apply appropriate research methods to design research projects
• Explain the role of research within various forms of communication practice
• Explain the ethical implications of research practices and the external environment within which social research is conducted
• Define the key research and research-interpretation skills for work in public communications, advocacy, development and creative industries
• Explain how research informs professional communications practice

Course Assessments and Grading

COURSE #: MDIA 4191

Course Description

This course explores advanced journalism and media storytelling practices. It provides students with an opportunity to develop a production project aligned with contemporary industry methods. The project demonstrates a professional identity built on innovation in conceptualisation and media articulation. Students practices the skills required to plan and pitch production proposals. Identifying and connecting with audiences, students draw on audience metrics to create relevant and engaging content and style. Students takes advantage of ongoing media technological changes. Efforts to be made by students to place these developments and reflections within the context of Central Asia. This course will build on skills and capabilities students gained throughout their study in theory and production courses such as Print/Radio/TV Production.

Course Learning Outcomes

At the conclusion of this course, students will be able to:

• Demonstrate the ability to deliver an effective story pitch to employ strong verbal, written, and analytical skills to the degree expected of a senior-level college student.
• Apply media production and journalism skills to produce a technically well-packaged short documentary, short film and podcast that shows students’ ability to combine research, narration, and audio-visual technical skills.
• Conduct in-depth interviews and fieldwork to connect with and relate to various stakeholders.
• Demonstrate that the media practitioner can adequately present facts and opinion through research and interviews to correctly interpret the opinions and values on the topic presented.
• Demonstrate strong communication and team-building skills to work with a team and locals on delivering stories and voices of the local community.

Course Assessments and Grading

COURSE #: MDIA 4082

Course Description

Strong and free media plays crucial role in strengthening a democratic value in a country. For this, it is necessary to protect the journalistic mission with the principles of law and try to ensure the reliability of the profession of journalism with ethical principles. While legal principles determine which actions are right or wrong with material sanctions, ethical principles determine which actions are good with conscientious sanctions. This course examines the relationship between media, law and ethics in Central Asia and those in other parts of the world. It analyzes ethical and legal principles, processes of reasoning and decision-making techniques that can be used to resolve possible tensions between formal and informal regulation, freedom of expression and the demands of every-day life.  

Course Learning Outcomes

Upon the successful completion of this course, the learner will be able to:

• Explain law and regulations as they affect communication practices, locally and globally.
• Use a range of theoretical frameworks to critically reflect on the relationship between media, law, ethics and communication practices.
• Examine the social and political context in which legal frameworks have been developed.
• Discuss ethical issues emerging from contemporary communication practices, locally and globally.
• Apply culturally appropriate decision-making processes in response to ethical and legal issues arising in local and global contexts.

Course Assessments and Grading

COURSE #: MDIA 4083

Course Description

This course increases students’ knowledge and skills in using communication to advance different environmental discourses by connecting the local with the global.  Students study a range of visual and written texts to learn how environmental communication is used by different actors in society to achieve certain outcomes. The role of communication is studied at the intersections of other key issues such as biodiversity, sustainable development, and climate change. Through the evaluation and creation of a range of texts students gain an understanding of how various contexts and media shape environmental communication discourses in the public sphere. Using holistic and systems thinking students conduct research, identify target audience and design effective messages that place community concerns at the centre.

Course Learning Outcomes:

At the conclusion of this course, students will be able to:

• Examine the ways in which different political, cultural, economic and geographical contexts shape environmental communication discourses in the public sphere.
• Evaluate a range of texts and assess their effectiveness on the intended audience.
• Examine how visual texts act as cultural prism that shape our understanding of nature.
• Discuss the role of media in reporting key environmental issues in different societies while connecting the local with the global.
• Design communication responses to engage a variety of audiences about environmental issues.

Course Assessments and Grading

COURSE #: MDIA 2129

Course Description

From everyday accounts of personal experience, news reports, and historiography to literary fiction, feature films, graphic novels, and interactive media, narrative is the most pervasive and influential of all genres. In written and spoken word, in moving and still images and in transmedia storytelling, narratives construct and reflect meaning for individuals, institutions, and communities. This course explores the types of meanings narratives create and the ways in which they produce meaning and their impact—positive and negative—on our lives. Drawing on narratology and linguistics, theories of media, journalism, advertising, and visual culture, the course investigates narrative across a range of contemporary media and social practices. Together, we will engage critically and creatively with the structure, form, and content of our own narratives and those of others, as we explore the social, cultural and psychological character of this fascinating genre.

Course Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

• Apply key methodological and conceptual approaches to the analysis of narratives.
• Identify the communicative purposes of narratives and the technical means with which they are achieved.
• Produce theoretically grounded critiques of narrative texts.
• Use media-specific practical skills in storytelling techniques to engage audiences.

Course Assessments and Grading