Communications and Media - Senior

Course # MDIA 4885

Credits 12

Course # MDIA 4084

Credits 6

Pre-requisites and Co-requisites: None

Course Description:

This course focuses on modern political communication as purposeful communication about politics, government, and governance in both the overall global and specific Central Asian context. It starts with the discussion of history and hybrid nature of political communication as a social science and applied discipline. Next it examines political communication as messaging about acquisition, distribution, exercise of and challenge to power in a society as it is exercised by both current and aspiring power holders, as well as those who are subjected to power. Looking at the three key actors in the political communication process – political organizations, power holders and candidates; media, both traditional and internet-based, and citizens – separately and in interaction, the course analyses how political communication flows between and among these actors in a society and to what effect.

By studying the models, flows, and processes of political communication as well as theories of communication, persuasion, and media effects, the goal of the course is to develop an understanding of how political communication shapes modern societies and provides entry points for citizens to influence politics and push for meaningful policy changes.

Course Learning Outcomes

• Discuss the purpose, process, flows, models and actors of political communication, in both the global and regional Central Asian context
• Identify the goals and effects of current political campaigns and political advertising
• Discuss the landscape and the role of both traditional and Internet-based media in political processes in democratic, authoritarian, and hybrid regimes
• Explain citizen participation and engagement in political processes as well as the entry points and mechanisms of citizen empowerment through social media
• Evaluate political communication in a global crisis and its effects on Central Asian societies

Course Assessments and Grading

Course # ECON 4010

Credits 6

Pre-requisites and Co-requisites: None

Course Description

This course uses a project-based learning approach to help students provide useful applications and concrete contributions in support of local development. For Communication and Media students the focus is on audio and video production. Students work in teams (of four or five students) to integrate music, graphics and video technologies into entrepreneurial projects aimed at supporting the local communities. For Computer Sciences students, a variety of mobile applications, augmented virtual reality applications, Big Data applications, Internet of Things, Video Game Experiential Marketing applications, Machine Learning Methods, Mobile Operating Systems and Mobile Signals and Sensors applications and many more are on offer. Whenever possible, multidisciplinary collaborations between students will be suggested and recommended. The aim is to boost local development, preferably in the Naryn Oblast.

Student projects can be implemented in a variety of sectors such as tourism, agriculture, food processing, manufacturing, hospitality services (sports, leisure & recreation), public services, health, education, transportation, or any sector that contributes to support the development of local communities. However, an emphasis will be put on the tourism sector which has the potential to substantially contribute to Naryn’s economic progress.

Course Learning Outcomes

Upon completion the course, students should be able to:

• Define local development priorities and strategies
• Explain how specific digital projects can contribute to these goals
• Collect relevant data on which to build a digital project
• Determine the needs expressed by actors on the ground and design potential solutions to address those needs
• Relate their theoretical knowledge to the design and implementation of concrete projects on the ground
• Develop appropriate technical solutions to serve the specific needs of economic and social actors in the region
• Present to the public at large specific finalized projects

Course Assessments and Grading

Course # MDIA 4089E

Credits 6

Pre-requisites and Co-requisites: None

Course Description

This course invites students to reflect on urgent contemporary concerns - home, memory, migration, identity, and the environmental challenges of recent decades, including anthropocenic and non-anthropocenic perspectives through diverse moving image practices that range from film and documentary to installations, video art, and experimental time-based media.

Over the last two decades, multisensory art and filmmaking have expanded how we understand cinema, moving beyond traditional theatrical and screen-based settings to encompass all environments, objects, actors and actions. Drawing on visual anthropology, sensorial urbanism, and expanded scenography, this course investigates how artists deploy sound, colour, rhythm, space, and performance as primary storytelling devices, whilst exploring alternative narrative forms that resist linear structure.

Through lectures, screenings, sensory exercises, and reflective practice, students examine works by pioneering and contemporary artists from East and West, developing their own experimental approaches through a Creative Journal that documents encounters, sketches, and professional positioning. The course emphasizes experiential learning and personal reflection, encouraging students to explore methodologies and technologies for developing multisensory film, art installations, or virtual media projects connected to their capstone work.

Students will be invited to engage with participatory research methods, embodied ethnographic practices, and experimental techniques, situating moving image practices within personal, decolonial, environmental, and interdisciplinary investigations. Whether continuing towards professional careers or deepening knowledge of contemporary art practices, students develop critical vocabularies and creative strategies for navigating the expanded field of time-based moving image work.

Course Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the course students will be able to:

• Identify and analyse diverse contemporary moving image practices, including hybrid documentaries, essay films, experimental cinema, and video installation, understanding their formal strategies and conceptual frameworks.
• Evaluate in what way tools such as sound, colour, rhythm, space, and performance can be employed as primary storytelling devices in moving image works, moving beyond dialogue-driven narrative.
• Apply theoretical concepts from film studies, media theory, feminist theory, queer theory, and critical theory to the analysis of experimental and contemporary cinema.
• Articulate complex ideas about moving image works through both written analysis and oral presentation, demonstrating sophisticated critical vocabulary and argumentation.
• Contextualise contemporary moving image practices within histories of classical and experimental cinema, feminist filmmaking, resistance cinema, and expanded cinema, recognising key practitioners and movements.
• Develop professional materials and strategies for navigating the contemporary film industry as an auteur filmmaker, including CV writing, bio development, and articulating career goals.
• Synthesise knowledge across disciplines (cinema studies, visual art, sound studies, performance, digital media) to produce sophisticated critical work that engages with contemporary concerns and addresses distribution relevance for films / moving image works.

Course Assessments and Grading