MA in Global Media and Postnational Communication: SOAS

Overview

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Saeed Zeydabadi-Nejad

Convenor

Minimum Entry Requirements: Minimum upper second class honours degree (or equivalent)

Venue: Russell Square: College Buildings

Start of programme: September intake only

Mode of Attendance: Mixed Full Time and Part Time

The MA in Global Media and Postnational Communication starts from three premises. One is that globalization is a set of complex and dense processes with unequal effects in different parts of the world but sufficiently strong to invite analysis of a post-national spatiality of global social relations. The second is that central to these processes is the role of communications technologies as infrastructure and skeins of connectivity and the circulation of mediated products that structure competing social imaginaries. The third is the growing convergence between the previously separable areas of broadcasting, telecommunications and the Internet, so that study of the current moment needs to address not just conventional media (press, radio, television) but also the explosion in new communication technologies, including the Internet, satellite technologies and mobile telephony. Thus the remit of this degree is the study of the dynamics of globalization and its critiques, and the roles and nature of communications technologies and mediated content within these processes and the consequent changes in the nature of political, economic, financial, social and cultural activity.

The specific and unique focus of this degree will be its exploration of the responses to globalization in the South and the dynamic developments in media and communications within Asia, Africa and the Middle East. It examines the growing significance of Asia, Africa and the Middle East as the locations of new media players and new cultural genres, of complex audience involvements with mediated communication and as the sites of critical and creative responses to globalization processes.

It is not only media content that circulates but people themselves who move, and one aspect of this degree is to take seriously the development and use of mediated forms by minority ethnic, diasporic, exilic and refugee populations, be that in minority television channels, deterritorialized political action or other forms of cultural and political representation. Additionally, reactions to globalization and its more problematic outcomes increasingly take on postnational forms so the course will explore the dynamics of global civil society and the use of ICTs to build movements of solidarity.

Email: mediaandfilm@soas.ac.uk

Structure

Programme Specification

Programme specification removed for correction on 3 June 2011. Please contact the QA Manager if you have any queries.

SOAS Units

Each student takes 4 units in total: the Compulsory Course (1 unit), the Dissertation (1unit), two List 3 half units, and one unit of Options of their choice.

In choosing their courses, MA students are advised to pay careful attention to the balance of coursework across the two terms. In particular it is important to ensure that each term you have three taught courses. However much you might wish to take a mixture of courses that requires more coursework in one term than the other, it is most unwise to attempt to take four courses in one term and two in the other. Experience has shown that students simply cannot manage the load during the heavy term with the result that they either do very badly, fail or are unable to complete the courses in question. As a result Directors of Studies for the degrees and the Faculty staff will not approve a selection of courses which results in an imbalanced workload. An imbalance of courses between terms is only possible with the written permission of the convenor of the degree .

1. Compulsory Course:

Global Media and Postnational Communication: Theoretical and Contemporary Issues
Course Assessment:
- A critical essay of 5,000 words based on reading relevant to issues in global media and postnational communication.
- A critical essay based on a short research project (which may include a multimedia component).

2. Dissertation in Global Media and Postnational Communication

Dissertation in Media Studies (supervisor to be allocated according to the dissertation topic).

3. Courses in Media Studies

Students are required to take TWO half unit courses from List 3.

The Transnational News Environment: Production, Representation and Use - 15PMSH006 (0.5 Unit) - Term 1
Transnational Communities and Diasporic Media:Networking, Connectivity, Identity - 15PMSH004 (0.5 Unit) - Term 2
Mediated Culture in the Middle East: Politics and Communications - 15PMSH003 (0.5 Unit) - Term 1
International Political Communication - 15PMSH009 (0.5 Unit) - Term 2
Rethinking Audiences - 15PMSH011 (0.5 Unit) - Term 2
Theoretical Issues in Media and Cultural Studies - 15PMSH005 (0.5 Unit) - Term 1
Japanese Transnational Cinema: From Kurosawa to Asia Extreme and Studio Ghibli - 15PMSH017 (0.5 Unit) - Term 1

4. Optional Courses:

Students may take a course or courses to the value of one full unit from the following lists:

Courses in Cinemas of Asia and Africa

Japanese Post-War Film Genres and the Avant-Garde - 15PMSH001 (0.5 Unit) - Term 2
Japanese Television since 1953 - 15PJKC006 (1 Unit) - Full Year
Genders and Sexualities in South East Asian Film - 15PSEH011 (0.5 Unit) - Term 1 - Not Running 2011/2012
(Post) Colonialism and Otherness in South East Asia on Screen - 15PSEH010 (0.5 Unit) - Term 1
Indian Cinema: Its History and Social Context - 15PSAH001 (0.5 Unit) - Term 1
Indian Cinema: Key Issues - 15PSAH002 (0.5 Unit) - Term 1
Iranian Cinema - 15PMSH010 (0.5 Unit) - Term 1
Aspects of African film and video 1 - 15PAFH006 (0.5 Unit) - Term 1
Aspects of African film and video 2 - 15PAFH007 (0.5 Unit) - Term 2
Arab Cinemas - 15PMSH013 (0.5 Unit) - Term 1 - Not Running 2011/2012
Approaches to the Other in Horror and Science Fiction Films - 15PANH043 (0.5 Unit) - Term 1
Modern Chinese Film and Theatre (MA) - 15PCHH001 (0.5 Unit) - Term 1
Modern Film from Taiwan and the Chinese Diaspora - 15PCHH002 (0.5 Unit) - Term 2
Critical Approaches to the Study of Regional Cinemas - 15PMSH008 (0.5 Unit) - Term 1 - Not Running 2011/2012

Courses in Social Anthropology

Culture and Society of China - 15PANC089 (1 Unit) - Full Year
Culture and Society of East Africa - 15PANC084 (1 Unit) - Full Year
Culture and Society of Japan - 15PANC086 (1 Unit) - Full Year
Culture and Society of South Asia - 15PANC087 (1 Unit) - Full Year
Culture and Society of South East Asia - 15PANC088 (1 Unit) - Full Year
Culture and Society of West Africa - 15PANC083 (1 Unit) - Full Year
Culture and Society of the Near & Middle East - 15PANC097 (1 Unit) - Full Year
Anthropology of Development - 15PANC090 (1 Unit) - Full Year
Perspectives On Development - 15PANH033 (0.5 Unit) - Term 1
Media Production Skills - 15PANH050 (0.5 Unit) - Term 2

Courses in the Department of Development Studies

Civil society, social movements and the development process - 15PDSH001 (0.5 Unit) - Term 2

Courses in the Department of Economics

For the following courses a background is required - admission is on a case-by-case basis

The economic development of South East Asia - 15PECC004 (1 Unit) - Full Year
Economic problems and policies in modern China - 15PECC035 (1 Unit) - Full Year
Economic dynamics of the Asia-Pacific region - 15PECC334 (1 Unit) - Full Year

Courses in the Department of Politics

Government and politics of modern South Asia - 15PPOC003 (1 Unit) - Full Year
Government and politics of modern South East Asia - 15PPOC247 (1 Unit) - Full Year

Courses in the Department of the Languages and Cultures of Africa

Courses in the Department of the Study of Religions and Art and Archaeology

Christianity and Social Change in Sub Saharan Africa - 15PSRC157 (1 Unit) - Full Year - Not Running 2011/2012
Gender, Post-Colonialism and the Study of Religions - 15PSRC037 (1 Unit) - Full Year
Theory and Method in the Study of Religion - 15PSRC010 (1 Unit) - Full Year
Photography and the Image in Africa; and other Regional Perspectives - 15PARC036 (1.0 Unit) - Not Running 2010/11

SOAS, University of London (The School of Oriental and African Studies)

Centre for Media and Film Studies