Only for certain MA Programmes and PhD students. Exchange students, please check available places (isss@uta.fi)

Only for certain MA Programmes and PhD students. Exchange students, please check available places (isss@uta.fi)

Only for the students of the MA Programmes: Political Communication '09, COSOPO, Global Governance and World Culture.

Lecture course cancelled. For further information please contact the ISSS (isss@uta.fi).

The student will be acquainted with the main characteristics of media and communication studies, both in the tradition of Social Sciences and Humanities.

Objective of the course is to enable students to understand processes of globalization, media convergence and the transformation from the industrial to the information society, in particular the role of the Internet as the basic infrastructure for global information society with its political, legal, economic, social and cultural implications. The course covers a range of issues, which have been negotiated in the process of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).

(All rooms are in the Main building.)

Registration by 9 February in NettiOpsu (under Dept of Journalism and Mass Communication)

Objectives: The aim of the course is to enable the students to become conversant with different rhetorical approaches to analyze political communication in speeches and debates.

Contents: Different rhetorical approaches and their application to analysis. 

The course is compulsory for the Bachelor's Degree students. There are max. 8 places available for international Master degree students at the Faculty of Social Sciences, please preregister at nettiopsu.

For completing the course it is compulsory to participate in the Library orientation tour organised on Mon 12th Jan, Tue 13th and Wed 14th Jan. Please preregister during the orientation course for international students or by sending an email to isss@uta.fi.

This course examines the issue of democracy, and through this, of dictatorship, from all angles. We will explore the definition of democracy and of dictatorship, then evaluate the goals of governments of various varieties and compare them. We will analyze the tools used to meet these goals and compare the constraints placed upon various forms of government. From this perspective we assess the potential effects of various types of democratic versus dictatorial rule upon the economy, upon the population itself, and on an international perspective. Linked to the theme "Citizenship".

The student will become familiar with the key concepts regarding media and democracy. She will learn to understand the role of media and journalism in the democratic process as well as the participatory role of the citizens in this context.

The course focuses on the functions that media have in the democratic society. How the media provide a platform for democratic discourse and how they contribute to democratic process.

This course is held as an intensive programme during two weeks.  The course consists of five lectures (2 hours each) and a literature essay.

Literature essay

Based on one of the following books:

Calhoun (ed.), Habermas and the Public Sphere. MIT 1992.
Dahlgren, Television and the Public Sphere: Citizenship, Democracy and the Media. Sage 1995.
Dahlgren & Sparks (eds.), Communication and Citizenship. Routledge 1991.
Fishkin, Debating deliberative democracy. Malden : Blackwell, 2003
Glasser (ed.), The Idea of Public Journalism. Guilford 1999.
Keane, Media and Democracy. Polity 1991.
Negrine, The Communication of Politics. Sage, 1996.
Wilhelm, Democracy in the Media Age. Challenges to Political Life in Cyberspace. Routledge 2000.   

Details about the essay are delivered at the beginning of the course.

To sign up for this course, please, e-mail to Laura Ruusunoksa laura.ruusunoksa@uta.fi by 20.4.2009.

Lectures 20 h and a study diary (6 pages) to professor Vilho Harle. Diaries either in English or Finnish/Swedish.

Compensates 2 cr pts from one of these: KVPOA3 or KVPOA5 or KVPOS2 or KVPOS3, World Politics or International Conflict Analysis.

Compensations in the ISSS Bachelor programme: 2 ECTS from KVPIB7A1 World Politics.

Compensations in the Master's Programme on Political Communication and in Master's Programme in Global Governance and World Culture: 4 ECTS in KVPIGG2I, in addition to the lectures students read Clausewitz (any language and any edition) and write the study diary (10 pages) based on both lectures and the book.