Media, War and Conflict

POLI60262 Media, War and Conflict 15 Semester 2 Postgraduate Taught Level 6 Jared Ahmad Unit coordinator Politics 1 FHEQ level (Framework for Higher Education Qualifications) ' Masters/Integrated Masters P4 ' European Credit Transfer & Accumulation System Rating : 7.5 <ol> <li> Critically analysing theories of media-state relations.</li> <li> Organised persuasive communication and propaganda: A historical overview.</li> <li> The manufacturing consent and CNN effect debate: Critically assessing media power.</li> <li> Research methods in political communications: Analysing media texts.</li> <li> Media coverage of ‘other people’s’ wars: The case of the 1994 Rwanda genocide and aftermath.</li> <li> Media and Terrorism: Constructing the terror threat.</li> <li> Media and ‘9/11’ wars: Afghanistan, Iraq, and beyond.</li> <li> Media power in the 21st century: The case of the ‘Arab Spring’.</li> <li> Student-led presentations 1.</li> <li> Student-led presentations 2.</li></ol> This course examines questions of media power and international politics in the post-Cold war era. It explores the key theoretical accounts that seek to explain the relationship between the mass media, the state and international politics by way of the work of Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky, Daniel Hallin, W. Lance Bennett and Gadi Wolfsfeld. Key issues regarding media and international politics are critically evaluated including the CNN effect debate, media representation of humanitarian crises and war, the role of organised political persuasion and propaganda with respect to contemporary conflict and contemporary research and debate regarding current conflicts including the ‘war on terror’, Iraq and Afghanistan. Throughout the material, we engage critically with the relationship between communications media, political process and the dynamics of the ‘new media environment’ in an attempt to reach substantive conclusions with regard to questions of media power and world politics in the contemporary era. On completion of this unit successful students will possess the following: 1. A critical understanding of key theories of media-state relations.2. A critical awareness of propaganda and organized political persuasion throughout key periods of history.3. Knowledge of the arguments, reasoning and normative concerns underlying the manufacturing consent and CNN effect debates.4. The ability to analsyse and deconstruct media texts using a variety of theories and research methods.5. A critical understanding of the key debates relating to “humanitarian” intervention, war, terrorism and the media.6. An ability to relate academic arguments regarding the media to contemporary examples ofhumanitarian intervention and liberal responses to suffering and underdevelopment.7. An ability to analyse critically research based arguments regarding the new media environment and the ‘new media ecology’.8. The ability to communicate complex theoretical concepts to an audience and present findings from both independent and collaborative research. The course unit will be taught as 8 × two-hour seminars and 2 × presentation sessions. The aim is be to encourage learning through the use of lectures, open discussions, case study analysis and student-led presentations. Blackboard will be used as a repository for the introductory lecture slides, presentation materials, and course information. 0 Other 15% 2 Written assignment (inc essay) 75% 7 Oral assessment/presentation 10% Critical article review of 1000 words (15%), essay of 3,500 words (75%), presentation (10%). Y Simon Cottle, Mediatized Conflict (Maidenhead: Open University Press, 2010)Piers Robinson, ‘News Media, War and World Politics’, in Carsten Reinemann (ed.), Political Communication (Mouton: De Gruyter, 2014), pp. 187-210Susan Carruthers, Media at War (Palgrave: Macmillan, 2011) Seminars 20 0 130 TimetableTuesday 1-3orThursday 10-12