Course Credit:
4
The primary aim of the course is to develop a critical, conceptual, and awareness of the
complex factors influencing communication/media production, representations, and
reception through politics and economy and political economy. For example, how mediated
power is produced, perceived and received in society. This course introduces students to
the field of Political Economy, Cultural Studies, helping them develop an understanding of
the approach as an analytical tool. Given that communication processes are ingrained in
culture, and culture itself being a social process, this course shall enable students to use a
Cultural Studies lens to examine and engage critically with the meaningful yet often
neglected relationship between culture and communication and other signifying practices.
As a result, students in general will emerge as more informed and critical observer of the
social world they live in.
Interactive and interdisciplinary in nature, the course will have a dual focus: KNOWING
and DOING culture— how political economy influence culture production; how
ideological leaning promotes social perception through political economy and culture. The
former aims to familiarize students with some key concepts/issues. The latter is more
geared towards doing culture– making the concepts functional and relevant in the context
of everyday life. This two-fold engagement will enable students to examine the link
between society, communication, politics and culture first hand.
Objectives:
Upon completion of this course, students are expected to:
1. Demonstrate the ability to analyze everyday life from cultural studies perspectives.
2. Be familiar with key concepts like ideology, power, representation, gender as
analytical tools to critically examine communication patterns, processes and other
signifying practices.
3. Identify underlying social structures in existing or new cultural formations