Coursework Questions 2014-15

MC401
Mediated Resistance and Citizens

Bart Cammaerts

Formative Essay
Select one of the topics below and conduct a literature review identifying the main debates/tensions
addressed in the empirical research and theory relating to that topic. Students should relate these debates
and tensions to different paradigms, that is, ways of thinking, ideologies and positions, taken by various
authors and within academic traditions.
Mainstream media and resistance
Self-mediation practices and resistance
Discursive resistance
Hacktivism
Information resistance

Summative Essay
Select one of the topics below and a relevant debate(s) and discuss analytically using a case study. The
topic should not be the same as the topic selected for the formative assignment.
Mainstream media and resistance
Self-mediation practices and resistance
Discursive resistance
Hacktivism
Information resistance

The structure of the summative essay should be as follows:

Introduction
Start with a brief theoretical reflection on the various perspectives and academic debates relevant to
your topic. Then select a specific aspect - a particularly contentious debate or a set of contradictions or
tensions.
Theoretical part:
Provide an in-depth theoretical reflection on this debate or set of contradictions or tensions and
develop these into a framework that provides a basis for discussing the issues in the case study.
Empirical part:
Analyse the case study in a way that relates to the topic and to the theoretical argument you have
presented. You are not expected to conduct original research for this essay. The selected case study
should be discussed analytically drawing on desk research for your data and on the academic literature
to compare and contrast issues addressed in your case study. The case study does not need to be
described at length.
Conclusion:
Assess whether or how your case study challenges or confirms the theoretical framework discussed in
the first part of the essay.
 Coursework Questions 2014-15

MC402
The Audience in Media & Communications

Sonia Livingstone

Formative essay

1. In what ways, if any, is Hall’s (1980) theory of encoding/decoding relevant to understanding today’s
audiences?

2. How useful is the research on soap opera audiences for our understanding of national and
transnational audiences more generally?

3. Critically evaluate the research that indicates differences in audience viewing, reading and listening
practices between Western and non-Western contexts.

Summative essay

1. Depending on the time and place, talk shows contribute more or less to the public sphere in terms
of audience and citizen participation. Discuss.

2. When should a media and communications project include the empirical study of the audience and
what challenges arise?

3. What new questions and insights about audiences, if any, are revealed through the practice turn in
media research, and how might these be developed further?

4. As audiences increasingly become producers as well as consumers, they inevitably become more
media literate. Discuss.
 Coursework Questions 2014-15

MC403
Contemporary Issues in Media & Communications Policy

Damian Tambini

Formative essay

Write one essay of up to 1,500 words critically discussing a current media policy issue and a policy
proposal.

Summative essay

PART ONE

Choose a current or recent public consultation on a key communications policy issue. This may be a public
consultation run by Ofcom, by one of the UK Government Departments with a role in communications
policy, the European Commission (Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and
Technology – DG Connect) or another public body on approval by the course teacher.

You will be expected to:

-Write a clear response to the key issue, or answer one or more of the questions raised in the consultation.
-Set out a proposed policy solution to the issue(s) raised in the consultation
-Support your argument with evidence from the relevant research from reputable sources, ensuring that
you include references to the relevant academic literature on the topic.
-Be realistic and pragmatic: show an awareness of the wider policy context and a sense of practical
possibilities including funding
-Include a short executive summary of the main points at the beginning.
-The main part of the submission should be structured as continuous prose with a clear central argument
providing a critical assessment of the key issue or question.

PART TWO

Write a short (500-1000 word) critical reflection on this policy consultation and what you consider to be
possible/ likely outcomes, as appropriate, taking into account historical, contextual, and political economy
factors.

The total length of the essay including Part 1 and Part 2 should be no more than 3,500 words.
 Coursework Questions 2014-15

MC404
Political Communication

Nick Anstead

Formative essay

1. In what ways, if any, might branding enhance citizen engagement with politics?

2. Is there a crisis in public communication?

3. To what extent does Herman and Chomsky’s propaganda model present a convincing account of the
power relations influencing politics and media?

4. How, and in what ways, is new media challenging established campaign practices?

5. With reference to a specific case study, discuss the importance of public diplomacy in contemporary
international relations.

Summative essay

1. Theories that blame the media and journalists for democratic malaise are essentially reactionary.
Discuss.

2. For a variety of reasons, campaigns are increasingly important influences on election outcomes.
Discuss.

3. Has new media use made public diplomacy more difficult?

4. Does citizen journalism pose a danger to democracy?

5a. In what ways is Norris’s three-part model of the development of campaigns (2000) useful for
understanding the history of political communication?

OR

5b. How important is the American experience in explaining the development of campaign practices in
other parts of the world?
 Coursework Questions 2014-15

MC405
Current Issues in Media & Communications: Policies for ICTs, Society & Development

Claire Milne

Formative essay

Write a 1,500 word essay on one of the following topics, drawing on both the academic and practitioner
literature and highlighting how the ideas derived from each are related.

1. The best is the enemy of the good. In the context of ICT policy decisions, explain why this statement
may be the case. When it is the case, how would you organise policy-making?

2. To improve its health care, a country should invest in mobile phones. Discuss this statement indicating
whether you agree or disagree.

3. The internet strengthens democracy. Discuss.

4. Does technical change challenge, or reinforce, the power of big business in the communications sector?

5. How much can one country learn from the experience of another country about communications policy
issues? Discuss using examples.

Summative assessment

Choose ONE of the policy issues listed below. In relation to it, write a 3,000 word essay discussing:

• The implications of this issue for society and development; and

• At least two different options for policies to address this issue; and
• Appropriate criteria for policy-makers to use in deciding which option to support.
You may focus your essay on a country or region of your choice. Use examples to illustrate your argument
drawing on both the academic and practitioner literature, and highlighting how the ideas derived from
each are related.

Issues for summative essay

1. Intensity of competition between mobile network operators.

2. Provision of broadband internet access to rural areas.
3. Civil society participation in communications regulatory processes.
4. Advertising within a medium (e.g. on mobile phones) as a source of revenue for the relevant
communications service providers.
5. Reliance on digital content for educational purposes.
 Coursework Questions 2014-15

MC407
International Media and the Global South

Shaku Banaji

Formative essay

1. Which postcolonial concepts are most relevant in analysing Western documentaries or advertisements
about the global south? Discuss why they are relevant.

2. Hegemony is a significant concept in studies of international media. Discuss using one or two case
studies.

3. In what ways are theories of ideology useful in understanding international media campaigns about
global poverty?

4. Are Western development initiatives in the global south doomed to fail? Support your discussion with
relevant theories and cases.

5. How does a semiotic approach to non-governmental organisation (NGO) media enable us to examine
the ideological beliefs of these organisations?

Summative essay

1. Using one or more Western humanitarian media campaigns, discuss the links between the concepts of
ideology and naming.

2. Without an historical understanding of colonialism and orientalism, self-orientalism is a meaningless

concept. Discuss in relation to global south advertisements or a tourism campaign of your choice.

3. Sylvester argues that postcolonial theory fails to deal adequately with the realities of poverty and
violence in unstable global south countries. Discuss with reference to a development campaign of your
choice.

4. To what extent should the concepts of social class and voice play a role in the analysis of alternative
and community media?

5. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of several definitions of development journalism for the analysis
of the role of media in social change.
 Coursework Questions 2014-15

MC408
Theories & Concepts in Media & Communications I

Shani Orgad

Formative essay

1. What are the implications of public sphere theory for media and communications today?

2. Is the Frankfurt School’s theory of the Culture Industry relevant to new media?

3. Castells (2009: 3) claims that ‘the most fundamental form of power lies in the ability to shape the
human mind’. What are the consequences of this for the study of media and communication power?

4. Discuss how collectivities formed through media processes can be theorized.

5. Discuss similarities and differences in the perspectives of three scholars whose work is in the Political
Economy of Media and Communications tradition. Use examples to show what their perspectives imply
for the focus of empirical research.

Summative Exam
 Coursework Questions 2014-15

MC409
Media, Technology & Everyday Life

Leslie Haddon

Formative essay

1. ‘Revolutions are evolutions in disguise’ (Silverstone 1995). Discuss.

2. If users are configured in the design of information and communication technologies, that is, if they
are written into design scripts, what scope is there for users to be innovative in their use of these
technologies?
3. Evaluate the evidence concerning the impact of the internet upon social capital.
4. Discuss the claim that information and communication technologies enable more flexibility in our
lives.
5. Evaluate the extent to which information and communication technologies, such as the mobile
phone and internet, change the experience of contemporary childhood.

6. ‘…the digital divide is less a crisis than a temporary and normal process’ (Compaine 2001). Discuss in
relation to debates about the digital divide within countries.

Summative essay

1. When evaluating claims that information and communication technologies are revolutionising our
everyday lives, the key factor is our understanding of the term revolution. Discuss.

2a. Discuss how an understanding of the histories of information and communication technologies can
contribute to our understanding of the social shaping of technology.
OR
2b. Discuss how the internet influences sociability and what the implications are for social capital.

3. Domestication research draws attention to how people fit information and communication technologies
into their lives. How do time and space constraints play a part in this process?

4.There is a long history of parental concerns about children’s use of information and communication
technologies and of parental attempts to influence that use. How do the changing experiences of
childhood and new information and communication technologies influence this parent-child interaction?

5. How useful is the concept of the digital divide for understanding uneven access to and use of the
internet within countries?
 Coursework Questions 2014-15

MC411
Media & Globalisation

Terhi Rantanen

Formative Essay

To what extent, if at all, is media imperialism still a useful concept? Discuss in relation to EITHER (1)
production OR (2) representation OR (3) consumption. Choose only one to discuss.

Summative Exam
 Coursework Questions 2014-15

MC413
Information, Communication and Knowledge Systems

Robin Mansell

Formative Essay

1. What role does the social imaginary play in shaping the digitally mediated environment?

2. We should be very concerned about an increasingly algorithmic (big data) culture. Discuss.

3. Individual privacy is impossible to protect in the internet age. Discuss

4. Online surveillance should not always been seen as a negative aspect of the digital environment. Discuss

5. Copyright law should not be enforced in order to stimulate innovation in the production of digital
content. Discuss.

6. Why do some companies object to network neutrality policies?

Summative Essay

1a. Discuss similarities and differences between the market-led technology diffusion paradigm of the
information society and its alternatives.
Or
1b. Countries with relatively low levels of Internet use are unlikely to catch up to the leading countries.
Discuss in relation to digital divide(s).

2. Discuss whether open access to digital content should be supported by policy makers even if it infringes
copyright law.

3. Discuss the implications of big data analytics for citizens.

4a. Discuss why individual privacy is a significant issue for policy in an age of online surveillance.
or
4b. Mass electronic surveillance can be controlled by governments. Discuss.

5. Internet governance can never be achieved uniformly across the world. Discuss
 Coursework Questions 2014-15

MC416
Representation in the Age of Globalisation

Shani Orgad

Formative essay

‘The Other is always constructed as an object for the benefit of the subject who stands in need of
an Objectified Other in order to achieve a masterly self-definition’.

(Michael Pickering, 2001. Stereotyping: The Politics of Representation, p. 71).

Discuss this observation by analysing a particular media representation.

Your analysis should be based on either:

1) Two newspaper articles (using Critical Discourse Analysis)

OR

2) Two media images (using Critical Visual Analysis).

Please attach the texts or images to the essay.

Summative essay

‘There is a vital role for geographical principles that encourage a broad-based and popular capacity
for evaluation and judgement on the nature of geographical knowledges being constructed and
presented’.

(David Harvey, 2001. Spaces of Capital: Towards a Critical Geography, p. 216).

Should this be the media’s role and are the media able to perform it effectively?

Illustrate your argument by analysing examples of representations related to one of the following topics:
distant suffering, humanitarianism and development, conflict and war, or migration.

The essay should be based on an analysis of specific media representations:

• Option 1 3 texts from different sources of media (e.g. newspaper articles, online textual material,
social media, advertisements), using Critical Discourse Analysis;
• Option 2 3 images from different sources of media (e.g. news photos, caricatures, visual adverts,
online images, social media), using Critical Visual Analysis;

• Option 3 1 text and 2 images or 2 texts and 1 image from different sources of media, combining
Critical Discourse Analysis and Critical Visual Analysis;

• Option 4 2 audio-visual items from different sources of media (e.g. news programme, video clip,
television or online advert, social media), using Audio-visual Analysis.

Please attach the texts or images to the essay. For audio-visual representations please provide their links
(if available).
 Coursework Questions 2014-15

MC417
Democracy & the Media

Bart Cammaerts

Formative essay

1. Compare two models of democracy with respect to how they relate to the media.

2. There is a democratic right to be a racist. Discuss.

3. Why are political debates important at election times?

4. What are the opportunities and the constraints to the use of social media by protest movements?

5. The internet merely strengthens the dominance of powerful political actors. Discuss.

Summative Exam
 Coursework Questions 2014-15

MC418
Theories & Concepts in Media & Communications II

Myria Georgiou

Formative essay

1. In what ways does symbolic power help us to understand the role of the media in contemporary
societies?

2. The diversity of information societies is essential to encourage. Discuss

3. How has the concept of the networked society developed and what is its significance for the study
of communications? Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the concept.

4. New media may lead to more participation, but they also lower the quality of participation. Discuss

5. In what ways does gender representation matter in an age of new media?

Summative essay

1. It is misleading to argue that a universal information society exists. Discuss

2. When it comes to mediated participation, politicians could learn a lot from reality television.
Discuss.

3. Using examples, discuss how the connections between audience identities and media
representations of gender have been theorised.

4. How might the Propaganda Model and the Elaboration Likelihood Model be used to explain the use
of, and attention paid to, non-verbal cues (e.g. emoticons, setting, colour) in anonymous computer-
mediated communication?

5. a) The study of media and communications is essential to queer critique.

b) Queer critique is essential to the study of media and communications. Discuss either claim.
 Coursework Questions 2014-15

MC419
Modern Campaigning Politics

Nick Anstead

Formative essay

Analyse a successful campaign and assess its strengths and weaknesses. Draw on the academic literature
in your essay and analyse strategic decisions and defining moments, identifying which campaign strategies
worked and which did not.

Summative essay

1. Formulate a campaign strategy and plan for a candidate/political party/non-governmental organization

of your choice and discuss the theoretical assumptions underpinning the approach you have presented.
2. A successful political campaign is not necessarily defined by electoral victory. Discuss.
3. Can politicians and political strategists be too reliant on polls and focus groups?
4. Discuss the essential ingredients of effective online political campaigns.

5a. Advertising has a pernicious influence on democracy. Discuss.

OR

5bTo be successful, do pressure groups need to be part of the political establishment?

 Coursework Questions 2014-15

MC420
Identity, Transnationalism & the Media

Myria Georgiou

Formative essay

1. Identity includes as much as it excludes (Laclau 1990). What does this statement mean in a
transnational context?

2. If the diaspora is not naturally reproduced, what are the mechanisms that support it? Discuss in
relation to media and communications.

3. Social media have been celebrated for enhancing cosmopolitan identities and criticised for
reinforcing insular identities. Where do you stand? Use debates from the literature to support your
argument.

4. In what ways does transnational television enhance diasporic belongingness and how does it
challenge it? Discuss in relation to a specific case study.

5. Why should we study transnationalism in media and communications?

Summative essay

1. While diasporic media can challenge hierarchical and exclusionary representations of identity, they
may also reaffirm them. Discuss.

2. Select a film as a case study. How can we understand identity through the representations of
gender or sexual identities in this film?

3. Why are collective identities always subject to erasure? Discuss in relation to national identity and
the media.

4. With reference to either cinema or digital media, discuss the importance of identity
intersectionality.

5. Discuss the meaning of difference in relation to urban cultures. Focus on a creative form such as
music or street art.
 Coursework Questions 2014-15

MC421
Critical Approaches to Media, Communication & Development

Shaku Banaji

Formative essay

1. Entertainment Education is no longer useful in the Media, Communication and Development field.
Discuss supporting your answer with contemporary examples.

2. Discuss whether an understanding of colonial history is necessary for Media, Communication and
Development practitioners to be reflexive.

3. How and why has the modernisation paradigm been criticised?

4. Using specific cases, discuss the practical and theoretical challenges involved in the Communication for
Development field.

5. Why does representation matter in the field of Media, Communication and Development?

Summative exam
 Coursework Questions 2014-15

MC422
Critical Studies in Media & Journalism

Damian Tambini & Charlie Beckett

Formative essay

1. Has the core role and function of the news journalist changed in the last two decades? If so, discuss why.

2. What is different about Networked Journalism and why does it matter?

3. To whom, and for what, are journalists responsible? Discuss with reference to one or two of the
following:

(a) Wikileaks and/or Ed Snowden

(b) Journalism in China

(c) Humanitarian issues

4. Is there a universal definition of the proper role of the journalist? Discuss using examples from more
than one country.

5. Discuss the social responsibility theory of journalism with reference to contemporary challenges.

Summative essay

1. Should journalists be trusted? Discuss.

2. In the age of networked journalism, truth, objectivity and impartiality remain fundamental and
unchanged ideals in journalism. Discuss.

3. Journalists are responsible only to their editors, owners and shareholders and to the law. Discuss.

4. Ethically, what is new about disruptive digital journalism? How does this form of journalism impact on
existing institutions and journalism practices?

5. The first duty of journalism is to bear witness. Discuss whether this assertion has universal validity in
contemporary news media with respect to breaking news or reporting on natural disasters or war.
 Coursework Questions 2014-15

MC423
Global Media Industries

Bingchun Meng

Formative essay

1. How does the flexible accumulation concept help in understanding changing practices in the media
industries?

2. Social media platforms generate profit by commodifying personal information. Discuss the strategies
and implications.

3. In the digital economy, work processes have shifted from the factory to society (Terranova, 2000).
Discuss in relation to immaterial labour.

4. In a networked digital environment, the conventional view of copyright needs to be modified. Discuss.

5. A distinction between citizens and consumers is important in designing media policy and regulation.
Discuss.

Summative essay

1. In the age of media convergence, consumer empowerment goes hand in hand with a quest for profit.
Discuss using examples.

2. The changing arrangements of media production have put professional media workers in a precarious
position. Discuss.

3. Is the marketplace of ideas still a useful concept to guide media policy?

4. Reality shows define social reality for their viewers. Discuss using examples.

5. Discuss what is revealed through the study of the spatial arrangement of the media industries.
 Coursework Questions 2014-15

MC424
Media & Communication Governance

Damian Tambini

Formative Essay

1. How should public broadcasters be funded? Discuss why they should be funded in the way you
propose.

2. Copyright should be modernised in the light of new digital technologies and platforms. Discuss

3. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of self-regulation in media and communications.

4. Competition is the best way to protect the public interest. Discuss.

5. How does the concept of governance help us to understand media and communications policy and
regulation?

Summative exam
 Coursework Questions 2014-15

MC425
Interpersonal Mediated Communication

Ellen Helsper

Formative Essay

Discuss one of the statements below drawing on theories discussed in the academic literature.

1. Uncertainty plays a larger role in determining trust in mediated interactions than in unmediated
interactions.
2. Privacy is more difficult to manage in mediated environments than face-to-face.
3. Ritual communication is less important in professional relationships than in intimate relationships that
are mediated through information and communication technologies.
4. Discrimination is less likely in reduced cue environments.
5. Mobile phones dramatically change the way parents and children relate to each other.

Summative Essay

Below are five news headlines with the opening paragraph of each article. Write a critical reply to
questions or statements made in the headline and opening paragraph drawing on theory from the
academic literature. Present your reply in the form of an academic essay.

1) How Rare Is Internet Privacy in the Digital Age?

Privacy and the Internet mix like oil and water. As more websites gear up to provide transparency over
the Web, privacy has taken on a new meeting in the virtual world. Everyone from Facebook to Google
wants to share your information. Your likes, dislikes and your hobbies are all on display on the Web,
which leads to one question - what is still private in the Digital Age?
Huffington Post. Posted: 08/14/2014 12:32
Full article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jayson-demers/how-rare-is-internet-priv_b_5676746.html
2) Online 'trolls' wouldn’t dare to be so abusive to my face.

Ending anonymity on social media sites wouldn't stop abuse - people are willing to make much more extreme
statements in writing than face-to-face.

Twitter's simplistic website is designed to encourage users to tweet their thoughts with relative ease

Telegraph. Posted 6:00AM BST 30 Jul 2014

Full article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/social-media/10998111/Online-trolls-wouldnt-dare-
to-be-so-abusive-to-my-face.html

3) Internet training would cut pensioner loneliness, says think tank

The warnings come as the number of people aged 85 or above is set to double over the next 20 years

Loneliness among the over-65s could be tackled by training more older people to use the internet, a report
by a centre-right think tank has suggested. Policy Exchange has called for every person in the UK to be
taught basic digital skills, including how to send emails and use social networking sites. Training 6.2 million
people without basic digital skills would cost £875m by 2020, or £141 per person, it said. It said training
would help pensioners stay connected with friends and family.

BBC News. Posted 27 May 2014

Full article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-27577143
4) The Weird Reasons Why People Make Up False Identities on the Internet

Sockpuppetry—using false identities for deception—is centuries old, but the advent of the web has made
creating sockpuppets, and falling for their tricks, easier than ever before.

We can’t physically meet most of the people we interact with on the internet. So we create avatars who
represent us in the online world, personae that are designed—on some level, conscious or subconscious—
to shape others’ ideas about who we really are. Indeed, it’s natural for us to create avatars that represent
what we want to be rather than what we are.

Wired. Posted 07.29.14, 6:30 am

Full article: http://www.wired.com/2014/07/virtual-unreality-the-online-sockpuppets-that-trick-us-all/

5) So Texting Can Actually Boost Your Self-Esteem

We often hear about how the internet is bumming us out, but it's not all bad: Recent research suggests
that, by making us more candid, chatting online is pulling us closer to our family and friends.

Sometimes people don't feel very confident, and sometimes people feel alone, or sad, or all three at once.
These problems are old, and the internet is relatively new, but that doesn't mean it's without ill effects.
Regularly, reports roll in that find too much internet use might make us depressed, too much Twitter
will cause your divorce, and Facebook can make us lonely.

Motherboard. Posted August 6, 2014, 12:50 PM EST

Full article: http://motherboard.vice.com/read/so-texting-can-actually-boost-your-self-esteem

 Coursework Questions 2014-15

MC426
Film Theory and World Cinema

Shaku Banaji

Formative essay

1. The gaze is one of the most significant concepts in film studies. Discuss with reference to one or two
films from a national cinema.

2. In what ways are horror films relevant to everyday life?

3. Using a film or films, discuss the insights arising from an ideological approach to film narrative.

4. Using a semiotic approach, explain the role that one star from a national cinema plays in relation to the
nation.

5. Using specific examples, discuss how audience research can contribute to the understanding of film
meaning.

Summative essay

1. Classic theorisations of the male gaze rely on reductive gender binaries that ignore the significance of
race and class on and off screen. Discuss.

2. In what ways do socio-political processes and historical events contribute to the impact of the horror
genre? Use films from one, or at most two, national cinemas in your discussion.

3. Using examples from a film or films, discuss the differences between theoretical spectators and real
audiences.

4. In what way do adult ideologies and beliefs underlie representations of childhood? Use films from one
national cinema of your choice?

5. What concepts are helpful in enabling audiences and scholars to differentiate between more and less
plausible versions of history on screen?
 Coursework Questions 2014-15

MC427
Digital Media Futures

Alison Powell

Formative essay

1. To what extent does the design or materiality of a media technology matter in terms of its social or
cultural significance? Discuss with reference to historical or contemporary examples.

2. Discuss how social values become articulated with new media technologies in any historical period.

3. Using a case study of developing new or future media (in any historical period), compare and
contrast the relevance of continuity and discontinuity perspectives on media change.

4. Discuss how features of communication technologies constrain or enable social relationships,

including those between institutions and individuals. Use examples to illustrate your answer.

5. What are the relationships between forms of power and modes of mediation? Discuss with
reference to examples.

Summative essay

1. How is algorithmic power conceptualized and what are the implications for political, social and/or
cultural life? Discuss with reference to the theoretical and empirical aspects.

2. Choose one of the core theoretical positions discussed in the course and applying it in an analysis of
the relationship between cities and communication technologies.

3. How have notions of open-ness been constructed in relation to new media technologies, and what
theoretical and practical implications do these notions have for social, political and cultural life?
Discuss using examples.

4. Discuss the significance of datafication in the contemporary communications environment.

5. Discuss the design or application of a new media technology aimed at addressing a social or
political challenge.
 Coursework Questions 2014-15

MC428
Media Culture and Neoliberalism in the Global South

Wendy Willems

Formative essay

1. Compare and evaluate the concepts of media system and media culture in relation to comparative
analysis of media and communication in the Global South.

2. Evaluate the term - the Global South - in relation to comparative analysis of media culture.

3. Compare and theorise the relations among informality, media culture and neoliberalism in the
Global South. Use examples from two countries.

4. Media are crucial in evolving class relations in the Global South. Discuss and use examples from one
or more countries.

5. Mobility is a crucial characteristic of neoliberal media culture. Discuss.

Summative essay

1. Discuss what the key focus and principles of South-South media and communication studies should
be.

2. Neoliberal media culture in the Global South increasingly threatens state power. Discuss.

3. Compare and theorise the relations among religion, media culture and neoliberalism in the Global
South. Use examples from two countries.

4. The use of the concepts of neoliberalism and neoliberalisation in analysing media culture in the
Global South reinforces Eurocentrism. Discuss.

5. Post-neoliberal media culture is emerging in the Global South. Discuss and highlight its key features.
Use examples from one or more countries of your choice.