Масмедиите в съвременното общество / British and American Mass Media

MASS MEDIA AND CULTURE

The aim of the course is to help students gain deeper insight into the way the mass media work in Britain and the USA and to become aware of  some of their specific problems  in the age of electronically delivered information. The course focuses on some of the most important issues in this field such as private and public media, media regulating institutions, censorship. BBC is taken as the example for the processes governing the working of the mass media in the UK, which provides useful models for discussion. American mass media are discussed in historical perspective first and then a comparison with Britain is made which strives for better understanding of the underlying processes within the mass media in the two countries. Special attention is paid to the problems surrounding the use and the  function of the Internet and the processes of globalization.

The course is also devoted to the discussion of the various cultural theories, which can be used in elucidating the nature and the role of the mass media in contemporary society. Particular attention is paid to the theories of  "culture industry," "information society," "global village." Finally, the electronically delivered information is discussed as a new mode of information and a new kind of language which determines the various pictures contemporary cultural theories paint of society.

The students are expected to do the two activities in the Forum sections of Topic 4 & 5 and to write a final essay on an aspect of the mass media in the UK or the USA using one of the theoretical models/techniques of analysis discussed in the course.     

 COURSE CURRICULUM

 SESSION ONE

LECTURE: Introduction to Cultural Media Studies. Different theories of the mass media; historical and philosophical aspects of mass media studies.

SESSION TWO

LECTURE: The Development of the Contemporary American Press and Radio

SESSION THREE

LECTURE: The BBC and Editorial Values

SEMINAR: Writing News

SESSION FOUR

American Television and Cable

SESSION FIVE

LECTURE: New Information Technologies: The Internet, Digital TV

SESSION SIX

LECTURE: Theories of Mass Society; The Frankfurt School and their Critique of ‘Culture Industry’

SESSION SEVEN

LECTURE: The concept of the post-industrial society: Daniel Bell and the new mode of information

SEMINAR: Techniques of Media Analysis