Revolutionary Media (P5040)

30 credits, Level 6

Spring teaching

On this module you will be studying the transformative effects of new media in historical context. We will explore moments when emergent media have fed into social and political change, and when broad social and political transformations have generated new media forms and new communicative practices. The module offers ways in to thinking about these relationships taking a long view of media history, within and across different national contexts.

The first part, ‘Revolutions in Media’, takes moments of radical change in communicative forms, to examine how prevailing discourses, particularly conceptualisations of political practice, inform and are informed by new media. The second part, ‘Media in Revolution’, builds on the first to examine claims made for the role of media in moments of political transition (e.g. promoting, preventing or distorting democratic practice) in a range of contemporary case studies.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 300 hours of work. This breaks down into about 24 hours of contact time and about 276 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2024/25. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.