Elective course: Political Communication in a Hybrid Media System

E2024

Journalism / Communication Studies / Media and Communication

Course

English

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10

Eva Mayerhöffer (evamay@ruc.dk)

Hanne Jørndrup (hajoe@ruc.dk)

IKH Registration & Exams (ikh-exams@ruc.dk)

U60727

The purpose of the course is to give the students the opportunity to delve into a defined interdisciplinary subject, complex problem or research field within communication, media or journalism research, including an introduction to and critical discussion of current concepts, theories and research methods.

MAC/KOMM students - This elective course belongs to bloc 3. We recommend that you choose one elective per bloc. This way, you avoid overlaps in classes and exam periods.

Digital media have fundamentally changed how political, media and civil society actors communicate to their stakeholders. In the so-called hybrid media system, traditional ways to communicate about politics have not become irrelevant but are continuously redefined by new digital platforms, actors and logics.

The course will introduce students to state-of-the-art theory and research on political PR, journalism, and campaigning and discuss current trends and challenges in political communication, such as political polarization, digital propaganda, misinformation, digital activism and movement formation. The second part of the course consists of a workshop facilitated by RUCs Digital Media Lab. Here, students will learn how to find and systematically collect data from digital and social media platforms and apply network analysis to discover patterns in online political communication based on self-chosen cases.

Course literature will be available in Moodle.

10 ECTS (270 hours), divided into:

• preparation and reading of course literature (150 hours)
• participation in lectures and course workshop (40 hours)
• final exam (60 hours)
• other activities (20 hours)

Oral and written evaluation at the end of the course. Standardized evaluation in accordance with the rotating evaluation scheme implemented by the Study Board.

• Acquire in-depth knowledge of a defined, interdisciplinary subject area within media, communication or journalism studies.

• Identify and apply theories and concepts relevant to the subject area.

• Reflect on research- or case-based knowledge within the subject area of the course and discuss its characteristics, strengths and weaknesses.

• Identify and apply current methods of relevance to the subject area.

• Reflect on key issues in relation to the media, communication or journalism landscape.

Individual portfolio exam

The character limit of the portfolio is maximum48,000 characters, including spaces. Examples of written products are exercise responses, talking points for presentations, written feedback, reflections, written assignments. The preparation of the products may be subject to time limits.
The character limits include the cover, table of contents, bibliography, figures and other illustrations, but exclude any appendices.

The portfolio is written completely or partially during the course.

The entire portfolio must be handed in at the same time.

Assessment: 7-point grading scale

Individual portfolio exam

The character limit of the portfolio is maximum48,000 characters, including spaces. Examples of written products are exercise responses, talking points for presentations, written feedback, reflections, written assignments. The preparation of the products may be subject to time limits.
The character limits include the cover, table of contents, bibliography, figures and other illustrations, but exclude any appendices.

The portfolio is written after the course has ended.

The entire portfolio must be handed in at the same time.

Assessment: 7-point grading scale

The exam format is a portfolio, which is written partly during the course period, partly after. The portfolio consists in 3-6 individual assignments related to tasks such as reviewing and discussing literature, finding, collecting and analyzing digital data, and presenting and discussing results. The specific format and requirements for the portfolio exam will be outlined at the beginning of the course.

The portfolio in its entirety will be assessed based on the student’s ability to

• Account for core theories and concepts regarding political communication and the hybrid media system

• Review and critically discuss relevant state-of-the-art literature on selected issues pertaining to political communication in the digital realm

• Identify and account for a relevant current case related to political communication

• Account for and critically evaluate methods to find and collect data from digital media sources

• Demonstrate familiarity with the basic principles of network analysis

• Present own analytical results in a correct, coherent and reflective manner

• Reflect on how different theories, concepts and methods used to study political communication relate to each other

• Demonstrate ability to produce text in a professionally precise and clear manner that demonstrates mastery of academic standards for written presentations.