Aims

By the end of this course, students should be able to identify the economic and social processes governing the workings of the principal mass media operating in the modern world and to dissect them using analytical, critical and forecasting techniques. They should have understood the macro- and micro- socio-economic underpinnings of these media and be able to distinguish the principal actors involved and evaluate the strategies. They should be aware of the differences between the public and private media and the constraints, freedoms and controls with which they are faced. Finally, they should be able to appreciate the way in which the sector influences how society works.

Main themes

The course can be broken down into a number of components, involving:
- analysing the socio-economic factors at work in the media world,
- examining them from a historical viewpoint and analysing how they are likely to affect the media in the future
- studying the external socio-economic structures of the media (ownership structures, conflicts of interest, concentration and internationalisation issues)
- analysing the key actors (global groups, European and Belgian actors)
- studying the internal socio-economic structures of the media (economic processes of cost and revenue, public aid, demand evaluation)
- putting the media's development strategies into perspective.

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Evaluation: Students will be evaluated on the basis of their critical knowledge of the subject matter of the course, illuminated by knowledge of recent developments in the sector. This evaluation can be supplemented with other personal project work.
Course materials: A number of works dealing with the themes of the course and supplementary course notes.

Other credits in programs