ZURn6203 Media and Cultural Industries

Faculty of Social Studies
Spring 2025
Extent and Intensity
2/0/0. 6 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Taught in person.
Teacher(s)
Mgr. et Mgr. Jana Jedličková, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
Mgr. et Mgr. Jana Jedličková, Ph.D.
Department of Media Studies and Journalism – Faculty of Social Studies
Contact Person: Mgr. Boris Rafailov, Ph.D.
Supplier department: Department of Media Studies and Journalism – Faculty of Social Studies
Prerequisites
TYP_STUDIA ( MN )
no prerequisites
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
This course introduces students to the field of cultural and creative industries, focusing on the media industries in general and cinema and television in a narrower sense. We will look not only at industrial practice and its contemporary and historical specificities, but also at how this area of culture can be grasped theoretically and methodologically as a system of discourses, industrial practices, values, norms, and distinctive institutions. The course will be a combination of a lecture oriented towards a basic overview of theoretical concepts and research strategies related to academic reflection on the culture and media industries, and a section devoted to group work in which the concepts and selected topics will be applied to specific industries and the products and practices of these industries. Thematically, we will move from more general concepts to a specific focus on the Czech media sphere and the film and television industry, which will be confronted in Euro-American terms with their Czech counterparts.
Learning outcomes
Students will be able to:
  • understand theoretical notion and history of cultural and media industries
  • apply key concepts in their analysis of current issues and practice
    • Syllabus
    • 1. Introduction of the course and its curriculum, course completion requirements
    • 2. Theoretical definition of the field of media and cultural industries research
    • 3. Basic historical overview of the development of media and cultural industries
    • 4. Research on industrial and media cultures
    • 5. Cultural and creative industries economics
    • 6. Creative work
    • 7. Audiovisual field
    • 8. Institutional aspects of audiovisual media
    • 9. Value chain
    • 10. Legislative frameworks for cultural and media industries
    • 11. Actors in the cultural and media industries
    • 12. Case studies
    Literature
    • DiMaggio, Paul. ‘ Market structure, the creative process and popular culture: towards an organizational reinterpretation of mass-culture theory.’ Journal of Popular Culture, 11: 436-52, 1977
    • Adorno, Theodor and Max Horkheimer (1977/1944). “The culture industry: enlightenment as mass deception” in James Curran, Michael Gurevitch and Janet Wollacott (eds), Mass Communication and Society. London: Edward Arnold. pp. 349-383.
    • HESMONDHALGH, David. The cultural industries. 3rd edition. Los Angeles: Sage, 2013, xx, 456. ISBN 9781446209264. info
    • HARTLEY, J. Creative Industries. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2005, 432 pp. ISBN 1-4051-0147-4. info
    • Cultural industries and the production of culture. Edited by Dominic Power - Allen John Scott. 1st pub. London: Routledge, 2004, xi, 268. ISBN 0415331013. info
    • MCCHESNEY, Robert Waterman. The problem of the media : U.S. communication politics in the twenty-first century. New York: Monthly Review Press, 2004, 367 s. ISBN 1583671056. info
    • Cultural work : understanding the cultural industries. Edited by Andrew Beck. New York: Routledge, 2002, xi, 196. ISBN 0415289521. info
    • Production of culture/culture of production. Edited by Paul Du Gay. 1st pub. London: SAGE Publications, 1997, 356 s. ISBN 0761954368. info
    • BOURDIEU, Pierre. The field of cultural production : essays on art and literature. Edited by Randal Johnson. Cambridge: Polity press, 1993, viii, 323. ISBN 9780745609867. info
    Teaching methods
  • Lecture
  • group discussion
  • individual presentation of news from the cultural or media industries
  • group work - workshop
  • brainstorming on given topics
  • group presentation
    • Assessment methods
    During the course of the semester, students turn in 4 hand outs, each 1-2 standard pages in length, of assigned readings that relate to the topic covered in class. A thorough knowledge of the assigned text and the ability to extract the main ideas and thesis from it is expected. The text will be further worked with during group discussion and potentially also during group work.
    In addition, twice a semester the student will prepare a 3-5 minute topical report on a current topic in the media or cultural industry (Czech region or abroad of personal choice) and present it orally at the beginning of class. For this purpose, the teacher will share with the learners a link to a table with presentation dates in the interactive curriculum, in which the learner will fill in his/her name. The learner may or may not use auxiliary media (e.g. power point or demonstrations) during the presentation.
    The class will include group work/brainstorming/workshop (assignment will always be done in class) where learners will be asked to apply theoretical knowledge to a specific example and then present the output of their group work to their colleagues.
    Finally, learners submit a project on one of the following topics at the end of the course (Range 5-7 standard pages plus a list of sources and references. The project is expected to have the requisites of a scholarly text, i.e., citation of sources according to proper standards, scholarly argumentation, statement of purpose, etc. It is also worth remembering that you are submitting a pitch, which should have certain elements if it is to be understood, coherent and get attention.):
  • design your own media platform
  • designing your own print newspaper
  • designing its own film festival
  • designing its own cinema
  • designing its own TV station (legacy media)
  • designing your own global streaming portal
    The assessed parts of the project will be published in the interactive course syllabus and will be commented on in the first class of the course.
    • Language of instruction
    Czech
    Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
    The course is taught annually.
    The course is taught: every week.
    Teacher's information
    Classes will not be held in contact form on April 25, 2024 - Reading Week. Students will be given the task of studying a selected text. The output will be a written response to several set questions related to the topic of the text.
    The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2020, Spring 2021, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2024.
    • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2025, recent)
    • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/fss/spring2025/ZURn6203