Lecturers:

Assoc. Prof. Iassen Zahariev, PhD

Course Description:

Competencies:

1) know:

• Main theories explaining the nature of communication.

• Contemporary problems related to media studies

• Different approaches in understanding the public sphere.

2) can:

• Apply various theories and concepts.

• Analyse different media issues.

• Contextualize contemporary social problems and their connection with the publicity.

Prerequisites:
None

Types:
Full-time Programmes

Types of Courses:
Lecture

Language of teaching:
English

Topics:

1. The problem of communication in philosophy
2. The history of the concept of communication
3. The idea of communication in Phaedrus
4. John Locke’s account of the “transportation of ideas”
5. The birth of mass media
6. What is “public sphere”
7. Social structures in the public sphere
8. Dialectic of the public sphere
9. Media and ideology
10. Infiltration of the public and private spheres
11. The public opinion
12. Mass culture and its critics
13. Manipulation, propaganda and advertising.
14. The cultural industry
15. Media and consumer’s society

Bibliography:

Adorno, Theodor and Horkheimer Max. Dialectic of Enlightenment

Cover, Rob. Digital Identities. Creating and Communicating the Online Self

Habermas, Jurgen. The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere

Le Bon, Gustave. The Crowd. A study of popular mind

McLuhan, Marshal. Understanding media: The extensions of man

Morris-Suzuki, Tessa. The past within us: media, memory, history.

Parry, Roger. The ascent of media: from Gilgamesh to Google via Gutenberg

Peters, John Durham. Speaking into the Air: A History of the Idea of Communication

Peters, John Durham. The Marvelous Clouds: Toward a Philosophy of Elemental Media

Taylor, Charles. Sources of the self: the making of the modern identity.

Assessment:

Mid-semester exams:

1. Analysis;

2. Annotation;

End-semester exam:

1. Presentation;

2. Discussion.