| CODE | MCS5010 | |||||||||
| TITLE | Communications Theory | |||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 05 - Postgraduate Modular Diploma or Degree Course | |||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 7 | |||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 5 | |||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Media and Communications | |||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | Flows of communication exchanges necessitate an underlying structure of worth and equivalence, an economic and technological infrastructure. This was true of the earliest forms of societal exchanges and remains valid in contemporary flows of communication such as traditional mass and social media. Although the formal study of communication as a field started in the early 1900s, its earlier precursors paved our understandings of what is required to create a communicative society. Early models in formal communication studies established key heuristics around which different earlier and current theories eventually developed. Thus a number of schools focused on the source, receiver and message respectively, while others have taken the communicative ability of the human person as the justification of the public sphere. The unit overviews the development of communication theory since the Enlightenment emphasizing the modern continental and US approaches to the study of the role of communications in society. The unit intends to equip participants with an ability to analyze contemporary communication settings allowing them to position themselves within the field’s conceptual framework. Study-Unit Aims: Students are able to: 1. Name the main schools of formal communication scholarship and discuss their impact; 2. Discuss how communication is a development within a contextual social and technological build up of hard and soft technologies; 3. Compare and contrast continental and American thinking in structuring communication problems; 4. Identify different theoretical approaches to understanding communication structures; 5. Analyze various contemporary communication situations: relate them to past developments and assess their future potential; 6. Develop criteria (social, economic, functional, technological) and assess different communication developments on the basis of these set criteria. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: 1. List pre-requirements for communication transactions; 2. Name key components of communication transactions; 3. Identify different traditions within the field of Communication Studies; 4. Identify key scholars associated with each tradition (including their basic tenets); 5. Point out the differences among the different traditions; 6. Argue the strengths and weakness of each tradition; 7. Point out the types of research questions that each tradition can tackle; 8. Project the different traditions to current communication issues. 2. Skills: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: 1. Analyze current theoretical positions in light of their predecessor contexts; 2. Evaluate different theoretical approaches as valid contenders for specific research questions. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Main Texts: - Baran, S.J., & Davis, D.K. (2012). Mass communication theory: Foundations, ferment, and future (6th ed.). International edition. UK: Cencage. - Bryant, J., & Oliver, M.B. (2009). Media effects: Advances in theory and research (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge. - Craig, R.T., & Muller, H.L. (Eds.). (2007). Theorizing communication: Readings across traditions. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. - Griffin, E. (2006). A first look at communication theory. (6th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill. - Katz, E., Peters, J. D., Liebes, T., & Orloff, A. (Eds.). (2003). Canonic texts in media research: Are there any? Should there be? How about these? Cambridge, UK: Polity. - Mattelart, A. (1996). The invention of communication. (Trans. Susan Emanuel). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. - McNeely, I. F. (with Wolverton, L.). (2008). Reinventing knowledge: From Alexandria to the Internet. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company. - McQuail, D. (2010). McQuail’s mass communication theory (6th ed.). London, UK: Sage. - Poe, M.T. (2011). A history of communications: Media and society from the evolution of speech to the Internet. Cambridge, NY: Cambridge University Press. - Severin, W.J., & Tankard, J.W. Jr. (1988). Communication theories: Origins, methods, uses. (2nd ed.). White Plains, NY: Longman Inc. - Turkle, S. (2015). Reclaiming conversation: The power of talk in a digital age. New York, NY: Penguin Press. - Turkle, S. (2011). Alone together: Why we expect more from technology and less from each other. New York, NY: Basic Books. - Winston, B. (2005). Messages: Free expression, media and the West from Gutenberg to Google. Oxon, UK: Routledge. |
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| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture and Seminar | |||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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| LECTURER/S | Saviour Chircop |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2025/6. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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