This module aims to equip the student with a knowledge of the concepts and theories of communication and representation that pertain to “engagement” (of the public sphere and the public; of markets and consumer groups; of brand and new modes of global identity). The module will attend to theories of groups, classes and collectives and how they emerge and change through industrialisation and post-industrialisation, making institutionalised media and culture politically problematic – from dissent, protest, class-based representation to identity politics and the segmentation (through marketization) of society. The module will allow the student to grapple with the dilemmas of contemporary cultural globalisation. The module facilitates student teams drawing on a range of socio-historic theoretical frameworks in order to assess new communication strategies for pluralist, multicultural and global public of interest groups.

Learning Outcomes

• Understand the cultural and intellectual significance of social and economic theories in understanding culture and media.
• Actively relate theoretical or philosophical writings to the huge shifts in social and cultural life – transforming our conceptions of viewer and listener, audience and public, the people and citizens, interest groups and minorities.
• Grasp the key theoretical terminology that is critical analysis (from, for example, Habermas and Lyotard, to Hardt and Negri) and emerging global consensus on rights and equalities, commons and shared resources, information and education.
• Practice interpretative competencies that use scholarly discourse as material for creative communications strategy.
• Identify, and understand the need for, professional skills in collaboration, research, communication strategy, media application and delivery.

Indicative Bibliography

Appiah, K. A. (2006) Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers (London: Allen Lane)

Bignell, J. (2000) Postmodern media culture (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press)

Brown, S. (1993) "Postmodern Marketing?" (European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 27 Issue: 4, pp.19-34)

Calhoun, C. ed. (1992) Habermas and the Public Sphere (Cambridge, Mss.: MIT)

Güliz, G., Belk, R.W. (1996) ‘I'd like to buy the world a coke: Consumptionscapes of the “less affluent world’ (Journal of Consumer Policy, Volume 19, Issue 3, pp 271–304)

Hebdige, D. (1979) Subculture: The Meaning of Style (London and New York: Routledge)

Lury, C., Boden, D., Scott, L., (2007) Global Culture Industries (Cambridge: Polity Press)

McClelland, J. S. (1989) The Crowd and the Mob: From Plato to Canetti (New York and Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge)

Moscovici, S. (1985) The age of the crowd: a historical treatises on mass psychology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)

O'Reilly, D. ed. (2010) Marketing the Arts: A Fresh Approach (New York and Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge)

Shankar, A.,Cova, B., Kozinets, R. (2007) Consumer Tribes (New York and Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge)

Tomlinson, J. (1999) Globalisation and Culture (Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons)