The tweets of US-President Donald Trump, the heated social media debate on Greta Thunberg and the many angles on migration stress the pivotal role of texts and images in our societies. This course teaches you the analytical skills to study the possible meanings of textual and visual media representations. Interactive lectures offer you concepts and methods to examine what combinations of words and/or visual elements mean in terms of a broader debate in society. These lectures further help you to understand how national identities and power relations affect the interpretations of media representations. Your individual assignment concerns a short paper, in which you apply a method to study one or two news articles, cartoons or social media posts. Specially for this Summer School, Dr. Leonhardt van Efferink developed a template that helps you to write a well-structured course paper. On top of this, he offers individual feedback in class and active personal tutoring by e-mail. Finally, his support includes a simple framework to develop focused, consistent and transparent research questions.
Course Duration and Dates
This is a two-week online course. The course will be scheduled in Central European Time [CET] so it is possible that some time slots are not ideal for people in certain time zones.
The number of credits earned after successfully concluding this course is the equivalent of 2 ECTS according to Maastricht University’s guidelines. For further information see the MSS terms and conditions.
Goals
1. Designing an analytical framework to study media representations with textual and/or visual elements (e.g. newspaper/magazine articles with photos, cartoons and social media posts).
2. Developing a research method that draws on critical discourse analysis, social semiotic analysis and/or news framing analysis, in line with your research objectives.
3. Explaining the role of the national and ideological contexts in which (social) media content is being produced.
4. Understanding the complexity of text-image relations and their role in meaning-making processes.
5. Producing a research design and dataset for your thesis or dissertation that is manageable.
Coordinator
Dr L.A.S. van Efferink
Dr. Leonhardt van Efferink has been an enthusiastic course leader at Maastricht Summer School since 2013. His courses always bring together students with many national backgrounds. He does not only enjoy teaching, but also moderating high-level discussions between his students. During his courses, he effectively raises skills levels by combining engaging classes with motivating e-mail tutoring.
Prerequisites
1. Strong motivation and good command of English are essential to get a pass for the course.
2. Basic knowledge of textual and visual analysis is recommended.
3. Aimed at Bachelor/Master/PhD students in Media Studies, Cultural Studies, Linguistics, Journalism, International Relations and Political Sciences. Moreover, various professionals and students with other backgrounds also successfully completed earlier editions of this course.
Suggested literature
Dr Leonhardt van Efferink has based this course on publications in various languages (see overview below for some examples). You are not required to do pre-course reading. However, if you would like to do so, you are advised to select one of the publications below. You can also contact Leonhardt for tailor-made reading advice.
Teaching methods
- Lectures
- Presentations
Assessment methods
- Attendance
- Final Paper
- Participation
- Presentation
For further information, please click the "LINK TO ORIGINAL" button below.