User:Krodg093/Media studies

Origin: Former priest and American educator, John Culkin, was one of the earliest advocates for the implementation of media studies curriculum in schools. He believed students ought to be capable of scrutinising mass media, and valued the application of modern communication techniques within the education system.

Culkin was also responsible for bringing his colleague, and fellow media scholar, Marshall McLuhan to Fordham University, and subsequently founding the Center for Understanding Media, which became the New School program. Both educators are recognized as pioneers in the discipline, and credited with paving the way for media studies curriculum within the education system.

Nine Dutch universities collaborate in the overarching Netherlands Research school for Media Studies (RMeS), which acts as a platform for graduate students in media research to build connections within the discipline and to represent Dutch media scholars on an international level.

Add to Canada: Western University later followed suit, establishing The Faculty of Information and Media Studies. Carleton also expanded upon its school of journalism, introducing the mass communication and media studies program in 1978.

University of Toronto professor, Harold Innis, was recognised for his study of Canadian economic, political and cultural history, as well as his contributions to communication and media studies. As the first medium theorist, Innis examined different media of communication overtime, and the influence these had on a societies’ developpement. His theory of media bias explains that a medium will be biassed towards either space or time. Media in favour of time utilise durable materials such as clay, stone or parchment, whereas media in favour of space are lighter more transferable materials like paper. Innis explained that space-biassed media permitted civilizations to move more quickly across vast areas, thus benefiting the expansion of sectors like trade, meanwhile time-biassed media were heavier and harder to relocate, meaning the message was kept centralised. He connects his division of biases to the function of political powers; claiming space-biassed media widen the reach of an empire’s influence, whilst time-biassed media contain the power within the control of the empire. Innis stated that to maintain their influence, political and economic forces must overcome media-bias, and assert a balance of these centralised and decentralised powers.

Add to France: Numerous French post-secondary institutions offer courses in communications and media studies, both at the undergraduate and graduate level. Media and communication programs at ESCP Business School, Paris Institute of Political Studies and Grenoble Alpes University , center around the study of journalism and other multimedia content, teaching media creation and management strategies.

Bourdieu is also remembered in the discipline for his theory of the habitus. In his written work Outline of a Theory of Practice (Bourdieu 1977), Bourdieu claims an audiences’ preference in media is shaped by their social context. How an individual interprets and engages with their surroundings, or their habitus, is the lasting and transferable elements of character which structures their consumer preferences. Bourdieu explains that though durable, the habitus is not set in stone, it instead acts as a “strategy-generating principle” allowing individuals to navigate new and unfamiliar situations.

Add to Switzerland: These Swiss programs study current trends and strategies used by media corporations, while examining their influence and consequences on modern day society.