Dr. Emma L Briant🐕🇬🇧in🇦🇺
News Media, Power and Propaganda (Intermediate)
<p>Between 2016 and 2024, according to Pew, public trust in journalism plummeted - as accusations of 'fake news' and bias in traditional media spread, social media's algorithms sent viral partisan memes and conspiracy theories worldwide. Journalism is fundamental to a healthy democracy. Yet, even in democracies, news is a business and there can be powerful companies, advertisers and wealthy individuals behind the scenes... </p><p>How do we understand the relationship between powerful actors (governments, corporations, politicians, wealthy elites) and the media we consume?</p><p>When does political news become propaganda or disinformation? </p><p>How do we identify journalism we can trust? </p><p>How do 'media biases' occur and <em>when </em>and <em>how </em>might they pose a problem? </p><p>What do we need to know, to evaluate the reliability of media we consume? </p><p>How can we understand persuasion and avoid being drawn to the disinformation threats lurking everywhere that seek to manipulate us? </p><p>If these questions interest you, this course is designed for you. The course is aims to reach those wanting to understand more about the media's role in democracy, its incentives, strengths and weaknesses, its relationship to propaganda and power, key history and global comparisons, and how to recognize the tactics of deliberate manipulation and deception. It will also put this in the context of new techniques and technologies and solutions proposed for tackling propaganda in the democratic process. By the end of the course, you will be better equipped to recognise propaganda, understand its relationship to journalism, 'media bias', and different media and political systems. You will feel more confident with the language used to discuss these issues in the media and political debates, and will understand some of the important history, theories and concepts. You will understand some of the proposed solutions and will be better equipped to navigate a contested media space where deliberately misleading content lurks. </p><p>The course will be taught through a series of video and text lectures, with accompanying quizzes and scenario based tests. The lectures will start by introducing the basics to help you understand media, power, the political economy of news and language, bias and representation, before introducing propaganda and censorship, and how audiences respond to the media they consume. The course will illuminate some of the classic and contemporary theories, technologies and important histories as you acquire an understanding of key issues, techniques and practices. Finally we will consider some key solutions which have been proposed to help media, journalism, and social media to strengthen democratic systems in the light of these important challenges. I hope you enjoy the course and choose to check out my website for more information.</p>
