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Latest Module Specifications

Current Academic Year 2025 - 2026

Module Title Race & the Media
Module Code MCO1036 (ITS: CM391)
Faculty Humanities & Social Sciences School Communications
NFQ level 8 Credit Rating 5
Description

This module applies a multidisciplinary perspective to the topic of race and the media. The objective is to engage with theoretical, conceptual and sociopolitical debates and scholarship in the area. Emphasis will be on contextualising such literature through the examination and discussion of contemporary realities and events. Specifically, the module will focus on understanding how race and ethnicity are ‘mediated’ and the impacts of racialised representations on audiences. We explore the role played by the media in contemporary understandings of race and racism in a global context, as well as considering how minority racial identities have been empowered and disempowered as a result of the media industries. The course is interdisciplinary in nature and the lectures will draw on relevant sociological and anthropological literature in addition to communications and cultural studies approaches.

Learning Outcomes

1. Demonstrate an understanding of key theoretical approaches and debates in the area of race and the media
2. Understand how race is ‘mediated’
3. Apply concepts to contemporary realities and events
4. Identify the main ways in which minority racial identities have responded to racist media representations
5. Articulate the range of racially diverse media content


WorkloadFull time hours per semester
TypeHoursDescription
Lecture22No Description
Independent Study60Research and reading
Assignment Completion43Assignment: planning, research, completion
Total Workload: 125
Section Breakdown
CRN20690Part of TermSemester 2
Coursework100%Examination Weight0%
Grade Scale40PASSPass Both ElementsN
Resit CategoryRC1Best MarkN
Module Co-ordinatorAileen O'DriscollModule TeacherAngelos G. Bollas, Jim Rogers
Assessment Breakdown
TypeDescription% of totalAssessment Date
AssignmentIndividual/ solo assignment/s100%As required
Reassessment Requirement Type
Resit arrangements are explained by the following categories;
RC1: A resit is available for both* components of the module.
RC2: No resit is available for a 100% coursework module.
RC3: No resit is available for the coursework component where there is a coursework and summative examination element.

* ‘Both’ is used in the context of the module having a coursework/summative examination split; where the module is 100% coursework, there will also be a resit of the assessment

Pre-requisite None
Co-requisite None
Compatibles None
Incompatibles None

All module information is indicative and subject to change. For further information,students are advised to refer to the University's Marks and Standards and Programme Specific Regulations at: http://www.dcu.ie/registry/examinations/index.shtml

Indicative Content and Learning Activities

Conceptualising race and defining racism
Understanding issues of ‘difference’ and diversity in the context of nations and nationalism

Creating/ producing race in the media
Political economy; media plurality; The role of Public Service Broadcasting

Representations of race in the media
Understanding ‘regimes of representation’; Considering issues of ‘authenticity’ and ‘appropriation’; Race in the news media

Viewership and interpretation
Audience theories and reader positions; how is race ‘read’ and received through media; responses to racist/ unrepresentative media: how do audiences/ publics empower themselves

Ireland, race and the media
Considering race and racism in contemporary Ireland; how representative is the Irish media landscape?

Indicative Reading List

Books:
  • Rodman, Gilbert B. (ed): 2014, The Race and Media Reader, Routledge,
  • Jacobs, Ronald N.: 2000, Race, media, and the crisis of civil society: from Watts to Rodney King, Cambridge University Press,
  • Downing, John and Husband, Charles: 2005, Representing 'race': racisms, ethnicities and media, Thousand Oaks,
  • Saha, Anamik: 2017, Race and the Cultural Industries, Cambridge: Polity Press,
  • Law, Ian: 2001, Race in the news, Palgrave,
  • Cottle, S. (ed): 2000, Ethnic Minorities and the Media: Changing Cultural Boundaries, Open University Press,
  • Siapera, Eugenia: 2010, Cultural diversity and global media: the mediation of difference, Wiley-Blackwell,
  • Bauman, Zygmunt: 1990, Thinking Sociologically, Blackwell, Oxford,
  • Hall, Stuart: 1992, Modernity and Its Futures, Open University Press,
  • Belton, Brian: 2005, Gypsy and Traveller Ethnicity,
  • Cronin, M. and O'Connor, B. (eds): 2003, Irish Tourism: Image, Culture and Identity, Channel View Publications,
  • Urry, John: 1990, The Tourist Gaze: Leisure and Travel in Contemporary Societies, Sage, London,
  • Anderson, B.: 1983, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism,
  • Naficy, Hamid: 1993, The Making of Exile Cultures:Iranian Television in Los Angeles, University of Minnesota Press,
  • Vertovec, S and Cohen, R.: 2002, Conceiving Cosmopolitanism: Theory, Context and Practice.,


Articles:
None
Other Resources

None

<< Back to Module List View 2024/25 Module Record for MCO1036