END512: Understanding Media: the Message

Aim of this module is to guide the students to comprehend how the concept of the "message" is part of the wider functioning of a society. At the same time, this module offers a robust theoretical framework to test the correctness of his/her personal subjective theories regarding the Media and the necessary skills and different approaches. Thus, the student will be able to comprehend the advances of specialized technical and professional skills in journalism and applied communication in the second year of studies, but also to understand the concept of "active citizen" in media literacy. In addition this module has a strong methodological orientation, providing students with the fundamental qualitative and quantitative tools to proceed with their dissertation, with the ambition that students that complete END511 and END512 will have a sound knowledge of the crucial parts of a dissertation or any research project: The process of writing a solid literature review, the formulation of research questions or hypotheses, the methodological tools, and the results.

This module functions as a bridge between the scientific knowledge offered by ENΔ511 and ΕΝΔ521 and the development of in-depth knowledge in the fields of applied communication, journalism and media literacy. This bridging is accomplished by studying the "message", the ways it is constructed, where it aims at and which mechanisms it activates.

Students familiarize themselves with basic tools that are necessary to approach the scientific texts in which knowledge about the function of the "message" is encoded, as it comes from the wider area of ​​Communication and Journalism, having as an interpretative "compass" the notion of the "active citizen" and the need of media literacy.

With the use of printed and electronic material, new media and social networking, in the Module offered in the 1st year of study the following subjects are developed:

1. Introduction to Research methodology. Instrumentalization of theories and interpretation of results

2. Technology and Society. Technological determinism and sociocentric approaches

3. Decision Making: Political behavior as a process

4. Exploring “Public Discourse”. Content, Classification and Interpretation

5. Understanding the “Other”. The notion of Ethnocentrism

The Module focuses on the:

• Basic methodological and research methods, qualitative and quantitative, enhancing critical thinking
• Interpretation of research findings and their alternative encodings.
• Evolution of the Media and the interaction between media and Society.
• Effect of the "message" on the decision-making processes
• Exploration of the qualities of a message, subject to persuasion
• Understanding of the term "active citizen" and its qualities and skills
• Critical evaluation of research findings in the media
• Understanding of the mechanisms that create a "demonized otherness" in terms of identity