HIS6792 - History and Media: Reporting Crisis

Objectives:

On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:

(1) investigate a specific current event and its historical context through contemporary documents; reportage in newspapers and in other media including television and webpages.
(2) demonstrate an understanding of the role of the media in commenting on historical crisis.
(3) assess and critically analyse the deployment of competing reporting and commentary of these events by international organizations, reporters and other forms of communication media.
(4) write up a sustained piece of research, including necessary supporting academic apparatus.

Content:

During the first semester the entire group of students will investigate the causes and events of a specific crisis in recent history. For instance the war and NATO intervention in Kosovo during 1999 might be investigated through a consideration of contemporary newspaper and television reports; the websites of key international organizations and the subsequent publications of journalists. These sources will be used to consider the competing interpretation of the crisis and its causes. This will include a questioning of the morality of NATO and of Western actions, a factor that is clearly seen in recent secondary publications. Consideration will also be made of attempts to promote reconciliation in Former Yugoslavia (and more widely).

In semester two students will work in small groups employing the approaches and methodologies established during semester one in a smaller case study concerning specific events in current events. Students will be given a precise questions/area/event to explore and test along with full references to specific documents; websites; videos and secondary reading which they will need to refer to in order to investigate that event.

Learning and Teaching Information:

Lectures – 12 hours. These will explore the contact of the particular subject under review and consider the various methodologies that might be employed to explore these. Film/documentary content will be included.

Workshops – 18 hours.

Lectures
Contact hours 12
Number of groups 1

Workshops
Contact hours 18
Number of groups 2

Tutorials
Contact hours 2

Assessment: