Chinese Society – China and Media (5 cr)

Evaluation scale

H-5

Objective

After completion of the course the student is able to - describe the central role of media in Chinese politics, economy and society - explain how media-control machine of the Party function - explicate culturally subtle tactics how netizens attempt to voice their sarcasm and even politically dissent voices within the most efficient online control machine of the world - dissect means and content of the ongoing “Corona-virus media-war” (propaganda) both within China and globally - identify how China is conducting global corona disinformation campaign / war.

Methods of completion

Teaching profile: ONLINE 1. This course is mainly a self-study course, that combines weekly short online lectures, online quiz-exams. The method and evaluation will be explained in detail during the first lecture.

Methods of completion

Course evaluation is based on online exercises / online quiz-questionnaires.

Content

The Chinese Society – China and Media course offers students insight into the important role of media, social media, emerging new ways of interacting in daily life and the role of censorship in the Chinese society. The course illustrates how media and social media in particular are changing society, reflect social and popular issues, and how the partisan voices are circumventing the censorship machine, and how innovative interplay of language and expressions are utilized in this cat and mouse game with netizens’ desire to express sensitive issues. We will also focus on the world-shaking Corona virus media discussion and how Beijing is carrying out both domestic and global media and information war on the virus. The internet, online wholesaling, games and social media in general have become an inseparable part of Chinese people’s daily life. This revolutionary development has been paralleled with the rise of global media giants; companies such as Baidu, Tencent and Alibaba and number of other Chinese high-tech companies and restricting Western internet companies, such as Google and YouTube, to operate in China. The course also introduces these global leading companies, their role, strategies and intriguing relationship with the Party and its censorship machine in China.

Materials

The study material of the course consists of lecture teaching, online videos, articles, book chapters and documentaries that will be delivered to students during the course.

Teaching methods

Teaching is self-study course based on reading material that will be published on Moodle. There is also a possibility for students to meet on weekly basis with the lecturer. The meeting will take place in classroom.