Media Representations (261188)

Learning Outcomes

In the representation of the media to citizens there are a whole series of mistakes, created images that do not correspond to reality. 
We have the media as they are, in reality we have the media as they want that they see themselves, as they want us to perceive them; and we have an imaginary of media created by citizens, imaginary resulting from the traits that the media disclose, and by which they like to be recognized. 
The perversity here lies in the fact that the media move in their own cause. 
A citizen, a politician, a mayor, a businessman needs to resort to media to pass on a certain image of you. 
The media play at home – they have the necessary instruments and almost always enough to promote themselves. 
Naturally, we cannot expect the media to reveal their rotten, to emphasize their flaws. 
For this reason, the legislator provides the rule of law with norms that oblige the media to correct errors, to reduce misrepresentations – in the case of the right of reply, as well as the criminal proceedings for the defense of the good name, reacting against the defamation, for example. And also civil proceedings, to repair materially offends committed by the media. 
What the media do is emphasize means, qualities, prerogatives that many times they don't have it or they don't have it. 
But there is also the reverse side of the coin, which goes through the demonization of the media, considering them the origin of almost all the evils from which society suffers today. 
It is important to be attentive, not allowing ourselves to embark on one side or by the other. 
It is in this confluence of distorted representations that this discipline finds its reason for being: to provide students with the necessary knowledge, offer them enough clues for them to perceive the media as they are, and not how anyone wants citizens to see them. 
This curricular unit has, therefore, as a central objective to lead students to decode/deconstruct the most common representations referring to the media and to journalists.

Study Program

1A. IMAGES OF THE WORLD
-    Cartography as a tool to better understand the world.
-    Cartographic representations as cultural representations.
-    The world known in a different way, mainly through the media. Scratchs inherent in this inevitability and the importance of media education.
-    The construction of the image of countries and peoples through their image given by the media, namely television.
1B. STEREOTYPED IMAGES OF THE WORLD
-    The strength of stereotypes in the image of nations.
-    Europe
-    Brazil
-    Other countries
2A. THE MEDIA AND ITS EFFECTS
-    Hypodermic theory, two step flow of communication, limited effects, uses and bonuses, agenda-setting.
2B. THE MEDIA AND THEIR REPRESENTATIONS
-    From effective powers to powers attributed to the media
-    Media: the machine emphasized
-    Media: the machine weakened by a vast array of constraints
-    Apocalyptic vision of how the media works
-    Integrated view of how the media works
-    The option for a “skeptical optimism” of the functioning of the media
-    From journalist/star to journalist in “state of need”
-    Importance of media education
3. MADE IDEAS, MADE PRACTICES, IDEAS THAT FALL OUT, PRACTICES MAYBE NOT
-    Self-media, micro-media and social networks as vehicles of various hoaxes.
-    Case study on the “image of countries”, through street surveys performed by students.

Bibliography

MAIN REFERENCES: 

ALVES, Dinis Manuel. “DA MÁQUINA ENFATIZADA À MÁQUINA CONSTRANGIDA – Mal Dita Televisão”. Mar da Palavra, Coimbra, 2011. (o docente ofereceu o livro à Biblioteca do ISMT)
ALVES, Dinis Manuel. “TERCEIRO MUNDO EM NOTÍCIAS – Em directo do inferno”, Mar da Palavra, Coimbra, Fevereiro 2010, (available at ISMT Library).
ALVES, Dinis Manuel. "Promoções, Silêncios e Desvirtuações na TV – A INFORMAÇÃO AO SERVIÇO DA ESTAÇÃO", Mar da Palavra, Coimbra, Fevereiro 2010, (available at ISMT Library).
ALVES, Dinis Manuel. "Mimetismos e determinação da agenda noticiosa televisiva - A AGENDA-MONTRA DE OUTRAS AGENDAS". Mar da Palavra, Coimbra, Outubro de 2013.
Orig. tese dout. em Ciências da Comunicação (Discurso dos Media), Fac. de Letras, Univ. de Coimbra, 2005.
Link persistente: http://id.bnportugal.gov.pt/bib/bibnacional/1855407 (available at ISMT Library).