By the end of the course, students will be able to:
identify and situate the main actors, structures, and networks within a media system and the relationships that connect them;
explain the economic dynamics that structure the media and the issues associated with the status of information as a public good;
apply the concepts of socio-economic system, field, habitus, power, network society, informational capitalism, and platformization to the analysis of media phenomena;
analyze relations of power, interdependence, and negotiation among media organizations, platforms, public authorities, advertisers, and audiences;
place in perspective the transformations of the Belgian media ecosystem by situating them within the European and transnational dynamics of the digital age.
The course aims to provide students with the conceptual and analytical tools needed to understand media actors, structures, and networks in the digital age. More specifically, it aims to:
Contextualize media within a historically situated socio-economic, technical, and political system shaped by power relations;
Understand the economic and social dynamics that structure the production, financing, and circulation of information;
Analyze the transformations of media systems associated with globalization, informational capitalism, and platformization;
Develop a critical understanding of the power relations and interdependencies among media, economic, technological, and political actors at the Belgian, European, and transnational levels.
Throughout history, control over communication and information has constituted a fundamental source of power and counter-power. This course examines this relationship in the digital age, at a time when media, technologies, and communication networks play an increasingly important role in the organization of contemporary societies.
The media are approached as a socio-economic, technical, and political system, made up of interdependent actors, structures, and networks whose development is shaped by technological, economic, and political transformations. Drawing on the Belgian media ecosystem and its evolution since the twentieth century, the course examines media ownership and concentration, economic models, and the conditions under which information is produced and circulated. The concept of information as a public good provides a particularly useful framework for exploring the tensions between its social value and its market value.
This analysis draws on a sociology of power and media actors. Bourdieu’s concepts of field and habitus help shed light on the positions and practices of different actors, while Manuel Castells’s work provides a framework for analysing power in a network society, where control over flows of communication and information becomes a key resource. This perspective extends the course to transformations of the media system in the digital age, including globalization, informational capitalism, and platformization. It examines emerging relations of power and dependency among media organizations, platforms, public authorities, advertisers, and audiences, connecting developments at the Belgian, European, and international levels.
Assessment (for both examination sessions) is based on two complementary components:
an individual project completed independently as part of the 15 hours of coursework. The project is not graded, but serves as a learning process and preparation for the examination ;
an individual written examination, with no access to the project materials or digital tools, which assesses students’ mastery of the course content and concepts, as well as their ability to apply them in an analysis. Part of the examination will focus on the individual project completed independently.
Students’ individual mastery of the case study and their ability to apply the course concepts independently are therefore assessed primarily through the examination.
| Training | Study programme | Block | Credits | Mandatory |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bachelor in Information and Communication | Standard | 2 | 5 | Yes |
| Bachelor in Law | Standard | 2 | 3 | No |
| Bachelor in Law | Erasmus Belgica UHasselt | 2 | 3 | No |
| Bachelor in Law | Standard | 3 | 3 | No |