Media & Social Transformation
Media & Social Transformation is a course that comprehensively explores the complex interplay between media and societal transformation, with a particular focus on the Global South. The course provides critical and practical perspectives, drawing from a wide range of interdisciplinary resources in media studies, journalism, contentious politics, international development, and cultural studies. This course helped form my understanding of the role of media in framing the debate around a wide range of topics such as social inequalities, revolts and social movements, micro-dynamics of change beyond the elites, the climate crisis, and racial justice. A huge part of this course that influenced me, especially when researching my project, was the understanding of how media can support (or hinder) social and political change using case studies from the Global South.
I gained an understanding of the diverse forms of media that exist beyond legacy media and how they can be used to challenge dominant media and political discourses and cultures. This knowledge has been invaluable in formulating my project on how media representation can create social integration for the Copts in Egypt, as it has given me a broader perspective on the role of media in societal transformation and the various ways in which media can be used to promote social change. This course has been instrumental in helping me develop a more nuanced understanding of the role of media in creating social change. I chose this picture because one of the primary discussions we held during this course was about how the Arab Spring was only possible due to media creating social mobilization, which is one of the many examples of how media can be utilized to create social change.