By Aznan Mat Piah
Contemporary Issues in Mass Communication is an interesting subject that opens up students mind into examining current issues, whether on domestic front or at the international scene, by relating to concepts and principles of mass communication.
The subject is normally offered to students at levels 3 and 4. Students who intend to take up this subject should have a basic understanding of communication concepts and principles and must have done the prerequisites in their respective specialisation.
That is why students on level 2 are not encouraged to sign up for the subject. This is because without sufficient knowledge of mass communication theories and practices and a critical mind for understanding of contemporary issues, students would not be able to carry through or do well in the subject.
On the whole, the subject is designed to equip students with current knowledge of the working of the mass media and an understanding of communication process and theories and practices of communication in relations to topics like concentration of ownership and conglomeration, power game, media literacy and audience response to the changes in media landscape.
The subject is pretty wide and extensive and students are required to have a good grasp and a fairly broad understanding of current issues and how the mass media report and interpret issues from different perspectives. And this could only be achieved if students are prepared to do extra reading and involved in serious reading, analysis and discussion on various issues related to the course.
I do not agree that students should learn the subject like ‘parrots’ by trying to memorise the topics or by vomiting out raw facts given to them in the notes delivered during lectures, without articulating their views on the subject. They would not be learning anything much if they choose the easy way out.
What I have done when teaching the course is to provoke the students into thinking ‘out of the box’ on topics or issues being examined so that they would be able to apply the knowledge intelligently when they leave the university to join the industry.
To make the subject more lively and interesting, students are engaged in discussions to critique issues and critically analyse media contents and relate to media ownership and concepts like ideology, hegemony, power and domination, press freedom, cultural imperialism, democracy and globalisation. Apart from that, they have to examine the use of language and words of high-level abstraction by the mass media in influencing audiences’ perception.
Another related topic is the new technology, particularly the Internet which has brought changes to the media landscape, and how traditional media need to reconsider their position in terms of message, content, style and approach so as to remain relevant, in meeting the demand of the educated and sophisticated audiences which have become increasingly fragmented. And related to this subject are the new media and the questions of overlapping roles of content providers and content consumers. They also need to examine issues of media convergence and its consequences.
On completing the subject students should be able to see things in clear perspective, in an unbiased way, and having the big picture and the awareness of intricacies and complexities involved in the media industry and communication as a whole.
With such knowledge graduates in communication would be able to adapt and position themselves well in the industry.
Even though the subject may appear simplistic, I still find some students lacking in their ability to comprehend the principles and concepts or to see things beyond textbooks and notes. Students should be able to differentiate the implicit from the explicit or to see the hidden meaning or agenda behind issues that they examine.
Students taking up this subject should display a higher level of maturity, a critical or an analytical mind, and an ability to look at situations in a broader perspective, rationally and intelligently.
Photo taken from What Shall I Believe