Social Work Ma: Media, Communication and Social Work: Global Challenges, 7,5 Credits
Please note that the literature can be changed/revised until:
• June 1 for a course that starts in the autumn semester
• November 15 for a course that starts in the spring semester
• April 1 for a course that starts in the summer
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Syllabus:
Socialt arbete AV, Medierna, kommunikation och socialt arbete: globala utmaningar, 7,5 hp
Social Work Ma: Media, Communication and Social Work: Global Challenges, 7,5 Credits
General data
- Code:SA031A
- Subject/Main field:Social Work
- Cycle:Second cycle
- Credits:7,5
- Progressive specialization:A1N - Second cycle, has only first-cycle course/s as entry requirements
- Education area:Samhällsvetenskap 100%
- Answerable faculty:Faculty of Human Sciences
- Answerable department:Psychology and Social Work
- Approved:2014-03-26
- Version valid from:2014-08-28
Aim
The aim of this course is to provide participants with an understanding of key issues in the emergent field social work, communication and media studies as a globalised field of work. The course will focus on the impact of meditation for the production of representations of established discourses of welfare, social problems, marginalisation and othering in local, national and global contexts. Further the course will critically discuss how digitalization and internet creates new forms of oppression and marginalisation and at the same time a potential medium for social movements, resistance and change. Particular interest is directed toward the global challenges for social work as a discipline and a profession to promote social justice and social change.
Course objectives
After completing this course the student is expected to:
- demonstrate their understanding of key theoretical issues about social work, communication and its global challenges
- demonstrate analytical ability to work with dimensions of power such as class, race, gender, sexuality etcetera in relation to representation of otherisation in a variety of media contexts
- identify and critically reflect on the production of discourses of social problems, welfare, marginalization and otherisation in established and new media contexts
- critically assess the utility of textual and visual methodologies for the study of social work, communication and media studies
-critically discuss consequences of media representation of social work, social workers, welfare and ‘client groups’.
Content
- To develop an understanding of social work, communication and the media focusing on its global challenges
- To examine the role of the mass media for the discursive production of marginalization, otherisation and inequality through dimensions of power such as class, race, gender and sexuality
- To identify and examine processes which reproduce established discourses of social problems, deviance and normalization in a variety of media contexts
- To critically examine portrayals of social work, social workers and for the profession important ‘client groups’ such as children, elderly, migrants, homeless and young people
- To achieve insights into the role of ‘new’ media and social work, both as a new arena for discrimination and exploitation of marginalized people and potentially empowering for social movements, resistance and change.
- To promote critical and creative textual and visual analytical methodological approaches and to discuss the agency and future role of social work to work for equal representations and promote social justice in globalised media context.
Entry requirements
Bachelor of Science with 90 credits GR (A, B, C) in a behavioural or social science main field of study or passed studies equivalent to 180 Credits in the social work programme, including 15 credits of independent work.
Selection rules and procedures
The selection process is in accordance with the Higher Education Ordinance and the local order of admission.
Examination form
0010: Examination, 7.5 Credits
Grade scale: Seven-grade scale, A, B, C, D, E, Fx and F. Fx and F represent fail levels.
The course is a distance web-based course examined through two obligatory assignments and the writing of a paper on a chosen topic of interest.
Grading system
Seven-grade scale, A, B, C, D, E, Fx and F. Fx and F represent fail levels.
Course reading
Required literature
- Author: Zugazaga C. B., Surette, R. B, Mendez, M, Otto, C. W. (2006)
- Article title: Social Worker Perceptions of the Portrayal of the Profession in the News and Entertainment Media: An exploratory Study
- Journal: Journal of Social Work Education
- Year/Volume/nr/pages: 2006, 42, 3, 621
- Author: Wright, Terence (2002)
- Article title: Moving images: The media representation of refugees
- Journal: Visual Studies
- Year/Volume/nr/pages: 17:1, 53-66
- Author: Warner, J (2013)
- Article title: ‘Heads Must Roll’? Emotional Politics, the Press and the Death of Baby P
- Journal: British Journal of Social Work
- Year/Volume/nr/pages: 1–17
- Author: Waitling, W and Rogers, J (2012)
- Title: Social Work in a Digital Society
- Publisher: London: Sage
- Author: Swärd H m fl. (2006) (Eds.)
- Title: Sociala problem och socialpolitik i massmedier. [Social problems and social policy in the mass media]
- Publisher: Lund: Studentlitteratur
- Author: Steyaert, J and Gould, N (2009)
- Article title: Social Work and the Changing Face of the Digital Divide
- Journal: British Journal of Social Work
- Year/Volume/nr/pages: (2009) 39, 740–753
- Author: Rane, H and Salem, S (2012)
- Article title: Social media, social movements and the diffusion of ideas in the Arab uprisings
- Journal: Journal of International Communication
- Year/Volume/nr/pages: 18:1, 97-111
- Author: Martinez-Brawley, Emilia E. and Estrella Gualda (2009)
- Article title: Portraying immigrants to the public: Mexican workers in the USA and African workers in Spain. Is there a role for social work?
- Journal: International Social Work
- Year/Volume/nr/pages: 52(3): 299–312
- Author: Livholts, Mona (2007)
- Title: “Vanlig som vatten”. Manlighet och normalitet i mediernas berättelser om våldtäkt
- Publisher: Malmö: Gleerups
- Author: Livholts M (2012)
- Title: Alkohol som alibi? Svenska mediers berättelser om våldtäkt i fallet “Hagamannen”. I Storbjörk (Ed.) Samhället, alkoholen, drogerna. Politik, konstruktioner, dilemman
- Publisher: Stockholms Universitetsförlag: Stockholm: 158-183
- Author: Kitzinger J (2000)
- Article title: Media Templates. Media templates: patterns of association and the (re)construction of meaning over time
- Journal: Media, Culture and Society
- Year/Volume/nr/pages: Vol. 22: 61-84
- Author: King, M., & Edmondson, D. (2013).
- Title: The language of loathe: social work debates in blogs, forums and websites. (forthcoming)
- Author: Kamali M (2012)
- Article title: Multiple modernities and mass communications in Muslim countries
- Journal: Global Media and Communication
- Year/Volume/nr/pages: 8(3) 243–268
- Author: Jönsson, J (2011)
- Title: Writing against Postcolonial Imaginations: The White Race for a Weakening Patriarchy. In Livholts M (Ed). Emergent Writing Methodologies in Feminist Studies
- Publisher: London and New York: Rouledge
- Author: Hinduja, S and Patchin, J W (2010)
- Article title: Bullying, cyberbullying and suicide
- Journal: Archives of Suicide Research
- Year/Volume/nr/pages: 14, 3: 206-21
- Author: Galilee, J. (2005)
- Title: 21st Century Social Work, Literature Review on Media Representations of Social Work and Social Workers
- Publisher: 21st Century Social Work Review Group: Scottish Executive
- Author: Freeman, M. L and Valentine, D. P. (2004)
- Article title: Through the Eyes of Hollywood: Images of Social Workers in Film
- Journal: Social Work
- Year/Volume/nr/pages: Volume 49, Number 2: 151-161.
- Author: Fagerström L & Nilson M (2008)
- Title: Genus, medier och masskultur. [Gender, media and mass culture]
- Publisher: Malmö: Gleerups
- Author: Cree, V. (2013)
- Title: Becoming a Social Worker: Global Narratives
- Publisher: Abingdon: Routledge
- Author: Cree, V. (2013)
- Title: Becoming a Social Worker: Global Narratives
- Publisher: Abingdon: Routledge
- Author: Carey, M., & Foster, M. (2012)
- Article title: Social work, ideology, discourse and the limits of hegemony
- Journal: Journal of Social Work
- Year/Volume/nr/pages: 2011, 1-22
- Author: Camauër L & Nohrstedt S-A (2006)
- Title: Mediernas Vi och Dom: Mediernas betydelse för den strukturella diskrimineringen. [Us and them in the media: the role of the media for structural discrimination]
- Publisher: Stockholm: Fritzes (SOU, 2006:21).
- Author: Bryant, L and Livholts, M (2013)
- Article title: Location and Unlocation: Examining Gender and Telephony through Autoethnographic Textual and Visual Methods
- Journal: International Journal of Qualitative Methods
- Year/Volume/nr/pages: 12: 403-419
- Author: Aldridge, M. (1994).
- Title: Making Social Work News
- Publisher: London: Routledge