Globalized World, Globalized Problems? Creative Proposals From Public Service Television Worldwide

WEEK 1
Session 1: Introduction to the course contents, methodologies and form of evaluation. Global world, global problems? The resisting realities.
Session 2: Public Service TV around the world. What does “public” mean? from ownership to the debate about contents. Mixed models. European perspective on Public Service TV.
READINGS :
Grummell, B. (2009): The educational character of públic service broadcasting. From cultural enrichment to knowledge society. European Journal of Communication. Vol 24 (3): 267-285
Kupe, T. (2013): Globalization from my African corner. Media, Culture & Society. 35 (1) 139- 146.cVVAA (2020): The future of public service broadcasting: grim or bright? Eurpean Journal of Communication. Vol. 35 (1), 65-70.
WEEK 2:
Session 1: The public sphere. Contemporary functions of public service TV.
Session 2: The INPUT conferences and the INPUT archive. Media Literacy. What templates for a media literacy account?
READING:
Rasmussen, T. (2013): Internet-based media, Europe and the political public sphere. Media, Culture and Society 35 (1) 97-104.
WEEK 3:
Session 1: A political perspective on TV realism. Television professional practices, topics and terminology. Television genres, audiences and preferences, a political question?
Session 2: The debates around Quality Television. Quality of what? Quality for who? Creativity on television. How can we evaluate creativity?
READING:
Ejbye Sorensen, I.: (2014): Channels as content curators: multiplatform strategies for documentary film and factual content in Bristish públic service broadcasting. European Journal of Communication. Vol 29 (1) 34-49. Ellis, J. (2000): Scheduling: the last creative act in television?. Media, Culture & Society. Vol.22:
25-38
WEEK 4:
Session 1: On democracy project. What is participative democracy? Any limits for democracy? any limits for participative democracy?. Is democracy the same around the world?
Session 2: Comparing public tv perspectives around democracy: China, USA, Italy, Russia,
Congo and Cuba.
READING:
Bailey, R. (2018): When journalism and satire merge: the implications for impartiality, engagement and “post-truth” polítics- A UK perspective on the serious side of US TV comedy. European Journal of Communicatyion. Vol. 33 (2), 200-213
WEEK 5:
Session 1 and Session 2: On race.
Racism has historically taken different forms, and has been socially expressed in different areas, such as education, traditions, family, religion or gender. We will be discussing programs from contexts with very different stories and practices around racism such as USA, Sweden, the Netherlands or South Africa.
READING:
Jacobs, L., Meeusen, C. and d’Haens, L. (2016): News coverage and attitudes on immigration: públic and commercial television news compared. European Journal of Communication. Vol.31 (6) 642-660
WEEK 6:
Session 1 and Session 2: On gender. (1): Women and feminism
All around the world the situation of women is still something to place in the political and social debate. Even if human rights establish a clear (normative)position and globalization sets its own standards, local traditions still play a major role. 
Consequently, being a woman is conceptualized differently in different parts of the world: rights and duties are different as well as social expectations. What is the role of public service television dealing with this? what kind of women narratives and representations are offered to the viewers? Should they privilege a specific kind of representations?
We will be discussing the cases of South Korea, the UK, India and Mauritania and critically discuss the different positions adopted by public broadcasters.
WEEK 7: On gender (2). The “normalized” body.
Session 1 and session 2: Body stereotypes and the “body perfect”, beyond the aesthetics industry. Health and psychological disorders as a topic of public service television. The historically association of gender with sex. The historical association of a perfect body with power. Beauty and Power. Where is the line between individual choices and the increasing social pressures on our bodies? How have different tv channels around the world dealt with it?
WEEK 8: On social class
Session 1 and Session 2: Is there a place on Western television to talk about class? is it a politicized concept? The politically correct language about class denies its importance, though the differences persist. Is there a role for public tv channels to provoke a debate about it? Different tv channels have dared to focus on the question of class and economic differences using creative formats to engage the audience.
READING:
Jakobsson, F. & Stiernstedt (2018): Voice, silence and social class on television. European Journal of Communication. Vol.33 (5) 522-539
WEEK 9: Difficult topics.
Session 1 and Session 2: Every society has its own taboos and its own difficult topics and Western societies share some of these taboos, specially concerning the question of religion, death, drugs and sex. To find the way is always the goal of public tv channels to raise the interest and the engagement of viewers. The comparison between proposals from the Netherlands, Japan, Belgium or Spain.