Macs410 Media Ethics

This body of knowledge is appropriate for my minor because the following rationale:
- The course MACS410 “Media Ethics” provided an overview of the main ethical problems regarding the intensive use of technologies in the contemporary media landscape, considering not only journalism but the media in general, and avoiding a technological determinism to analyze the phenomenon. This course is helpful to understand the “behind the scenes” of the political economy of technology in the media, its historical, political, and economical fundamental nature, and its implications regarding citizenship and social responsibility in a democratic society. The readings and documentaries reviewed, as well the projects and the discussion through the seminar focused …show more content…
In the first advanced seminar MDIA590 we discussed classic frames of journalism theory (like news making, gatekeeping, agenda-setting, framing, ethics, and freedom of information), as well as current research frontiers (as field theory or mediatization, for instance). The course allowed me to develop a comprehensive literature review on journalism studies and specially on the field theory (Benson & Neveu, 2005; Bourdieu, 1993). Indeed, my final project’s aim was to outline a proposal to explore and analyze Chilean investigative journalism in the post-dictatorship period (1990-2015) in the light of Bourdieu’s contribution to media studies. Specifically, the Bourdieu’s concepts of the journalistic field, the habitus, and the idea of capital were explored as a fruitful frame to understand the Chilean investigative journalism as a case study. This has been fundamental in the afterwards because I enlarged the critical readings on this frame as a participant of the reading group "The World Before Us: Lectures in Critical Contemporary Cultural Studies, Spring 2016”, hosted by the College of Education, and guided by Professor Cameron McCarthy. These both previous intellectual enrichments provided the groundwork for a pre-dissertation fieldwork in Santiago de Chile during June, 2016, funded …show more content…
Through the course we examined different approaches to what memory means, how has been embedded in different cultural production, and we explore several manifestations, like family memory, memory through institutions, or cultural memory. We analyze different artifacts, such as memoirs, photography, or digital memory. Precisely due to its interdisciplinary perspective, each participant was able to develop his or her own final project. Therefore, considering journalists as one of the professionals engaged in making collective and symbolic public meaning, particularly through media performance, I grasped in this particular role of journalism problematizing both theoretical and methodological challenges that come from studying professional roles, perceptions, and journalists as key sources in making-meaning. Specifically, I drafted on three main problems 1) Problematizing the narratives’ journalists about the past; 2) Inquiring in practical issues related to approaches and strategies to address that problem; and 3) Linking journalists’ memories and narratives to a larger context. Through both personal and professional experiences and a literature review on the topic, my final essay explored the role of journalists as key informants to build up narratives about the history of journalism and media, which is a key goal in my further