International Master Programme in Media and Area Studies
Basic Information
Programme Duration: 2 years
Language of Instruction: English
Academic Supervisor: doc. Vaia Doudaki, Ph.D.
Programme Coordinator: Jan Miessler (jan.miessler@fsv.cuni.cz)
Admission Administration: admissions@fsv.cuni.cz
Who is this programme for?
MARS is ideal for students who want to gain better knowledge about the societal role of media and politics, and who want to understand how different contexts interact with each other. MARS welcomes students who want to sharpen their critical and inquisitive minds, and who wish to gain in-depth knowledge about how the Czech Republic, Central and Eastern Europe and the European Union function.
Why are Media Studies and Area Studies important?
Media are omnipresent in society, and play a key role in circulating a wide variety of representations about an equally large diversity of issues. More than ever, different technologies and organisations have become very active in mediating our worlds. These representations, technologies and organisations are not neutral in themselves, but actively intervene in how we see our worlds. Moreover, they are crucial locations to understand how processes of making-making function. Area studies is based on the premise that space matters, and that particular spaces have specificities that need to be studied in their own right. But at the same time, area studies is characterized by the permanent reminder that no space is homogeneous and that spaces influence each other, for instance in contexts of globalisation and post-coloniality. Finally, area studies also critically focusses on power relations within and among different areas, thematising issues of domination and resistance.
Course Structure
Total credits
- Compulsory courses: 69 credits
- Compulsory courses - final thesis: 15 credits
- Compulsory optional courses: 24 credits
- Elective courses: 12 credits
Compulsory courses
- Media and Society
- Communication and Politics
- Czech Media System in European Comparison
- Conflict and Media in Southern Europe
- Introduction to Post-colonial Theory
- Political Geography
- Theorizing Memory: Social and Cultural Remembering
- Political Systems of East European Countries Today
- EU Institutions
- Grand Debates of European Integration
- Methodology of Social Sciences
- Academic Writing
Compulsory courses - final thesis
- Master Thesis Seminar I
- Master Thesis Seminar II
Compulsory optional courses
12 credits to select from list 1:
- Audiovisual Interpretation of Reality
- Cultural Studies
- New Media and Convergence Culture
- Political Economy of Communication
- Media and Technical Images
- Contexts of Television
- Praxe
12 credits to select from list 2:
- Culture and politics in Europe
- Migration and mobility: comparative issues in Western European Countries
- Transnational history of contemporary Europe
- Current Challenges in Europe
- Concepts and Interpretations of Central European History
- Social Exclusion and the Roma in Central Europe
- Ethnic Conflicts in Central and Eastern Europe
Graduation Requirements
In the course of the programme, students obtain in total 120 ECTS credits, including the obligatory courses. Moreover, students will have to pass the state exam, which consists out of the defence of the final thesis and a 2000-word academic essay on a randomly allocated topic in the field of media and areas studies.
