This compulsory course introduces the key thinkers, traditions, and current debates in sociology and cultural studies of media and culture in the world city context. It explores the centrality of the role of media, culture, and creativity in contemporary social life and its intricate relationships with the city at an advanced level.

You will comprehend media and culture as an industry or institution with specific modes of production and ownership, consumption patterns and practices, and rules of control and regulation. You will examine media and cultural representations, as well as socially constructed identities.

You will explore media and culture as a ‘way of life’ comprised of social reflective practices that entail creativity and pleasure, as well as politics and resistance. In other words, this course will look into the key issues of political economy, representation, politics, and practices of media and culture, addressing the power dynamics and complexities of the city, and examining the importance of creativity in the context of globalization.

This course serves as a roadmap to other courses in this programme.