PS9000 Engaging with Society: Stakeholders, Outreach and Impact Course description

The course will introduce central theories and research traditions in media production and developments in the media field in the Norwegian and international contexts. "Media field" encompasses journalism, non-fiction writing, and other forms of media production and use, including in communication work.

After completing the course, the candidates are expected to have the following knowledge, skills and general competence.

Knowledge

Candidates have sufficient knowledge on

• Theories and research connected to political, economic, technological, cultural, and social developments in the media field

• The development of the different media professions and their practices

• Theories and research traditions connected to media production

Skills

Candidates can

• Place their own research project in a journalistic and/or media studies theoretical and research tradition

• Reflect over the relationship between media development and media production as a research field and practice field

General competence

Candidates are capable of

• Communicating with researchers in the field and other students conducting projects in other (sub)fields than their own

• Identifying foundational theoretical issues of relevance to media development and media production

Knowledge

The candidate:

• Has advanced knowledge about major trends in social science’s relations to the wider society
• Has extensive knowledge about specific topics that have come to dominate the academic field such as the importance of outreach, user-involvement, stakeholders in research and knowledge translation, knowledge hierarchies, citizen science, science skepticism/politization of science, open science, and responsible research and innovation
• Has advanced knowledge about theories explaining current trends in the relations between research, universities and society

Skills

The candidate:

• Can discuss his or her own research in terms of possible societal impact and is able to set up a concrete plan outlining the pathway to impact
• Can discuss his or her project in terms of strategies to involve ordinary citizens in fieldwork or end-users in the design, implementation and dissemination of the research

General competence

The candidate:

• Will be able to critically reflect upon the drivers of recent trends that increasingly obliterate the borders between the field of science and surrounding fields of politics and practice, assessing the advantages and pitfalls of these developments
• Will have improved understanding of their own role as researchers vis-à-vis various stakeholder groups such as agencies commissioning research, professional associations, user associations and the general public

Active participation in the seminars is necessary to adequately understand the course material and themes. Participation is therefore mandatory, and candidates are expected to attend all days of teaching and required to attend at least 80 percent of teaching days. In special circumstances, such as documented illnesses, the course leader may accept exceptions to this requirement. In these cases, lack of participation can be substituted with alternative arrangements such as active reading of the relevant syllabus literature.

Course requirements are assessed as confirmed or not confirmed. The course requirement must be completed and confirmed within the given deadline in order to have the right to submit a final essay.

All examination support material is allowed as long as source reference and quotation technique requirements are applied.

Assessment is pass/ fail. All examination support material is allowed as long as source reference and quotation technique requirements are applied. If an essay is graded fail, if the candidate may resubmit a revised essay within a given time period.

All examination support material is allowed as long as source reference and quotation technique requirements are applied.

Assessment is pass/ fail. If an essay is graded fail, the candidate has one opportunity to resubmit a revised essay within a given time period.

The final essay is assessed by the course lecturer. The assessment of the essay is based on the learning outcomes for the course.

The course is mandatory for PhD candidates in the PhD programme in Social Sciences at OsloMet - Oslo Metropolitan University. Unfilled places may be opened to applicants from other PhD programmes at OsloMet or externally.

Prior to the course, candidates are asked to fill-in an online survey to provide the course manager information to make the course as relevant as possible to the group of students.