This course examines the ways in which the creative and cultural industries create, represent, reflect, reinforce, render and define cultural identities in a post modern global world

Taking as its starting point Benedict Anderson’s celebrated sound bite that ‘nations are imagined communities. Students are introduced to the skills and methodologies of content and comparative analysis.

This anthropological or cultural industries approach makes distinctions between cultural artefacts and media communication mainly in terms of the patterns of media consumption and the creation or decoding of meaning by the audience(s)

Thus, books, pictures, radio and television programmes, films, computer games etc are all analysed as ways of communicating hegemonic or oppositional or negotiated discourses which write a version of history and national narratives.

Inevitably, these are made and remade by each generation

We ask a series of questions about creative and cultural industries policies and evaluate their success or otherwise

We ask a series of questions about national European and Global regulation and policy in and across media, genres, cultures and languages

We pay particular attention to the issue of cultures and languages which are designated as minority.

We explore the state of media and broadcasting policies as they affect Sardinia and Scotland; pluralism and indentity.
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We analyse media policy and regulation using historical perspectives and examples to understand the principles, values and practice of regulation of media ownership, content, access and distribution.

We explore theories of technological determinism as opposed to the social shaping of technology thesis.

We try to understand how national, regional and global media policies affect the representation of politics, cultures and societies

We pay particular attention to the ways in which Sardinia and Scotland are represented (or not) in a range of media output.

We look at changing patterns of media consumption and try to understand
the relationship between this, and national ethnic and cultural identity

We enjoy debates and interrogating the policy positions.

We consider the creative class thesis advanced by Richard Florida

All in all, a course which explores issues, themes and academic research, all of which affect many aspects of the way in which our societies have national conversations about who we are and where we have been and are going as cultures and societies.