220083 SE SE Master Seminar (2021W)

Attention: this course is connected to the Fundamental Rights Forum 2021 11-12 October, which can be attended online. This year's focus is youth and human rights. You are required to attend at least the three sessions, two of your choosing and one obligatory on Children's Right to privacy and Emerging Citizenship. For the programme please see here:
https://fra.europa.eu/en/event/2020/fundamental-rights-forum-2021

This is a Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence dedicated course (please visit Mediagovernance.univie.ac.at). This means that there is a special interest in exploring dimensions of European integration through the study of media. The designation European does not exclude from attention to the rest of the world- it does mean however the study of the ways in which Europe and the world affect each other.

This course is particularly beneficial and suitable for those students who have a strong interest in the role of the media and communication in social change and social justice questions. More specifically, questions, which explore the dynamics of several factors which shape what media and communicating processes are and to what extent they serve full and universal notions of citizenship (exercising rights such as freedom of expression, privacy, assembly, voting and participation in public life). These factors can be political economic, institutional, legal, but also can derive from common global, local mass action as for example through social movements such as Extinction Rebellion, Women's March, European Solidarity etc.
*Special attention in this course is to be given to research projects that explore the intersection of Europe (and European integration) and that of the Informational Rights of children and youth as emerging citizens.*

This course should help and accompany you with the composition of your master thesis concept. We will cover all parts of a research concept including research question, choosing an appropriate theoretical frame and suitable methodological approach, handling literature on a state of the art level of research, structure and design of research, and, last but not least, communicating it. There is no topic limitation on your master thesis. At the end of this course, you should have a master thesis concept ready to be presented to a potential supervisor.
This seminar isn’t about a fixed working program you have to fulfill. The course units should be on the one hand a refresher course on the skills you have learned during your study: Doing communication research on your own. On the other hand, it should help you to focus on a research topic, to acquire state of the art knowledge on this topic, to identify a research gap on this topic, to draft a research design, narrow enough to be done in about 6 months, and to write a concept, so you can acquire a supervisor for further steps.
In order to provide students with assistance for their master thesis concept, the following topics will be discussed in class: Choosing a Research Topic / Finding the Research Gap, Research Resources & Reference Software Theory Building - Creativity - Theoretical Frames, “Correct” Methods (qualitative vs. quantitative) Research Design – Operationalization, Academic Language / Presenting at Conferences Academic, Publishing & Peer Review Process, Ethics in Academic Research