Online Summer School on Media Representations and Research Methods (sixth edition)

The sixth online edition of this course lasts from 19 until 30 August 2024. Between 2014 and 2019, I organized seven on-campus editions of this course in Maastricht. PhD candidates normally dominate the course participants, but students and professionals also benefited from past editions. Go to DreamApply website for more information and to book your spot in this engaging and helpful course.

Media Representations and Research Methods Summer School in a Nutshell

1. The course focuses on critical discourse analysis, social semiotics and news framing.
2. The course teaches you to work with a hands-on template that helps you to write better academic papers.
3. The course includes a one-hour lecture on research questions and offers personal advice on your research questions.
4. The course includes all day e-mail support in case you get stuck with your assignment.
5. The course will be online.
6. The course fee will be €499.
7. The course is spread across two weeks.
8. Daily teaching hours will be limited to three hours at most. This enables you to optimally concentrate in an online setting. Teaching days will start at 13.00 (Maastricht time zone/GMT+2) and end at the latest at 16.00 (Maastricht time zone/GMT+2). This makes it easier for students from far away countries to deal with the large time differences.
9. If you have any questions about the course program, content and recommended readings, please contact Leonhardt.
10. For questions about the application process, please contact Maastricht Summer School Office.

Student reviews of Media Representations and Research Methods Summer School

(Quotes taken from LinkedIn recommendations)

“I found Leonhardt very well familiar with all the dynamics of his class room, as he very efficiently caters to the need of all his students coming from different social, cultural and educational backgrounds.” – Sadia from Pakistan

“Leonhardt is a great lecturer who knows his subject matter. I found his inclusive approach particularly useful in teaching media analysis techniques.” – Koen from Belgium

“Not only did Leonhardt demonstrate a high level of expertise in the subject, but he also helped his students understand difficult concepts in a very accessible way, effectively bridging the gap between theory and practice, and fostering fruitful discussions in class.” – Carolina from Brazil

Description of Media Representations and Research Methods Summer School

How do you make sense of the wide variety of perspectives in the media? For example, how can we interpret newspaper coverage of the War in Ukraine, tweets by Elon Musk, or Instagram posts on climate change, food, and migration?

This course offers you academic yet practical answers to these questions. It teaches you the analytical skills to study the possible meanings of textual and visual media representations.

Interactive lectures raise your understanding of concepts and methods, helping you examine what combinations of words and/or visual elements could mean in terms of a broader debate in society. These lectures further teach you how national identities and power relations affect the interpretations of media representations.

Your individual assignment concerns a short paper, in which you apply a method to study one or two news articles, short YouTube videos, or social media posts. You will write and present this paper during this two-week course.

Exclusively for this Summer School, Dr. Leonhardt van Efferink developed a template that helps you write a well-structured course paper. On top of this, he offers individual feedback in class and active personal tutoring by e-mail. Finally, his support includes a comprehensive framework to develop focused, consistent, and transparent research questions.

Goals of Media Representations and Research Methods Summer School

1. Write a well-structured research paper in which you study media representations with textual and/or visual elements (e.g., newspaper/magazine articles with photos, cartoons, and Instagram/Twitter posts).
2. Develop a research method that draws on critical discourse analysis, social semiotic analysis, and/or news framing analysis, in line with your research objectives.
3. Formulate research questions that are clear, focused, and consistent, saving you a lot of time later in the research process.
4. Compile a dataset for your thesis or dissertation that is manageable and relevant.
5. Understand the complexity of text-image relations and their role in meaning-making processes.
6. Explain the role of the national and ideological contexts in which (social) media content is being produced.

Timetable of Media Representations and Research Methods Summer School

Media Representations and Research Methods Summer School will be an online course. Please check Leonhardt's website for most up-to-date version of the timetable

Suggested Literature for Media Representations and Research Methods Summer School

Dr Leonhardt van Efferink has based this course on publications in various languages (see overview below for some examples). You are not required to do pre-course reading. However, if you would like to do so, you are advised to select one of the publications below. You can also contact Leonhardt for tailor-made reading advice.

1. Caple, H. (2013) Photojournalism. A Social Semiotic Approach.
2. Dahinden, U. (2006). Framing. Eine integrative Theorie der Massenkommunikation.
3. D’Angelo, P. (ed.) (2018) Doing News Framing Analysis II. Empirical and Theoretical Perspectives.
4. Geise, S., & Lobinger, K. (eds.). (2013). Visual Framing. Perspektiven und Herausforderungen der visuellen Kommunikationsforschung.
5. Machin, D. (2007) Introduction to Multimodal Analysis.
6. Machin, D. and Mayr, A. (2012) How to do Critical Discourse Analysis.
7. Richardson, J. (2007) Analysing Newspapers. An Approach from Critical Discourse Analysis.
8. Royce, T. D. (2006). Intersemiotic Complementarity. A Framework for Multimodal Discourse Analysis. In T. D. Royce, & W. Bowcher (Eds.), New Directions in the Analysis of Multimodal Discourse (pp. 63-109).
9. Van Gorp, B. (2010) Strategies to take the Subjectivity out of Framing Analysis. In P. D’Angelo, & J. A. Kuypers (Eds.), Doing News Framing Analysis. Empirical and Theoretical Perspectives (pp. 84-109).
10. Wodak, R. and Meyer, M. (eds., 2016) Methods of Critical Discourse Studies.

Keywords for Media Representations and Research Methods Summer School

▪ Critical Discourse Analysis ▪ Social Semiotics ▪ News Framing ▪ Textual Analysis ▪ Visual Analysis ▪ Text-Image Relations ▪ Multimodal Analysis ▪ Media Representations ▪ Research Methods ▪ Research Design ▪ Research Questions ▪ Research Paper Template ▪ Analytical Skills ▪ Critical Thinking ▪ Employability

Contact

Main contact details of the Summer School:

• Need more information or want to apply for the course now? Visit the DreamApply website
• Questions about Program, Content and Recommended Readings? Please contact Leonhardt
• Questions about Application Process? Please contact Maastricht Summer School Office