1. A course in media discourse
Mohsen Shirazizadeh
Alzahra university, Iran

2. The Importance of language in media studies
The media present information about world events to masses of individuals. As it is never possible to present a completely impartial, accurate and full account of an event, instead the media offer representations of events, through the use of language.
Media function as more than mere ‘mirrors’ of reality. Instead, they have the role of constructing ideologically motivated versions of reality mostly through the use of language.

3. Level of the course and students
Its an elective postgraduate course for students of
Linguistics
English language teaching (ELT)
Other foreign languages
An undergraduate or postgraduate course for students of
Journalism
Media studies

4. Course description
This course will focus on the language of the media in its many guises. The teaching would be based on active learning principles and students are required to be active participants not passive recipients. It will consider the ways in which language is used/abused by key media outlets to inform, inculcate, persuade, dissuade, manipulate and maintain.
The course will have a strong emphasis on the linguistic analysis of real media texts.

5. Learning outcome
At the completion of this course students will be able to
Read news and other media texts critically and understand the particularities of the employment of language in media.
Work with a number of language analysis (i.e. Wordsmith & Antconc) and an audio editing software (Audacity).
Critically analyze ads and identify the strategies they employ to create needs, convince people to buy more than they need and promote a culture of consumerism
Conduct their own small scale research projects to explore how language is made use of in media for purposes other than the transmission of information (e.g. inculcation of viewpoints) 

6. Some sample topics in the syllabus
Introduction to language of media
Basics of media discourse analysis
Basics of corpus informed media discourse analysis
Discourse of newscast
Discourse of news reportage
Discourse of advertisement
Discourse of talk shows
………………

7. Topics covered in the course
Topic 1: introduction to language and media
Required readings
Critical intersections: language ideologies and media discourse (Johnson and Milani, 2010; 1st chapter)
Introduction: media and discourse (Talbot, 2007; 1st chapter)

8. Assignments and class activities (1st session)
Students are required to read the chapters before coming to the class and have to raise two critical questions as to the content of the chapters plus a two paragraph synopsis (higher order thinking).
After professors’ lecture, students should raise their questions and others should contribute in providing answers. Each student should then write a page answering one of the questions asked and discussed in the class (Formulation and summarization).

9. Assignments and class activities (1st session)
Students should bring with them excepts from media and some non-media text (videos, audios or papers) and contrast them while identifying how the language of media is different from non-media language (Analysis).
Students should upload all the above three assignments on their blogs. Note that all your weekly assignments count to the final score.

10. Assessment Active participation in class discussion 15%
Weekly assessments uploaded on the blog 45%
Your blog should look interesting and colorfully designed
Your assignments are evaluated based on
The cogency of the arguments you have provide
The relevant references you make to sources
The quality of the examples you provide
Final exam 20%
The final exam includes four questions:
Two questions on the content of readings we have had in our class
Two question in which you have to analyze and critique media texts
Final project 20%
choose 4 pieces of media text and write a critique on how language have been used in them to inculcate and manipulate not to innocently inform.
Pick the audio files of the same piece of news as reported by three different news agencies. Based on their analysis using Antconc and wordsmith, mix the files using Audacity and add your own explanations as to how these reports differ in their employment of language and what goals are they pursuing in doing so.

11. Thanks