Admission requirements
Successful completion of the BDMS first-semester obligatory core courses. Only available for Book and Digital Media Studies students and BDMS exchange students. Others may contact the course organisers.
Description
Traditionally, publishers are the agents that organise, and to a large extent control, the dissemination of printed information, increasingly also in electronic forms. Publishing Studies looks at the wider role and meaning of publishing in society and analyses the mechanisms within the so-called publishing industries and different publishing fields, ranging from academic and educational publishing to trade book publishing, but with special emphasis on academic publishing. The whole publishing chain will be covered, from the work of authors, through the activities of publishing houses to retailers and even customers, be they private persons or institutions like libraries. Moreover the course will examine new and emerging practices in publishing, mostly resulting from the introduction of digital technology and convergence, such as for instance participatory media, open access publishing, digital printing and new rights regimes. Main goal of the course is to develop and elaborate relevant research questions and identify issues in present day publishing that demand research, as well as to discuss work that has already been done on these issues.
Course objectives
Students learn to understand the nature of publishing as a socio-cultural phenomenon, as well as the principles and practices of (the main fields within) the publishing industry. They learn to understand and to analyse the main questions and issues that engage this sector and acquire a long-term perspective on publishing: past, present and future, specifically in the context of the process of continuous change now confronting the industry as a result of the application and advance of new technologies. Students will become able to identify a subject and topic for research, to plan and carry out the necessary research and to prepare a written account, also in preparation for writing an MA thesis within the field of publishing studies.
Timetable
The timetable will be available by June 1st on the website.
Mode of instruction
Lectures, seminars, reading list, excursions.
Course Load
The course load of this course is 140 hours.
hours spent on attending lectures and seminars: 21
time for studying the compulsory literature, preparing excersises and/or presentations: 79
time to prepare for the exam and/or write a paper (including reading / research): 40
Participation in all sessions of this course is compulsory. Upon prior consultation, the lecturer can permit absence at one session for compelling reasons. Students who are absent twice in a half-semester course (7 weeks) will be excluded from further participation and will have to re-take the course. Students who are absent twice in a semester course (13 weeks) will be given an complementary assignment by the lecturer. Absence on three sessions in such a course will lead to exclusion from it.
Assessment method
Course essay.
Blackboard
This course is supported by blackboard.
Reading list
Thompson, John, Merchants of culture, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2005.
Thompson, John, Publishing in the digital age: The transformation of academic and higher education publishing in Britain and the United States, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2005.
Choice of either Giles Clark and Angus Phillips, Inside Book Publishing, 4th edn, London and New York, 2008 or Albert Greco, The Book Publishing Industry, Mahwah and London, 2005.
Selected articles to be provided.
Registration
Students should register through uSis. If you have any questions, please contact the departmental office, tel. 071 5272144 or mail: ma-mediastudies@hum.leidenuniv.nl.
Registration Studeren à la carte and Contractonderwijs
N/A
Contact
MA Media Studies departmental office, P.N. van Eyckhof 4, room 102C. Tel. 071 5272144; mail: ma-mediastudies@hum.leidenuniv.nl.
Remarks
“Participation in all sessions of this course is compulsory. Upon prior consultation, the lecturer can permit absence at one session for compelling reasons. Students who are absent twice in a half-semester course (7 weeks) will be excluded from further participation and will have to re-take the course. Students who are absent twice in a semester course (13 weeks) will be given an complementary assignment by the lecturer. Absence on three sessions in such a course will lead to exclusion from it.”