Undergraduate Course: Media and Protest (PLIT10143)
Course Outline
| School | School of Social and Political Science |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course explores how media shapes protest around the world. You will examine the powerful relationship between journalism, digital platforms, and protest movements. This includes investigating how social media, encrypted apps, and artificial intelligence fuel grassroots activism, while analysing how governments weaponize the same tools to suppress dissent.
Together, we will analyse progressive struggles against authoritarianism, climate change, and gender or racial violence. We will also examine how right-wing groups use digital media to organise and represent protests about immigration. Led by a former journalist, we utilise breaking news alongside historic case studies to understand how media shapes political change.
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| Course description |
This course explores how media shapes political protest around the world. Students begin by examining how professional news outlets historically delegitimised protest, and why the emergence of the internet and social media initially sparked hope for more progressive politics. We will then look at the evolution of alternative journalism through Indymedia and the anti-capitalist movement, Occupy, and the diverse media strategies deployed in the evolution of climate protest up to contemporary activity by Greta Thunberg.
Next, we will interrogate the digital media strategies that fueled the famous Arab Spring and the Hong Kong pro-democracy protests We will also consider the complex politics of entirely online protest involving global hashtag campaigns like #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter. Following this, we expand our understanding of digital witnessing, examining how citizen video footage helps challenge the killing of anti-ICE protestors in the US, and expose war crimes in Syria and Ukraine.
Crucially, we also examine the other side of the political spectrum, analysing how right-wing networks harness digital media to construct ethnonationalist identity in relation to anti-immigration protests. Ultimately, we question how much power digital activists really has when facing the surveillance of repressive states and commercial platforms.
Led by a former journalist, this ten-week course connects academic theory to real-world political change using breaking news stories alongside historical case studies. Each week features a one-hour lecture and an interactive, one-hour student-led tutorial. These sessions focus on collaborative research exercises and structured group discussions, supported by a media-rich LEARN site and a detailed list of academic and non-academic sources.
Although trigger warnings are used and no graphic content is shown in taught sessions, we recognise that some students may find the content of some sessions personally distressing or sensitive for other reasons. For that reason, students can ask to be excused from attending one of the sessions on the course without giving any reason.
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Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should have at least 4 Politics/International Relations courses at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this). We will only consider University/College level courses. As numbers are limited, visiting students should contact the Visiting Student Office directly for admission to this course. |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2026/27, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 36 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 10,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 10,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
176 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
(i) A 1,000-word essay (30%) due in mid-term based on a question of their choice from the topics in the first half of the term. The purpose of the essay will be to i) ensure students have an emerging understanding of the concepts and different theoretical perspectives presented in the first half of the term and ii) to give them an opportunity to explore the application of those concepts to case study material. Students will receive feedback from this essay prior to the final summative assignment.
(ii) A 3,000-word essay (70%), due at the end of the semester, based on a question of their choice from topics covered during the course.
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| Feedback |
Essays will be returned with feedback within 15 working days of submission. Feedback on the short essay will be received before the long essay is submitted. Formative feedback will be given orally in seminars. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Critically analyse principal theories and critical debates about the role of mainstream, alternative and social media in different forms of protest.
- Identify which theories are most applicable to particular cases and construct critical arguments about them in relation to particular texts or practices.
- Develop an awareness of different ICTs, and reflect on their affordances, opportunities and risks for protestors.
- Construct detailed arguments about how the various political practices involved in digital activism are shaped by country-specific contexts, as well as being 'in dialogue' with one another globally.
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Reading List
Clark, M.D. (2024).We tried to tell y¿all: Black Twitter and the creation of digital counternarratives. New York: Oxford University Press.
Couldry, N. (2025). The space of the world: Can human solidarity survive social media and what if it can¿t? Cambridge: Polity.
Lee, F. (2025). Pro-democracy contention in Hong Kong. State University of New York: SUNY Press.
Livingston, S. and Miller, M. (2025). Connective action and the rise of the far right. Platforms, politics, and the crisis of democracy. New York: Oxford University Press.
Morris, H. (2025). Apocalytic Authoritarianism: Climate crises, media, and power. New York: Oxford University Press.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Graduates will become familiar with a variety of different ICT applications, and the ways in each are used to communicate by protestors, their supporters, and journalists. They'll develop understandings of ethical and professional decision-making, concerning some of the risks which different kinds of media pose to protestors and others. This will include familiar with the ethical, political and economic considerations involved in digital anonymity, surveillance and the kinds of data generated by media use. They'll have the opportunity to refine their ability to research autonomously, as well as with peers.
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| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof Kate Wright
Tel: (0131 6)51 1480
Email: Kate.Wright@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mr Ian McClory
Tel: (0131 6)50 3932
Email: Ian.McClory@ed.ac.uk |
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