The goal of the discipline is to create a profound understanding of design principles as an approach for generating creative ideas through studying the most effective ways of delivering visual information to the target audience.

Journalism has always been an essential component of the sociocultural space – from the first “newspaper” “Acta Diurna” to the new electronic media. It interacts with other forms of culture, such as literature, visual arts, legal and political culture. Furthermore, over the last century Mass Media have grown to play a leading role in establishing popular culture and to become the main instrument of cultural imperialism (cultural colonialism).

This course deals with the development of journalism from historical perspective (connection of modern speechwriting with ancient rhetoric, the relation between the term “propaganda” and the activities of the Roman Catholic Church, etc.). It offers various philosophical concepts for analyzing broadcasting and online media (theories by McLuhan, Innis, Castells, etc.). And last but not least, it provides an overview of the most significant challenges and pressing issues: global media culture, hyperreality, glocalization and cultural imperialism, traditional and new media, postmodern media genres and language of the audio-visual media, concentration of ownership and media diversity.

All media workers, regardless of their citizenship and type of employment, have to fulfill their duties under certain legal restrictions. Although media legislation differs from country to country, basic principles of legal regulation are nonetheless very similar to each other, since the majority of national legal systems have their roots in Roman law. Moreover, pieces of international law (when ratified) apply to every state equally, and it's especially significant for journalists, given that international law comprises such issues as free speech rights, intellectual property rights and status of journalists during military conflicts (international humanitarian law).

It's also important to be familiar with national legislation of different countries, since the majority of mainstream media today belong to international corporations and aim at global audience, which also means that they have to work in different countries under different jurisdictions. Furthermore, we have to consider foreign media legislation (mostly American) when we deal with the Internet due to the fact that most companies in the Internet market are American ones, and whenever we use social media or search engines, our actions are de facto restricted by American legislation.

This course is designed to help the students understand the basic principles of media regulation, become familiar with various national legal systems and with the most significant international legal acts.

Mass Media can be viewed as a basic integral part of our modern information society that capture, shape and reflect our reality in the variety of aspects from agenda-setting to establishing new communication platforms. Their typology, technological capacity, structure and functioning have become so complex that a systematic approach to their analysis is necessary. Every country has its own unique media system that interacts with its political, sociocultural and economic systems. And on the international level we see the interaction, competition and struggle of these systems for the minds of members of the global community. The complexity of these processes has proved itself to be a serious challenge for media workers that are required to possess fundamental knowledge and deep understanding of the most pressing issues in the field of Mass Media and main vectors of their development.