European Commission		Education and Culture

BA level - Lectures

•  Intercultural dialogue, means to manage European diversity

Luminita Soproni, Ph.D lecturer

This course addresses to undergraduate students from 2 nd year of studies.

Compulsory, 3 hours / week ?› 42 hours / semester ?› 42 hours / year

140 students

Discipline of audience: Engineering, Journalism, International Relations and European Studies, Foreign students in Engineering, History-Geography, Political Sciences, Social Sciences

Description

T he latest enlargement of the Union to 27 Member States has considerably increased the diversity of the Union in political, social, economic and cultural terms. In this context, it is essential to ensure that this diversity becomes a source of richness rather than a source of confrontation.

Many international events have provoked severe tensions and given renewed meaning to the concept of “clash of civilizations”. It is essential that the European Union upholds and promotes its values internally and also in its relations with the outside world. Intercultural dialogue can usefully complement diplomacy and contribute to conflict prevention. It can also play a central role in the Union 's New Neighbourhood Policy.

The academic aims of this course are: to relate intercultural communication to the process of European integration; to appreciate the role of each culture in building the European identity, to analyse the particular contributions of each EU member to the cultural environment of Europe, to understand the relevance of intercultural dialogue in managing the European diversity; to examine and analyse the ways of dealing with conflicts.

The learning objectives are: to enhance students' understanding of the crucial issues in intercultural communication and to increase their awareness of the role of dialogue in managing cultural diversity, to teach them the practical skills of intercultural communicators.

Structure of the course:

•  European integration process – peculiarities, opportunities and limits

•  Specificities of European cultures

•  The gains from cultural diversity; cultural values

•  Living in the environment of another culture

•  EU's communication policy

•  Main models of cross-cultural comparison: Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck, Hall, Hofstede, Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner

•  Intercultural dialogue and the conflict prevention

•  Intercultural communication in business

•  Planning cross-cultural research

Aims (towards the target groups)

•  understanding the importance of diversity in the new Europe and the need to connect cultures

•  getting to know the particularities of different European countries

•  reducing communicational barriers

•  efficient conflict management

 

•  Media and Intercultural Dialogue in the new EU

Professor Ioan Horga, Ph.D

This course addresses to undergraduate students from 3 rd year of studies.

Compulsory, 3 hours / week ?› 42 hours / semester ?› 42 hours / year

120 students

Discipline of audience: Engineering, Journalism, International Relations and European Studies, Foreign students in Engineering, History-Geography, Political Sciences, Social Sciences

Description

The course is designed to orient students to the challenges and opportunities involved in understanding and communicating with people of different cultures, both domestically and internationally. In this process, mass media has a major role to play. Everyone will find it necessary and inevitable to communicate with members of different cultural, racial and ethnic backgrounds every day of the week in their professional world. Each culture communicates differently. Some of these differences are minor and subtle; others are major (both subtle and obvious).

In addition to looking at different cultures, the course will also examine the way news is disseminated among the various cultures of EU and of the implications in the patterns of this dissemination. It will examine also some of the images that are created by the media and maintained of different cultures and of how accurate or distorted these images might be and why.

The academic aims of this course are: to appreciate the role of mass media in shaping the European identity, to analyse the contribution of media in realising the intercultural dialogue, to raise the awareness of students of the importance of developing active European citizenship which is open to the world , respectful of cultural diversity and based on common values.

The specific goals of this course are to: learn how differences in cultures affect differences in communication; understand how to report effectively on different cultures; understand the patterns of worldwide news and information flow; understand how to practice professional communication with different cultures.

Structure of the course:

•  Mass media – history, structure and basic components

•  Functions of Mass Media in modern society

•  Cultural diversity and media pluralism in times of globalization

•  Mass media policy and regulation in EU

•  The role of stereotypes in cross-cultural communication

•  Media and European Identity

•  Media and country image

•  Media and EU image in the world

Aims (towards the target groups)

•  bringing the role of the media to the foreground and managing intercultural contacts

•  promoting discussion, reflection and knowledge on the role of the media in realising the effective intercultural dialogue

 

MA level - Lectures

•  Media and the new meaning of the borders

Vasile Ciocan, Ph.D., Senior lecturer

This course addresses to postgraduate students from 1 st year of Master studies.

Optional, 2 hours / week ?› 28 hours / semester ?› 28 hours / year

50 students

Discipline of audience: International Relations and European Studies, Journalism

Description

The world becomes more of a global village every day and the borders gain new senses. The toping related to mass media and identity of European borders in the context of the EU enlargement represents a real challenge. The topic has not only a cross-border component; it is framed by the larger issue of European identity. Is identity changing? The new borders will comprise peoples and regions with certain particularities that will provide a new European identity. However, we have to find a solution to the issue of the European identity through an analysis combined with the one upon the state-national identity. Outlining some concrete results in this direction may be a headstone for the development of the new European institutional architecture.

We need to find the means to reduce the regional discrepancies and to strengthen economic cooperation amongst regions, particularly when we deal with a cross-border element. The obvious aim for such a policy is to make a homogenous Europe . The diversity of the cultural and socio-economic situations in the cross-border areas is an important phenomenon within the European Union, as physical and political geography, history, languages, cultures and traditions are integrating, or disintegrating, factors according to the complexity of the existing combinations. Cross-border cooperation first aims at cooperation within Euroregions, as well as at the participation of the development regions to the European structures and organisations promoting their economic and institutional development to carry out joint projects.

The united Europe has to produce a unity of their political values together with embracing ethno-cultural diversity ( Europe 's central value).

Structure of the course

•  European, regional and national identity

•  The new meaning of European borders

•  Mass media and cross-border cooperation

Aims (towards the target groups)

•  understanding the new meaning of the borders

•  realising the role of mass media in shaping the European identity and overcoming the cultural borders