Olympic education initiative: 'The Olympic Games and the Media' online course

This course analyses the intersection between the Olympic Games and the media and how television and other media contribute to fund, shape and disseminate the major sporting spectacle in the world: the Olympic Games.

About the course
This course allows students to explore the universe of media and their role in the construction of the Olympic Games. After providing a general context regarding what the modern Olympic Games represent for our culture and what the main constituents of the so called 'Olympic Movement' are, the course focuses on media as funders of the Olympics, disseminators of their values system and creators of the global image of the games. More specifically, we will dive into:

• The history of media and the Olympic Games
• The television rights and sponsorship programmes
• How the media operate during the Olympics
• The television production of the Olympic Games and their worldwide audiences
• The opening and closing ceremonies and the symbols and rituals of the Games
• The management of new media and social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter by the Olympic Family.

More than 6,800 students from 141 different countries enrolled on the first edition of ‘The Olympic Games and the Media’. As a consequence of that, the course has become one of the most important Olympic education initiatives until today.

The course will be delivered in English with subtitles in English and Spanish.

'The Olympic Games and the Media' is a teaching project promoted by the Olympic Studies Centre at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, a university centre aimed at research, educate and disseminate knowledge on the Olympic and sporting phenomenon.

Start date: 23.11.2015. Five week course of 1-3 hours study time per week.