Introduction to Media & Cultural Studi

In the 21^st century, media usage has become synonymous with daily life. Whether you’re checking your phone for new social media posts, catching up on the latest streaming series, listening to a podcast, meeting your friends at the movie theater on a Friday night, or spending that evening creating a new TikTok video, you are constantly engaged with endless flows of media production, distribution and consumption. As the advent of digital media has also eroded the old boundaries between industries, genres, and platforms, they have become ever more inextricably intertwined with our daily lives. In this context, our need for a better understanding of media has never been greater.

This course therefore provides an introduction to the field of media studies. It teaches students how to analyze narrative audiovisual media, engages them with critical perspectives such as gender, race, class, queer theory, maps out the basics of media industries and political economy of media production, and draws out connections between media sectors and platforms. The first half of the course is focused primarily on the analysis of media forms and functions, and the second half connects these skills to theoretical frameworks that emphasize the relationship between meaning and power.
 

Format
The course is divided into two sections. The first section deals with the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of media analysis; the second section is dedicated to the analysis, circulation, and contestation of media meanings, both in terms of their economies of production and in their connection to societal debates. Students are expected to comprehensively read and reflect on the assigned texts in preparation for class meetings, actively participate in discussions, give a presentation with fellow students, and hand in written assignments.

Lectures are used to introduce weekly topics, seminar settings provide opportunities to discuss texts concerning the week’s topic and to perform practical in-class exercises with media texts and phenomena. Independent study will prepare you for class sessions and practice critical reading and writing, and shared screenings will give us a shared vocabulary of media objects to reflect upon and draw inspiration from. Always make sure to bring the texts of the week's readings to class, and expect to do quite a bit of writing, both in the form of occasional writing assignments and your individual research paper (see section 6: Assessment).