This schedule and readings are tentative and subject to change.
Week 1 Intro: Media, Culture and Society
Converging Media: Chpts. 1-2
Questioning the Media: Ch. 1 (O-Connor & Downing: “Culture and Communication”)
Week 2: Theories of Media (audiences, political economy)
Converging Media: Ch. 15
Questioning the Media: Ch. 3 (Meyrowitz: “Mediating Communication”); Ch. 12 (Ang: “The Nature of the Audience”)
Screen: The Ad and the Ego
Week 3: Theories of Media (media texts, effects)
Converging Media: Ch. 14
Handout: Jostein Gripsrud, Understanding Media Culture - Chapter 4 Semiotics.pdf
Week 4-6: Mass Communication Formats (print, audio, visual)
Converging Media: Chpts. 3-5
Questioning the Media: Ch. 2 (Sreberny-Mohammadi: “Forms of Media as Ways of Knowing”); Ch. 4 (Winston: “How Media are Born and Develop”)
Handout: Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death (chapter one)
Week 7: Review and Midterm
Week 8-9: Digital Media, Networks, Social Media
Converging Media: Chpts. 6-8
Questioning the Media: Ch. 13 (Gandy: “Tracking the Audience”); Ch. 15 (Sinha & Stone: “Computers and Communication”)
Week 10: Journalism and Propaganda
Convergence Media: Ch. 9
Questioning the Media: Ch. 5 (Herman: “Media in the US Political Economy”)
Week 11: Entertainment, Pop Culture and Representation
Convergence Media: Ch. 10
Questioning the Media: Ch. 26 (Thomas: Myths in and About Television); ch. 18 (Van Zoonen: Gender, Representation and the Media)
Screening: Merchants of Cool
Week 12: Advertising and Public Relations
Convergence Media: Ch. 11
Questioning the Media: Ch. 19 (Kellner: “Advertising and Consumer Culture”)
Screening: The Persuaders
Week 13-14: Globalization, Media Ethics, Regulation and Review
Convergence Media: Chpts. 12-13
Questioning the Media: Ch. 9 (McQuail: “Western European Media: The Mixed Model Under Threat”); Ch. 25 (Sreberny-Mohammadi: “Global News Media Cover the World”)