CINE 311 - What is Media?

FC ARHU

4 credits
Media is what comes between us. We find friends by sharing podcasts and define our enemies by their news sources. Our experience of the world is mediated by screens, signs, symbols, slogans, signals, and noise. And we are awash in opinions about what this all means: drowning in media narratives about the effects that “the media” has on children, political discourse, sexual life, and attention spans. Through this course, students will develop new ways of thinking about these practices and debates. Our approach will be historical but presentist. We will be rifling through the toolboxes created by influential media theorists to analyze the communications technologies and meaning-making systems that structure everyday life. Along the way, students will be asked to consider fundamental questions like: Why and how do mediums matter? Do our brains process information like computers? How do we decode the messages in tv shows and ads? And should all English majors know how to scuba dive? Research projects and readings.