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| Media Studies | |
| MDST 1300 | Intro To Global Media (3.00) |
| This course will give you a critical understanding of the roles media and globalization have played in the constitution (and dissolution) of national identities and other social formations (e.g., racial formations; the politics of the local; diasporas), particularly as these are shaped by national and international media flows. | |
| MDST 1559 | New Course in Media Studies (3.00) |
| This course provides the opportunity to offer a new course in the subject of Media Studies. | |
| MDST 2000 | Introduction to Media Studies (3.00) |
| Introduces students to the topics, themes, and areas of study that are central to an understanding of media in contemporary society. Focuses on the forms, institutions, functions, and impact of media on local, national, and global communities. | |
| MDST 2010 | Introduction to Digital Media (4.00) |
| Offered Spring 2012 | The history, theory, practice and understanding of digital media. Provides a foundation for interrogating the relation of digital media to contemporary culture and understanding the function, design, and use of computers. |
| MDST 2100 | Media, Culture and Society (3.00) |
| Explores the relationships among various forms of mass communication, social institutions and other dimensions of social life from a sociological perspective. | |
| MDST 2200 | Introduction to Film (3.00) |
| The purpose of this course is to introduce the student to the variety of cinematic forms and genres as well as the history and theories behind them. Class work will include lecture and discussion groups. | |
| MDST 2440 | Language and Cinema (3.00) |
| Looks historically at speech and language in Hollywood movies, including the technological challenges and artistic theories and controversies attending the transition from silent to sound films. Focuses on the ways that gender, racial, ethnic, and national identities are constructed through the representation of speech, dialect, and accent. Introduces semiotics but requires no knowledge of linguistics, or film studies. | |
| MDST 2502 | Special Topics in Film Genre (3.00) |
| This course will offer historical and critical perspectives on a selected film genre each semester. Genres might include Noir, war, romance, musicals, gangster, New Wave, etc. | |
| MDST 2559 | New Course in Media Studies (1.00 - 4.00) |
| This course provides the opportunity to offer a new course in the subject of Media Studies. | |
| MDST 2700 | News Writing (3.00) |
| Offered Spring 2012 | Introductory course in news writing, emphasizing editorials, features, and reporting. |
| MDST 2810 | Cinema As An Art Form (3.00) |
| Offered Spring 2012 | A course in visual thinking; introduces film criticism, concentrating on classic and current American and non-American films. |
| MDST 3000 | Theory and Criticism of Media (3.00) |
| This course introduces students at the beginning of the major to theoretical and critical literature in the field. Topics range from the psychological and sociological experience of media, interpretation and analysis of media forms and aesthetics, theories of audience and reception, anthropological approaches to media as a cultural force, and contemporary theories of media from humanities and social sciences perspectives. The goal of the course is to provide a foundation for thinking critically about media and to give them a sense of media studies as a critical and theoretical field. Restricted to Media Studies majors. | |
| MDST 3050 | History of Media (3.00) |
| Offered Spring 2012 | This is a survey, lecture-format, course on the history of media forms, institutions, and technology from the origins of writing, invention of print technology, through the development of digital media. Attention to the specific characteristics of individual media, the changing role of media as a force in culture, and the continually transforming institutions and business of media will all be touched on. The role of media forms in the creation of pubic discourse and the social controls on media through censorship, legal constraints, and economic policies will also be examined, largely from within the context of the United States. Students will create a case study of a media work or artifact from a historical perspective. Prerequisite: MDST 110 and 201, or permission of instructor. |
| MDST 3100 | Film and Television in the 1960s (3.00) |
| This is a course on film and television in the United States in the 1960s meant to introduce students to the specific problems attached to understanding media as force for social change within a particular decade of American life. The course has a strong emphasis on cultural history and theory as well as on the close reading of media artifacts in film and television from the 1960s. The course requires considerable commitment to viewing time as well as readings, writing, and research. Prerequisite: MDST 201 or permission of instructor. | |
| MDST 3102 | Copyright, Culture, and Commerce (3.00) |
| In this course, we will discuss one of the most powerful social, cultural, economic and political institutions of our day: intellectual property (IP). How did we arrive at the notion that creative works and ideas can be owned, bought and sold like tangible commodities? What impact does this concept have on the way we view the world? How does it help us achieve our social goals, and how does it present obstacles to reaching those goals? | |
| MDST 3104 | News and the Construction of Reality (3.00) |
| Offered Spring 2012 | The course examines the relationship between news and reality, utilizing theories of social construction. With this as our framework, we will then use various critical perspectives to examine the way news ¿reality¿ is constructed, from the discursive and semiotic frameworks used to present current events as ¿stories,¿ to how journalists make decisions about what is news, to the political economic factors that structure news form and content. |
| MDST 3105 | Latina/o Media Studies (3.00) |
| Offered Spring 2012 | This course is designed to introduce students to critical analyses of media texts, media industries, and media audiences that help explain the social, political, economic, and cultural locations of Latinas/os in America. |
| MDST 3106 | History of U S Broadcasting (3.00) |
| Offered Spring 2012 | This course examines U.S. broadcasting in historical perspective, not only as an industry, but as a vital component of American culture and everyday life. We will examine the technological, social, political, industrial and cultural forces influencing the development of broadcast media and we will link these forces to the programs created and the audiences served. Prerequisite: MDST 201 or permission of instructor |
| MDST 3201 | New German Cinema (3.00) |
| Offered Spring 2012 | Examines German art cinema from the 1960s-1980s, focusing on modernist aesthetics and filmic responses to major historical events in post-war Germany. Films by Fassbinder, Herzog, Wenders, Kluge, Sander, von Trotta, and others. |
| MDST 3205 | New Latin American Cinema (3.00) |
| This course provides a historical and critical perspective on Latin American Cinema (LAC), with an emphasis on LAC's relationship to Third Cinema, revolutionary cinema, and contemporary progressive filmic cinematic forms and traditions. | |
| MDST 3206 | Documentary Film (3.00) |
| The course examines the different ways documentary filmmakers have attempted to represent reality. The course surveys the development of different ¿modes¿ of documentary and the different ways these modes claim representational authority. Throughout, we will be conscious of the particular truth claims of documentary and the ethical issues involved in filming real people. | |
| MDST 3300 | Global Media (3.00) |
| Examines the dynamic global transformations in print, broadcast, and digital media in an international and comparative context. Considers historical, institutional, and textual factors that impact media in local and global contexts. Examines the critical role of media in the long history of globalization and focuses on a number of cultural, technological, and economic issues addressed by media and globalization at the turn of the twenty-first century. Prerequisite: MDST 201 or instructor permission. | |
| MDST 3402 | War and the Media (3.00) |
| This course examines media coverage of American wars from World War I to the present. Study of the evolution in media coverage of war provides an ideal vantage point for understanding the changing nature of warfare in the 20th and 21st centuries, war¿s impact on American society, and the ways in which political elites have attempted to mobilize public support for foreign conflicts. Prerequisite: MDST 2000 or instructor permission. | |
| MDST 3404 | Democratic Politics in the New Media Environment (3.00) |
| This course examines the ways a changing media system is altering the dynamics of public discourse and democratic politics in the United States. Throughout the course we will critically analyze the ways in which scholars from a wide range of disciplines have studied the connection between media and politics, the methods they have employed, and the validity of their findings and approaches in the new media environment in which we now live. Prerequisite: MDST 2000 or instructor permission. | |
| MDST 3410 | Media Ethics (3.00) |
| This course provides students a familiarity with the terrain of moral philosophy, improves students' awareness of the complex ethical issues and dilemmas in journalism and other areas of mass media, and engages students in the process of critical thinking, moral reasoning and problem solving in media communications. Prerequisite: MDST 201 or instructor permission. | |
| MDST 3500 | Topics in the History of Media (3.00) |
| This course serves to fulfill the History of Media requirement in Media Studies. Topics have historical breadth and cover the historical development of media institutions, technology, or forms in areas of television, journalism, graphic media, film, print and publication history, digital media or other relevant areas. These courses may be repeated for credit if course content is sufficiently distinct to merit. Decision about repeated credit is at the discretion of the Director of Media Studies. Prerequisite: MDST 201 or instructor permission. | |
| MDST 3501 | Special Topics in Directors and Auteurs (3.00) |
| This course will offer historical, comparative, and critical perspectives on a selected major directors and auteurs each semester. Directors might include Hitchcock, Welles, Heckerling, Ray, Speilberg, Renoir, Truffaut, etc. | |
| MDST 3502 | Special Topics in Film Genre (3.00) |
| Offered Spring 2012 | This course will offer historical and critical perspectives on a selected film genre each semester. Genres might include Noir, war, romance, musicals, gangster, New Wave, etc. |
| MDST 3503 | Special Topics - Issues and Controversies in Media (3.00) |
| Offered Spring 2012 | This course will consider recent and current controversies in media and media studies. It surveys a series of "hot" topics within media. In each case it examines issues both historically and theoretically. The purpose of the course is to provide students with the tools and habits of thought to delve into the background and issues surrounding controveries so that the shallow presentation of the controversy does not remain the dominant frame. |
| MDST 3559 | New Course in Media Studies (1.00 - 4.00) |
| Offered Spring 2012 | This course provides the opportunity to offer a new couse in the subject of Media Studies. |
| MDST 3600 | Women and Television (3.00) |
| Examines how television addresses women, how it represents women, and how women respond to the medium. Explores the relationship between the female audience and television by focusing on both contemporary and historical issues. Areas of particular concern include: how women have responded to television as technology; how specific genres have targeted women; how female-focused specialty channels have addressed women; and how specific programming and genres have mediated the changing status of women from the 1950s to the present. Prerequisite: MDST 201 or instructor permission. | |
| MDST 3601 | Screening History: Media and Cultural Memory (3.00) |
| The overall goal of the course is for students to recognize the ways in which film and TV representations of history are constructed through struggles in the present. Students will evaluate different narrative and formal strategies used to remember the past for their ideological, historical, ethical and commercial implications. We will discuss the uses of the past in the present, including nostalgia and the politics of counter-memory. | |
| MDST 3610 | Film under Fascism: Ideology and Entertainment (3.00) |
| Investigates the cinema of the fascist dictatorships of Germany, Italy, and Spain, with a concentration on the 1930s-1940s. Course focuses on the ideology and aesthetics of fascist films, including their promotion of militarism and treatment of race and gender issues. Offers comparative analysis with classical Hollywood films of the same era. Course also provides an introduction to the political and cultural history of fascist regimes. | |
| MDST 3620 | World Cinema (3.00) |
| This course offers a survey of the cinemas of Europe, Africa, Central and South America, the Middle East, India, and Asia, with an introduction to the film histories and stylistic tendencies of each region. Explores classical, avant-garde, and ¿third cinema¿ aesthetics, post-colonial theory, and transnational filmmaking. Equivalent course to GETR 3620. Students in GETR section focus on comparative topics related to German film. | |
| MDST 3701 | New Media Culture (3.00) |
| Offered Spring 2012 | A survey of issues in the study of new media and of new media artifacts. Objects studied may include films with digital special effects, digital animation, digital video, video games, digital art, internet art, and others. Theories of new media, media art, media change. Taught primarily via discussion with some lectures. Short papers, class participation, final project. Prerequisite: one course in Media Studies, English, Art History, or a related discipline. |
| MDST 3702 | Computers and Languages (3.00) |
| Issues in the use of computers to study, model, create, and process language. Sustained but not exclusive attention to methods and approaches in Computational Linguistics. Discussion of programming methods; support for computer science students wanting to experiment with language projects. The use of computers in linguistics and impact of computers on language. Primarily taught via lecture with discussion. Short papers and a final project. | |
| MDST 3703 | Introduction to the Digital Liberal Arts (3.00) |
| Students will gain a practical and critical introduction to key technologies that are shaping research, innovation, and critical thinking across the liberal arts curriculum: specific technologies, including a programming language, that will empower them to better envision and develop technology-mediated projects in the arts, humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Students will reflect on the history and discourse in these areas. | |
| MDST 3800 | Guided Independent Study in Media Studies (3.00) |
| Offered Spring 2012 | Provides an opportunity for students to get credit for advanced, independent projects and field work, including extra-mural sponsored projects and internships, in the area of media studies. Students must put a proposal together for the project with a faculty sponsor, which must be approved by the add/drop deadlines. Application forms and guidelines may be obtained in the Media Studies office. Restricted to Media Studies majors. |
| MDST 3804 | Scriptwriting for Film & TV (3.00) |
| This practicum will examine the dynamics of writing for film and television and aid students in the creation and development of orignial story ideas. The course will focus on the creative aspects of writing, as well as the structural aspects within the Hollywood context. | |
| MDST 3809 | New Media in New York (3.00) |
| How do the contemporary media industries work? How did they develop in this fashion? How can an analysis of the ¿business of entertainment¿ enable a greater understanding of contemporary media aesthetics and culture? | |
| MDST 3830 | History of Film I (3.00) |
| Analyzes the development of the silent film, 1895 to 1928; emphasizes the technical and thematic links between national schools of cinema art and the contributions of individual directors. Includes weekly film screenings. | |
| MDST 3840 | History of Film II (3.00) |
| Offered Spring 2012 | Analyzes the development of film art from the inception of sound to the 1950s. Includes weekly film screenings. Pre-requisites: DRAM 2810 or 3830, or instructor permission. |
| MDST 3850 | History of Film III (3.00) |
| A history of narrative, documentary and experimental film, 1955-77. Developments in the aesthetics of film are examined in the context of socio-economic, political and cultural conditions specific to different historical moments. Includes weekly film screenings. Prerequisite: DRAM 3830, 3840, or instructor permission. | |
| MDST 4000 | Fourth-year seminar in Media Studies (3.00) |
| This course serves as a capstone experience for students in the fourth year, final semester, of the major. The course requires synthetic, collaborative work and will draw on the students' acquired experience in the electives and core courses they have completed for the major. Students will read some classic works in media theory and history as well as recent publications in the field of media studies from a variety of perspectives (academic and scholarly press, popular work, and mainstream journalism among others). They will be involved in covering an ongoing event and looking critically at its coverage in the media during the semester of the class. Assignments will have a production component and each student will play a crucial role in the creation of team-based work as well as completing individual assignments in writing and editing some form of media. Prerequisite: MDST 110, 201, and 301. | |
| MDST 4101 | Privacy & Surveillance (3.00) |
| Can we preserve dignity and privacy in the age of Facebook? This seminar will consider the history and current applications of technologies & cultures of surveillance. How & why did we get to the point where almost all of our activities leave a trace? What sorts of laws and policies do we need to protect our sense of personal integrity? Students will conduct two brief oral presentations (accompanied by a video) & produce a 20-page research paper. | |
| MDST 4102 | Qualitative Methods in Media Audience Research (3.00) |
| This course is designed to be a practical introduction to how to do audience research in the field of culturally-oriented communication study. The primary work students will be doing is to prepare research projects illustrating the in-depth application of one (or possibly multiple) methods of research employed in studying the cultural audience. | |
| MDST 4103 | Representing Violence (3.00) |
| The course will discuss the relationship between the mediation of different types of violence and the cultures of (in)justice where these representations exist. Central concerns are how different representational practices construct violence as public or private, proximate or distant, and the challenge of representing traumatic violence. | |
| MDST 4105 | Media and Citizenship (3.00) |
| This course provides a critical perspective on the relationships of media to citizenship. It asks questions central to explaining the role of media in political and national life, including the following: What notions of national and political membership are forwarded by mainstream media? What media spaces are viable for the political agency of racial, sexual, and economic minorities and how do these spaces work? | |
| MDST 4106 | Media and the Kennedy Era (3.00) |
| This course examines mass media ¿ network television, journalism, advertising, cinema ¿ both during the Kennedy years and after to explore the impact, ideas, ideals, and iconography of this presidency. | |
| MDST 4200 | Sex and Gender Go To The Movies (3.00) |
| This course will examine the ways in which different mass media help to define our cultural ideas about gender differences and the ways in which feminist scholars have responded to these definitions by criticizing existing media images and by creating some alternatives of their own. The course will examine the notion that the mass media might influence our development as gendered individuals and consider different forms of feminist theory. | |
| MDST 4301 | Global Indigenous Media (3.00) |
| Close study of contemporary media produced by members of indigenous communities worldwide. Readings in media studies, critical theory, and critical anthropology. Seminar with presentations, short papers, and a research paper. Prerequisite: one course in Media Studies, English, Anthropology, or a related discipline. | |
| MDST 4559 | New Course in Media Studies (1.00 - 4.00) |
| Offered Spring 2012 | This course provides the opportunity to offer a new course in the subject of Media Studies. |
| MDST 4700 | Theory of New Media (3.00) |
| A seminar on the theoretical study of new and/or digital media. Topics such as digital representations of history, culture, race, gender, identity, and language; the nature of new media; technological changes in media; hypertext as medium; online community. Some close readings of new media objects. Short papers, class participation, and a final paper. Prerequisite: one course in Media Studies, English, or a related discipline. | |
| MDST 4702 | Cyberculture (3.00) |
| Topics in the study of cyberspace and its cultures. Close attention to particular topics and/ or theme such as race, gender, identity, language. Close readings of films, television programs, written materials, and digital objects. Seminar. Short papers, class participation, final paper. Prerequisite: one course in Media Studies, English, or a related discipline. | |
| MDST 4703 | Technology and Media (3.00) |
| This class will explore various social, cultural, legal, and political issues that have arisen in recent years as a result of new communicative technologies. The two main technological changes that will concern us are the digitization of information and culture and the rise of networks within society and politics. | |
| MDST 4801 | Introduction to Documentary Production (3.00) |
| Focuses on the elements of documentary productions, including theory, ethics, and technologies. Along with writing assignments, student will produce their own short documentaries using mini DVD cameras and non-linear systems and non-linear editing systems. Instructor permission. | |
| MDST 4802 | Intermediate Documentary Production (3.00) |
| Offered Spring 2012 | An advanced level course that focuses on the elements and considerations that factor into documentary productions with emphasis on aspects dealing with the planning and execution of creating a documentary film. Instructor permission. |
| MDST 4900 | Media Studies Colloquium (1.00) |
| Offered Spring 2012 | This largely student-run and student-led discussion and activity seminar focuses on current issues in Media Studies. It also serves as a clearinghouse and resource-sharing space for Media Studies majors. Third and fourth year majors gather once a week in an informal environment to discuss a mutually agreed-upon topic, engage in specific projects, or listen to presentations by invited speakers or other students. |
| MDST 4960 | Advanced Independent Projects in Media Studies (3.00) |
| Offered Spring 2012 | This course is designed to allow students to pursue independent research and study of a topic that is not contained within the course offerings of Media Studies. Restricted to Media Studies majors. |
| MDST 4970 | Distinguished Majors Thesis Writing or Research Project (3.00) |
| Independent research, writing or production under the supervision of the faculty DMP thesis readers, toward the DMP thesis or project. Prerequisite: Acceptance to the Media Studies DMP. | |
| MDST 4980 | Distinguished Majors Thesis Writing or Research Project (3.00) |
| Offered Spring 2012 | Writing of a thesis or production or a project with appropriately researched documentation, under the supervision of the faculty DMP thesis readers or project supervisor. |
| MDST 7559 | New Course in Media Studies (1.00 - 4.00) |
| This course provides the opportunity to offer new topics in the subject of Media Studies. | |
| MDST 7703 | Introduction to the Digital Liberal Arts (3.00) |
| Students will gain a practical and critical introduction to key technologies that are shaping research, innovation, and critical thinking across the liberal arts curriculum: specific technologies, including a programming language, that will empower them to better envision and develop technology-mediated projects in the arts, humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Students will reflect on the history and discourse in these areas. | |
| MDST 8000 | Graduate Seminar in Media Studies (3.00) |
| This is a core course that surveys key texts in Media Studies. THe course take a histroical approach to the development of the field, but also surveys the various developments in the social sciences, the humanities, and film studies relevant to the interdisciplinary study of media. | |
| MDST 8559 | New Course in Media Studies (1.00 - 4.00) |
| This course provides the opportunity to offer new topics in the subject of Media Studies. | |