Understanding Media Contexts (230-0-70)

Instructors

Kirsten Pike

Meeting Info

Northwestern Qatar Room 2-256: Tues, Su 3:20PM - 5:00PM (AST)

Overview of class

This course introduces students to ways of analyzing the social, cultural, economic, and political contexts in which people produce and consume media, especially television. Surveying foundational scholarship in television and media studies, the class examines a range of critical approaches, including aesthetic/formal analysis, narrative criticism, ideological analysis, political economy, and audience reception. Working to advance their analytical skills, students will practice using these approaches to examine issues of style, form, ideology, and identity (e.g., representations of race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, and national identity) in a range of historical and contemporary television shows, commercials, and online videos. American television will be taken up as our primary object of study, but students will have opportunities to explore non-American TV shows in their own work. Ultimately, the goals of the course are: 1) to acquaint students with a range of critical and methodological tools for analyzing the production, reception, and cultural meanings of television; and 2) to strengthen and expand students' understanding of diverse TV content, contexts, and convergences at different times in history.

Registration Requirements

• Prerequisites: None


• Open to Sophomores and above


• Open for Cross-Registration


• Satisfies Media & Politics Minor

Enrollment Requirements

Enrollment Requirements: Registration is reserved for sophomore, juniors, and seniors only.