Credits: 3
Prerequisites: None
Corequisites: None
This course examines what media are and what they do; how specific media technologies affect democratic discourse; how media shape narratives of class, race, ethnicity and gender; the long-running conflict between information and propaganda, and how media conglomerates came to wield such enormous power in modern society.
Learning Objectives
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
- Understand the origins, architecture, and role of the mass media as a cohesive system in modern society.
- Analyze how each new technology has framed our understanding of the world, even the “way” we learn.
- Assess how repeated battles over media narratives were shaped by technological innovation, government communications policy, racial, ethnic, gender and class conflicts, and wars and domestic upheaval.
- Identify important lessons from mass media history that are key to understanding the enormous power media exert on society today.
- Document and discuss the main challenges our current media system poses to personal liberty and privacy, democratic rule, and racial, economic and social justice.