COMM 329 Media Criticism
Students in this class will learn, interrogate and enact major humanities-based approaches to analysis of media texts. Class readings will be comprised of key scholarship in the fields of mass culture theory, semiotics, ideological criticism, psychoanalytic criticism, gender criticism, and critical race theory. Students will apply and challenge media criticism theories through screenings and discussion in class and out of class writing assignments in which they apply these theories and adopt critical stances about media texts. Examples will be drawn from across the media landscape, including but not limited to: film, television, web-based media, advertising, popular music, and popular literature. Through this course and its research and writing projects, students investigate the ways in which theories of media criticism reveal how media texts are created, how they are received, how they can be read and interpreted, and how they contribute to larger cultural narratives and have societal impact.