| Classes |
Undergraduate Courses:
This course assesses the impact of
promotional and commercial messages on the many spheres of modern life
including; the environmental, psychological, socio-cultural and political levels. Advertising is analyzed within the broader
context of consumer culture and understood as a form of social
communication. A range of topics from
personal and cultural practices (such as elements of personal style) to
political processes (such as the penetration of advertising and marketing in
the electoral process) are examined.
The relationship between advertising,
marketing and the mass media is also explored. The influences of marketing
practices and advertising messages on the commercial media (from mass audience
to market segmentation) is another topic covered. The ways in which
contemporary research methods (such as focus groups) shape and interact with
cultural practices including representations of gender and personal identity
are assessed. Advertising messages, their visual and textual strategies of
persuasion, are investigated through the language of images and the dynamics
between cultural icons and popular tastes.
This course examines the
role of journalism and the news media in the context of American democracy. We
explore the historical role of investigative reporting, comparing it to
contemporary news practices. Professional newsgathering techniques and cannons
of journalism are evaluated and questioned as indicators of journalistic
quality. We also look at changing media ownership structures, organization and
technology and their influences on news values. We explore the interaction
between popular culture and the news, comparing fictional narratives, myths and
genres to the reporting and framing of real events. The blurring of boundaries
between hard and soft news, serious news and the tabloidization of nonfiction
in general will be assessed in light of issues of public perception, cynicism
and political apathy. In addition, we track cultural portrayals of journalists
(often depicted as either heroes or villains in films) to better understand
their social identities and the public’s perception of the role of journalists
and the press.
Reasons for the variety
of government, economic and self-censorship will be explored in historical,
contemporary and global contexts. We profile significant voices in American
journalism, including “the muckrakers” whose work has influenced democratic
practice and public policy. We look at reporters who challenge abuses of power
in other countries. The significance of First Amendment guarantees is assessed
in the context of the current decline in democratic information systems and
other challenges to freedom of the press. Such patterns are compared to the
potential and actual role of the Internet on news reporting, and the role of
the alternative press in American Democracy.
This course analyzes the ways in which
the media document, represent and discuss issues relating to the topics of
peace and justice. Film, television, radio and print formats will be assessed.
We examine the media treatment of issues such as environmental and economic
justice, poverty and the poor, race and gender, violence, war and peace. The
media, as the primary forum for public information, debate and representation,
are evaluated according to their role in promoting or hindering democratic
practices, peace and social justice. Mainstream media’s treatment of peace and
justice issues is compared to that of independent and community media practices
and content. News and feature formats, as well as entertainment and other
genres will be analyzed.
We also
look at media coverage of political campaigns to evaluate the role the media
play in representative electoral democracy.
This course looks at the
representation of gender across a broad range of media genres, formats and
programming. The ways in which gender has been described and depicted,
celebrated and denigrated historically grounds our discussion of gender
representations. We assume that gender is a sociocultural as well as biological
set of categories. We analyze the ways in which gender is connected to economic
and social power and status, and examine how the category is inscribed as a
cultural practice and social norm.
Deconstructing cultural and media
texts is anchored to theoretical discussions that tie gender concepts to
popular culture and the social structures. We will look at a number of
different TV programs, past and present, nonfiction texts, films, magazines and
popular music to understand the ways in which gender is constructed as a social
and cultural value and the way it may influence taste cultures and social
sensibilities. The meaning of transgressing gender categories as cultural
practice and media depictions will be explored as possible methods for social
change and challenges to market-driven formulations.
Graduate Courses:
How many different ways can we
critique an Ad? Many! Advertising has been called the Art of Late Capitalism.
Is it Art? What’s the difference between the two? They are both aesthetic
cultural artifacts. Do advertisements offer the consumer information, as
industry professionals claim, or do they use the “soft sell,” appealing to our
desires for fulfilling interpersonal relationships and an overall sense of
pleasure and well-being? How are these emotional states connected to the
products sold? Why are products absent from much advertising copy and the
visual imagery associated with the commodity form? Is the postmodern landscape
of consumer culture ultimately fulfilling or does it create anxiety,
discontent, invidious comparison and false identities?
How has the commodity form
transformed our ways of thinking about the world? Do we know where the products
we purchase come from, the conditions under which they are made, or the
consequences they have on the environment? What are the persuasive techniques
used to make the sell and connect emotional desire to products? How do research
techniques mine the interior landscape of the consumer, finding pathways of
persuasion that promise fulfillment? We’ll try to answer some of these
questions, and ask a few more.
This course is an examination of the
most direct form of political communication, the electoral campaign. We explore
the role of the media in political campaigns for the presidency. Topics covered
included, the “polispot” together with, negative advertising, as well as
broader uses of media by campaign strategists. The “earned,” or “free” media,
and the “new” media are defined and explored. In addition, media strategies
such as “resonance” and “Intertextuality” are understood as rhetorical
political techniques. Wider campaign
strategies including political marketing, media buying and voter segmentation,
as well as other campaign issues are covered, such as the transformations and
political debates and conventions in the age of media and commercial politics.
The role the political campaign plays in the
broader field of democratic practice is evaluated in light of persuasive media
strategies. The effects that media campaigns have on politics and governance
are also assessed. The practices and effectiveness of political rhetoric,
symbolic strategies and visual persuasions are evaluated from discursive and
ethical perspectives.
This
course traces the uses of persuasive techniques from the Greeks to contemporary
media marketing strategies. A variety of theoretical approaches to persuasion
are studied, beginning with the early development of rhetorical devices, to
social psychological models, including more recent psycho-cultural appeals to
identity and social stature. The role
of the mass media in the development of contemporary propaganda and persuasion
is also examined, including verbal, nonverbal and visual modes of mediated
communication. Persuasive techniques employed during the development of 20th
Century propaganda campaigns are viewed across the range of media, covering
topics from war propaganda to the ideological battles for state power and
control.
The
development of propaganda and persuasion in the contemporary media environment
are understood within the contexts of media technology and ownership, the uses
of sophisticated symbolic strategies, and the broader cultural and social
milieu. Effects of propaganda and persuasion on belief systems, cultural attitudes
and opinions, social formations and consumption patterns are assessed. A number
of case studies will be used to illustrate persuasive/propaganda campaigns both
past and present: from WW I to the Gulf War, from corporate image making to
electoral politics, including the rhetorical and mystified language about
poverty, race and prejudice.