This course is an in-depth survey of the major works and thinkers of Mass Communications and Culture Studies of the 20th and 21st Centuries. We read and discuss key works – mostly key essays but sometime significant book excerpts – by Walter Benjamin, Max Weber, George Orwell, Marshall McLuhan, the “Manchester School” of mass communications, Stuart Hall, Toni Morrison, Raymond Williams, Janice Radway, Wilbur Schramm, Harold Lasswell, Adrienne Rich, and others. We pack a lot of ideas and actions into the concise space of our course.
Objectives
Each student has to give a long class presentation on the ideas and effects of a key figure of modern mass communications. The objective is to understand and communicate to everyone in the class the particular significance of this thinker. Sometimes this relates to government policy, sometimes this relates to the progress of theoretical perspectives, at times this is the study of a specific historical moment and a vision of the future from the brilliant insights of an informed past (as in the works of Walter Benjamin or George Orwell). Our work also tries to educate the student in soft power as a practical force used by corporations and government. Our work deals with practical social issues of race and gender, class and upward mobility in US and western European civilizations of the 20th and 21st centuries.
This course is a mix of student presentations, lectures given by the professor, and class seminar-style discussions. Grades are equally distributed between class discussion, a short, sharp final exam, and the quality of the oral presentation.
Assessment and Final Grade
Not much more to provide here except to reiterate that this course is a mix of student presentations, lectures given by the professor, and class seminar-style discussions. Grades are equally distributed between class discussion, a short, sharp final exam, and the quality of the
oral presentation.
Course Requirements
As noted, the student who takes this class has to be at ICP’s M1 or M2 level, “Masters Research” OR “MastersPro”. This would be equivalent to a first- or second-year US or UK grad course.
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