Courses ofInstruction
Media and Society
Program Faculty
Rebecca Burditt, Media and Society
Christine Chin, Studio Art
Jiangtao Harry Gu, Media and Society
Charity Lofthouse, Music
Kirin Makker, American Studies
Michelle Martin-Baron, Gender, Sexuality, and Intersectional Justice
Nicola Minott-Ahl, English and Creative Writing
Robinson Murphy, Environmental Studies
Lisa Patti, Media and Society
Ben Ristow, Writing and Rhetoric
Leah Shafer, Media and Society
William Waller, Economics
Kristin Welsh, Russian Area Studies
Iskandar Zulkarnain, Media and Society
HWS was among the first liberal arts colleges in the country to offer a major in media studies in 1996. From its inception, the Media and Society Program has offered a highly innovative, original, and interdisciplinary degree that combines media production and analysis. Students in the program explore the relationship between media and society through a flexible, customizable curriculum that matches their academic and professional interests. The Media and Society Program helps students to develop the skills necessary for living and working in the 21st century. Students emerge from the program able to respond creatively and pivot quickly when faced with technological, institutional, economic, or social disruptions and challenges.
Mission Statement
Through a distinctively liberal arts and interdisciplinary approach to media studies, the Media and Society Program prepares students to produce and analyze media in a wide range of forms. By studying the media practices of states, corporations, activists, artists, and communities, we explore the connections between media and society, empowering students to question how media texts shape, and are shaped by, their material, socio-political, and cultural contexts. Our practice-based curriculum provides hands-on experience and equips students to adapt to technological transformations. Based in Upstate New York, we invite students to engage the region’s rich histories in media and technology, while connecting them with emerging ideas and practices through our global education and professional development programs. We cultivate a nuanced and empathetic understanding of media’s relation to power and social inequalities.
Offerings
The Media and Society Program offers an interdisciplinary major and minor.
Media and Society Major (B.A.)
interdisciplinary, 12 courses, plus language competency
Learning Objectives:
- Deploy key media studies vocabularies, theories, and methodologies in order to analyze media objects within their aesthetic, material, socio-political, and cultural contexts.
- Critically reflect upon their own encounters with media and power.
- Produce persuasive critical arguments in written, visual, oral, and interactive formats.
- Design engaging media texts in print and digital formats, including articles, films, photographs, podcasts, games, and websites.
- Encode and decode media messages, drawing on robust digital media and information literacy skills to navigate an increasingly complex information ecosystem.
- Serve their communities as informed citizens by challenging media that reflect and enforce social inequities and by producing and promoting media that advance social justice.
Requirements:
Media and Society majors explore three core areas—theory, history, and production—and choose a selection of electives that reflect their interests. Majors are required to complete cognate courses in global history and social consciousness, and social or political theory. Majors are required to take one semester of a foreign language. The major culminates with a required capstone course. All courses to be counted for the major must be taken for a letter grade and completed with a grade of C- or better. The complete list of requirements for the major is:
- MDSC 100 Introduction to Media and Society
- MDSC 400 Senior Seminar
- In addition to MDSC 100 and 400, students must take at least four other MDSC classes (or approved equivalents). Course equivalents are determined by the Program Committee and are indicated by an (eq) in the cross-listings.
- One course in each of three core competencies.
- Five electives; two must be MDSC courses or equivalents.
- Two cognate courses. A cognate course is one that supports the study in the major but is not a course in mass media or the arts. One cognate course must be in global history and social consciousness. The second cognate course must be a social or political theory course.
- Only two transfer or two courses from a program abroad may be counted toward the major.
Media and Society majors are also required to complete one college-level course in a foreign language or the equivalent. Students who have studied a foreign language in secondary school may have met this requirement; students for whom English is a second language may have met this requirement; students with a certified statement from a counselor or physician that a learning disability prevents them from learning a foreign language may petition for a waiver. Students should consult with their advisor about this requirement.
Media and Society Minor
interdisciplinary, 6 courses
Requirements:
MDSC 100; one course in the study of the cultural history of the fine arts or mass media; one course in critical analysis or media theory; and three additional courses drawn from approved electives, one of which must be in the creative arts if not already included. At least two courses, not counting MDSC 100, must be MDSC courses or approved equivalents. All courses to be counted for the minor must be taken for a letter grade and completed with a grade of C- or better. Only one transfer or one program abroad course may be counted toward the minor.
Approved Courses
The Media and Society Program draws upon courses offered in several different departments. Cross-listed courses listed below may be withdrawn by contributing departments for various reasons and new courses offered in departments may be accepted for the Media and Society major or minor. Certain cross-listed courses are MDSC equivalents; these are determined by the Program Committee. Listed below are the types of courses acceptable to fulfill the requirements, but students may consult their advisors to discuss other potentially suitable courses.
Core Competencies
Majors are required to take one course in each of three core competency areas. Minors are required to take one course from Core Competency 2 and one from Core Competency 3. The same course may be listed under more than one competency; but one course cannot be used to satisfy more than one of the core competencies numbered 1 to 3 below.
Core Competency 1: Techniques of Performance and Creativity (majors choose one):
MDSC 130 Intro to Global Animation
MDSC 200 Cultures of Advertising
MDSC 309 Media Industries and Alternatives
MDSC 312 The Art of Experimental Cinema
MDSC 315 Documentary Production for Social Change
MDSC 317 Branding as Cultural Practice
MDSC 319 Listening to the Finger Lakes
MDSC 333 Global Video Games
MDSC 390 The Video Essay
MDSC 415 Advanced Social Documentary
Cross-listed:
AMST 202 Drawing for Study and Storytelling
AMST 349 Gender, Space, and Narrative Reparations
ARCH 110 Intro to Architectural Studies
ARTS Any studio art course
ASN 103 Intro to Asian Art
BIDS 390 The Video Essay (eq)
DAN 100 Introduction to Dance
DAN 101 Introduction to Dance: Body & Self
DAN 102 Introduction to Modern Dance
DAN 107 Introduction to Jamaican Dance
DAN 110 Introduction to Dances of the African Diaspora
DAN 200 Dance Composition I
DAN 210 Dance History I
DAN 212 Dance History II
DAN 214 20th Century Dance History
DAN 230 Community Arts: Activism Embodied
DAN 250 Dance Improvisation
DAN 300 Dance Composition II
DAN 314 Dance Criticism: Embodied Writing
DAN 900 Series (full credit taken for a letter grade)
ENG Any creative writing course
MUS 120 How Music Works
MUS 400 Orchestration
SPN 231 Spanish for the Professions
THTR 130 Acting I
THTR 160 Introduction to Stagecraft
THTR 280 Stage Management
THTR 330 Acting II
THTR 340 Advanced Acting Styles
THTR 360 Introduction to Lighting Design
THTR 361 Sound Design for the Theatre
THTR 370 Playwriting Workshop
GSIJ 301 Visualizing Oral History
WRRH 210 Intro to Print Journalism
WRRH 219 Sports Writing
WRRH 311 Intro to Publishing
WRRH 328 Small Book Publishing
WRRH 330 New Media: Theory and Production
WRRH 333 Digital Rhetoric and Writing with New Technologies
Core Competency 2: Critical Analysis or Media Theory (majors choose one):
MDSC 101 Information & Influence: Digital Media Literacies
MDSC 120 Intro to Global Television
MDSC 130 Intro to Global Animation
MDSC 200 Cultures of Advertising
MDSC 203 History of US Television
MDSC 208 American Cinema
MDSC 303 History of the Social Documentary
MDSC 304 Media and Theory
MDSC 309 Media Industries and Alternatives
MDSC 313 Global Cinema
MDSC 317 Branding as Cultural Practice
MDSC 322 Stardom
MDSC 329 Global Musicals
MDSC 333 Global Video Games
Cross-listed:
AFS 219 Beyond Colonialism: North African Cinema and Literature
AMST 312 Critical Space, Theory and Practice
AMST 330 Digital Humanities
AMST 349 Gender, Space, and Narrative Reparation
ANTH 115 Language and Culture
ARTH 214 Introduction to Museum Studies
ASN 342 Chinese Cinema
BIDS 390 The Video Essay (eq)
ENG 287 Jane Austen in Film (eq)
ENG 301 Cultural Theory and Popular Culture
ENG 335 Fashioning Identity: Clothing, Character, and Social Mobility in 19th Century British Literature
ENV 360 Environmental Afrofuturism
FRN 241 Prises de Vue
FRNE 219 North African Cinema and Literature
FRNE 254 French and Francophone Cinema
ITA 204 Italian Cinema
MUS 205 Music at the Movies (eq)
MUS 214 Music Criticism in Theory and Practice
PHIL 220 Semiotics
PHIL 230 Aesthetics
PHIL 260 Mind and Language
PHIL 350 Theories of Reality
SPNE 226 Screen Latinos
SPNE 308 Latin American Cinema
WRRH 250 Talk and Text: Introduction to Discourse Analysis
WRRH 315 The Rhetoric of Memory
WRRH 333 Digital Rhetoric and Writing with New Technologies
Core Competency 3: Cultural History of the Fine Arts or Mass Media (majors choose one):
MDSC 120 Intro to Global Television
MDSC 130 Intro to Global Animation
MDSC 200 Cultures of Advertising
MDSC 203 History of US Television
MDSC 208 American Cinema
MDSC 303 History of the Social Documentary
MDSC 309 Media Industries and Alternatives
MDSC 313 Global Cinema
MDSC 317 Branding as Cultural Practice
MDSC 322 Stardom
MDSC 329 Global Musicals
MDSC 333 Global Video Games
Cross-listed:
AFS 219 Beyond Colonialism: North African Cinema and Literature
AMST 349 Gender, Space, and Narrative Reparation
ARTH Any art history course
ASN 342 Chinese Cinema
DAN 210 Dance History I
DAN 212 Dance History II
DAN 214 20th Century Dance History
ENG 209 Graphic Novels/Graphic Forms
ENG 310 Power, Desire, Literature
ENG 353 Media in Early America
EUST 101 Foundations of European Studies I
EUST 102 Foundations of European Studies II
FRNE 219 North African Cinema and Literature
FRNE 254 French and Francophone Cinema
FRNE 395 Race in the 18th Century French Culture
GERE 104 German Cinema
GERE 214 Berlin, a Cultural Biography
GSIJ 218 Queer Representations in Theatre and Film
ITA 204 Italian Cinema
MUS 190 History of Rock and Roll
MUS 202 History of Western Art and Music: Medieval and Renaissance
MUS 203 History of Western Art and Music: Baroque and Classical
MUS 204 History of Western Art and Music: Romantic and Modern
MUS 205 Music at the Movies (eq)
MUS 207 Big Band to Bossa, Bop to Blues: A History of Jazz
MUS 209 Women in Music
MUS 210 American Musical Theatre
MUS 211 Science, History & the Art of Video Game Music
MUS 215 Music and Race in American Popular Culture
RUSE 204 Russian Film (eq)
SPN 226 Screen Latinos
SPN 308 Latin American Cinema
SPN 340 Spanish Cinema
THTR 100 Page to Stage
THTR 220 Theatre History I
THTR 290 Theatre for Social Change
THTR 300 American Drama
THTR 308 American Experimental Theatres
THTR 309 Feminist Theatre
THTR 310 African American Theatre
THTR 314 European Drama
THTR 320 Theatre History II
GSIJ 218 Queer Representations in Theatre and Film
Majors choose five electives from the list below. Minors choose any three courses from the following as electives, one of which must be in the creative arts.
Electives
MDSC 050 Teaching Assistant
MDSC 101 Information and Influence: Digital Media Literacies
MDSC 120 Intro to Global Television
MDSC 130 Intro to Global Animation
MDSC 200 Cultures of Advertising
MDSC 203 History of US Television
MDSC 208 American Cinema
MDSC 303 History of the Social Documentary
MDSC 304 Media and Theory
MDSC 309 Media Industries & Alternatives
MDSC 312 The Art of Experimental Cinema
MDSC 313 Global Cinema
MDSC 315 Documentary Production for Social Change
MDSC 317 Branding as Cultural Practice
MDSC 319 Listening to the Finger Lakes
MDSC 322 Stardom
MDSC 329 Global Musicals
MDSC 333 Global Video Games
MDSC 390 The Video Essay
MDSC 415 Advanced Documentary
MDSC 495/496 Honors
Cross-listed:
AFS 219 Beyond Colonialism: North African Cinema and Literature
AFS 312 Digital Africana Studies
AMST 202 Drawing for Study and Storytelling
AMST 312 Critical Space, Theory, and Practice
AMST 330 Digital Humanities
AMST 349 Gender, Space, and Narrative Reparations
ANTH 115 Language and Culture
ARCH 110 Introduction to Architectural Studies
ARTH Any art history course
ARTS Any studio art course
ASN 103 Introduction to Asian Art
ASN 305 Showa Through the Silver Screen
ASN 342 Chinese Cinema
BIDS 390 The Video Essay (eq)
CMST 214 Introduction to Museum Studies
DAN 100 Introduction to Dance
DAN 101 Introduction to Dance: Body and Self
DAN 102 Introduction to Modern Dance
DAN 107 Introduction to Jamaican Dance
DAN 110 Introduction to Dances of the African Diaspora
DAN 200 Dance Composition I
DAN 210 Dance History I
DAN 212 Dance History II
DAN 214 20th Century Dance History
DAN 230 Community Arts: Activism Embodied
DAN 250 Dance Improvisation
DAN 300 Dance Composition II
DAN 314 Dance Criticism: Embodied Writing
DAN 900 Series (full credit taken for a letter grade)
ENG Any creative writing course
ENG 185 From Novel to Film
ENG 201 The MCU (in Theory)
ENG 209 Graphic Novels/Graphic Forms
ENG 287 Jane Austen in Film
ENG 301 Cultural Theory and Popular Culture
ENG 310 Gender and Power in Literature
ENG 353 Media in Early America
EUST 101 Foundations of European Studies I: Antiquity to the Renaissance
EUST 102 European Studies II
FRN 241 Prises de Vue
FRNE 219 North African Cinema and Literature
FRNE 254 French and Francophone Cinema
FRNE 255 Modern French Theatre
FRNE 395 Race in 18th Century French Culture
GERE 104 German Cinema
GERE 214 Berlin, a Cultural Biography
GSIJ 150 Introduction to Chicana Feminism and Visual Culture
GSIJ 218 Queer Representations in Theatre and Film
GSIJ 301 Trans Studies
ITA 204 Italian Cinema
MUS 120 How Music Works
MUS 190 History of Rock and Roll
MUS 202 History of Western Art and Music: Medieval and Renaissance
MUS 203 History of Western Art and Music: Baroque and Classical
MUS 204 History of Western Art and Music: Romantic and Modern
MUS 205 Music at the Movies
MUS 207 Big Band to Bossa, Bop to Blues: A History of Jazz
MUS 209 Women in Music
MUS 210 American Musical Theatre
MUS 211 Science, History & Art of Video Game Music
MUS 214 Music Criticism in Theory and Practice
MUS 215 Music and Race in American Popular Culture
MUS 216 Musics of Asia
MUS 217 Folk & Traditional Music of Africa & America
PHIL 220 Semiotics
PHIL 230 Aesthetics
PHIL 260 Mind and Language
PHIL 350 Theories of Reality
RUSE 137 Vampires: From Vlad to Buffy
RUSE 204 Russian Film (eq)
SPN 225 Hispanic Media
SPNE 308 Latin American Cinema
THTR Any theatre course
WRRH 210 Introduction to Print Journalism
WRRH 219 Sports Writing
WRRH 250 Talk and Text
WRRH 309 Talk and Text II
WRRH 311 Introduction to Publishing
WRRH 320 Op-Ed
WRRH 327 Literary Journalism
WRRH 328 Small Book Publishing
WRRH 330 New Media Writing
WRRH 333 Digital Rhetoric and Writing with New Technologies
Cognate Courses
Social or Political Theory:
(majors choose one; none of these courses can be counted for the minor)
ANTH 110 Intro to Cultural Anthropology
ANTH 316 Visual Anthropology
BIDS 200 Dialogues in Critical Social Studies
ECON 120 Introduction to Economics
ECON 122 Economics of Caring
ECON 230 History of Economic Thought
EDUC 370 Multiculturalism
ENG 304 Feminist Literary Theory
GSIJ 100 Introduction to Women’s Studies
GSIJ 300 Feminist Theory
INRL 180 Introduction to International Relations
PHIL 152 Philosophy and Feminism
POL 160 Introduction to Political Theory
POL 175 Introduction to Feminist Theory
POL 212 Media and Politics
POL 265 Modern Political Theory
POL 267 Twentieth Century Political Theory
POL 289 American Political Thought
REL 105 Religion, Peace, and Democracy
REL 236 Gender and Islam
REL 255 Peace and Violence in the Qur’an
REL 335 Jihad
REL 236 Gender and Islam
REL 271 The Holocaust
REL 272 Sociology of the American Jew
REL 371 Responses to the Holocaust
SOC 100 Introduction to Sociology
SOC 221 Race and Ethnic Relations
SOC 222 Social Change
SOC 226 Sociology of Sex and Gender
SOC 228 Social Conflicts
SOC 249 Technology and Society
SOC 256 Power and Powerlessness
SOC 257 Political Sociology
SOC 258 Social Problems
SOC 259 Social Movements
SOC 260 Sociology of Human Nature
SOC 375 Social Policy
GSIJ 100 Introduction to Women’s Studies
GSIJ 300 Feminist Theory
Global History and Social Consciousness:
(majors choose one; none of these courses can be counted for the minor)
AFS 115 Demythologizing Race: A Re-Education of Difference
AMST 100 History of American Culture
AMST 101 Myths and Paradoxes
AMST 206 America through Russian Eyes
AMST 353 Russian-American Writers
ANTH 222 Native American Religions
ANTH 354/454 Food, Voice, Meaning
ASN 125 Japan: Supernatural Beings
GLS 101 Intro to Global Studies
GLS 201 Global Cultural Literacies
SIJ 100 Introduction to Women’s Studies
GSIJ 204 Politics of Health
GSIJ 215 Feminism and Psychoanalysis
GSIJ 220 The Body Politic
GSIJ 243 Gender, Sex, and Science
GSIJ 300 Feminist Theory
GSIJ 305 Food, Feminism, and Health
GSIJ 362 Topics in Feminist Health
HIST 105 Intro to the American Experience
HIST 111 Soccer Around the World
HIST 208 Women in American History
HIST 215 American Urban History
HIST 227 African American History I
HIST 228 African American History II
HIST 234 History of American Thought from 1865 to Present
HIST 240 History of Immigration and Ethnicity in America
HIST 246 American Environmental History
HIST 250 Medieval Popular Culture
HIST 258 Transformation of Rural America
HIST 306 Civil War and Reconstruction: 1845-1877
HIST 310 Rise of Industrial America
HIST 311 20th Century America: 1917-1941
HIST 340 Faulkner and History
INRL 140 Intro to Comparative World Politics
INRL 180 Intro to International Relations
INRL 380 Theories of International Relations
POL 110 Introduction to American Politics
POL 289 American Political Thought
REL 108 Religion and Alienation
REL 109 Imagining American Religions
REL 236 Gender & Islam
REL 237 Christianity and Culture
RUSE 101 Blood and Ice: Russian Empires
RUSE 112 Dangerous Words: Russian Literature and Society
RUSE 203 Russian Prison Literature
RUSE 206 America through Russian Eyes
RUSE 208 Fantastika
RUSE 251/351 Sexuality, Power and Creativity
RUSE 353/AMST 353 Russian-American Writers
WRRH 364 Suffrage and Citizenship in American Discourse
WRRH 365 Feminist Rhetorics
Course Descriptions
MDSC 100 Introduction to Media and Society This course provides an introduction to various media and their modes, methods, and themes. We will explore the role of the media in shaping social consciousness, global economies, and material culture. Examples drawn from film, television, print media, and digital environments will be contextualized, analyzed, and theorized as crucial elements of our media culture. Students will gain an appreciation for the social, cultural, economic, and political influences of global communications while performing close readings of conventional media objects. Writing assignments, exams, and projects will help to cement insights gained through close investigation of films, TV shows, advertisements, video games, music videos, and more.
MDSC 101 Information and Influence: Digital Media Literacies Information and Influence: Digital Media Literacies teaches strategies for critically apprehending the cultural, economic, technological, and political factors that shape our media-saturated culture. Students in this course will investigate a wide range of media objects including newspapers, magazines, TV shows, documentaries, podcasts, apps, newsletters, and memes. Learning how to assess the reliability and cultural context of the information that we encounter will be a focus of the class. Students will analyze and explore the repackaging of legacy media broadcasts for streaming networks and other online platforms, the proliferation of misinformation on social media, the structures and effects of influencer culture, algorithmic biases, and, the emergence of new outlets for independent, non-profit, and community journalism, among other subjects. This course highlights the acquisition of media production skills, such as creating content and applications as key strategies for developing diverse media literacies.
MDSC 120 Introduction to Global Television What role does television play in forming and connecting local, national, and global communities? How are television shows adapted from one country to another? What decisions inform the process of translating a television show through subtitles or dubbing for an international audience? How has the rise of global streaming services impacted how television shows are produced, distributed, and accessed? What role do scholars play in analyzing and archiving the global television landscape, and what resources and methodologies guide our analysis of television on a global scale? This course investigates the production, distribution, and reception of global television. We examine contemporary television shows from over a dozen global regions, exploring the differences between and among: local and regional television industries and cultures; television industries and film and other media industries; and broadcast, cable, satellite, and streaming television platforms. We explore practices of transnational adaptation, formatting, translation, marketing, and criticism.
MDSC 130 Intro to Global Animation This course will introduce students to the global culture of animation. Students will learn fundamental methods and approaches to analyze animation as an object and a culture through case studies and hands-on approaches. Overall, this course will help students to understand and appreciate the circulation of animation as a global media culture.
MDSC 200 Cultures of Advertising Advertising is among the most pervasive forms of cultural representation in our global society. In this course, we approach advertisements as economic, aesthetic, and ideological forces whose analysis reveals crucial information about cultural attitudes and ideologies of their time and place. We will study the industrial and aesthetic history of advertising by analyzing advertising campaigns as well as their strategies, themes, and practices. Our materials will be drawn from both corporate and non-profit campaigns, global and local campaigns, and from anti-consumerist actions and other resistant practices. Our work will cover diverse media, including: print culture, television, film trailers, mobile marketing, social networking sites, and new media branding and marketing campaigns.
MDSC 203 History of US Television An in-depth look at television history, from TV's theoretical beginnings to its current incarnation as a turbulent mirror for "reality," this course critically examines television texts and criticism of the medium as entertainment, and as a contested force in social and cultural practices. Students consider significant technical and aesthetic shifts in programming, and arguments about the negotiation of race, ethnicity, class, and gender in TV. While some attention is paid to other national industries, the chief focus of the course is on television in the United States and western hemisphere.
MDSC 208 American Cinema American Cinema is an historical survey of the Hollywood studio system from its formation in 1914 to the present. It also surveys the complex, fluid interrelationships between the nonprofit and for profit sectors of the film industry by exploring documentary and experimental work. The course analyzes ways that the economic practices, organizational structures, management hierarchies, marketing strategies, exhibition strategies, labor issues, and aesthetic formations of the studio system, documentary, and experimental film have changed over different historical periods and formations. The course investigates the rise of Hollywood, the golden age of the studio system, the advent of the Production Code, the relationship between Hollywood and the US government during the second World War, the Paramount decree and the break up of the studio system, the rise of the New Hollywood, the development of global Hollywood, and the corporatization of 'independent' cinema in the 1980s and l990s. The course explores how Hollywood, documentary and experimental film are intertwined.
MDSC 303 History of the Social Documentary Photography and moving images have been used to enlighten those who do not suffer to the lives of those who do, to forward social change, and to influence social policy, sometimes progressively and sometimes not. This course examines visual social documentary's influence, largely confined to consideration of American social documentarians, including influence of photographers of immigrants' conditions in major cities during the early 20th century; government-sponsored documentation of rural Americans' lives during the Great Depression; and documentary films which have shaped social conscience from consciousness.
MDSC 304 Media and Theory This course provides an in-depth study of media forms and their modes, methods, and themes. We will explore the role of media in shaping social consciousness, material culture, and the experience of modern life. We will survey key theoretical works in media studies and cultural studies by reading them along with primary documents such as film texts, radio broadcasts, television programs, magazine and newspaper articles, soundtracks, digital environments, and more. Consumer attitudes, narrative forms, artistic practices, and modes of production will be investigated for their ideological underpinnings.
MDSC 309 Media Industries and Alternatives At the end of a film, television show, or other media text, a credit sequence may list hundreds of individuals and companies. What roles do they play? How do changing economic conditions, labor practices, federal and state policies, new technologies, and consumer habits influence their work? How do media industries affect us as consumers and citizens? This course analyzes multiple contemporary media industries in the US (including film, television, streaming, social media, gaming, journalism, and marketing) and their points of intersection. We explore the impact of digitization, globalization, and corporate consolidation on the production, promotion, distribution, and reception of media, examining the roles of various institutions (including studios, networks, publishers, platforms, and unions) and individuals (including executives, directors, writers, publicists, agents, critics, and activists). Our case studies, drawn from recent and emerging media trends and issues, focus on the social inequalities generated, sustained, or challenged by the media industries. Students collect and analyze data that reflect current patterns of representation in the media industries and draft original policy proposals in response. Throughout the semester, we learn from alumni working in the media industries who share their perspectives during visits to our classes.
MDSC 312 The Art of Experimental Cinema This course introduces students to the philosophies and techniques of experimental and avant-garde cinema. Through practice, students will explore alternative forms of storytelling, cinematography, and editing techniques. The intersections between film/video and other art forms such as painting, dance and photography will be part of this introduction. Students will also examine major movements in experimental/avant-garde cinema such as structuralism, post-structuralism, feminist, queer, and radical Black trends to approach the art of film-making as a socially and critically informed practice.
MDSC 313 Global Cinema This course investigates contemporary global cinema, charting the boundaries of the term global cinema as a critical and industrial framework. What is global cinema? Why do some films circulate internationally while others remain fixed within national or regional cultures? How have new media modes of distribution like instant streaming shaped global cinema? Through a focus on the politics and economics of film distribution, we will explore global cinema and its intersections with various national cinemas, including the cinemas of the US, Italy, India, China, Mexico, Japan, Senegal, Iran, Peru, and Canada, among others. We will consider the impact of international film festivals, trade policies, immigration, transnational stardom, piracy, translation, and censorship on contemporary global cinema.
MDSC 315 Documentary Production for Social Change As documentary scholar Patricia Zimmermann once proclaimed, "documentary is not simply a genre." It is instead a conceptual practice that offers us strategies to think about how the world is organized and to imagine how we might organize it differently. More than passively "documenting" what reality is, documentary media has a unique power to challenge the status quo and to affect social change. Based on these premises, this course introduces students to the documentarian's toolkit through skills training in participatory ethnography, interviewing, proposal/grant writing, editing, promotion, community-based research and action. Students will learn to produce works of documentary across analog and digital forms. Taught as a method and practice-based course, students will also debate and interrogate the ethics of documentary in contexts such as anthropology, public education, propaganda, activism, and art. (Offered biannually)
MDSC 317 Branding as Cultural Practice Recent studies show that American children can identify 1000+ brand logos but not even 10 types of plant. How has our environment become so saturated with brands? And what are the cultural, economic, interpersonal, and ecological effects of brand ubiquity? In this course, we will interrogate the ways that brands have become structuring elements of our everyday lives. Students will study the cultural and historical practices of branding by analyzing a range of brand examples from Spike Lee’s Air Jordan commercials to Ikea’s AR application to virtual influencers like Lil Miquela and Guggimon. Readings and screenings will contextualize the various histories and uses of branding as culture including, but not limited to, branding: as a manufacturing practice; as an expression of identity-based political movements; as a material example of economic systems; as a tool for propaganda; and, as a tool for activism. Project-based activities that engage televisual aesthetics, print media, and augmented reality will provide opportunities for practicing design thinking.
MDSC 319 Listening to the Finger Lakes This course introduces students to the principles of audio storytelling and production while immersed in the Finger Lakes region. We will consider Indigenous ecologist and poet Robin Wall Kimmerer's idea of "re-story-ation" and her argument that we can heal our relationship with our planet if we learn to hear its stories. We will collaborate with community members (Indigenous, local, or immigrant) to create a four-episode podcast about the Finger Lakes area. Each episode will take the form of a hike and chat with the invited guest through a nearby state park, farm, or conservation area, in the woods and meadows, along the lakes and streams. In producing this podcast, we will also examine concepts such as critical ecology, eco-feminism, and multi-species ethnography and their relevance to media and society. We will learn to appreciate the interconnectedness of human and non-human beings to enact reparative and ethical storytelling and listening in other contexts.
MDSC 322 Stardom Andy Warhol reportedly predicted, “In the future, everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes.” This course explores the enduring resonance of that prophecy in contemporary media cultures. We situate an investigation of contemporary stardom and celebrity within the history of industrial star systems, focusing initially on the Hollywood star system in the 1950s. Our analysis of star images that define and critique that system – including Marilyn Monroe, Marlon Brando, and Michael Jackson – examines the production of star images, the politics of celebrity, and the reception and transformation of star images by fan cultures. We then investigate contemporary forms of “spectral” stardom – from stunt performances in Kill Bill to digital performance capture in Avatar, from voiceover performances in Pixar movies to the rise of celebrity influencers. Students develop their analyses of stardom in print, visual, and interactive formats.
MDSC 329 Global Musicals What do song and dance bring to film narratives? Why, in spite of the musical genre's fantastic unreality have audiences around the world embraced it for so long? How does the seductive combination of movement, rhythm, image, and narrative operate in relation to social politics and history? In this course we will take a transnational approach to analyzing this foundational and yet quirky form. Together, we will learn about the industrial, cultural, and social factors that shaped the musical's place in popular culture's around the world: Hollywood in the United States, DEFA musicals in East Germany, Bollywood, New Taiwanese cinema, and Canadian queer cinema. In each of these case studies, we will discuss the genre's relationship to form and meaning, and what function this type of expression serves within the socio-historical context of its production. Finally, we will explore how the musical has moved across different media platforms by examining its presence in television, flash mobs and viral videos, and commercials.
MDSC 333 Global Video Games: Cultures, Aesthetics, Politics This seminar course will explore the production, distribution, and consumption of video games as a global culture. Through thematic case studies and hands-on approach, we will consider how the juxtaposition of history, theory, and gaming practices operates in different geographical contexts. Several key questions that we will explore in this course include: -In what ways video games play and design are inflected by societal, cultural, and/or other factors? -How do video games and their players' experience change when they move from one cultural or historical context to another? -How do video games aesthetics and practices reinforce or confront national, ethnic, racial, and/or gender hierarchies in various parts of the world? Focusing on a combination between mainstream video game markets like the US and Japan and the peripheral regions not usually considered by the video games industry, this course will expose students to a nuanced and fluid picture of video games as a contemporary media and as a culture. While students will receive exposure to basic skills in video game production, no technical experience about it is required.
MDSC 390 The Video Essay This course examines the video essay and its corresponding or emerging forms in videographic criticism, the essay film, and written essays, including personal narrative, creative nonfiction, or hybrid texts. Students explore source material and develop media competencies that encompass video, sound, image and text in order to critically analyze content that explores facets of identity or dimensions of culture. In addition, students collaborate on lo-fi and more developed video projects that explore the formal dimensions of narrative and criticism. By maintaining a focus on the poetic and rhetorical dimensions of the video essay, students address broader concerns in and around fair use and copyright while determining how the video essay impact them as producers and consumers of media forms.
MDSC 400 Senior Seminar This course is required of all Media and Society majors, taken in the Senior year. This seminar is a capstone course for the major.
MDSC 415 Advanced Social Documentary This course is for students with a serious interest in documentary videography. The course will concentrate on developing a television-quality documentary. The focus of the course will be on developing a concept, scriptwriting, filming, and editing for the purpose of informing, persuading, or convincing an audience. The topics will include a contemporary issue, or a history that sheds light on a contemporary issue. Students enrolling in this course should expect to spend considerable time outside of the ordinary class period in research, production and post-production. The ability to work well as a member of a collaborative team is essential.
MDSC 450 Independent Study
MDSC 495/496 Honors