This completely online course offers students a broad overview of the mass media (print, film, recorded music, radio, TV, internet) with a particular focus on how these media impact our everyday lives. Students will develop critical frameworks for understanding how power operates across the media spheres of production, circulation, representation, and reception. Attention is placed on how the social categories of race, class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, age, and nationality inform each of these media spheres. The course also considers how recent developments in digital technologies, media convergence, and globalization have transformed our media culture. No prerequisites required.

This course offers students a broad overview of the mass media (print, film, video, recorded music, radio, television, and the internet) with a particular focus on how these media impact our everyday lives. Students will develop critical frameworks for understanding how power operates across the media spheres of production, circulation, representation and reception. Attention is placed on how the social categories of race, class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, age and nationality inform each of these media spheres. The course also considers how recent developments in digital technologies, media convergence and globalization have transformed our media culture.