Media Theory and Criticism

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

Media can be investigated through a variety of theories and methodologies. Our focus will be on several of the dominant critical perspectives that have contributed to our understanding of media texts. This course will provide students with the basic vocabulary and concepts used in the criticism of different types of media. Students will identify and describe basic concepts from different schools of media theory e.g. semiotics, ideological analysis, and gender criticism and apply these concepts to the analysis and interpretation of a range of media texts (e.g. print ads, TV commercials, films) in order to see how meanings are constructed within media texts. Students will also analyze the relation between the representations found in media texts and larger social structures such as class, gender and race. The course will also identify and describe significant concepts relating to media audiences and their role in the reception of media texts.