Voting Power: How to Win Policy Reform in The U.S. Election Ecosystem

3 Credits.

While stories of allegedly true crimes have long fascinated the American public, the last decade has seen an astonishing proliferation of media depicting both real and fabricated crime and policing events. In this course, we will examine how crime media—from true-crime documentaries to YouTube interrogation-analysis videos and online “citizen sleuth” forums—shapes and is shaped by complex collaborations and conflicts among state actors, large media conglomerates, and the public. Alongside an interrogation of the capitalist relations that organize the production and circulation of traditional crime media and digital crime “content,” this course provides an intensive introduction to foundational debates in surveillance studies, media theory, and law and policing scholarship. By “following the money,” students will not only map the commercial, cultural, and political underpinnings of crime storytelling in the digital age, but they will also evaluate the ideologies of law enforcement, surveillance, and punishment that these media promote.