Media Studies

Courses

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MEDIAST 10 Introduction to Media Studies 4 Units [+]Expand course description

Terms offered: Fall 2019, Spring 2019, Fall 2018
The objective of this class is to enhance students' knowledge of media's industrial and cultural functions by introducing them to key perspectives and methods of study that stress a) how media systems have and continue to develop in the United States and across the globe as well as b) how we use and make meaning with media as part of our everyday lived experiences. To consider media's social, economic, political, and cultural impact, the course will investigate a number of ways of understanding its production, form, reception, and influence, being careful to recognize how these approaches relate to each other and to a wide array of diverse case studies in television, film, recorded music, print, video games, and online.
Introduction to Media Studies: Read More [+]

Rules & Requirements

Credit Restrictions: A deficient grade may be removed by taking Media Studies 10 or Media Studies N10.

Hours & Format

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 2 hours of discussion per week

Additional Details

Subject/Course Level: Media Studies/Undergraduate

Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.

Introduction to Media Studies: Read Less [-]

MEDIAST N10 Introduction to Media Studies 4 Units [+]Expand course description

Terms offered: Summer 2018 First 6 Week Session, Summer 2017 8 Week Session, Summer 2016 8 Week Session
The objective of this class is to enhance students' knowledge of media's industrial and cultural functions by introducing them to key perspectives and methods of study that stress a) how media systems have and continue to develop in the United States and across the globe as well as b) how we use and make meaning with media as part of our everyday lived experiences. To consider media's social, economic, political, and cultural impact, the course will investigate a number of ways of understanding its production, form, reception, and influence, being careful to recognize how these approaches relate to each other and to a wide array of diverse case studies in television, film, recorded music, print, video games, and online.
Introduction to Media Studies: Read More [+]

Rules & Requirements

Credit Restrictions: A deficient grade may be removed by taking Media Studies 10 or Media Studies N10.

Hours & Format

Summer:
6 weeks - 10 hours of lecture per week
8 weeks - 8 hours of lecture per week
10 weeks - 6 hours of lecture per week

Additional Details

Subject/Course Level: Media Studies/Undergraduate

Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.

Introduction to Media Studies: Read Less [-]

MEDIAST 24 Freshman Seminar 1 Unit [+]Expand course description

Terms offered: Fall 2019, Spring 2019, Fall 2018
The Freshman Seminar Program has been designed to provide new students with the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member in a small seminar setting. Freshman seminars are offered in all campus departments, and topics vary from department to department and semester to semester. Enrollment limited to 15 freshmen.
Freshman Seminar: Read More [+]

Rules & Requirements

Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.

Hours & Format

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1 hour of seminar per week

Additional Details

Subject/Course Level: Media Studies/Undergraduate

Grading/Final exam status: The grading option will be decided by the instructor when the class is offered. Final Exam To be decided by the instructor when the class is offered.

Freshman Seminar: Read Less [-]

MEDIAST 84 Sophomore Seminar 1 or 2 Units [+]Expand course description

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2016, Fall 2010
Sophomore seminars are small interactive courses offered by faculty members in departments all across the campus. Sophomore seminars offer opportunity for close, regular intellectual contact between faculty members and students in the crucial second year. The topics vary from department to department and semester to semester. Enrollment limited to 15 sophomores.
Sophomore Seminar: Read More [+]

Rules & Requirements

Prerequisites: At discretion of instructor

Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.

Hours & Format

Fall and/or spring:
5 weeks - 3-6 hours of seminar per week
10 weeks - 1.5-3 hours of seminar per week
15 weeks - 1-2 hours of seminar per week

Additional Details

Subject/Course Level: Media Studies/Undergraduate

Grading/Final exam status: The grading option will be decided by the instructor when the class is offered. Final Exam To be decided by the instructor when the class is offered.

Sophomore Seminar: Read Less [-]

MEDIAST 101 Visual Culture 4 Units [+]Expand course description

Terms offered: Fall 2019, Spring 2019, Spring 2018
Our highly mediated culture provides an ever-intensifying richness of visual information. Using a mix of film, television, photography, advertising, and/or the internet, this class will explore cultural and social theoretical approaches to critically analyzing visual media and viewing practices from a Media Studies perspective. The course is designed to foster a critical understanding of media images, inviting students to question and critique the many and multiple messages at work within visual culture.
Visual Culture: Read More [+]

Rules & Requirements

Prerequisites: Media Studies major or consent of instructor

Hours & Format

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3-4 hours of lecture and 2-0 hours of discussion per week

Additional Details

Subject/Course Level: Media Studies/Undergraduate

Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.

Instructor: Jackson

Visual Culture: Read Less [-]

MEDIAST 104A Freedom of Speech and the Press 3 Units [+]Expand course description

Terms offered: Spring 2019, Spring 2018, Spring 2017
The course considers the history and contemporary meaning of the First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and the press. Emphasizing the real world implications of major Supreme Court decisions, the course examines restrictions on speech and press imposed by national security, libel, injurious speech, and privacy, as well as issues of access to information and government regulation of new media.
Freedom of Speech and the Press: Read More [+]

Rules & Requirements

Prerequisites: Media Studies major or consent of instructor

Hours & Format

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3-4 hours of lecture per week

Additional Details

Subject/Course Level: Media Studies/Undergraduate

Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.

Formerly known as: Mass Communications 104

Freedom of Speech and the Press: Read Less [-]

MEDIAST 104B The History of Journalism 3 Units [+]Expand course description

Terms offered: Spring 2019, Fall 2017, Fall 2015
The history of journalism is a broad subject--far broader than can comprehensively be covered in a single course. So necessarily, this course takes an idiosyncratic approach. This course examines how news has been defined, discovered, and communicated from its early modern origins to the present. It will also focus on particular areas of journalism. The class will take a critical look at how wars get reported on, including the current war in Iraq. The class will examine the role of journalists in the rise of the Cold War more than half a century ago. It will also examine the importance of media barons, by studying two highly readable biographies, one of William Randolph Hearst, the other of Katherine Graham. And finally, the class will look at the role journalists played in unseating President Nixon.
The History of Journalism: Read More [+]

Rules & Requirements

Prerequisites: 10 or consent of instructor

Hours & Format

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week

Additional Details

Subject/Course Level: Media Studies/Undergraduate

Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.

Instructor: Goldstein

Formerly known as: Journalism 141

The History of Journalism: Read Less [-]

MEDIAST 104D Privacy in the Digital Age 3 Units [+]Expand course description

Terms offered: Fall 2019, Fall 2018, Fall 2017
This course examines issues of privacy in contemporary society, with an emphasis on how privacy is affected by technological change. After an introduction to features of the American legal system and the theoretical underpinnings of privacy law, we will consider privacy in the context of law enforcement and national security investigations; government records and databases; commercial enterprises; and the freedoms of speech and press.
Privacy in the Digital Age: Read More [+]

Hours & Format

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week

Additional Details

Subject/Course Level: Media Studies/Undergraduate

Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.

Privacy in the Digital Age: Read Less [-]

MEDIAST 104E History and Development of Online News 4 Units [+]Expand course description

Terms offered: Fall 2019
This course will examine the history of online news beginning with the earliest experiments with news delivered via dedicated terminals. From there, we’ll look at the impact of the personal computer’s growth and the rise of proprietary dial-up online services. The open, Wild West nature of the early Web brought new possibilities but also the beginning of debates about credibility, free vs. paid content and competitive challenges that continue to this day. We’ll focus on key figures in technology and journalism who shaped the new medium, and trace how its growth undermined traditional economic models even as it enabled the rise of new ones, continuing through today’s world of mobile apps, aggregators and social media.
History and Development of Online News: Read More [+]

Rules & Requirements

Prerequisites: Media Studies major or consent of instructor

Credit Restrictions: Students will receive no credit for Media Studies 104E after taking Media Studies 190: Special Topics: History and Development of Online News.

Hours & Format

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 4 hours of lecture per week

Additional Details

Subject/Course Level: Media Studies/Undergraduate

Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.

Instructor: Jaroslovsky

History and Development of Online News: Read Less [-]

MEDIAST 111 Media History 4 Units [+]Expand course description

Terms offered: Fall 2019, Fall 2018
This is a lecture-format survey course on the history of media forms, technologies, institutions, and regulation—from the origins of writing, invention of print technology, through the development of digital media. Attention to the specific characteristics of individual media, the changing role of media as a force in culture along with the hopes as well as anxieties they provoke, and the continually transforming institutions and business of media will all be touched on. The role of media forms in the creation of public discourse and the social controls on media through censorship, legal constraints, and economic policies will also be examined.
Media History: Read More [+]

Rules & Requirements

Prerequisites: Media Studies 10, Media Studies major or consent of instructor

Hours & Format

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 4 hours of lecture per week

Additional Details

Subject/Course Level: Media Studies/Undergraduate

Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.

Instructor: Berry

Media History: Read Less [-]

MEDIAST 112 Media Theories and Processes 4 Units [+]Expand course description

Terms offered: Fall 2019, Fall 2018
This course will familiarize you with the often-contentious history of media theory. At issue among scholars working within different theoretical and research traditions are core disagreements about what should be studied (institutions, texts, audiences, and/or technologies) and how media should be studied (for applied, “practical” purposes or with an eye that is critical of power and institutional structures). Course readings and lectures stress an understanding of these various research traditions by focusing on the cultural, historical, political, and social contexts surrounding them, the research models and methods used, and the findings and conclusions reached.
Media Theories and Processes: Read More [+]

Rules & Requirements

Prerequisites: Media Studies 10, Media Studies major or consent of instructor

Credit Restrictions: Students will receive no credit for Media Studies 112 after taking Media Studies 102 or Mass Communications 102.

Hours & Format

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 2 hours of discussion per week

Additional Details

Subject/Course Level: Media Studies/Undergraduate

Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.

Instructor: Timke

Media Theories and Processes: Read Less [-]

MEDIAST 113 Media and Democracy 4 Units [+]Expand course description

Terms offered: Spring 2019
An interdisciplinary examination of the role and power of media for civic engagement and state-public interactions.
Media and Democracy: Read More [+]

Rules & Requirements

Prerequisites: Media Studies 10, Media Studies major or consent of instructor

Hours & Format

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 2 hours of discussion per week

Additional Details

Subject/Course Level: Media Studies/Undergraduate

Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.

Instructor: Bolton

Media and Democracy: Read Less [-]

MEDIAST 130 Research Methods in Media Studies 4 Units [+]Expand course description

Terms offered: Fall 2019, Fall 2018, Fall 2017
This course is intended to familiarize students with some of the primary quantitative and qualitative research methods used to study media texts and audiences. In addition to reading and critiquing prior research employing various methodologies, students will gain practical hands-on experience using these methods in sample research projects.
Research Methods in Media Studies: Read More [+]

Rules & Requirements

Prerequisites: 10 or permission of instructor

Hours & Format

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 4 hours of lecture per week