Courses

The media (often seen as "mass media") are at the forefront of culture and politics, and even education, in 2019 and beyond. Moreover, the media have undergone and continue to undergo major changes in format, purpose and impact. Thus, it is essential to acquire "media literacy": understanding of the past, present and future of the media's role and influence in our lives. To make the subject even more compelling, media language and discourse can differ significantly from the expository communications we use in education and business. Then, too, there is the challenge of propaganda and "fake news," which calls us to bring new critical thinking efforts to our media consumption. Finally, we must also consider some ways we can enhance our perception and understanding of these different formats' languages and messages. (Take, for example, the "newspeak" of social media: spelling and grammar changes, emojis, memes, GIFs, and many more.) Through the textbook Media, Society, Culture and You (Mark Poepsel, Rebus Community 2018) and through our own direct exploration of the various media--from the older "legacy" media to the new internet-social media--we will study how their various forms of discourse can be understood in terms of sender, message, channel, audience and effect. During our term together we will have multi-media lessons as well as guest speakers and field trips. Finally, through vocabulary, grammar, reading (both verbal and visual), writing and listening-speaking activities, and critical thinking exercises, we will improve our ability to understand the media messages themselves and acquire not only media literacy, but also media fluency.