This course is an intensive seminar on the theory and history of media and mediation, surveying texts and media artifacts, both historical and contemporary, with an emphasis on critical understandings of media production and reception as it is experienced in the 21st century in art and everyday interactions. The work produced in this class cultivates an eye toward critical research and encourages new understandings of the relation between theory and practice, method and example. A research seminar that spans media practices, from cinema to sound art and from video games to television, this course teaches students how to pursue media-related research in a historical context to become competent critical analysts.

Learning Objectives

  • Master an example-driven general overview/timeline of media practices, with an emphasis on post-Industrial era developments; 
  • Develop research and critical thinking skills that apply across fields and disciplines; 
  • Gain proficiency in participation in substantive online discussions; 
  • Gain the tools to place contemporary media, artistic, political and historical phenomena into context: understanding, synthesis, analysis;
  • Become aware of the breadth of media practices, their relation to modes of economic production and political developments, and their particular utilization in various fields of inquiry: science, art, policy, social science, advertising etc.; 
  • Practice building and organizing archives and sources on media-related subjects within their own research interests.

In this course, you will

  • Engage in online discussions designed to encourage critical thinking and creativity and stimulate interaction among students and the instructor to support and provide clarity in the learning process;
  • Conduct independent research which will be stimulated through the class and guided by the instructor;
  • Use qualitative research methods; for example, interviewing peers, friends, family members, classmates or social media contacts to investigate the impact of a certain topic in the media or the ways in which mediation is a part of contemporary everyday life;
  • Participate in media post-production, discussing your research process in the form of an archive presentation, edited and submitted for classmates’ feedback.