Muhlenberg college

Structure

210, 211. Media: Legal and Constitutional Issues
Introduces the philosophy, history, development, and current interpretations of U.S. media law; explores constitutional rights, laws, precedents, and public concerns which guide U.S. media, the public, the courts, regulatory agencies, and policymakers. Prerequisite: Com 101 or 201 or permission of instructor.

312, 313. Media Industries
Considers the forces (legal, political, economic, historical, and cultural) that shape what we watch on television, read in books, or hear on the radio. Explores a wide range of print and electronic media industries as well as developing media like the Internet. Economic and critical analysis is used to examine both the institutional forces and individual decisions that ultimately shape the content and format of mass media messages. Selected topics include media conglomeration, target marketing, media integration and digital television, and globalization of media markets. Prerequisite: Com 101 or 201.

316, 317. Mass Persuasion and Propaganda (B)
Examines the historical development, social roles, communicative techniques, and media of propaganda. Explores the evolution of religious, political, and commercial forms of persuasion; the rise and eclipse of theories of mass society, and the emergence of narrow-casting and target marketing. Case studies are drawn from war-time propaganda, political campaigns, grassroots social movements, and advertising.

344, 345. Documentary Film (A)
Examines documentary and other reality-based modes of film and video production and the assumptions these forms make about truth and authenticity, and how they shape our understandings of the world. Both historical and contemporary forms will be considered.

346, 347. Exploratory Cinema (A) (H)
Examines the origin and growth of "avant-garde" cinema. Traces the history of film and video art from the early 1920s to the present focusing on its structural evolution, thematic shifts, coexistence with commercial cinema, and its impact on contemporary media.

370, 371. Popular Culture and Communication
Traces the development of popular forms with emphasis on the ways that social class has structured access, use, and creation of cultural artifacts. Topics explored may include advertising, leisure, and entertainment industries. Prerequisite: Com 101 or Com 201 recommended but not required.

372, 373. Race and Representation
Explores the social construction of the concept of race and barriers to communication erected by prejudice, discrimination, and marginalization of minority voices. Examines topics in multicultural, cross-cultural, and interpersonal communication as well as analysis of documents, personal narratives, and media images. Primary emphasis is placed upon African-American experience in the U.S.

374, 375. Gender, Communication and Culture
Examines gendered forms of communication: differences in how women and men are socialized to think, talk, and make sense in American culture; the implications of these differences for communication; the ways race and social class intersect with these differences and the ways commercial mass media both cultivate and undermine gendered forms of communication. Com 101 or 201 recommended but not required.

378, 379. Sport, Culture and Media
Explores the cultural artifacts, historical developments, and related systems of power that comprise sport media. Students observe, document, and analyze mediated sport and its prominence in our cultural environment. Includes analysis of the conventions of sports journalism (electronic and print) and transformations in those arenas. Prerequisite: Comm 101 or Com 201 recommended but not required.

440, 441. Film Theory and Criticism
Approaches the principal theories of film considering the film text as a mode of communication, as an art form, and as an ideological practice. Explores how film and video control the production of pleasure and meaning during reception. Students view a variety of films representative of specific cultural and historical contexts, and are introduced to relevant theories and their application. Emphasizes the development of critical and analytical skills. Prerequisite: At least one previous film course, Com 241, Com 344, or Com 346.