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2025 Spring

INTRO TO MEDIA STUDIES (THEORY) - FMS152 Spring 2025


Course
Seth Rogoff
For information about registration please contact our admissions.

Lessons

Here is the course outline:

1. Introduction to the Course

Jan 30

Introduction to the course, expectations, syllabus review

2. The Origins of Media Theory

Feb 6

Discussion and contextualization of the rise of cultural and media studies in interwar Germany

3. The Frankfurt School of Social Research

Feb 13

The Frankfurt School: Adorno, Horkheimer, and the Culture Industry

4. Media and Modernity: Walter Benjamin

Feb 20

Walter Benjamin and the politics of representation

5. Media and Modernity II: Roland Barthes, Mythologies, and Photography

Feb 27

Roland Barthes from Mythologies to Camera Lucida: An inquiry into the politics of the image.

6. Marshall McLuhan and the Technologist Approach

Mar 6

Introduction to the thought and work of Marshall McLuhan and the technologist approach to media theory.

7. Midterm Exam

Mar 13

Students complete and submit the midterm examination

8. Stuart Hall, Culture, Representation, and Audience

Mar 20

Introduction to the ideas of the theorist Stuart Hall in relation to the culture and politics of the 1970s and 1980s.

9. The Rise of Communications Studies and Behaviorism

Apr 3

Survey of various theories in the “behaviorist” school of media studies

10. Chomsky and Herman on Media Power; Habermas on the “Public Sphere”

Apr 10

Introduction to the thought of Noam Chomsky in relation to Jürgen Habermas’ notion of the “public sphere”

11. Postmodernism and Media

Apr 17

A survey of some aspects of postmodern media theory, foremost through the thought of Fredric Jameson.

12. Feminist Theory; Race and Media Studies

Apr 24

urvey and case studies of feminist media theory; Readings in Black cultural and media studies

13. Final Exam

May 15

Final Exam submission

14. READINGS

Folder with PDFs

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