Course description

This course explores cultural production in media other than traditional print texts. Theories from the field of cultural studies emphasizing the conditions of production and consumption inform the general approach to the material. Course content may include the analysis of a specific medium such as television, film, or the internet; the analysis of a particular genre within a medium; or cultural production across media. “Music Videos” studies a variety of popular music videos, focussing especially on the MTV era. We will examine the interactions between lyrics, music, and images to understand what cultural work and rhetorical statements the music videos are producing. We will borrow theories from film studies, gender studies, and postmodernism to enhance our examination of the multimedia form.