Humanities Arts Cultural Stu 0289 - Audience Research

Countless scholars have discussed the ideologies communicated through media texts, but most persist in privileging their own analytical interpretations. In this course students will explore various theorizations of audiences, methodologies employed to study them, and results of how audiences interpret films, advertisements, television programs, and other cultural texts. We will also seek to better understand why people make radically different meanings of the same texts. Audience Research & Media Studies is a rigorous, time- and labor-intensive course that requires significant independent work outside of class. It is designed for advanced Division II and first-semester Division III students committed to reading and analyzing existing audience studies, as well as to conceptualizing, carrying out, and documenting audience studies of their own. Students must have completed at least one prior course in media studies, and students should begin the course with a general sense of the issues or media texts they wish to explore in their studies.

Independent Work Multiple Cultural Perspectives Writing and Research Prerequisites: At least one prior course in media studies, and students should begin the course with a general sense of the issues or media texts they wish to explore in their studies. Students are expected to spend on average 8-10 hours a week outside of class engaged in the following activities: completing the assigned readings, writing blog posts, conducting and transcribing interviews, and researching and preparing their term papers.