MSS 131. Media Innovators.3 Credits.
This course examines how media companies develop and refine media products and platforms. Learners examine how media companies anticipate and/or respond to different cultural, technological, and economic structures that create constraints and leave open the possibilities for media practitioners. Using a case study approach, the course explores how decision-makers have adapted to the dynamic media marketplace, the types of data they solicit, and the ways in which they confront the risks associated with creating and distributing media products.
Prerequisites: None
Offered: Every year
MSS 200. Special Topics.0-3 Credits.
The subject considered varies each semester depending on faculty and student interests.
Prerequisites: None
Offered: As needed
MSS 220. Media, History and Memory.3 Credits.
This course examines the relationship between media, history, and memory, focusing on how media shape both individual and collective memories of historical figures, events, and eras. Students learn how the past informs the present and how current media "re-present" the past. The course pays particular attention to who controls the historical narrative and the work done to recover forgotten/excluded voices and include their stories in U.S. history. In the major course project, students interview a family or community member about a specific historical event. The resulting essay, video, podcast analyzes the media's influence on both individual memory and collective memory.
Prerequisites: Take EN 102 or EN 103H
Offered: Every year, Fall and Spring
UC: Humanities
MSS 240. Is AI Taking Over? Disruption, Disinformation, and the Future Of Communication.3 Credits.
This course helps students understand how technologies such as artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality, facial recognition, and location-based services are radically transforming the way we communicate in disparate fields, including the media, science, art, politics, and business. Through critical analysis of technology, communication and power, students will understand how the promises of new technologies can be seized and warped, yielding significant disruptive consequences. Students will also develop critical thinking, research and writing skills, including accessing, analyzing, and properly citing sources for research on technology and media.
Prerequisites: Take EN 102.
Offered: Every year, Fall and Spring
UC: Breadth Elective
MSS 245. Media Users and Audiences.3 Credits.
This course explores how people choose, interpret, create, and respond to media across today's dynamic digital landscape. Students examine audiences from multiple perspectives-including historical, institutional, cultural, and data-driven approaches-to understand how individuals utilize media technology and systems to meet their personal and professional needs. Students will critically analyze how audiences are constructed, measured, targeted, and represented, with particular attention to how identity and social power shape media participation and interpretation.
Prerequisites: None
Offered: Every year, Fall and Spring
MSS 250. Video Game Communities and Industries.3 Credits.
This course introduces students to the study of video games as cultural texts, forms of play, and economic commodities. Through weekly readings, play journals, and class discussions, students will explore video game genres, aesthetics, representation, and storytelling, examining how games function as texts and how gaming communities shape and are shaped by them. Students will also investigate how the industry operates across different scales, from indie development to AAA studios, and analyze issues of labor, globalization, and representation. Students will apply these skills through written analysis, an experiential trip to PAX East, and the production of their own live streams.
Prerequisites: None
Offered: Every year, Spring
MSS 300. Special Topics.3 Credits.
Topics vary each semester depending on faculty and student interests.
Prerequisites: None
Offered: As needed
MSS 311. Diversity in the Media (WGS 311).3 Credits.
This course examines the role of media in the construction of social categories such as gender, race, class and sexual orientation. Students learn about the media as one of a number of social institutions--including religion, education and family--that influence our understanding of cultural difference. The course presents a variety of perspectives that address diversity in relation to both print and electronic media, emphasizing popular culture. Media diversity issues are analyzed in relation to ownership, representation, audience reception and the media workforce. Junior status required.
Prerequisites: Take WGS 101 or COM 120.
Offered: Every other year
MSS 320. Cross-Platform Storytelling.3 Credits.
The 21st century has seen radical changes in fictional and non-fictional storytelling. Chief among these changes is cross-platform storytelling-alternately, transmedia storytelling or convergence culture-which refers to the use of digital technologies to expand media franchises across multiple platforms. In this course, we will pull examples from music, podcasting, television, film, gaming, journalism, corporate branding, and influencer culture to explore the impacts of cross-platform storytelling on audience engagement, narrative world-building, and brand promotion. Students will apply the theories of immersive storytelling and media distribution to critique existing properties and, ultimately, to build a cross-platform story of their own.
Prerequisites: None
Offered: Every year, Fall
MSS 340. Communications Law and Policy.3 Credits.
What are the limits of free expression online? When can you publish content? Who owns the content? This course gives students across communications disciplines a working knowledge of the legal and regulatory frameworks that shape modern practice. Through landmark and contemporary court decisions, students explore the rights, responsibilities and legal risks defining communications work today, including in the rapidly evolving areas of social media and AI-generated content.
Prerequisites: Take EN 102.
Offered: Every year, Fall and Spring
MSS 346. Global Communication.3 Credits.
The course analyzes the roles information media and popular culture play in modern debates about political power, global economy and cultural identity. The relative influences of different communication technologies in relationships among global, transnational and local cultures also are examined.
Prerequisites: Take COM 120.
Offered: Every other year
MSS 349. Political Communications.3 Credits.
This course explores the relationship between media and politics in the U.S. Students learn about the history of political communication, the role of image-making and image-management in political communication, the impact of the media on public policy, and the current state of our mediated political culture. In the major course project, student teams develop a comprehensive campaign communication strategy for a political candidate.
Prerequisites: None
Offered: Every other year, Fall
MSS 400. Special Topics.3 Credits.
Topics vary each semester depending on faculty and student interests.
Prerequisites: None
Offered: As needed, Fall and Spring
MSS 420. Sports, Media and Society.3 Credits.
This course examines the social, political, economic and historical significance of the intersection of sports, media and society. Participants examine such questions as: What role have sports played in shaping cultures throughout history? What is the relationship between sports and media? How do sports, through the media, influence U.S. culture today? What is the role of sports media professionals in U.S. culture? Junior status required.
Prerequisites: Take COM 120 or SPS 101 or SPCM 101
Offered: Every year, Spring
MSS 441. Celebrity Culture.3 Credits.
This seminar explores modern communication networks through the lens of celebrity. Through a variety of readings and videos, including pieces using media effects and cultural studies approaches, the course addresses the following questions: How, and by whom, is the idea of celebrity shaped? What cultural meanings are conveyed by celebrity? How does celebrity change the way we think about important social issues? What is the impact of celebrity on the industry? How is the concept of celebrity shifting? And just why are we so fascinated by celebrity? The final course project involves creating a plan for a celebrity to rehabilitate/reshape their public image.
Prerequisites: None
Offered: Every other year
MSS 442. Content Creators & Influencers.3 Credits.
This is a class about content creation-both studying it and doing it. Students explore what it takes to be an effective content creator across platforms (TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Twitch, etc.) by examining the work of successful creators and influencers. The course looks at the impact of the creator economy on media industries, professionals, and users. Students develop their critical voice and brand while creating engaging content aimed at a target audience, including reviews, demos/tutorials, and podcasts. In the final Content Creation Project, students create and promote content for their own public blog, vlog, livestream, or podcast.
Prerequisites: None
Offered: Every year, Fall
MSS 444. Popular Music.3 Credits.
Despite its salience as a mass medium, popular music remains under-studied in the discipline of media studies. Therefore, in order to provide students with a better understanding of popular music, this seminar involves the following: critically listening to and writing about popular music; considering music's role in identity (class, gender and sexuality, racial and ethnic, etc.) formation; examining the influence of media and technology on popular music; and understanding the music industry.
Prerequisites: Take MSS 131.
Offered: Every other year
MSS 445. TV and Society: From Sitcoms to Streaming.3 Credits.
The relationship between television industries, audiences, and programming is constantly evolving. Yet what persists is television's power to critique, regulate, and transform societal values, norms, and identities. This seminar examines how major national events from the civil rights movement to 9/11 have been reflected in and shaped by television series such as The Smothers Brothers, All in the Family, and Mad Men, television's role in identity formation (class, gender and sexuality, racial and ethnic, etc.), and the influence of new technologies on television industries and content.
Prerequisites: Take MSS 131.
Offered: Every year, Spring
MSS 450. Media Studies Seminar.3 Credits.
This seminar includes an in-depth examination of issues and research perspectives in media studies. Topics vary each term, focusing on the different media and current literature in the field.
Prerequisites: Take MSS 131.
Offered: Every year, Fall and Spring
MSS 495. Capstone: Media Forecasting and Strategy.3 Credits.
In this media studies capstone course, students analyze the various forces impacting media industries, professionals, and users, tracking current trends and forecasting future influences. Students study the issues facing media producers/users and strategize creative responses to the challenges of operating in an ever-changing media environment, applying critical thinking, research and creative problem-solving skills to real-world situations in their capstone project, a Media Consultant Report. Students also are expected to demonstrate professional oral and written communication skills in their final project and a weekly Media Trends blog. Senior status required.
Prerequisites: Take MSS 131 and MSS 332 or ADPR 332
Offered: Every year, Spring