Understanding Media & Communications

This subject provides students with foundational case studies and conceptual frameworks for understanding the history of media technologies, institutions, practices, and products. Students will develop a critical understanding of the issues and debates surrounding the complex transformation of media spaces and practices from the broadcast era to the contemporary digital communications landscape. Students will explore the impact of digital technologies on the production, distribution, and consumption of mediated communications with an emphasis on the dynamic consequences of these shifts for global communications and networked publics. Students will develop academic skills of critical thinking to engage with and evaluate literature, and to write argumentatively.