New Perspectives: Media History and Analysis

In this course, students will first be introduced to key moments in the building of networks, where knowledge and information are interlinked on a large scale, such as the printing press of Renaissance Europe, early cinema and photography at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, and the internet, social media, and digital imagery of the 21st century. Secondly, students will receive training in the critical analysis of these media through the use of conceptual tools such as semiotics, cultural criticism, discourse analysis, visual anthropology and others. The objectives of this course are twofold: 1. to provide students with historical and cultural grounding in the interaction between technological developments and the shaping and transfer of knowledge. 2. to equip students with critical and conceptual tools to effectively analyse cultural representations in a variety of media. Students will acquire these skills through lectures, individual and team assignments, and case studies. Students may participate in a non-compulsary international field-trip. If a student chooses not to participate in the field-trip, an alternate experience will be determined by the program director.