Course Syllabus:
Level: Graduate Duration: 14 weeks Weekly Hours: 2 hours Semester: (S1, Master)
Course Overview:
In this course, students will critically examine the role of media in shaping cultural norms, ideologies, and power structures. Through foundational theories and practical analysis, students will explore the intersection of media, society, and culture, gaining tools for critical engagement with media texts and practices. The course includes theoretical readings, discussions, and student presentations.
Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs):
By the end of the course, students will:
- Understand key theoretical frameworks in media studies.
- Critically analyze media’s role in shaping culture, identity, and power dynamics.
- Evaluate the ethical implications of media practices.
- Apply theoretical knowledge to real-world media examples.
- Develop and present critical perspectives on media literacy and cultural critique.
Reading Materials
S.I. Hayakawa – The Ladder of Abstraction
Alfred Korzybski – The Map is Not the Territory
Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman – The Propaganda Model
Dennis McQuail – Mass Communication Theory
Antonio Gramsci – Power and Common Sense
Marshall McLuhan – The Medium is the Message
Stuart Hall – Encoding/Decoding
Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer – The Culture Industry
Louis Althusser – Ideological State Apparatuses
Raymond Williams – Television: Technology and Cultural Form
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11. Neil Postman – Amusing Ourselves to Death
Weekly Schedule
Week 1: Introduction to Media Literacy and the Ladder of Abstraction Reading: S.I. Hayakawa – The Ladder of Abstraction
Week 2: The Map is Not the Territory
Reading: Alfred Korzybski – The Map is Not the Territory
Week 3: The Propaganda Model
Reading: Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman – The Propaganda Model Week 4: Mass Communication Theory
Reading: Dennis McQuail – Mass Communication Theory
Week 5: Gramsci and Power
Reading: Antonio Gramsci – Power and Common Sense
Week 6: The Medium is the Message
Reading: Marshall McLuhan – The Medium is the Message
Week 7: Encoding/Decoding
Reading: Stuart Hall – Encoding/Decoding
Week 8: The Culture Industry
Reading: Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer – The Culture Industry Week 9: Ideological State Apparatuses
Reading: Louis Althusser – Ideological State Apparatuses
Week 10: Television: Technology and Cultural Form
Reading: Raymond Williams – Television: Technology and Cultural Form Week 11: Amusing Ourselves to Death
Reading: Neil Postman – Amusing Ourselves to Death
Weeks 12-13: Student Presentations and Discussions
Activity: Students present critical analyses of selected media texts or theories. Peer feedback and group discussions.
Week 14: Course Evaluation and Final Reflections
Final Evaluation
Course Syllabus:
Level: Graduate
Duration: 14 weeks
Weekly Hours: 2 hours
Semester: (S2, Master)
Course Overview:
In this course, students will critically examine the role of images in producing meaning, shaping ideology, and operating across photography, cinema, and other forms of digital media. By reading chapters from Roland Barthes, Susan Sontag, Hito Steyerl, and Guy Debord, and others, this course seeks to investigate the relationship between vision, power, representation, and by extension “the truth.” Through weekly readings, discussions, and analytical exercises, students will develop a nuanced understanding of the role of visual media in contemporary culture.
Intended Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
Critically analyze visual media using foundational concepts from visual culture theory.
Evaluate the role of images in shaping social, political, and cultural meanings.
Apply theoretical frameworks (e.g., Barthes, Sontag, Crary, Debord) to interpret
photography, film, and digital media.
Identify and discuss key debates in media aesthetics, surveillance, and representation.
Produce analytical and creative responses to visual texts that reflect an understanding of
semiotics, ideology, and spectatorship.
Weekly schedule
Week 1: Introduction to Visual Culture
Reading: Nicholas Mirzoeff – Introduction to Visual Culture
Focus: What is visual culture? Understanding the field and its relevance in today’s media landscape.
Week 2: What Is an Image?
Reading: W.J.T. Mitchell – What Is an Image?
Focus: The ontology and function of images; distinguishing image, picture, and text. Week 3: The Ethics of Seeing
Reading: Susan Sontag – On Photography (selected essays)
Focus: Photography, representation, and the moral responsibility of viewing.
Week 4: Spectacle and Simulation
Reading: Guy Debord – Society of the Spectacle 43
Focus: The spectacle as a form of mediated social control.
Week 5: Simulacra and Hyperreality
Reading: Jean Baudrillard – Simulacra and Simulation
Focus: The collapse of reality and representation in late capitalism. Week 6: The Image and Mourning
Reading: Roland Barthes – Camera Lucida
Focus: Punctum and studium; personal and cultural interpretations of photographs.
Week 7: The Poor Image
Reading: Hito Steyerl – In Defense of the Poor Image
Focus: Image degradation, circulation, and political potential in the digital age.
Week 8: Surveillance and Visual Power
Reading: Jonathan Crary – Techniques of the Observer (selected excerpts)
Reading: Michel Foucault – Panopticism (from Discipline and Punish)
Focus: Vision and power; surveillance in visual regimes.
Week 9: The Gaze and Gender in Film
Reading: Laura Mulvey – Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema
Focus: The male gaze, psychoanalysis, and feminist film theory.
Week 10: Cinema as Language
Reading: Christian Metz – Film Language: A Semiotics of the Cinema (selected essays) Reading: Pier Paolo Pasolini – The Cinema of Poetry
Focus: Semiotics of film, image as sign, and the poetic dimension of cinema.
Weeks 11–12: Student Presentations and Case Studies
Activity: Students apply course theories to analyze visual media artifacts (films, images, ads, or digital content).
Peer critique and class discussion.
Week 13: Visual Media Today: Critical Reflections
Focus: Revisiting key concepts in the age of AI, algorithmic curation, and global image circulation.
Activity: Guided group debate and synthesis.
Week 14: Final Evaluation and Course Reflection
Activity: Final papers/projects due; collective course evaluation.