MCOM 300 Graduate Research Methods in Media Studies 2.2; 3 cr.
This
course teaches students how to critically read, design and implement
scientific research and use quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods
and data analysis techniques to address research questions common in
the field of media studies. Students participate in actual research
projects and apply various techniques of data collection, analysis and
interpretation. Prerequisite: Restricted to major or instructor consent.
Annually.
MCOM 301 Seminar in Communication Theory and Research 3.0; 3 cr.
The
seminar introduces students to trends in media studies research and
theoretical approaches to the media and communication process. Focus is
placed on contemporar y media and communication theories. Prerequisite:
Restricted to major or instructor consent. Annually.
MCOM 302 Seminar in Middle East Media and Society 3.0; 3 cr.
A
seminar on the political, social and economic effects of the Arab media
on modern Arab society. Special attention is given to the relationship
between communication media on social and sociocultural change.
Prerequisite: Restricted to major or instructor consent. Annually.
MCOM 313 Seminar in Communication and Development 3.0; 3 cr.
A
seminar on the role of communication in developing societies, with
focus on the media as a modernizing agent and on questions that are
relevant to the understanding of the socioeconomic developmental process
in less developed cultures. Occasionally.
MCOM 314 Issues in Transnational Media Studies 3.0; 3 cr.
In
this graduate seminar, students will be introduced to some of the key
debates and issues facing the field of media studies in our increasingly
global era. In the last twenty years, “globalization” has become an
academic buzzword. What does globalization mean for the production,
distribution and reception of media texts, including film, television,
social media and music? In this course, students will be introduced to a
variety of issues in transnational media studies. Readings will deal
with questions of media industries, transnational distribution
practices, methods of sur veillance and security, and social media
activism. Occasionally.
MCOM 315 Race and Media 3.0; 3 cr.
In
this graduate seminar, students will be introduced to several important
ongoing debates regarding the intersection of race and media. After
looking at a variety of scholarly approaches to race, students will
closely examine an array of contemporar y inter ventions in media and
race studies. Topics may include lynching photography, Hollywood
orientalism, music videos, race on the Internet, zombie horror cinema
and the racialization of bodies in the era of drone warfare.
Occasionally.
MCOM 316 Media, Belief and Conflict 3.0; 3 cr.
This
course examines the complex relationship between media, modern forms of
belief, and their role in contemporar y social and political conflict.
The course takes a comparative approach, drawing connections between
critical theor y and current interdisciplinar y conversations to open up
the three terms in the title. Occasionally.
MCOM 317 Sex, Gender and Media in the Middle East 3.0; 3 cr.
This
seminar examines media’s central role in the production and circulation
of narratives and counter-narratives of gender oppression and sexual
liberation in the region. Through critical readings in film, television
and literature, we consider how representations of male dominance,
women’s emancipation and LGBT rights have shaped Middle Eastern politics
with particular emphasis on decolonization, the War on Terror and
immigration. Occasionally.
MCOM 362 Media Representations 3.0; 3 cr.
This
course examines the role of the media in constructing our social
reality through an examination of media practices both historically and
in the present. It particularly examines the representations of Arabs
and the Arab world in the Western media, and the US in the Arab media.
It covers politics of culture and identity as they shape and intersect
with today’s globalized media. Occasionally.
MCOM 363 Historical Approaches to Media 3.0; 3 cr.
This
course situates the histor y of communication – from the telegraph to
today’s social media – as more than a histor y of technology, and
discusses the complexity with which the social world is constructed.
Both technology and histor y enter into conversation, opening up points
of critical engagement of modern understandings of the
world.Occasionally.
MCOM 390 Special Topics in Media Studies 3.0; 3 cr.
This
course is normally devoted to MCOM faculty or visiting professors and
recognized scholars to explore topics of current interest. May be
repeated for credit. Occasionally.
MCOM 391 Graduate Tutorial in Media Studies 3.0; 3 cr.
This
course is open to graduate students preferably during the second term
of their first year of program study. Tutorials provide opportunities
for students to pursue directed readings and preliminar y grounded
research of relevance to their envisaged fields of concentration. May
not be repeated for credit.
MCOM 395A/B Comprehensive Exam 0 cr.
Prerequisite: Consent of advisor.
MCOM 398 MA Project 3 cr.
MCOM 399 MA Thesis 9 cr.