ENGLISH 186: Media Theory for an Analog, Digital, and Networked World

Course Description

This is an introduction to media studies, with an emphasis on how classic writings by 20th-century theorists illuminate the myriad cultural objects that populate our rapidly maturing internet age. Fantasy novels, anime films, and television series will ground the abstract theory and help students see why media matters, so to speak, all the while encouraging us to contemplate how our information ecosystem enables and obstructs access to these and other texts. Booklovers, cinephiles, and bingewatchers will get to build a vocabulary to describe the idiosyncrasies of beloved works. But alongside Walter Benjamin, Marshall McLuhan, and Susan Sontag, students will also wrangle with tough questions about the ways reading and viewing practices keep changing - for better or worse - in the lurch toward a digital-first future.