Media Production and Publishing Minor

Media pervades our social and private lives. We make it and in turn it makes us. This course offers an introduction to media studies, a field which seeks to understand and use media in complex and intentional ways. The course explores media as content, as an industry and as a social force. In this way, media is understood as both as an artifact (constituted by many parts) and as a set of complex processes (including production, distribution, regulation and consumption). Students will learn key vocabularies and concepts in and approaches to media studies that will help them to define, describe, and critique media artifacts and processes in a variety of written and spoken formats. In addition to equipping students with the skills to understand and critique media, this course encourages and provides students with the building blocks to produce media content. Students who successfully complete this course will be prepared to take advanced courses in media studies.

Stories are everywhere. We use them, consciously or unconsciously, to make sense of identities, experiences, and desires. And, at the same time, we are shaped by the stories that we absorb and interpret. This course explores how storytelling both reflects and shapes our lives. It introduces students to keywords and terms for reading and reflecting upon stories, both in the pages of books and in everyday life. The course considers a variety of narrative forms, including short stories, novels, fairy tales, self-help manuals, comics, films, podcasts, and political discourse. The course introduces students to fundamental questions about the nature of storytelling, while developing the vocabulary and critical skills for analysing and discussing stories. This is a writing intensive course in which students read as they learn to write. Students practice applying a critical vocabulary to textual forms as well as becoming familiar with the skills of drafting and editing. The course also introduces students to some of the professional pathways open to writers and storytellers. (This writing-intensive course counts towards the Academic Writing requirements.)

This course focuses on the understanding of the consumer as fundamental to marketing efforts. The course includes observational research in the community where students develop a greater understanding of consumers' consumption and decision-making behavior. Areas of focus include the consumer decision making process, research techniques, learning and motivation, segmentation and targeting, the impact of lifestyle and values, the role of society and culture in consumption, and ethical issues in consumer relationships.

This course introduces students to the fundamental concepts and theories of communication and media studies as they apply to the ever-increasing intercultural interactions of a contemporary world. In particular, students will learn the basics of intercultural/international communication processes, gaining a foundation for developing intercultural communication competence.

This course introduces students to quantitative and qualitative research methods as they apply to communication and media studies. Students will acquire skill in examining various communication and media issues by conducting an original research project.

This course examines how people, particularly young people, consume media technologies and their contents in contemporary media-saturated life. Employing essential readings on media consumption, fashion, and identity as the theoretical backbone, students will engage in active site-based research project throughout the course. By offering an opportunity to undertake a field study in Milan, the course seeks to develop in-depth theoretical knowledge of the intersections of media consumption, fashion, and identity, as well as to cultivate critical reflection of students’ own consumption of media technologies. (Additional fee: 250 chf for transportation and related activities in Milan)

This course examines media in the context of globalization. Most broadly, students will explore what constitutes globalization, how globalization has been facilitated and articulated by media, how media have been shaped by the processes of globalization, and perhaps most significantly, the social implications of these complex and varied processes on politics, international relations, advocacy and cultural flows. In order to map this terrain, students will survey the major theories that constitute this dynamic area of study.

This course uses key topics, themes and trends in journalism to explore the foundations and functions of the press, learn techniques of gathering and writing news, discuss the shifting terrain of journalism, and reflect upon the status and functions of journalism in different cultural contexts. As a writing-intensive course, this course is designed to help students produce high quality written work through a process of drafting, workshopping and editing. Written work may include journalistic reviews, letters to the editor, pitches to the editor and interviews. (This writing-intensive course counts towards the Academic Writing requirements.)

This course presents an introduction to creative writing through a variety of genres, including poetry, prose, fiction and non-fiction. By paying close attention both to literary models and original student writing, this class asks that participants reflect on the relationship between reading and writing, and voice and context. Students will compose short pieces in a variety of genres and present them for critique in weekly workshops. A final portfolio of all work during the semester will act as a springboard for more advanced courses in creative writing. (This writing-intensive course counts towards the Academic Writing requirements.)

A writing workshop that allows students to explore different forms of prose writing including the traditional novel, the epistolary novel, and the graphic novel. This course will emphasize central techniques such as character, setting, beginnings and endings. Each week students will present sketches for critique in the writing workshop, and will compose a short piece of fiction for publication in the final class journal.

In this course, students will read a broad selection of British Literature, from the post-war period to the present day. While the literature of the early twentieth century is often characterized as international in nature, in the post-war era and during the epoch of decolonization, British literature takes an apparent inward turn, becoming increasingly interested in the nature and definition of Britishness. Yet, the literature from this period is not necessarily insular or parochial, but rather depicts the emergence of a complex and contested national identity as the British archipelago developed from within its own borders to become a more and more culturally diverse territory. During the course, students will examine how regional identities conflict or overlap with national identity considering, for example, the North/South divide and urban/rural divisions; will study the rise of various competing nationalisms within the bounds of the archipelago, including Scottish nationalism; and will explore the growing impact of diverse immigrant communities on the national character. The course examines British literature and culture not as a homogenous whole but as a varied and sometimes contentious conglomeration. Through reading a variety of poetry, prose, and drama, students will explore what characterizes contemporary Britain and what the status and role of literary culture is today. They will develop an understanding of the current state of British literary production as well as the relation between the nation state and the state of fiction. Reading list may include works by: Julian Barnes, Seamus Heaney, Sam Selvon, Ali Smith, Zadie Smith, and Irvine Welsh.

This course explores the meanings of "Modernism," the artistic tendency which sprang up in a profusion of forms in the first half of the twentieth century. This was a time of sweeping social change and radical innovation in literature. As students ask, "what is modernism?" they will engage with the contingencies, complexities, and contradictions of modern literature, and acknowledge the sheer diversity of the literary responses to modern times. Students will read works from a variety of modernist movements, and consider the relationship between literary modernism and developments in music and the visual arts. They will study works by such writers as Mulk Raj Anand, Virginia Woolf, T. S. Eliot, Evelyn Waugh, and Nella Larsen. As modern literature often broke with or transformed traditional concepts of literary realism, some of the course work will be challenging; it will ask students to pay close attention to narrative innovations such as stream of consciousness, irony, and multiple point of view. The course will consider various issues, including: emerging psychological theories, responses to imperialism, technological and scientific advances, the city, attitudes towards history, concepts of self and other, and changing relations between genders, cultures, and races.

This course considers why we laugh and what we laugh at. In many ways, it is easier to explain tragedy than it is to understand comedy and, indeed, laughter is often neglected in literary criticism that concentrates on so-called “high” culture. Moreover, if we examine humor too closely then we risk ruining, or at least losing sight of, the joke. Nonetheless, the course offers an investigation into the literary and cultural functions of laughter. Laughter is sometimes warm, but can also be dark, aggressive, or even cruel. Socrates even argued that comedy and tragedy are in fact two versions of the same thing. Laughter is culturally, ethnically, and gender specific, and jokes are notoriously hard to translate or explain across such borders. Throughout this course, students will explore different subgenres of comedy, from wit and satire, to slapstick and farce; they will read a broad range of texts from novels and poems to cartoons, films, and stand-up comedy. Primary readings will be complemented by a range of critical material, including work by Freud, Bergson, and Bakhtin. By the end of the course, students will gain a fuller understanding of the psychological and cultural complexity of laughter as well as the diverse representations of comedy in literature without, hopefully, losing their own senses of humor.

This experimental, introductory course will explore the creative possibilities of media that have often been considered largely mechanical and reproductive processes. Comments on the history of printing will be integrated in lessons on relief and intaglio printing processes (monoprints, linoleum cuts, wood block prints, embossing, drypoint). Visits to museums, exhibits or ateliers may be organized if possible. (This course carries a fee for art supplies.)

In an increasingly digital age, books have experienced a renaissance as a privileged channel of independent creative expression. This course takes this resurgence as a starting point to investigate the historical forms and contemporary opportunities offered by the book medium to artists, writers and activists. First, students will be introduced to the history of the printing revolution in Europe, the development of typography and their impact on intellectual and political history. Second, the course will look at the production of artists’ books in the 19th and 20th century, in parallel with the advent of modernity, where numbered editions signalled a printing alternative to the rise of mass culture. Third, a strong emphasis is placed on exploring a range of models and opportunities offered by contemporary independent publishing. In that vein, the course will consider both material and virtual channels, taking into account the surge of digital technologies and their implications in both the return to the book as a physical object, and the connections the latter nurtures with its electronic parent. Students will look at the aesthetic, social and political remit of contemporary publishing practices, and will be asked to develop a personal publishing project. Recommended prerequisite: AHT 102 or AHT 103 or LC 100 or COM 201

Concurrent with processes of globalization, there has been a fervent, if not reactionary, revival of folk culture. Although the reinvention of folk cultures is a global phenomenon, it is particularly salient in places like Scotland—a complex nation that is as much British, modern, and Western as it is local, artisanal and traditional. Longstanding clashes over regional independence, enduring ties to local geographies and customs, and a thriving tourism industry in Scotland, have sustained rich folk cultures that serve both as powerful sources of identification as well as seductive expressions of national identity and culture. Using discursive and rhetorical approaches, this course explores the various ways in which “folk” identities, practices, cultures, and artifacts are represented and mobilized in the Scottish context by various communities and stakeholders.

The sense of taste, whether it refers to the metaphorical sense of taste (aesthetic discrimination) or the literal sense of taste (gustatory taste), is a fundamental part of human experiences. This Academic Travel course examines various ways that communication processes shape our sense of taste in the contemporary society. It will explore topics such as the taste for food, clothing and accessories, music, and other cultural activities applying key theories and concepts of communication, fashion, and taste. Ultimately, the course seeks to develop an understanding of how interpersonal, intercultural, and mediated communication in our everyday life plays a critical role in the formation of individual taste as well as collective taste. In order to achieve this objective, field observations and site visits will be planned during the Academic Travel period.

The primary thematic focus of this course is the Bloomsbury Group, a loose network of writers, artists, and intellectuals (including Virginia Woolf, E. M. Forster, John Maynard Keynes, and Roger Fry) who gathered in the squares of the Bloomsbury area of London during the first decades of the twentieth century. The course considers the exciting and creative possibilities of living in this period of dramatic social and cultural change. It pays particular attention to the possibilities for artistic creation at a time when art was not ethereal but rather a concrete and vibrant part of everyday life. Students will visit a variety of locations associated with the Bloomsbury Group: the homes that became laboratories for artistic production; public spaces of popular, commercial, and high art such as cinemas, galleries, and bookshops; as well as muse-ums and archives. In addition to London, the travel will take students to other locations in southern England, including Brighton, Lewes, and Charleston.

For such a small nation, Scotland is certainly a very noisy one. From traditional Mouth Music, to Gaelic folk tales, to the Bay City Rollers, The Proclaimers, and indie-pop groups such as Belle and Sebastian and Django Django, Scotland has a long and rich culture of music. This travel course places Scotland’s rich musical heritage in the broader context of storytelling in all its forms and genres, including film, fiction, and poetry. Students will travel from Edinburgh on the east coast to Glasgow on the west, and will also visit the Highlands and Islands to study the vibrant folk music culture there. Scottish music will be used as an entrance point to the country’s culture and history. As students close read (and close listen) a variety of works, they will investigate the ways in which these works buy into, help to build, or struggle against particular mythologies of “Scottishness.” The course will also explore the links between storytelling and nationalism, oral and written tradition, popular and “high” culture. While most attention will be paid to works produced in Scotland, the course will also take into account externally produced images of Scotland and the Scottish (for example, the abiding popularity of Braveheart or The Simpson’s Groundskeeper Willie). Finally, the course will consider how Scottish music and literature has been marketed and produced in such venues as university departments of Scottish or Celtic Studies, record labels such as Postcard Records, and publishers such as Cannongate Press.

This experimental, introductory course will explore the creative possibilities of media which have largely been considered mechanical, reproductive processes. Brief introductory lectures will introduce and demonstrate the following techniques: simple printing methods that do not use the printing press (direct stamping, stenciling, monotype, frottage); relief printing methods using linoleum, wood blocks and other surfaces; intaglio techniques (dry point). As time permits, collograph and silkscreen printing will also be introduced. The course has the following goals: to gain knowledge of printing materials, equipment and techniques; to produce prints using the techniques introduced during the course; to understand printing techniques in an art historical perspective and acknowledge of printing as a fine art; to construct a basic art vocabulary and develop the skills necessary to critical visual analysis. The course travels alternately to Urbino in Central Italy and to Lódz, Poland, to participate in the PATA summer workshops at the Strzeminski Academy of Art.