Mar 28, 2024  
2015-2016 Undergraduate Academic Catalog 
    
2015-2016 Undergraduate Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

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TC 4510 - Mass Media, Culture, and Society

3 lecture hours 0 lab hours 3 credits


Course Description
This course is meant to introduce students to the history, structure, and function of the mass media in the United States, paying close attention to how Americans have created and received information. The class will examine the role that such ideas as individual identity, nation-building, globalization, and regulation have played in the evolution of mass media. The course further interrogates the mechanisms of mass media - with an emphasis on the rise of social media - while fully exploring the relationship between technological advancement and the ways that Americans communicate. (prereq: GS 1001 , GS 1002 , GS 1003  or permission of Program Director and Sophomore standing)
Course Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  • Understand the history of various media.
  • Understand the laws, rules and regulations under which various media operate.
  • Understand the forces that shape and are shaped by the media.
  • View the media from the basis of both a viewer/reader and a critic.

 


Prerequisites by Topic
  • None

Course Topics
  • Course introduction
  • Mass  communications: Process and effect
  • Global impact of modern media
  • Journalism: The practice and profession of news gathering
  • Historic press freedoms
  • The newspapers industry - current trends, use of graphics, etc.
  • Advertising and public relations
  • Publishing: Books and magazines
  • Broadcasting: TV, radio/current programming trends
  • The film industry
  • Social media
  • Recordings: Video, audio, digital data
  • The “information highway” - cable, computer networks, and more
  • Education and mass media
  • Media ownership
  • Credibility: Trusting the purveyors of media
  • Influence: How do mass media affect culture and society
  • Ethics: Media and social responsibility
  • The legal environment
  • Media and government: Regulation and legislation

Coordinator
Michael Carriere



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