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2013 Courses

Media Studies

MDST 3306: GENDER, CLASS, AND RACE IN THE TEEN FILM [3]

Andrea Press, Professor

In this course we will examine a series of extremely popular teen films which form the common culture for many of the University of Virginia students. We will briefly examine the history of the teen film genre, contextualizing this in a discussion of lIadolescencell and the history of this term in American cultural discourse. We will then examine in-depth the texts of a series of the most popular, and most loved, teen films, focusing on their treatment of gender, social class, and racial difference in their depiction of teen culture in the U.S. Students will draw from their own experience in viewing these texts as they learn some of the tools of film and genre analysis, and of cultural media "effects" analysis. The course will be an intensive writing and discussion-based class.

MDST 3502: Political Cinema [3]

Robert Kolker, Lecturer

The power of political cinema lies in the immediacy of its images, the way it brings narratives of power, corruption, and revolution to consciousness with an inescapable presence. Whether films are overtly revolutionary, like Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin (1925) or Gillo Pontecorvo’s Battle of Algiers (1966), or conservative like D. W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation (1915), or allegorical, like Don Siegel’s McCarthy era science fiction film, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956 ), provocative, like Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004), or satirical, like Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove; or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, films with political themes clarify the workings of the culture at the time they were made and offer a window into a variety of political persuasions and ideologies. Through screenings, discussion, readings, and writing assignments, the course will examine political films from America and abroad in order to understand how the formal properties and thematic currents of these films address political culture.

The course will be held on grounds and online.

MDST 3809: NEW MEDIA IN NEW YORK: INDUSTRIES AND POLICIES [3]

Siva Vaidhyanathan, Professors

Course Brochure e is full.

This course will introduce students to the current challenges and opportunities facing major media industry firms and institutions. The transformation to digital production and consumption has put pressure on many traditional forms of media. It has also opened up profound opportunities. Along the way, firms and public institutions have had to face new facts of classic ethical and policy issues such as privacy, copyright, and decency. this course, taught in part on-line and in part in New York City, would involve intensive seminar discussions and a series of site visits to major media industries and with major figures in media. The core assignment would be a digital-video issue briefing that would rely on the issues raised by the assigned reading and our interviews with people working in these fields. The core assignment includes active participation during the site visits and active discussion on the course blog which includes reactions to course reading and observations from student's time in the city.

Approximate additional $740 fee required.