MC1210 | Media Cultures: Structures, Processes and Identities

How does this course relate to the programme curriculum: The course is a standalone course that aims to introduce students to the basic concepts of media and communication studies. It does not follow a linear or chronological approach in outlining the developments of the theoretical frameworks of the domain. Instead, it takes the three traditional prongs of media studies analysis – structural, behavorial and cultural – and highlights them through examples of contemporary media forms and spaces to bring to the students’ attention how they interact with these. The underlying premise of the course is to make students aware of the ubiquitousness and the ever-expanding nature of the category that is called media and the varied ways in which it can be studied. In doing so, the course borrows from journalism studies and film studies to demonstrate the evolution of media flows, typologies and ecologies. The course broadly tries to align with the following trajectory of the evolution of media theories. It starts from the socially responsible- fourth pillar of democracy approach to media for pleasure (through films) to the (new) media as enabler of identity formation and cultural flows sequence. In doing so, we try to highlight the different functions and forms that media has taken and how media theorists have responded to the same.