Film & Media Studies

This course explores the idea of the cultural industry and its economic, social, and ideological implications. It discusses the philosophical problems associated with mass culture, popular culture, cultural and creative industries, and mass media. Topics include: the film industry; the music industry; advertising; pop art; the value of language in cultural production; intellectual property; collective rights management.

The course considers the contribution made by ten films directed by women to feature film making. Do these films deal with female experience in a different way than their male-directed counterparts? Are their women characters always presented positively? How do they portray male characters and masculine settings? How do they represent (or not represent) sexual behavior and desire? How do they represent violence, poverty, and social restrictions? 

The course introduces students to British & Irish film and television through the study of a selection of examples and topics. These might cover specific periods, styles and traditions, themes, stars, filmmakers and television providers, among others. Through this approach, students are introduced to some of the ways in which British and Irish identities and cultures are represented and constructed on screen.

This course explores how games such as Ghost of Tsushima and Rise of the Rōnin have become one of the key vehicles through which people in Japan and across the world encounter the samurai and compares these depictions to historical realities. Students investigate how and why the samurai emerged as a distinct group, how they changed across Japan’s long history and the evolving and selective nature of samurai representations. As a final project, students collaborate to design their own samurai-themed video games.

This course traces the history of film from its birth to the present day, clarifying the characteristics of film as an "old yet new" medium by comparing it with the "old" media that existed before and the "new" media that have emerged since. It considers the changes that have occurred in the form of film exhibitions that have accompanied the development of film-related media technologies. 

This course introduces students to a broad range of theoretical and critical approaches to cinema, and teaches them how to apply these approaches to a variety of films. Students gain an understanding of classical film theory, including semiotics, auteur theory and psychoanalysis, as well as of contemporary developments such as audience studies, interest in issues of race and ethnicity, and in issues surrounding the advent of new cinematic technologies. Students also gain an appreciation of the historical and cultural contexts in which given theoretical approaches have emerged. These approaches are illustrated with reference to a range of Hollywood and European films.

This course starts off by investigating whether montage appears as a general artistic principle across the arts approximately at the same time or whether we can identify a single art medium as its birthplace. Drawing on pinnacles of modernist art including futurist and dada collages and photomontages, film city symphonies, and city novels the course analyzes stylistic, narratological, and perceptual aspects of montage in different media and their relations to broader cultural formations such as urban modernity and radical politics.

This course introduces what is journalism, meanings of media, news, model and system of news, news organization and news production and news readers.

In this foundational course, students are introduced to key concepts, approaches and perspectives in the academic and public debates on the role of digital media in contemporary culture and society. Students learn about the history of digital media from a global perspective, which enables them to qualify claims about the newness of so-called ‘new media’ and challenge universalizing claims about the impact of digital media not only on Western but also on non-Western communities. The course develops students’ understanding of the cultural, social, political, economic, and technical contexts in which digital developments emerge and helps them think about digital media holistically, from their design and production to their content and use. Historical milestones in digital transformations are highlighted, along with discussions of the very latest technological developments and their potential impact on diverse communities around the world.

Content creators serve as powerful cultural intermediaries. They have the power to shift representation away from traditional screen industries, bringing into sharp focus key questions of social justice in the digital age, including gender, sexuality, ethnicity and class, while evolving, reiterating and challenging textual traditions and conventions of film and television. In exploring the interplay of technologies, creativity, screen works and everyday life, this course applies prior learning in film and television to the emergent cultural form of content creation as social media entertainment, analyzing processes of both production and reception.