Film & Media Studies

This course introduces its participants to mass media systems and structures in Germany and Europe and provides them with the analytical tools and background knowledge to assess the ways in which the mass media and politics interact and thus shape each other. The course begins with an overview of the different structures of mass media (public/private) in Germany and selected European countries, including how they have historically developed and particularly which political ideas have shaped the frameworks in which media institutions and individuals operate. At the same time, the course takes a critical look at how the media in turn have shaped and are still shaping the ways in which the political process works and presents itself to the public. Historical and current case-studies are utilized to analyze the manifold points of interaction between media and politics. At the end of the course, students also have the opportunity to compare European and American media politics and to ask whether there may be trends and influences across the Atlantic that are shaping today's politics and mass media on both sides.

The course offers an overview of social studies of technologies (science and technologies studies), with particular reference to the social dimensions of digital media and communication technologies, providing a set of historical, conceptual, and methodological tools to analyze the relationship between technologies and society. The course is structured in two parts: a first theoretical part presents some of the main concepts and theories for the study of the social implications of technologies, with particular reference to the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS); a second part is dedicated to the deepening of the social and cultural implications that have characterized some of the most important technologies for digital communication and in particular the Internet, the smartphone, and online platforms. More specifically, the topics addressed are: an introduction to the basic concepts and terminology for the study of the relationship between technologies and society; the critique of “technological determinism;” the “social construction of technologies” approach; the role of end users in shaping technologies; the history of the Internet in a social and cultural perspective; the process of innovation of the smartphone and its uses in society; and the social role and technical mechanisms of digital platforms.

This course offers a dynamic approach to the methodologies of thinking in images and visual essay.

This course examines the scope and impact of American media. It looks at the relationship between US media industries and the stories people consume. It surveys multiple forms and formats, including cinema, television, radio, podcasts, literature, and social media. Students will be encouraged to examine their own media habits and practices, as well as understand how the US projects an image of itself through its media industries.

The course surveys the international developments of the film medium and the film industry from the introduction of sound in the late 1920s through WWII and into the postwar era up to the late 1950s, covering key technological, textual and institutional developments and tying these together with the broader cultural and social context in which films were made, exhibited, and understood. Students gain understanding of the style, content, industrial organization, and production and marketing strategies of a range of national cinemas. Special emphasis may be given to questions about realism, technology, the representation of race, formal experimentation, entertainment and politics in filmmaking of this period.

This course examines the history, constraints, and characteristics of British cinema and television since the early 20th century. Topics include gender relations and social issues; actors and performance; popular genres including heritage, comedy, and gangster films; television drama and its hybrid forms; indigenous and exportable qualities of British film and television; audiences; distribution, exhibition, and public service broadcasting; relations between the film and television industries; and the impact of new media in contemporary global contexts.