Film & Media Studies

This course provides a comparative investigation of how media is involved in the places where power operates. While studying latest ideas and research methods in the fields of media theory and cultural studies, themes are assigned and research projects are carried out in which new perspectives and methodologies that do not fit within existing frameworks are introduced. Additionally, in order to investigate directions in actual practice, the class deepens investigations into the limitations and possibilities in new forms of media such as the Internet. Some course topics include: theories of media power; cultural capital, habits, and symbolic power; media rituals; media pilgrims; and soft power in globalization.

This seminar examines selected German feature films (from the 1920s to the 1980s) that helped to develop German feature film art through the use of technical and aesthetic instruments under the direction of the cinematographer. For this purpose, the course analyzes aesthetic inventions in the field of tension between art, craft, and routine. Specifically, the calculated changes between interior (studio) and exterior (outdoor area) and between subjectification and objectification in the generation of protagonists are examined. In brief digressions, the technical and material components in the work with light and shadow in color and black and white are included.

This course explores challenges and alternatives to democratic political communication in several contexts. This course is split into two main focuses: populist political communication in liberal democracies, and media politics in non-democratic regimes. When examining communication in liberal democracies, students discuss how populist political actors adapt to changing media and political environments, and use social and traditional media to communicate with their supporters. Additionally, students explore why fake news is prevalent in some media systems as opposed to others, and how fake news and populist communication may undermine and threaten the democratic performance of media. While examining media politics in non-democratic regimes, students analyze how authoritarian elites build pro-government media systems and fake worlds in the digital era. Students also learn how media control and public opinion management contribute to maintaining authoritarian systems. At the global media level, this course studies the soft power efforts of non-democratic actors in online media and satellite television. The course touches upon political journalism and news in social media as well as traditional media, political marketing and campaign strategies, the political economy of media markets and ownership, and censorship and propaganda. Some aspects of popular media culture (e.g., comedy talk shows) are also explored from a political perspective. Special attention is given to the phenomena of the “post-truth world”: fake news, strategic disinformation, alternative realities, and other recent challenges to democratic media in the twenty-first century. Finally, students consider potential strategies that may be formulated in defense of media freedom, media pluralism, and democratic communication.

This course examines the history and development of German cinema in East and West from 1945 to the present day. The term "New German Cinema" is generally used to define filmmaking in the Federal Republic from the early 60s to around 1982, and this "golden age" of filmmaking in West Germany is examined. The course examines the work of individual filmmakers (including Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Wim Wenders), and a wide range of different styles and themes during this period. Students examine the first German post-war feature film, Wolfgang Staudte's Die Mörder sind unter uns (1946), to explore whether it represents continuity or a new start for German cinema. The couse includes screenings of representative films, both fiction and documentary, from East and West. It examines a number of important themes including responses to recent German history, the theme of memory, stylistic innovation, and the rise of women's film in the late 70s and early 80s. The analysis of film in East and West concludes with a look at alternative strategies, including experimental film and gay cinema. The course explores the question of was there a new German Cinema in East Germany as well as in the West? Although filmmaking in the GDR was state-run, there was certainly no lack of innovation and political debate in the films produced by DEFA (the East German Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft), and the course considers their politics, risk-taking, and entertainment value. It analyzes the diversity and topicality of German film, but also draws some conclusions about the various ways in which artists can reflect on and react to different social and political climates.

In this course, students are introduced to industry standard techniques for film and video production on location. Students gain creative and technical knowledge and an understanding of lighting and digital recording processes essential for the creation and development of externally-based (non-studio) productions.

This course considers the media in relation to racial and ethnic identities. It examines how dominant media represent different cultural groups as "other" in relation to allegedly mainstream identities. Drawing on critical race theory and whiteness studies, the course includes a specific focus on Maori engagement with media and “Pakeha-ness” as an ethnic identity. Students gain a detailed understanding of post-colonialism and indigeneity in international and local contexts.