Communication Systems and Social Inequality

Catalog description

This course examines how everyday systems of communication—urban design, news media, digital platforms, government bureaucracy related to welfare, mass incarceration, and immigration, neighborhood networks, and interpersonal interaction—shape socioeconomic inequality in the United States. Drawing from political communication, media studies, sociology, and ethnography, students analyze how communication infrastructures determine access to information, recognition, and institutional power. Through sustained critical reading, discussion, and hands-on group work, students will explore structural barriers and the lived experiences of those navigating social and economic inequality and critically evaluate how communication infrastructure can reinforce disadvantage or serve as tools of resistance and repair. Students leave the course with a deep, practice-ready understanding of how communication organizes life chances and democratic belonging.