TV and Politics

Catalog description

This course addresses the intertwined fates of television and politics, focusing on the United States context. Even though television has often been seen as a stupefying, brain-rotting technology—in other words, the kind of thing we might want to keep separate from politics—it has nevertheless become a crucial political domain in our society, in terms of both electoral politics and politics more broadly conceived. We will study narrative television and the news, TV content and TV production, in order to figure out how TV influences our politics, how politics shows up on TV, and whether TV can change the world. Students will develop critical reading and viewing techniques. We will read academic research from a variety of disciplines, and train our eyes to watch TV closely in order to strengthen our interpretations. Students will also develop their writing skills, with a focus on writing media criticism and academic writing on media