Instructor Insights

Instructor Insights pages are part of the OCW Educator initiative, which seeks to enhance the value of OCW for educators.

Course Overview

This page focuses on the course CMS.701 Current Debates in Media as it was taught by Dr. Gabrielle Trépanier-Jobin in Spring 2015.

This class addresses important, current debates in media with in-depth discussion of popular perceptions and policy implications. Students engage in the critical study of the economic, political, social, and cultural significance of media, and learn to identify, analyze, and understand the complex relations among media texts, policies, institutions, industries, and infrastructures. The class offers the opportunity to discuss, in stimulating and challenging ways, topics such as ideology, propaganda, net neutrality, big data, digital hacktivism, digital rebellion, media violence, gamification, collective intelligence, participatory culture, intellectual property, artificial intelligence, etc., from historical, transcultural, and multiple methodological perspectives. Students examine the framing of these issues, their ethical and policy implications, as well as strategies for repositioning the debates.

Course Outcomes

Course Goals for Students

  1. Demonstrate, through oral presentations, discussions, and written works, an understanding of the current debates in media
  2. Engage with complex ideas, opening up to different perspectives, and developing critical thinking skills
  3. Learn how to discriminate between reliable and unreliable sources of information
  4. Analyze cultural objects critically and situate this analysis in a particular theoretical framework
  5. Use the thesis/antithesis/synthesis method to build strong and nuanced argumentation
 

Instructor Insights

Below, Dr. Gabrielle Trépanier-Jobin shares the pedagogical tools and methods she used to teach each session of CMS.701 Current Debates in Media.

► Session 1: Ideologies, Stereotypes, & Agency

Students worked in teams of 3-4 to create a conceptual map of different sections from Stuart Hall’s (2004) text “Culture, the Media and the ‘Ideological Effect’” with the help of the software CmapTools. The best conceptual maps were presented to the rest of the class.

► Session 2: Propaganda, Censorship, & Net Neutrality

Students were introduced to propaganda techniques and were asked to identify them in a series of images or videos.

► Session 3: Violence in Media and Video Games

Students worked in teams to prepare an argumentation for or against the idea that: 1) media violence is exaggerated, 2) more regulations should be implemented to control media violence and 3) violence in video games is more problematic than violence in films or television shows.

► Session 4: From Big Data to Big Brother: Surveillance and Privacy in the Information Age

Students worked in teams of 3-4 to identify rhetorical strategies in Google’s, Facebook’s, Twitter’s, Amazon’s, Netflix’s, Skype’s, Instagram’s, and YouTube’s Terms and Services that work ideologically to downplay privacy risks and make the users believe that decisions were made for their own good.

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Curriculum Information

Prerequisites

CMS.100 Introduction to Media Studies

Requirements Satisfied

HASS

Offered

CMS.701 Current Debates in Media is offered intermittently.

The Classroom

  • Large, wide chalkboard in a lecture room with a rectangular table and 16 moveable chairs placed around it.

    Room 1 of 1

    Lecture

    This course was taught in a lecture room with capacity for 16 students. The room features an LCD video projector with moveable furniture placed around a seminar table along with a fixed chalkboard and two large windows.

 

Assessment

The students' grades were based on the following activities:

The color used on the preceding chart which represents the percentage of the total grade contributed by class participation. 15% Class participation
The color used on the preceding chart which represents the percentage of the total grade contributed by the class presentation. 35% Class presentation
The color used on the preceding chart which represents the percentage of the total grade contributed by the dissertation. 40% Dissertation
The color used on the preceding chart which represents the percentage of the total grade contributed by participation in the class project. 10% Participation in the class project
 

Student Information

There were 15 students enrolled in this course.

Breakdown by Year

Mostly undergraduates

Breakdown by Major

Mostly majors and minors in comparative media studies

 

How Student Time Was Spent

During an average week, students were expected to spend 12 hours on the course, roughly divided as follows:

In Class

3 hours per week
  • Met once per week for 3 hours per session; 14 sessions total; mandatory attendance.
  • Each week, one student presented for 30 minutes on a media artifact or relevant event. Presentations were followed by a 20-minute period of questions and discussion, moderated by the student who presented.
  • For a detailed description of each session's learning activities, please see Instructor Insights.
 

Out of Class

9 hours per week
  • Preparation for class discussions by completing assigned readings and posting discussion questions/topics on the class forum
  • Preparation for a 30-minute presentation on a media artifact or a relevant event
  • Term paper on a current debate of the student's choice
  • Collaboration on a media analysis project with classmates
 

Semester Breakdown

WEEK M T W Th F
1 No classes throughout MIT. No session scheduled. Lecture session held. No session scheduled. No session scheduled.
2 No session scheduled. No session scheduled. Lecture session and student presentation held. No session scheduled. No session scheduled.
3 No classes throughout MIT. No session scheduled. Lecture session and student presentation held. No session scheduled. No session scheduled.
4 No session scheduled. No session scheduled. Lecture session and student presentation held. No session scheduled. No session scheduled.
5 No session scheduled. No session scheduled. Lecture session and student presentation held. No session scheduled. No session scheduled.
6 No session scheduled. No session scheduled. Lecture session and student presentation held. No session scheduled. No session scheduled.
7 No session scheduled. No session scheduled. This session had a guest speaker and student presentations. No session scheduled. No session scheduled.
8 No classes throughout MIT. No classes throughout MIT. No classes throughout MIT, assignment due date. No classes throughout MIT. No classes throughout MIT, assignment due date.
9 No session scheduled. No session scheduled. Lecture session and student presentation held. No session scheduled. No session scheduled.
10 No session scheduled. No session scheduled. This session had a guest speaker and student presentations. No session scheduled. No session scheduled.
11 No session scheduled. No session scheduled. Lecture session and student presentation held. No session scheduled. No session scheduled.
12 No classes throughout MIT. No classes throughout MIT. Lecture session held. No session scheduled. No session scheduled.
13 No session scheduled. No session scheduled. Lecture session and student presentation held. No session scheduled. No session scheduled.
14 No session scheduled. No session scheduled. Lecture session and student presentation held. No session scheduled. No session scheduled.
15 No session scheduled. No session scheduled. Lecture session and student presentation held along with assignment due date No session scheduled. No classes throughout MIT.
16 No classes throughout MIT. No classes throughout MIT. No classes throughout MIT. No classes throughout MIT. No classes throughout MIT.
Displays the color and pattern used on the preceding table to indicate dates when classes are not held at MIT. No classes throughout MIT
Displays the color used on the preceding table to indicate dates when lecture sessions are held. Lecture session
Displays the color used on the preceding table to indicate dates when students presentations are held. Student presentations
 
Displays the color used on the preceding table to indicate dates when no class session is scheduled. No class session scheduled
Displays the color used on the preceding table to indicate dates when there is a guest speaker. Guest speaker
Displays the symbol used on the preceding table to indicate dates when assignments are due. Assignment due date