General Course Information

Media Industries Fall 2016 – MSCR 3435:01 CRN#16103
Class: MWR 10:30-11:35am (Snell Library 115)
Course Prerequisites: MSCR 1220

N.B. This syllabus functions very much like a living document and the course website will reflect updates or changes to the syllabus, assignments, etc. The course syllabus provides a general plan for the course and deviations may be necessary. Thus, check the website regularly.

Course Description

This course provides an overview of media industry studies. While other courses in our program may help students develop the language to interpret moving images and media, this course invites students to look beyond the text. Though writers, directors, and producers are certainly key players in the development of content, this class focuses on the business of media. Note that the term “media industries” implies multiple industries and, to this end, we will consider content and technologies in print, film, television, music, computer, video game, and mobile technology industries. Rather than providing a linear history about the developments of media industries, this course addresses how and why contemporary media hardware, software, and content are or become situated within (historical) industrial structures of production, distribution, and exhibition. This class will evaluate how media and technological developments change based on factors like ownership, regulation, marketing and branding. We will utilize chapters from the book Understanding Media Industries to provide a terminological and theoretical framework for discussion about media industries, which will be extended and expanded with additional readings. Further, students are encouraged to examine media industries based on personal interests: a research paper will emerge from shorter writing assignments, which ask students to identify and critically examine one media company or product; a group project will require students to extend from theory to praxis by accounting for the industrial and consumer demand for a mobile application in the form of a product proposal; and, ultimately, by extending personal interests toward new ways of thinking about media (objects) we regularly consume.

Course Objectives

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

  • Define the primary goals, research questions, and predominant methodologies within the field of media industry studies.
  • Understand how media are developed and delivered to audiences.
  • Describe and scrutinize the oft overlooked area of media distribution, articulating why contemporary debates about “new” media or technologies often center around this phase of media content development.
  • Better assess the value of a media text and extend research questions from studies of media industries to the broader production of consumer products in our market- and image-driven culture.
  • This course also provides insight for students who desire to create media in the future, preparing them to define their place as an artist who must also be a businessperson by addressing various motivations of corporate executives, producers, marketers, and media workers who collaborate to deliver hardware, software, and content to consumers/audiences.

Required Texts

  • Timothy Havens & Amanda D. Lotz, Understanding Media Industries, second edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017). Available on Amazon.com
  • Additional readings available online.
  • Course screenings.

Printable Syllabus (original version without web updates)