MCS 207 | HISTORY OF CINEMA I, 1890-1945 | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course examines the history of cinema as one of the most influential cultural forms of the 20th Century. We will study the aesthetic and technological developments of cinema during its first 50 years, as well as examine the social and economic factors shaping its history. Initially influenced by other art forms (theater, literature, painting) filmmaking quickly acquired its own formal system, language, and traditions. We will trace the changing styles, techniques, content, and methods of filmmaking as an art form, as popular culture, and as an industry. We will consider how cinema is bound to its social context via audience relations, economics, technology, and ideology. The limited scope of this course will cover primarily feature-length, narratives films as the dominant mode of filmmaking, although we will also look at the development of documentary and experimental filmmaking. The class will consist of lectures, screenings, and discussions.
MCS 208 | HISTORY OF CINEMA II, 1945-1975 | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course covers the continued rise and development of cinema from 1945 to 1975. The course will have a dual focus, looking simultaneously at both the American studio system and international cinemas. The lectures, screenings, and discussions place equal emphasis on charting the development of cinematic techniques as well as examining the growth of specific national cinemas. In addition, the course surveys international stylistic trends in narrative, documentary, and avant-garde film. Students will acquire a broad understanding of the institutional, social, technological, and aesthetic forces that have shaped the development of cinema during the mid-twentieth century.
MCS 209 | HISTORY OF CINEMA III, 1975-PRESENT | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This final course in the film history sequence is designed to introduce students to a sense of modern film history and the multiple permutations of cinema around the modern film history and the multiple permutations of cinema around the globe. It presents film history from a global perspective, concentrating primarily on the development of new national and transnational cinemas. The course continues to chart the development of the American studios since the mid-1970s while examining the effects of media consolidation and convergence. Moreover, the course seeks to examine how global cinemas have reacted to and dealt with the formal influence and economic domination of Hollywood filmmaking on international audiences. Class lectures, screenings, and discussions will consider how cinema has changed from a primarily national phenomenon to a transnational form of communication in the 21st century.
MCS 231 | INTRODUCTION TO DOCUMENTARY STUDIES | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course examines the rise and growth of documentary forms, including audio, film, television, photography, literary journalism and ethnography. Students will study representative works from each documentary approach and learn to analyze the techniques of observation and representation at use in these pieces. Students will become familiar with major theoretical constructions of documentary and be able to use these analytical tools to critique documentary forms. Lab for film viewing required.
MCS 242 | TELEVISION STYLE AND NARRATIVE STRUCTURE | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
The art of television certainly has undergone many changes over the decades. Genres have come, gone, and resurfaced; in-vogue visual and narrative services have waxed and waned. Cable and streaming services have impacted how stories are told, sold, and viewed. Through the analysis of the style, structure, and storytelling strategies of television, students apply the concepts and terminology essential to an understanding and appreciation of television as an art form and an element of mass culture.
MCS 251 | SPACES OF CINEMA IN ROME | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course examines the history and heritage of Italian cinema through an analysis of critically acclaimed films produced in Rome. Topics of focus include the comparison of Italian and Hollywood constructions of historical settings, and the cinematic organization of visual space. The course features visits to the Roman sites where films examined in the course were produced. The course's goal is the development of an understanding of filmmakers' artistic choices and the expectations that they set up for their audiences through setting. Offered in conjunction with the Rome Film Studies Program.
MCS 252 | CONTEMPORARY ITALIAN CULTURE THROUGH FILM | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course provides an exploration of contemporary Italian culture through the medium of cinema. The course examines how cinema addresses complex social and political concerns in Italy. Topics and themes include health care; the transformation of the structure of the family; immigration and emigration; the perennial problem of organized crime; and the difficulties faced by the younger generations in their attempt to integrate into society. Italian film industry professionals and cultural historians will provide context and perspective on contemporary social issues facing Italy. Offered in conjunction with the Rome Film Studies Program.
MCS 254 | IMAGINING ITALY: CINEMA AS A COLLECTIVE NARRATIVE OF THE ITALIAN PEOPLE | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course is designed as an introduction to Modern Italian Society and Culture through Cinema, with a specific focus on how movies both represented and influenced fundamental facets of Italian mentality, culture, and social structures. More specifically we will focus on some crucial events and phenomena in Italian History and in current days, including the following: Fascism and Anti-Fascism; the postwar period, the Reconstruction, and the Republican Constitution; the economic boom and the Italian socio-cultural transformation in the 1960s; the North-South Divide in Italy; emigration and immigration; worker and student protests between 1968 and 1977; the origins and developments of organized crime in Italy including the Mafia.
MCS 257 | MEXICAN CINEMA | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Mexican cinema has historically been one of the most important in the Spanish-speaking world. While Hollywood created the musical, Mexican audiences were watching comedias rancheras. This course is a historical and critical survey of Mexican cinema, from the internationally acclaimed films of the Golden Age, to the global success of filmmakers like Guillermo del Toro and Alejandro G. Inarritu. We will study the industrial and aesthetic connections between Hollywood and the Mexican film industry, as much as how this national cinema has fared within the Latin American region.
MCS 260 | TRANSMEDIA STORYTELLING: BUILDING A NARRATIVE WORLD | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Transmedia storytelling, or the distribution of narrative content across multiple technologies and media, is rapidly becoming a common trend in contemporary media making. Whether it's television series sharing content with video games, films' narratives continued (or begun) in graphic novels, or media systems in which no one medium takes precedence in telling the story, transmediation can take many forms. This class will introduce the concept of transmedia from a media studies viewpoint, will examine transmedia's history, contemporary usage, and creation, and will have students work together to construct a transmediated narrative.
MCS 265 | FAITH,REDEMPTN,& TRANSCENDENCE IN INTERNATIONAL CINEMA | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Which methods has cinema developed to convey the spiritual phenomena of faith, redemption and transcendence? The course investigates this question through the comparative study of international cinema. While it focuses primarily upon Christianity, it also provides students with the tools to make meaningful connections with other religions and the cinematic traditions that inform them. Among the films and filmmakers to be examined are Paul Schrader FIRST REFORMED (Paul Schrader, USA, 2018), SILENCE (Martin Scorsese, USA, 2017), WINTER LIGHT (Ingmar Bergman, Sweden, 1961), DIARY OF A COUNTRY PRIEST (Robert Bresson, France, 1951), EUROPA '51 (Roberto Rosselini, Italy, 1952), IDA (Pawel Pawlikoski, Poland, 2013), and THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC (Carl Theodor Dreyer, Denmark, 1929).
MCS 271 | MEDIA AND CULTURAL STUDIES | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course provides students with a theoretical and methodological background in the interdisciplinary field of cultural studies, which considers media and culture as sites for the construction and contestation of race, class, gender, ethnicity, sexuality and nation. The course provides a foundation in critical cultural studies, ideology critique, critical race and gender studies, transnational media studies and active audience studies. Formerly Introduction to Radio, Television and Film.
MCS 273 | STORYTELLING & STYLE IN CINEMA | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Course covers basic concepts and terminology of film and video as forms of art and mass culture. This course covers the aesthetic elements that constitute film and video texts: plot structures, sets, costumes and makeup, acting, lighting, cinematography, editing, and sound. By performing extensive textual analyses, students learn how the interaction of these elements produces meaning. Students also gain basics of how these concepts are practiced in film production. After mastering the aesthetic concepts, students also examine their use in three different modes of film: fiction, documentary, and the avant-garde. (Formerly Film/Video Analysis)
MCS 274 | DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION IN CINEMA AND TELEVISION | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course will analyze the representations of aspects of identity including race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, social class, age, and ability in cinema and long-form television narrative. Rather than thinking of these aspects of identity as natural and fixed, this course will explore how identities are constructed and crafted through the cinema. In the context of theories of human identity and difference, students will view, read about, analyze and discuss movies and television series to understand the intersections and interactions of social and political identities and translate them into their media content production. The central question of the course is as follows: if one is dissatisfied by the current range of representational practices of identity offered by a dominant media industry, how can one challenge or disrupt the limitations of these practices through creative and responsible media production?.
MCS 275 | COMICS STUDIES | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Comics are a rich, vibrant medium whose history predates that of movies, television and radio. While many cultural critics have viewed comics as simplistic and childish over the years, the combination of text and images that comics offers literary and artistic possibilities not found in any other medium. This course examines the medium of comics by exploring its history and theory, along with issues of representation, form, aesthetics, genre, biography and autobiography. Along the way, we will engage with such themes as heroism, trauma, identity and youth, among others. Students will read scholarly work on the medium of comics, as well as a wide range of comic books, comic stripS, graphic novels and webcomics.
MCS 280 | BAH HUMBUG! CHRISTMAS MOVIES/TV AND MEDIA METHODS | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course will use Christmas movies and television programs as a way to teach introductory methods in the field of media studies. Films and shows about Christmas are typically re-watched many times over a person's lifetime, and even become an annual tradition in some cases. Films like It's a Wonderful Life and programs like A Charlie Brown Christmas are commonly among the most re-watched media texts for most people. We watch them more often over the course of a lifetime than most other movies and shows. In turn, it would seem natural that we should critically analyze these media texts that we regularly return to in the same ways that we seek to find the cultural, aesthetic and/or political meanings inherent in popular Hollywood blockbusters and prime-time television series. But should Christmas media texts only be consumed emotionally rather than intellectually? Does studying these beloved films and shows somehow rob them of their joy, or does this process have just as many intellectual rewards as when we analyze more traditional media texts? These are some of the questions that we will seek to answer through applying various methodological approaches from the field of media studies to a wide range of Christmas shows and movies.
MCS 286 | RADIO PRACTICUM | 1-4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Students who already actively participate at DePaul's radio station have the opportunity, depending on the station's needs, to produce on-air announcements, specialized broadcasts (weather, sports, University-based topics), newscasts, and assist station managers with their day-to-day responsibilities for MCS credit. In addition to working at the radio station, students must successfully complete a short research project on an approved topic. (1 quarter hour)
MCS 290 | MEDIA & CINEMA STUDIES WORKSHOP (VARIABLE TOPICS) | 2 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course allows students to sample a range of hands on, practical offerings in media and cinema studies that can enhance their knowledge and expertise. Two types of workshop classes are offered: research and production. Examples of Research Workshop topics can include film criticism, Survey Design, and Academic Writing Bootcamp. Examples of Production Workshop topics include non-linear editing with Final Cut Pro, Multimedia Design, and Video Camera Basics. Students may take a maximum of 4 credit hours of MCS 290 in the major, and a total of 8 credit hours. (2 quarter hours)
MCS 316 | SOUND AND VISION | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course introduces students to the unique ways that photography and audio documentary can blend together. The course will combine documentary and experimental production to help students learn to create audio documentary and visual projects and to work in mixed-media contexts.
MCS 331 | TOPICS IN DOCUMENTARY STUDIES | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
A rotating topics course that could focus on specific historical era or specific group of texts or documentarians from across film, television, audio, writing, and photography. Courses like Feminism & Documentary, and Political Documentary fit under this heading. For a detailed course description, click the course link and view the Class Notes in the Enrollment Information tab.
MCS 339 | RADIO BROADCASTING | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
The overall objectives of this course are to familiarize students with the history and practices of commercial and college radio broadcasting and to afford students hands-on broadcasting opportunities at our state-of-the-art radio station. Numerous topics and challenges facing modern radio stations will be discussed, including deregulation, copyright law, and decency standards. It is expected that upon successful completion of this course that students will be prepared for advanced broadcasting and production courses and radio and television internships.
MCS 341 | TOPICS IN RADIO STUDIES | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Subjects rotate among several historical and conceptual topics, such as Rock Radio, Talk Radio, Gender and Radio, Radio and American Culture, etc. Students will have the opportunity to build upon the foundations of radio that are explored in other radio courses. Radio topics courses are considered advanced study in the subject area; therefore, students are encouraged to complete MCS 339 or MCS 342 prior to taking a radio topics course. For a detailed course description, click the course link and view the Class Notes in the Enrollment Information tab.
MCS 342 | HISTORY OF TELEVISION & RADIO | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
A history of radio, television, and cable that engages with elements such as programming, economics, industrial structures, audiences, government and industry policies, and social effects. The course includes viewing, analysis, and criticism of a wide variety of American programming.
MCS 343 | MEDIA ETHICS | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Entertainment and social media dominate popular culture today in a way that begins to completely define American culture. In what ways do entertainment media impact society? As creators of media, what special responsibilities do we have? And as creators of entertainment media how can we use these ethical theories in our daily practice? This course will examine the underlying ethical theories used when we try to arrive at ethical judgments about right and wrong. This course will concentrate on analyzing the impact of digital entertainment on an individual and society. The issue of balancing individual creativity vs. cultural impact, particularly on children, will be addressed. The course will culminate with the formulation of elements of an ethical code of conduct for every electronic (social) media, television professional and movie creator.
MCS 344 | THE SEXUAL REVOLUTION: HOLLYWOOD IN THE 1960s | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
The late 1960s are often described as a time of "Sexual Revolution" in America, with loosening standards and attitudes about sex and sexual practices. But was this period as "liberated" as it has appeared to be? Who was liberated by these new attitudes, and from what? How do attitudes about sexuality in the 1960s compare to our attitudes now? This course uses the study of American cultural history to examine perspectives of sexuality in the 1960s, and it focuses upon the films that Hollywood produced to represent this "new" sexuality. In the process, the course examines shifting definitions of gender and sexuality with which American culture was contending during this revolutionary time.
MCS 348 | TOPICS IN FILM GENRE | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course offers an historical examination of film genres, with a varying focus on one particular genre: film noir, musicals, melodrama, detective/gangster film, science fiction film, comedy, Western, animation, youth films. The course explores the relationship of genres to general social histories. Lab for film viewing required. For a detailed course description, click the course link and view the Class Notes in the Enrollment Information tab.
MCS 349 | TOPICS IN FILM STUDIES | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Examination of a particular era of film history or national cinema, film movements, or moments in social history and their relationship to film production. Topics currently in rotation include Film Sound Studies, American Films of the 1970s, War and Film, feminist film, Psychoanalysis and Cinema, etc. Lab for film viewing required. For a detailed course description, click the course link and view the Class Notes in the Enrollment Information tab.
MCS 350 | TOPICS IN GLOBAL CINEMA | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course is designed as a critical study of global filmmakers and the issues surrounding cinema and its transnational circulation. The class will examine specific aspects of the growth and evolution of cinema and look at points of contact between different cultural discourses, national cinematic styles, genres, and reception. Artistic, social, political, and industrial issues will be examined to provide different models of cinematic creation and consumption. Recent topics have included Latin American Cinemas, Asian Cinemas, Transnational Cinema, New German Cinema, History of French Film, Contemporary Global Directors, etc. Lab for film viewing required.
MCS 351 | TOPICS IN TELEVISION STUDIES | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course offers advanced study of television as a unique audio-visual culture with its own history and styles. This course presumes basic knowledge of television terms and methods of media analysis. Studies of a selected aspect of television history, television criticism, or national television are offered regularly. Recent topics have included Global Television, Reality TV, American TV of the 1950s, Television News, etc. For a detailed course description, click the course link and view the Class Notes in the Enrollment Information tab.
MCS 352 | TOPICS IN NEW MEDIA | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course examines the effects of new and/or digital media on interpersonal communication, media industries, and/ or media culture. Depending on the specific focus of this variable elective course, it might focus on economic, social, political, or aesthetic implications of new media, including the Internet, interactive games, and other new media technologies and applications. For a detailed course description, click the course link and view the Class Notes in the Enrollment Information tab.
MCS 353 | TOPICS IN MEDIA STUDIES | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This is a rotating topics class for subjects that encompass a number of different media, including radio, television, film. Possible topics may include: Media and Politics, Contemporary News Media, Reception Studies, Popular Culture Studies, etc. For a detailed course description, click the course link and view the Class Notes in the Enrollment Information tab.
MCS 354 | TOPICS IN MEDIA AND MATERIAL CULTURE | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course offers a critical study of popular media's interface with cultural objects and environments. Depending upon the topic, the course might focus upon amusement parks, museum exhibitions, clothing and fashion culture, or wearable technologies. For a detailed course description, click the course link and view the Class Notes in the Enrollment Information tab.
MCS 355 | SEX IN THE BOX: U.S. TELEVISION, SEX, AND SEXUALITY | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course will examine the continued negotiation of sex and sexuality on American television. Whether through their structuring absence, head-on attendance, or mere subtle implication, sex and sexuality have been omnipresent within the medium since its proliferation in the late 1940s. Through lenses of TV, social history, and gender/sexuality criticism, this course will examine various ways in which sexual issues such as the marriage bed, female sexual agency, GLBT visibility, teen sex, and rape have made their ways onto and been pushed off of the small screen. It will also interrogate how these broad categories interact with TV's assumed social role, contemporary and historical notions of American values, and TV regulation.
MCS 358 | TOPICS IN COMICS STUDIES | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This is a rotating topics class for subjects pertaining to the study of the comics in media including comic books, graphic novels, webcomics, and other forms of sequential art and graphic narrative. For a detailed course description, click the course link and view the Class Notes in the Enrollment Information tab.
MCS 359 | TOPICS IN CULT STUDIES | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course offers rotating topics focused on "cult" media and subcultural audiences, that is, aspects of culture that are separate from, or differentiate themselves from, the mainstream, or that present new ways of examining consumers and the emotional resonance of various media products on contemporary audiences. Topics will focus on such aspects as genre films and television, audience analysis, affect, and cult products. The purpose of this course is to understand how audiences and media producers design media texts to confront and challenge contemporary ideologies, to offer alternatives to the mainstream, and to engineer deliberate affective reactions in audiences. For a detailed course description, click the course link and view the Class Notes in the Enrollment Information tab.
MCS 360 | B-MOVIES | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course will explore the role of the B-movie in film history: from its origins in the 1930s, through its evolution in the 1950s and all the way up to the modern critical application of the `B' label to a variety of different film genres, styles and budgets. Students will examine the place of the B's within the overall contexts of both mainstream Hollywood cinema and low-budget filmmaking in general. Specific focus will be placed on issues of economic mode of production and how this impacts a film's aesthetics, as well as theories of cultural distinction regarding the notion of `film trash' such as camp theory and cultism. A variety of films will be screened in class. Please take into consideration when choosing this course that we will screen films that may at times contain highly lurid, violent and/or sexual imagery.
MCS 361 | FANDOM & PARTICIPATORY CULTURE | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course introduces students to the world of media fandom. Fans are people who hold an emotional attachment to media texts. By investigating the types of media texts people connect to, as well as the work fans do in their community, students encounter new ways of participating with media. Students not only examine fans as cultural "producers," who make media just as much as they consume it, but also examine media from the point of view of a fan. This course also looks at how participating in fandom can aid the development of diversity and positive social change.
MCS 362 | BLACKNESS IN AMERICAN TV | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Throughout the history of US television African American performers have been part of America's small screen entertainment. From the earliest days of Amos and Andy to 1970s Black sitcoms such as Good Times and That's My Mama and the 80s runaway hit The Cosby Show to contemporary network hits, black lives, stories, and performances have helped to paint an often skewed picture of America. This class will explore the position of Blackness and African American performers, creators, and executives throughout the history of American television.
MCS 363 | TOPICS IN FAN STUDIES | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course offers a rotating series of topics all focused on a particular type of fandom, fan object, or fan practice. Fans are viewers who hold an emotional attachment to what they experience; fans often act on that emotional attachment. This course explores different facets of the fan experience in detail. Studies of selected topics could include: specific media fandoms (Trekkers, Potterheads, Gleeks, etc.), sports fandom, celebrity culture, fans in social media, specific fan practices (social activism, material work, fan vidding), or the influence of fandom in the contemporary media environment, etc. For a detailed course description, click the course link and view the Class Notes in the Enrollment Information tab.
MCS 364 | MONSTERS IN POPULAR CULTURE | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
In this course, students will examine monsters, spooks, scares, and--above all--fear. Through informed viewing of television, film, radio, literature, and graphic novels, we will explore the evolution of some of the most well-known monsters, including vampires, zombies, and aliens, as well as less-known varieties, like the Golem, the cyborg, and even the human being. Screenings will be paired with discussion and class activities. The concept of the monster itself will be interrogated, and we will explore how the monster reflects humanity's fears as well as its desires. This is the one class that proves college is scary as hell.
MCS 365 | HORROR FILMS | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Why do we willingly subject ourselves to films that seek to scare, shock and disgust us? What compels us to watch films with ghastly imagery, gory special effects and gruesome murders? Are horror film fans merely uncultured sadists who revel in watching others suffer on screen? Are there cathartic pleasures to be had in horror films that are actually beneficial to society? This course examines the horror film genre from a variety of perspectives - from the cultural implications of why certain images frighten us, to the technological factors involved in special effects advancements, to the moral panics arising from both 1930s monster movies and modern "torture-porn" cinema. We will trace the horror genre back to its roots in the silent film adaptations of such gothic novels as Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, through the classical era of the 1930s/1940s and the Universal monster movies, into the new era of the 1970s (from big-budget and Oscar winning films like The Exorcist and The Omen, to the low-budget auteurist horror efforts like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Last House on the Left), and into the modern era of slashers, stalkers, remakes and reboots. [NOTE: This course will regularly examine films with extremely gory imagery that may be offensive and unpleasant to some students (...and if that's you, then you're definitely taking the wrong course!). To quote the beginning of Frankenstein (1931): "We think it will thrill you. It may shock you. It might even horrify you. So, if any of you do not care to subject your nerves to such a strain, now's your chance to...well, we warned you!"].
MCS 366 | COMMUNICATION, TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Survey of a variety of contemporary and historical issues related to the introduction and diffusion of communication technologies in society. Especially examines how new technologies, particularly the Internet, are transforming the communication landscape. Emphasis on issues of intellectual property, surveillance, privacy, regulation, message construction, and access will be central to this course.
MCS 367 | SPORTS FANDOM | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course introduces students to the study of fandom and participatory culture in relation to sports. It begins by asking "who are sports fans and why study them?" before moving on to consider questions of fan identity and belonging, consumerism and advertising, fan-team-industry relations, rivalries and anti-fandom, the intersections of sports and media fandoms, and the relationship between sports, politics, and participatory culture. Throughout the class, we'll take an intersectional approach that considers the impact of gender, race, sexuality, class, nationality, and ability on the topics under discussion. Students will engage with the material through readings, screenings, and discussion but also through participant observation in sports fan subcultures both familiar and new to the student.
MCS 368 | MUSIC INDUSTRIES AND CULTURE | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course critically examines music as a form of cultural communication and as a media industry. Students learn about historical changes in the music business, contemporary issues that industry insiders negotiate, do-it-yourself alternatives to mainstream industry practices, and how music functions as a unique source for collective fandom.
MCS 369 | TIME TRAVEL ON TELEVISION | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This class examines the common narrative device of "time travel" as it has been shown on television. We will look at the history of time travel on television, how time travel becomes a narrative device, and at the generic components of time travel narratives. Through careful readings of television episodes, we will study the influence of technology, politics, identity, the body and mediation on representations of time travel. Further, we shall examine these texts not just as glimpses of possible futures, but also as cultural critiques of issues in the present. Through screenings, daily written responses, and a final project, students will have the opportunity to explore the intricate nature of narratives about time travel.
MCS 370 | ADAPTATION: MOVIES/TV/NOVELS/COMICS/TOYS/VIDEO GAMES | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course looks at adaptation as a cross-media phenomenon, which we will trace back to the origins of the film medium in the late nineteenth century. The desire to experience familiar stories and characters in different media forms transcends generations. Film critic Margaret Farrand Thorp wrote in 1939 of the "widespread human eagerness to experience the same story in as many media as possible." This impulse has only grown in recent years with the increasingly vital role of franchises in an era of media convergence, whereby narratives become replayed, extended and/or intertwined across films, television programs, video games, comic books and other forms. The course will begin with the traditional adaptive process of turning novels into film, the theoretical concerns surrounding fidelity and medium-specificity, and the critical debates to do with adaptation and authenticity. We will look at the classical era of Hollywood in the 1930s through 1950s, followed by comparisons of graphic novels to their film versions. The more problematic process of adapting such properties as board games, toy lines and video games is explored in later weeks, as are the implications for the adaptive process created by the prolific nature of digital special effects. We will go beyond narrative and aesthetic analysis in many weeks to consider the industrial implications of adaptations, as well as what media theory can offer us in studying how and why texts are adapted from one medium to another.
MCS 371 | WRITING TELEVISION CRITICISM | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course offers an introduction to the aesthetic, rhetorical, and cultural criticism of English-language television via analyses of a contemporary, rotating television series. In this course, students will be exposed to different types of television criticism. Through close readings of television criticism as well as writing about television criticism, students will be encouraged to develop a critical voice of their own. Students will engage with different styles of criticism through readings, analysis, peer-reviews, and writing their own criticisms. Class includes a screening time. Projects include written work, digital profiles, and engagement with contemporary theories of television and media.
MCS 372 | DIGITAL CULTURE AND NEW MEDIA | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course considers the cultural ramifications of new media in shaping life experiences and meaning. As interactive digital media technologies expand opportunities for social networking, text and instant messaging, file sharing, collaborative authoring, microblogging, podcasting and mobile communication, this course asks how these new technologies impact identity formation, creative participation and concepts of public culture. This course will focus on some of the major themes that have engaged new media scholarship and thinking: convergence and participatory culture, identity and humanity, technology and literacy. The course will include hands-on approaches to media criticism and culture.
MCS 373 | AUDIO DOCUMENTARY | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course uses hands-on projects so that students can explore the steps in the process of creating an audio documentary. Through practical application students consider questions that surround the interpretation of cultural experience. Additionally, students analyze a variety of approaches to audio documentary in an effort to understand better this significant form of storytelling.
MCS 375 | LATINO/A TELEVISION AND MEDIA | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Drawing from Latin American and U.S. television studies, this course explores the political, industrial and cultural dynamics that shape televisual representations in Latin American television and/or Spanish language Television in the US. More specifically, Spanish-language television and media will be examined from interdisciplinary frameworks, which include the cultural analysis of televisual modes, national and international regulations of media production and distribution, histories of production, and ethnographies of viewing.
MCS 376 | LATIN AMERICAN CINEMA | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course examines the production, distribution and impact of cinema in the Latin American context. Transnational relations with other industries, such as Hollywood and the European film context will be considered. We will investigate how social, economic and political forces have shaped or are presently influencing and transforming national cinemas. Questions of identity and cultural difference, particularly in relation to immigration, diasporas, transnationalism, youth culture, class, gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity are central to the discussions. We will consider the diversity of styles and topics that are now redefining the cinema of the region.
MCS 380 | BOARD GAMES AS MEDIA | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course examines the rising popularity of hobby board games as a way of understanding cultural changes in the digital age. We will discuss games and play as concepts, analyze new types of games, and examine the "gamification" of the world. Students will design a board game and learn how different game genres lead to different interpretations of meaning. This course will open up the study of board games in the media studies classroom. At first blush, board games do not seem like the typical "media" studied in the MCS program, which tends to focus more on television, film, and video games. And just like those forms of media throughout cultural history, board games have been viewed as not important enough to study. Like these once-ignored, now-valued media forms, however, board games not only have a lot to communicate about our culture, but also are undervalued as meaning-making creations. This class is about the board game as a meaning-making unit of information, as well as a system made up of units of information. In this class, we will develop frameworks and methodologies, and present case studies, for how scholars, students, and teachers might study the board game in our digital age.
MCS 383 | TALKING ABOUT FILM: THEORY & CRITICISM | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course is to familiarize students with a wide range of disciplines (film, art history, philosophy, psychology, etc.) and how these ideas both inflected the development of classical film theories as well as the evolution of cinema. Moreover, the scope of the course seeks to examine the overall process whereby theoretical discourse develops historically.
MCS 385 | SEMIOTICS, STORYTELLING, & FILM FORM | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course will provide an in-depth exploration of how filmmakers create various types of meaning through film form and style. Methods of analysis will include semiotics (the analysis of signs and symbols that produce meaning), genre studies, and celebrity studies. We will pay specific attention to how meaning emerges from in-vogue or director-specific stylistic choices (for example, Spike Lee's dolly shot, bullet time post-Matrix, and the popularity of still photography in film of the late 1960s) and new technologies that emerge at various times (for example, special effects that allow for the production of different images, and advances in control over layered sound that change aural impact).
MCS 386 | AUDIO PRODUCTION FOR RADIO AND THE WEB | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Students in this course will record, edit, and produce various dynamic audio pieces including podcasts, documentaries, commercials, and more. Though most pre-production work will be done at the studios of Radio DePaul, it may be possible for some students to complete their productions in a DePaul lab or at home. While experience is not required, an affinity for sound-only entertainment and information content will benefit students.
MCS 389 | TOPICS IN MEDIA PRODUCTION | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course is a rotating topic course in areas of media production and may include classes such as Podcasting, Advanced Radio Production, Advanced Audio Documentary, Radio News, Multimedia Production, etc. For a detailed course description, click the course link and view the Class Notes in the Enrollment Information tab.
MCS 393 | TOPICS IN ADVANCED MEDIA ETHICS | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Each section of this rotating topics course comprises an in-depth investigation of a different issue of media ethics. Among the topics offered: democracy and the media; stereotyping and prejudice; deception and the media; privacy; the ethics of media awards; and the ethics of authenticity. Prerequisite: MCS 343 or any prior coursework in ethics. May be repeated for credit as topics change.
MCS 501 | FILM AND MEDIA THEORY | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This course will serve as a foundation for students in theories of film, television, and new media. An engagement with areas such as formal analysis, television and film spectatorship, authorship, television flow, and media specificity will provide both a brief historical framework for these disciplines, as well as a survey of major texts. Readings will include scholars/theorists such as Sergei Eisenstein, David Bordwell, Laura Mulvey, Horace Newcomb, Raymond Williams, Nick Browne, and Henry Jenkins. Formerly MCS 501 Introduction to Media Studies.
Status as a College of Communication graduate student or Experience Design student or department consent is a prerequisite for this class.
MCS 502 | MEDIA AND CULTURAL STUDIES | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This course provides students with a theoretical and methodological background in the interdisciplinary field of cultural studies, which considers media and culture as sites for the construction and contestant of race, class, gender, ethnicity, sexuality and nation. The course provides a foundation in critical cultural studies, ideology critique, critical race and gender studies, transnational media studies and active audience studies.
Status as a College of Communication Graduate Student or MFA Cinema student or Experience Design student or department consent is a prerequisite to this class.
MCS 503 | CRITICAL ANALYSIS | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This course will provide students with an advanced background in a wide range of methods used in media studies. The methods taught in this course may be applied to the study of film, television, print media, new media, social media, and their related paratexts and audiences. Some of the critical approaches to be covered include: Discourse analysis; Historiography; Political Economy; Sociological Analysis. Students will also learn how to produce media criticism in a range of formats, from traditional essays to short articles to video essays and more.
Status as a College of Communication Graduate Student or department consent is a prerequisite for this class.
MCS 504 | HISTORIOGRAPHY AND RESEARCH | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This course will offer critical perspectives and methods to film and media history and research. Areas of exploration will include how popular history and academic historiography interact, the way certain subjects and facts are emphasized over others, the different forms used to represent historical knowledge, and questions of history and memory. In addition to the assumptions, methods, and purposes of film/media histories, the course will also ask crucial questions regarding the nature of inquiry and the status of data and evidence. Students will learn how to address a specific research question through a variety of methodologies in a cogent and comprehensive manner. Students will also develop competency in writing a research proposal and using research tools such as Endnote and online journal databases.
Status as a College of Communication Graduate Student or department consent is a prerequisite for this class.
MCS 505 | DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION IN MEDIA | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This course will address questions of diversity and inclusion at different stages in the circuit of production and distribution of media. How do media corporations and legislation affect the diversity within the mass media industries? How are cultural identities depicted and how do such representations converge or interrelate with current social discourses? In the context of theories of human identity and difference, students will view, read about, analyze and discuss films, television series, and digital and social media to understand the intersections and interactions of social and political identities that they draw upon and depict. Finally, we will consider strategies to challenge or disrupt limiting media practices through creative and responsible discussion, while students explore their power and responsibility as creators.
Status as a College of Communication Graduate Student or department consent is a prerequisite for this class.
MCS 506 | MEDIA LITERACY | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
Media literacy is the process of understanding a set of competencies that help us become better creators, consumers, and activists of media and technology. As media - whether cinematic, online, televised, or a convergence thereof - become even more omnipresent in the 21st Century, we must focus on how we as media scholars/educators/activists can both develop skills in media literacy as well as help the current and future generations negotiate the media environment. This course will examine the concept of media literacy and how it is and can be practiced in our homes, communities, and schools. We will examine possible inroads and roadblocks to media literacy. What lessons does media literacy teach us? What elements of media are most important to examine? We will examine media literacy scholarship and existing programs as we develop our own possible plans for implementation of media literacy projects and programs.
Status as a College of Communication Graduate Student or department consent is a prerequisite for this class.
MCS 520 | TOPICS IN MEDIA STUDIES | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This is a seminar that focuses on a particular area of media studies including, but not limited to, topics such as the contemporary media industries, kids media culture, television studies, music cultures, digital divide, race and media, celebrity culture, radio studies, war and media, gender and media, global television, new media studies and sexuality and media. Students may take this seminar repeatedly in different topic areas. For a detailed course description, click the course link and view the Class Notes in the Enrollment Information tab.
Status as a College of Communication graduate student or Experience Design student or department consent is a prerequisite for this class.
MCS 521 | TOPICS IN CINEMA STUDIES | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This is a seminar-level course that provides in-depth examinations of Cinema Studies topics. Topics vary from quarter to quarter and may include studies of film genres, film authorship, national cinemas, global cinema, gender in cinema, animation, film theory, early cinema, film aesthetics, race and representation, film sound studies, or other rotating topics. For a detailed course description, click the course link and view the Class Notes in the Enrollment Information tab.
Status as a College of Communication Graduate Student or department consent is a prerequisite for this class.
MCS 522 | TOPICS IN CINEMA/MEDIA HISTORY | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
Examination of a particular era of film history or national cinema, film movements, or moments in social history and their relationship to film production. Topics currently in rotation include American Films of the 1970s, Latin American Cinema, War and Film, New German Cinema, feminist film, etc. Examination of a particular eras or forms of television/media from a historical perspective. Topics could include but are not limited to: History of American Broadcasting, International Broadcasting Structures, Television Outside the Box, Public and Community Broadcasting, genre-specific histories, etc. For a detailed course description, click the course link and view the Class Notes in the Enrollment Information tab.
Status as a College of Communication Graduate Student or department consent is a prerequisite for this class.
MCS 523 | TOPICS IN GLOBAL FILM & MEDIA | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This course surveys a number of frameworks for understanding the global dynamics that constitute particular media cultures around the world. We will examine historical perspectives and debates concerning the processes of globalization and the media's constitutive role in impacting our conceptions of space and time across local, national and transnational terrains. Students will interrogate how the actions of nation states, civil society and transnational corporations impact media industries and ask how media representations are contested across registers of nation, region, citizenship, class, religion, labor, gender, Diaspora, race, migration and ethnicity. For a detailed course description, click the course link and view the Class Notes in the Enrollment Information tab.
Status as a College of Communication Graduate Student or department consent is a prerequisite for this class.
MCS 530 | NEW MEDIA AND CULTURE | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This seminar considers the cultural ramifications of new media in shaping life experience and opportunity. As interactive digital media technologies expand opportunities for social networking, text and instant messaging, file sharing, collaborative authoring, blogging, podcasting and mobile communication, this seminar asks how these new technologies impact identity formation, creative participation and concepts of public culture. Issues of concern include race, gender, class, sexuality, cultural citizenship, fandom, subcultures and democratic participation.
Status as a College of Communication graduate student or Experience Design student or department consent is a prerequisite for this class.
MCS 533 | LATIN AMERICAN CINEMA/MEDIA | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This seminar examines the production, distribution and impact of cinema and media in the Latin American context. We will view a range of works from major and minor industries and investigate how social, economic and political forces have shaped or are presently influencing and transforming national cinemas and their industries. Questions of identity and cultural difference, particularly in relation to immigration, diasporas, transnationalism, youth culture, class, gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity are central to the discussions. We will consider the diversity of styles and topics as much as the discursive and theoretical frameworks that in the past defined, or those that are now redefining, the cinema and media of the region.
Status as a College of Communication Graduate Student or department consent is a prerequisite for this class.
MCS 541 | AUDIO DOCUMENTARY | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This course uses hands-on projects so that students can explore the steps in the process of creating an audio documentary. Through practical application students consider questions that surround the interpretation of cultural experience. Additionally, students analyze a variety of approaches to audio documentary in an effort to understand better this significant form of storytelling.
Status as a College of Communication graduate student or Experience Design student or department consent is a prerequisite for this class.
MCS 542 | TOPICS IN PRODUCTION | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This is a seminar that focuses on a particular area of media production including, but not limited to, topics such as comedy writing, documentary production, and screenwriting. Students may take this seminar repeatedly in different topic areas. For a detailed course description, click the course link and view the Class Notes in the Enrollment Information tab.
Status as a College of Communication graduate student or Experience Design student or department consent is a prerequisite for this class.
MCS 544 | TOPICS IN DOCUMENTARY STUDIES | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
A rotating topics course that could focus upon a specific historical era-specific group of texts or documentarians across film, television, audio, writing, and photography. For a detailed course description, click the course link and view the Class Notes in the Enrollment Information tab.
Status as a Communication and Media (MA) or Documentary (MFA) student is a prerequisite for this class.
MCS 550 | FANDOM AND ACTIVE AUDIENCES | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
Fans, people who hold an emotional attachment to a particular object, have been the object of academic study for twenty years; yet, the study of audiences and reader/viewer-ship has a much longer and more detailed history that goes back hundreds of years. Why this fascination with the way people interpret and react to media? What is it about fans, audiences, or readers that holds such interest for academics? This course will explore the relationship between fans, academics, and cultural studies. Through an examination of the way fans and active audiences are studied, we can better understand our media, our texts, and our selves.
Status as a College of Communication Graduate Student or department consent is a prerequisite for this class.
MCS 575 | DIGITAL MEDIA ETHICS | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This course provides students with the necessary background to investigate legal and ethical issues in digital technology and culture. Additionally, students practice digital literacy as an application of these ethical issues. This class offers topics including, but not limited to copyright, authorship, attribution, civics, vernacular creativity, Free Speech, filesharing, piracy, libel, access, participation, modes of control, net neutrality, etc., in order for students will come away with a sense of the ethical issues within today's culture.
Status as a student in Digital Communication and Media Arts (CDM or College of Communication) or the Digital Communication Certificate or department consent is a prerequisite for this class.
MCS 587 | SOUND AND VISION | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This course introduces students to the unique ways that photography and audio documentary can blend together. The course will combine documentary and experimental production to help students learn to create audio documentary and visual projects and to work in mixed-media contexts.
Status as a College of Communication Graduate Student or department consent is a prerequisite for this class.
MCS 590 | MEDIA & CINEMA STUDIES WORKSHOP (VARIABLE TOPICS) | 2 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This course allows students to sample a range of hands on, practical offerings in communication that can enhance their knowledge and expertise. Topics offered include survey design and focus groups. (2 quarter hours)
Status as a College of Communication Graduate Student or department consent is a prerequisite for this class.
MCS 592 | INDEPENDENT STUDY | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This is a 4-credit hour course reserved for independent coursework and specialization under the supervision of a faculty member. Students can propose to take this class after completing six 4-hour courses in the MCS program. Enrollment in this course requires the proposal of a student-designed syllabus that is approved by both the supervising professor and College of Communication administration. See website for Independent Study proposal form. PREREQUISITE(S): Status as a Graduate Media and Cinema Studies student is a prerequisite for this class. The student must have completed six 4-hour graduate courses prior to taking this course. Approval required.
Status as a Graduate Media and Cinema Studies student and Director consent is a prerequisite for this class.
MCS 599 | RESEARCH THESIS | 4 quarter hours
(Graduate)
Enroll in 599 during the term you plan to defend your thesis or complete your final project. This is a graded, 4-credit hour course. Tuition is charged and loan deferment is available. You must have a scheduled defense/completion date to be approved for this class. Your thesis/project advisor needs to communicate this date to the Graduate Studies Director for your program, before you are allowed to enroll.
Status as a Graduate Media and Cinema Studies student and Director consent is a prerequisite for this class.
MCS 601 | ACTIVE DEGREE COMPLETION | 0 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This is a 0-credit hour course that is available to students who are working actively toward the completion of a thesis or project. Enrollment in this course is limited to the two quarters prior to the defense of the thesis/project and requires thesis/project advisor and graduate director approval and proof of work each quarter. Enrollment in this course allows access to the library and other campus facilities. This course carries half-time enrollment status and eligibility for loan deferment and student loans. This course is graded as pass/fail. (0 credit hours)
Status as a Graduate Media and Cinema Studies student is a prerequisite for this class.
MCS 602 | CANDIDACY CONTINUATION | 0 quarter hours
(Graduate)
This is a 0-credit hour course that requires permission from the graduate director. Students can enroll in this course if they are finishing a course in which they received an incomplete (IN) and are not registered for any other regular credit-bearing courses in the quarter they plan to finish the incomplete. Enrollment in this course is limited to the two quarters following the quarter of the original incomplete (IN) grade. Enrollment in this course allows access to the library and other campus facilities. This course does not carry any enrollment status. Students enrolled in this course are not eligible for loan deferment or student loans. This course is not graded. (0 credit hours)
Status as a Graduate Media and Cinema Studies student is a prerequisite for this class.