News, Media, & Power

20 years ago, many people were still reading print newspapers everyday, social media platforms (Myspace and Facebook) were in their infancy, and the first iPhone was still two years away. The pace of changes in the news and social media ecosystems is dizzying, and yet news and social media practices quickly become the “new normal.” Without being techno pessimists or optimists, we can accurately say that these developments have had major cultural, social, political, economic, and personal impacts. In this course, we take an anthropological deep dive into news production and the social media worlds to which some of us (I’m looking at you, Gen Z) are said to be “natives.” This course equips students with the ability to take a step back and critically analyze these worlds and our complex lives within them.

You can see the most recent syllabus for this course here.