124261 KO Critical Media Analysis (2016S)

Beyond the conventional codes of language and image, culture relies on a wide range of representational resources: colour, direction, spatial disposition, material stuff. Spaces, actions, objects - whose primary function is not that of representation - are socially shaped and become culturally meaningful too.
This course sets out to explore multimodal communication in an Anglophone context by investigating what often goes unnoticed: What significance is there in a coffee and a cigarette? How does furniture organise our private lives? Does a lecture hall have meaning of its own? What can such object lesson teach?
Key concepts of cultural studies, media studies and social semiotics add up to a toolkit that enables students and future teachers to critically analyse the complex meanings encoded in the most simple objects of everyday use.

Students will be introduced to concepts especially of cultural studies and social semiotics that contribute to a critical engagement with the many modes of meaning-making. Readings, viewings and class discussions will be supplemented by online performance, group research and peer feedback.

Aimed at BA students and teacher trainees, this course is designed to contribute to both the theoretical understanding and practical skills involved in critical media analysis.