Introduction to Media Studies is designed for students who have grown up in a rapidly changing global multimedia environment and want to become more literate and critical consumers and producers of culture. Through an interdisciplinary comparative and historical lens, the course defines “media” broadly as including oral, print, theatrical, photographic, broadcast, cinematic, and digital cultural forms and practices. The course looks at the nature of mediated communication, the functions of media, the history of transformations in media and the institutions that help define media’s place in society.
Over the course of the semester we explore different theoretical perspectives on the role and power of media in society in influencing our social values, political beliefs, identities and behaviors. Students also have the opportunity to analyze specific media texts (such as films and television shows) and explore the meaning of the changes that occur when a particular narrative is adapted into different media forms. We look at the ways in which the politics of class, gender and race influence both the production and reception of media. To represent different perspectives on media, several guest speakers also present lectures. Through the readings, lectures, and discussions as well as their own writing and oral presentations, students have multiple opportunities to engage with critical debates in the field as well as explore the role of media in their own lives.

Introduction to Media Studies is designed for students who have grown up in a rapidly changing global multimedia environment and want to become more literate and critical consumers and producers of culture. Through an interdisciplinary comparative and historical lens, the course defines “media” broadly as including oral, print, theatrical, photographic, broadcast, cinematic, and digital cultural forms and practices. The course looks at the nature of mediated communication, the functions of media, the history of transformations in media and the institutions that help define media’s place in society.
Over the course of the semester we explore different theoretical perspectives on the role and power of media in society in influencing our social values, political beliefs, identities and behaviors. Students also have the opportunity to analyze specific media texts (such as films and television shows) and explore the meaning of the changes that occur when a particular narrative is adapted into different media forms. We look at the ways in which the politics of class, gender and race influence both the production and reception of media. To represent different perspectives on media, several guest speakers also present lectures. Through the readings, lectures, and discussions as well as their own writing and oral presentations, students have multiple opportunities to engage with critical debates in the field as well as explore the role of media in their own lives.

This social media literacy unit introduces students to foundational skills in analyzing images and social media posts. It also reenforces critical thinking questions that can be applied to various forms of media. This unit was taught to 9th grade students but is easily adaptible to a range of secondary classrooms. It was also taught in conjunction with another unit focused on social media platforms and content.

The objective of this lesson is to teach kids about food advertising. To compare and contrast the portrayal of real food versus processed food in the media.

Launch! Advertising and Promotion in Real Time is the first free, open source text for advertising and marketing classes. A new alternative to introductory texts that can cost into three figures and provide information that is extraneous or outdated, Launch! offers a basic text at no cost to students. Instead, we generate revenue through individually priced materials such as discretionary hard copies of the text (for those of you who still like to mark up your book the old-fashioned way), study guides, podcasts and streaming interviews (à la iTunes), user-generated content, advertising sales, and corporate sponsorship. There’s something else that’s really unique and cool about Launch! Welcome to the first advertising textbook written in partnership with a real-life advertising agency. It’s fine to talk about ad campaigns from the past, but we’d rather hear about one from the horse’s mouth—while it’s still happening. We’re going to teach you about the ad biz the way you’ll learn it if you choose to make it your career (and we hope you do). None of that shiny, happy, “talking heads” stuff; we’re going to take the gloves off and show you how a campaign works (and sometimes doesn’t) from the vantage point of the people who have to do it every day. Prepare to Launch!

In this minilesson, students practice identifying and purposefully using vocabulary in persuasive writing that is intended to have an emotional impact on the reader.

This course helps students develop skills in marketing analysis and planning, and introduces key marketing ideas and phenomena, such as how to deliver benefits to customers and marketing analytics. It presents a framework for marketing analysis and enhances problem solving and decision-making abilities in these areas. Material relevant to understanding, managing, and integrating marketing concepts in managerial situations, from entrepreneurial ventures to large multinational firms, and to consulting are presented.

In this unit, students explore and discuss video clips, articles, advertisements, myths, and other relevant information about how media sources affect our food choices.In particular, students learn about the marketing of food to children and adolescents. The unit will culminate with students working in groups of 3 to create a media presentation that can serve as a decision-making guide to inform food choices/decisions.Standards:CCSS English Language Arts (Grades 7-8)Ohio Standards for Technology   

Ad for the Model T Ford in the Amarillo daily news. (Amarillo, Tex.), 05 May 1912.

Students explore the genre of commercial endorsements, establishing characteristics and requirements for the genre. Each student then composes an endorsement of a product, service, company, or industry.

This site provides a standards-based lesson on how the use of posters during WWII helped win over the hearts and minds of the American people.

Did you know that it takes less than seven-seconds to decide whether you will buy most items? What influences us to make those snap decisions? Advertising? Packaging? The product? This theme unit investigated what drives consumer behaviors. Students examined often overlooked pieces of our environmental impact by analyzing the “stuff” in our lives…what we own, buy, consume, and discard. Inspired by Annie Leonard’s short film The Story of Stuff (www.storyofstuff.com), we followed the life cycle of products from extraction, production, distribution, consumption, and disposal. We considered the hidden costs, human costs, and environmental costs of our “stuff.”

This unit is designed to accompany the study of George Orwell's Animal Farm. Resources encourage students to recognize a variety of propaganda techniques and to connect those techniques to media that they can find in their everyday lives. Resources also help students to understand the historical uses of propaganda by governments and political parties to influence public opinion. Resources can be used independently of the novel.

Students analyze propaganda techniques used in pieces of literature and political advertisements. They then look for propaganda in other media, such as print ads and commercials.

Throughout the nineteenth century and into the early twentieth century, Americans were inundated with myriad medicinal treatments collectively known as patent medicine. At a time when doctors and medical clinics were less common, especially in rural areas, patent medicines promised relief from pain and chronic conditions when few other options existed. The term “patent medicine” referred to ingredients that had been granted a government patent; but ironically many purveyors of patent medicine did not register their concoctions with the government. As a result, many competitors offered similar formulas and freely imitated each other’s products. The story of patent medicine is multi-layered. It is about the phenomenon of Americans self-medicating with opiates, alcohol, and herbal supplements, as well as women’s health and healthcare options. It follows the evolution of advertising in America and the rise of chromolithography printing techniques and newspaper advertisements. Finally, patent medicine reveals dubious scientific knowledge during a time when germ theory was in its infancy. This exhibition was created as part of the DPLA’s Public Library Partnerships Project by collaborators from Minnesota Digital Library. Exhibition organized by Greta Bahnemann.

This course explores the role of race and ethnicity in modern American politics. It focuses on social science approaches to measuring the effects of race, both at the individual level and more broadly. Topics include race and representation, measurement of racial and ethnic identities, voting rights and electoral districting, protest and other forms of political participation, and the meaning and measurement of racial attitudes.

This media literacy unit was designed and piloted with junior English classes at the start of the school year. Activities can easily be adapted to suit secondary students at various levels. Within the unit, students analyze corporate logos, corporate advertising, movie trailers and stereotypes found in media related to Native American culture. Within the unit, students also learn how to consider the ways in which media appeals to ethos, pathose and logos and how to identify the tone of a piece of media. 

El presente manuscrito es resultado de investigaciones multidisciplinarias bajo diferentes perspectivas científicas-académicas, mediante la confrontación de criterios de diferentes autores bajo un enfoque descriptivo que señala la importancia de ética en varios escenarios actuales como son la discriminación del trabajo dentro del caso de estudio en Santo Domingo, se resalta la importancia de los principios éticos en los negocios globales, se analiza la perspectiva ética de la publicad en empresas ecuatorianas bajo un enfoque de responsabilidad social, se aborda temáticas como la ética laboral desde la perspectiva de un mercado cambiante, al igual que la ética en organizaciones sociales y por último se abordan el tema el impacto del comportamiento de los individuos dentro de las organizaciones empresariales. Estos estudios se realizan desde una mirada científica y se la acerca a la realidad ecuatoriana.

Innovation in expression, as realized in media, tangible objects, performance and more,  generates new questions and new potentials for human engagement. When and how does expression engage us deeply? Many personal stories confirm the hypothesis that once we experience deep engagement, it is a state we long for, remember, and want to repeat. This class will explore what underlying principles and innovative methods can ensure the development of higher-quality “deep engagement” products (artifacts, experiences, environments, performances, etc.) that appeal to a broad audience and that have lasting value over the long term.

Advertisers constantly thrust quantitative information in our face. Product claims, store enticements, health benefits, and scores of other contexts use short quantitative arguments to catch a reader's eye (and possibly money). This example shows how one can use these ads to bring added content to a quantitative reasoning course.