Programme: BA

Course: Media and Society

Semester: V
Code: XXX 531

Objectives
• To introduce the students to concepts, concerns, critical debates in Media
Studies
• To enable students to critically perceive and engage with production,
signification and negotiation of meanings in media

Level of Knowledge: Working knowledge of media

Module I 20 Hrs
Perspectives on Media Texts
Semiotics: Signs, Codes, and Cultures
Hermeneutics: Interpretation and Understanding
Rhetoric: Language, Situation, Purpose
Narratology: The Forms and Functions of Stories

Understanding Media in Contexts 20 Hrs

Asa Briggs and Peter Burke: ‘Introduction,’ A Social History of the Media: From
Gutenberg to the Internet.
Fiona Anderson: ‘Fashion – Style, Identity and Meaning’
Fiona Carson: ‘Feminist Debate and Fine art Practices’
Claire Pajaczkowska: ‘Issues in Feminist Design’
Richard Howell: ‘Ideology’
Marshall McLuhan. ‘Medium is the Message’
Nishant Shah: ‘Playblog: Pornography, Performance and Cyberspace’
Ashis Nandy: ‘Indian Popular Cinema as a Slum's Eye View of Politics’
Deborah Stevenson: ‘Imagining the City: Movies, Maps and Cyberspace’

Media Regulation 20 Hrs

Lawrence Liang: ‘Philosophical Foundations of Free Speech’
Lawrence Liang: ‘Hate Speech and the Philosophy of Language’
Lawrence Liang: ‘Obscenity, Decency and Morality’
Shohini Ghosh: ‘TV Censorship in India.’
Monika Mehta: ‘What Is Behind Film Censorship?’

Select Bibliography
Briggs, Asa, and Peter Burke. A Social History of the Media: From Gutenberg to the
Internet. Malden: Blackwell, 2001.
Carson, Fiona and Claire Pajaczkowska. eds. Feminist Visual Culture. London:
Routledge, 2003.
Gripsrud, Jostein. Understanding Media Culture. London: Hodder Arnold, 2002
Howell, Richard. Visual Culture. Cambridge: Polity, 2003.
Rampley, Matthew. ed. Exploring Visual Culture: Definitions, Concepts, Contexts.
Edingburg: Edinburg University Press, 2005.
Wayne, Mike. Marxism and Media Studies: Key Concepts and Contemporary Trends.
London: Pluto Press, 2003.