FMCS2200Popular Culture and Society

Course handbook

Description

This course will introduce students to the key scholarly perspectives that have put the study of popular culture on the map, encouraging them to analyse the complexities of popular culture in greater focus and depth. Popular culture forms a lens through which to view societal attitudes through time. It can, however, also play a powerful role in shaping these very attitudes. Popular Culture and Society offers an enhanced understanding of the ways in which gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, class and other socially codified markers of identity are represented in popular culture; how popular culture potentially impacts audiences; video games, interactivity and moral panics; social media and self-display; makeover culture; and other topics and case studies. Each assessment item is designed to further student understanding of, and skills in, analysing and researching popular culture and society.

Availability2017 Course Timetables

Learning outcomes

On successful completion of the course students will be able to:

1. Discuss popular culture as always both reflecting and influencing our society;

2. Relate concepts such as class, race, ideology and spectatorship to popular culture and illustrate their significance;

3. Construct a critical argument regarding the issues surrounding popular culture;

4. Combine scholarship with original analysis in a popular culture case study.

Content

The course involves:

1. An overview of the many competing theories, methods, concepts and policies surrounding popular culture.
2. Examining a series of case studies and discussing critical issues such as ethics, politics, histories, etc.
3. Evaluating how audience / consumer / user relationships with popular culture have changed over time.

Assumed knowledge

80 units at 1000 level

Assessment items

Written Assignment: Essay

In Term Test: Take home exam

Quiz: Online quiz

Contact hours

Callaghan

Callaghan