Popular Communication

The popular media of television, film, magazines, news, books, games, music, social media, and the like have a profound effect on our interpretation of the world and on the production of culture.

Research in this area focuses on how the production of these cultural goods influences culture, identity, power, politics, and political discourse around the world. It explores how these influences have changed across time and technologies.

recent research by our faculty has addressed:

  • The production of culture through popular media
  • Critical cultural communication
  • The melding of politics and popular culture
  • The role of music in social change
  • Historical and contemporary consumer culture
  • Branding
  • Video games and gaming culture 

Faculty

Courses

Students who have an interest in popular communicationare encouraged to enroll in the following courses.

  • Emerging media and communication
  • Communication institutions
  • Critical analysis of mass media
  • Media, identity, and representation
  • Media and social memory
  • Critical textual analysis
  • Historical methods
  • Media ethnography
  • Digital qualitative research methods