CMCL-C 552: Media Institutions and the Production of Culture
Class Number: 25686

Th, 1:00 PM-3:30 PM, Location: TBA

Meets with CULS-C 701
Open to Graduates Only!

Instructor: Christopher Anderson
E-Mail: anderso@indiana.edu
Office: Mottier Hall 216
Phone: 855-5914

This course will provide theoretical and methodological frameworks
for investigating the institutions that participate in, study, and
regulate the global cultural economy:  movie studios, television
networks, advertising agencies, publishing houses, software design
firms, government agencies, advocacy groups, universities, etc.  We
will examine the issues traditionally covered in political economy
of the media, such as distribution of resources, patterns of
corporate ownership and control, the dynamic nature of markets and
strategies for managing them, modes of production and the division
of labor, methods of generating and using profits.  In addition,
however, we will apply the insights of cultural studies to these
institutions and their practices— to account for centrality of
language, representation, and meaning to the conduct of these
institutions.  This recognizes both that forms of economic life are
cultural phenomena and that the production and circulation of
cultural artifacts cannot be divorced from economic processes and
forms of organization.  Among the issues that we will discuss are
the effects of government deregulation, the implications of digital
technologies, media conglomerates and globalization, transnational
advertising and consumption, intellectual property, the
commodification of public expression, and the identities of
audiences and consumers.