What is popular culture? How does popular culture communicate with us through media? Out of what historical, commercial, and creative contexts does popular culture emerge? These broad questions fuel our work in this course. Communication and Popular Culture presents an introduction to U.S. popular culture, with an emphasis on its forms and functions in our society. First, we engage four key domains that construct popular culture’s meanings in order to empower students with the critical skills to understand cultural texts. Second, we consider how popular culture has both shaped and reflected broader social power dynamics in the United States. Finally, we analyze popular culture in detailed written arguments and cogent oral presentations. Because this is an All-University Core Curriculum course, we have specific objectives: to place the history of popular culture within a broader context of U.S. history; to analyze a variety of texts that loosely fall into the category “arts and humanities,” and to suggest particular methods of critical thinking.
Course Objectives
- Describe popular culture texts from a Communication Studies perspective and define and utilize key media analysis terms.
- Explain the relationship between popular culture texts and their socio-historical contexts.
- Analyze the industries that produce popular culture texts.
- Analyze popular culture texts’ power to represent and shape social power and cultural identities.
- Critique and construct arguments about popular culture and/as communication through research, writing, and cultural engagement.
This course meets the All-University Core Curriculum (AUCC) requirements for Arts/Humanities (Category 3B) and is approved under gtPathways in the content area of Arts and Expression (GT-AH1).
Important Information
Course utilizes group projects for some assignments.
Instructors
Amanda Wright
Amanda.Wright@colostate.edu
After having completed a B.A. in Speech Communication at Nebraska Wesleyan University in 2002, Amanda was excited to move to beautiful Fort Collins, Colorado to pursue an M.A. in Communication Studies from Colorado State University. Her Master's Thesis was titled, "The Presentation and Mediation of Winona LaDuke's Political Identity During the 2000 United States' Presidential Campaign," which was chaired by Dr. Karrin Anderson. Amanda has taught full-time as a Special Instructor/Lecturer in the Department of Communication Studies since earning her M.A. in May of 2004. She enjoys teaching Evaluating Contemporary Television, Communication and Popular Culture, Political Communication, Professional Communication, Public Speaking, and Advanced Public Speaking classes at CSU and has taught Interpersonal Communication and Public Speaking classes part-time at Front Range Community College.
