In Media Studies, theory refers to a range of philosophical traditions of explaining how to define what media is, how media produce meaning and emotions, how media can be manipulated and corrupted, and how media relate to larger questions of political, economic, and social power. Through theory, students answer knotty technical questions about what a medium even is, and they assess the ethical and political stakes of media as well as their own participation in a media ecology of consumption and production.
A full listing of courses that count toward this elective area are regularly updated on Rice’s General Announcements page. These courses include:
- MDIA 378: Sex on Screen: Media, Sexuality, and Scandals
- MDIA 384: Politics of the Internet
- COMP 300: Society in the Information Age
- ENGL 273: Medicine and Media
- ENGL 358: Consumption/Consumerism
- ENST 316: Environmental Media
- FREN 319: France: The Soccer Empire
- HART 311: Representations of Disability
- HEAL 212: Consumer Health and the Media
- SPAN 328: Gazing at Disaster: Visual Culture and Catastrophe in Latin America