This module explores how we use various forms of media to construct our identities, whether as producers or consumers, or a combination of both. Topics may include: race, gender and sexuality, “taste” and class, national identity, dis/ability, intersectionality, high vs low culture, colonialism, and the apparent fragmentation of identities which is so often linked to the rise of social media. Drawing on concepts from sociology, cultural studies, media studies, and a range of other disciplines, it seeks to provide students with a vocabulary for critically reflecting on such issues.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the module students should be able to:
Demonstrate an understanding of the affordances of different forms or media and different media texts in the construction of culture and identity
Demonstrate an understanding of the historically and socially situated nature of practices of culture and identity construction
Identify and evaluate key arguments about relations between culture and identity and concepts such as class, ethnicity, gender, ideology
Use key concepts in media studies and related fields in order to reflect on their own mediated experience
