The End of Television: Making Post-Millennial Media

This course may be used to satisfy one of four electives required within the Communication major. A seismic shift is underway, transforming the American media landscape and upending an industry that has underpinned American soft power for decades. Network and Cable television, long the creative and financial foundation of media production in the United States, are undergoing a steep decline as streamers like Netflix, platforms like YouTube and Tubi, and a wide array of social media apps cut ever deeper into television's hegemony. In this newly fractured world, scholars and cultural critics are even forecasting the end of the medium altogether. How have we gotten here? What are the implications for audiences? How are producers, directors, and writers morphing into"content creators" and "influencers?" What might this imply for the future American cultural institutions writ large? This class will consider all these questions while students simultaneously engage in their own thoughtful, creative, and experimental social media productions. Through both theory and practice, we'll seek perspective on an era that is drawing to a close and interrogate the brave new media landscape that is dawning.