COML099 - Television and New Media

This introductory survey course will explore the history of television as both a site of cultural production and a particular technology within an audiovisual technological continuum. Special attention will be paid to practices of representation and how issues of race and gender have been entangled with not only televisual representations but the creation of new technologies and mediums, including the internet and digital and social media. We begin the course with some debates on technological and cultural approaches to media, including arguments about the limitations of describing a particular technology as “new” or “digital.” This course will also address: Should we approach “television” as an industry and content provider or as a technology and set of audience relations? How have television audiences been transformed by algorithmic cultures and streaming platforms such as Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu? Are algorithms “neutral” components of digital media, or are they also enmeshed in histories of representation and their embedded biases? How have social networks provided more freedom to digital media users and at the same time increased concerns about surveillance?