Program Announcement 2013 - 14 - Institute of Business ...

Description of Coursesfrom the first idea to the completed work. Studentsget the opportunity to try their hand at basic productiontechniques and create simple narratives of their own.This course works to build overall media literacy andenhance the ability to critically observe and analyzenon-fiction media.MCS364 Theories of Film and TelevisionA broad introduction to the major theories of film andtelevision that will help students develop multiplestrategies through which to analyze the many andvaried visual narrative texts they encounter every day.Topics covered include genre theory, the psychologyof spectatorship, Hollywood and Bollywood studio starsystems, ideologies of visual narrative, auteur theories,the gaze and the politics of identity, serialization, realitytelevision, and apparatus theory.MCS365 Narratives across MediaArtistic and popular media employ their own mediumspecifictechniques of storytelling. This course exploreshow narrative structures and models operate differentlybetween film, television, and digital media in bothfictional and non-fictional forms. Drawing heavily onvarious theories of narrative, the course will considerhow different media offer possibilities to creators andviewers to tap into the central human practice ofstorytelling. We will focus on works that challengeconvention in a variety of ways, centered on new mediaand contemporary trends in narrative technique.MCS366 Digital Activism and DemocracyHow does the Internet affect politics? In the last decade,text message campaigns, online social networks, andcitizen media have played a major role in world events.This course explores how digital technology changesboth the manner and the meaning of democraticparticipation. Students will read and analyze casestudies and both scholarly and popular readings aboutnew media technologies and applications, and theirmeasurable impact on global and local social andpolitical structures.MCS367 Media Convergence and the Virtual PublicSphereThe boundaries between forms of mediatedcommunication have long been unstable; today, theyhave all but disappeared. This course investigates thesocial, cultural, and aesthetic effects of suchconvergences, the shifting roles of spectators,participants, artists, and industries across a range ofmedia practices, and the pervasive impact these shiftshave had on the way we understand our selves.MCS401 Communication for Social ChangeThis course will introduce students to strategiesthrough which they can use communication processesand techniques to facilitate social, economic, andtechnological change. We will read historical andcontemporary theories of social change, assess casestudies of communication campaigns that have madea difference in peoples lives, consider the effect of newtechnologies in local and global contexts, examineindependent and alternative news gatheringorganizations, leading to a major project that designsand executes a media campaign focused on a specificlocal social issue.MCS 491/492 Culminating ExperienceThe culminating experience is a 9-credit final projectthat includes both a written and an experientialcomponent undertaken by students in their final yearof study at IBA. Project proposals must be submittedbefore the beginning of the fall semester. The proposalshould include a well-articulated research question,research methods to be used, an extensive bibliographythat lists both primary and secondary sources to beconsulted, and a brief summary of why the studentwishes to pursue this line of inquiry. The final writtencomponent should be at least 40-pages (includingappendices), and both include a synoptic summary ofthe data collected and an extensive analysis of thatdata as it pertains to the research question.POLITICAL SCIENCE COURSESPOL301 Research Methods in Political ScienceResearch is an important component of social/politicalsciences. It allows for a better understanding of theworld. The course aims at making students thinksystematically, understand research, and the interfacebetween data and theory. The focus of the course wouldbe to develop an understanding of qualitative andquantitative techniques and when and why scholarsand researchers use them. Thus inculcating anappreciation of how ideas produce research questions,how research questions lead to methodological choices,and how methodological choices help answer complexquestions.POL302 History of Political ThoughtThe history of political thought is interdisciplinary innature. It covers a broad range of topics that helpsstudents understand political processes and theircontexts. The course will cover central themes in thehistory of political thought, political theory, and relatedareas of inquiry from classical Greek antiquity tocontemporary debates.POL303 Introduction to Comparative PoliticsThis course introduces students to the fundamentalconcepts political scientists use to study the processesand outcomes of politics in a variety of state settings,including the study of global economic and politicalchange. The comparative component allows studentsto study politics and society in comparative perspectiveboth within the state and across the world. The courseprovides a general introduction to the concepts,methods and the substance of comparative politics.153