Media and Screen Studies (MSCR)

MSCR 1000. Media and Screen Studies at Northeastern. (1 Hour)

Intended for freshmen media and screen studies majors and combined majors. Introduces students to the liberal arts in general. Offers students an opportunity to become familiar with media and screen studies as a major discipline; to develop the academic skills necessary to succeed (analytical ability and critical thinking); to become grounded in the culture and values of the university community (including advising); and to develop interpersonal skills—in short, to become familiar with all the skills needed to become a successful university student.

MSCR 1100. Film 101. (4 Hours)

Focuses on the ways in which cinematic language and representations have developed since the late-nineteenth century, how representations of human difference vary in distinct cultural contexts, and how particular filmmakers and historical/national movements have challenged certain representations and ideologies. This range of representations and discourses includes blackface performance and other racist tropes, ethnographic studies of indigenous people as “exotic” curiosities, films noir that demonize independent women, postwar Italian neorealism’s revolutionary focus on the plight of the poor, films by and about marginalized ethnicities in the U.S. and the global south, banned films that highlight the condition of women in post-revolution Iran, and contemporary Hollywood’s treatment of homosexuality and masculinity.

Attribute(s): NUpath Difference/Diversity

MSCR 1150. TV 101. (4 Hours)

Provides an overview of television studies for nonmajors. Covers different ways to think about how to watch TV and the effect of changing technology and industry practices on television.

MSCR 1220. Media, Culture, and Society. (4 Hours)

Introduces the study of media, including print, radio, film, television, and digital/computer products. Explores the ideological, industrial, political, and social contexts that impact everyday engagements with media. To accomplish this, students examine how media products are developed, how technological changes impact the production and consumption of media, how political processes are influenced by media, how people interpret and interact with media content, and how media influence cultural practices and daily life.

Attribute(s): NUpath Interpreting Culture, NUpath Societies/Institutions

MSCR 1230. Introduction to Film Production. (4 Hours)

Offers an introduction to production that blends theory and practice of film/video production through an examination of exemplary works, aesthetic strategies, production techniques, and the dynamic relationship between media makers, subjects, viewers, and technology. Offers students an opportunity to gain fundamental moving-image fluency using widely accessible media production tools including camcorders, mobile phones, and digital single-lens-reflex cameras.

Attribute(s): NUpath Creative Express/Innov, NUpath Interpreting Culture

MSCR 1320. Media and Social Change. (4 Hours)

Explores media’s role in movements for social, economic, and cultural change. Specifically examines how people use media technologies to organize themselves and communicate their message to wider audiences in order to achieve social change. As a way to develop and improve ethical reasoning, students are asked to think about the accountability of media institutions and actions of groups and individuals who use media technologies and tactics in the name of social change.

Attribute(s): NUpath Ethical Reasoning

MSCR 1420. Media History. (4 Hours)

Examines the historical relationships between media, culture, and society with a focus on the role of media technologies as tools of communication. Emphasizes the broad social and cultural conditions that shape media and the ways in which people experience culture and understand meaning. Introduces the concept of mediation to analyze how different forms of communication have emerged in different historical moments. Critically examines past interactions between media and culture, and also examines the emergence of historically specific conceptions of audience, identity, content, industry, information, perception, and so forth.

MSCR 1990. Elective. (1-4 Hours)

Offers elective credit for courses taken at other academic institutions. May be repeated without limit.

MSCR 2160. Narrative Filmmaking. (4 Hours)

Introduces narrative filmmaking without synch sound. Offers students an opportunity to create several short projects without dialogue. The successful student leaves the course with a portfolio of work, a basic knowledge of video cameras, and one editing software program (either Avid or Final Cut Pro). Focuses on storytelling through visuals.

Attribute(s): NUpath Creative Express/Innov

MSCR 2220. Understanding Media. (4 Hours)

Designed to give students a foundation in the theories and methods of analysis in cultural and media studies. Positioned between the introductory MSCR classes and the higher-level theory classes. Offers students an opportunity to learn the how and why of media and cultural studies, focusing on the foundational assumptions, theories, and methods of the discipline.

Prerequisite(s): MSCR 1220 (may be taken concurrently) with a minimum grade of D-

Attribute(s): NUpath Interpreting Culture

MSCR 2300. Television: Text and Context. (4 Hours)

Introduces students to critical television studies. Topics include visual language (use of image, music, graphics, editing, and sound); narrative structure; and genre. Specific critical approaches include semiotics, narrative and genre analysis, feminist analysis, and ideological analysis of representation.

Attribute(s): NUpath Interpreting Culture

MSCR 2302. Advertising and Promotional Culture. (4 Hours)

Investigates advertising and promotional culture by closely studying its history, industry, and means of communication. Examines print, television and internet advertisements, and campaigns.

Attribute(s): NUpath Interpreting Culture

MSCR 2325. Global Media. (4 Hours)

Covers global dynamics of media and media systems. Specifically seeks to introduce students to the nuances of globalization and cultural performance through media structures. Introduces a wide variety of topics that fall in the intersection between globalization and media and the ways in which they operate socially and culturally. The course focuses broadly on understanding—in both theoretical and practical ways—how and why global media function as they do and how they contribute to knowledge formation and social justice within various cultural contexts.

Attribute(s): NUpath Difference/Diversity, NUpath Societies/Institutions

MSCR 2330. Film Genres. (4 Hours)

Examines a number of foundational texts on genre analysis. Addresses how and why films are classified according to particular iconographies, tropes, and narrative structures and the ways in which audiences coalesce around and appropriate particular genres for building communities. Studies some of the most iconic of genres—the Western (the mythologized and preindustrial past), film noir (the present time of industrial and postindustrial capitalism and urbanization), and science fiction (the imagined future)—from their origins; through their classical period; and, ultimately, to generic revision, self-reflexivity, hybridity, and parody.

Attribute(s): NUpath Interpreting Culture

MSCR 2335. Race and Social Justice in American Film. (4 Hours)

Offers an in-depth analysis of and reflection upon films and how they influence our perceptions of race in the United States. Examines how race and its representation shapes the development, production, distribution, and marketing of American documentaries and dramas. Uses screenings, readings, lectures, discussions, and writing to explore the power of films to reflect and reinforce long-standing ideologies of race and analyze how traditionally underrepresented groups have historically shaped counter-narratives.

Attribute(s): NUpath Difference/Diversity

MSCR 2336. American Film and Culture. (4 Hours)

Surveys the rise of American film from the late nineteenth century to the present. Examines key films, directors, major themes, and film forms and techniques. Includes lectures, screenings, and discussions. Students who do not meet course prerequisites may seek permission of instructor.

Attribute(s): NUpath Interpreting Culture

MSCR 2400. Hip-Hop in and as Media. (4 Hours)

Explores hip-hop’s capacity to communicate particular images, ideals, and values that represent various social factions at different historical moments. Hip-hop has evolved significantly since its inception over 40 years ago in the South Bronx. Most often understood as a musical genre, hip-hop’s cultural complexity encompasses musical expression, art forms including dance and graffiti/graphic design, new terminology, innovative entrepreneurialism, and myriad other elements that continue to influence popular culture more widely. Analyzes issues of authenticity and genre; modes of representation in rap lyricism; representation via hip-hop literature, press, films, and videos; technologies, media production, and contexts of reception; issues of differences and dissonance across generations; the communication of spatiality through hip-hop; and hip-hop as a transnational/global conduit of meaning and affiliation.

Attribute(s): NUpath Difference/Diversity

MSCR 2505. Digital Feminisms. (4 Hours)

Explores the unique ways that feminist activism and theory are impacted by the increasing digital nature of our world. From hashtags to Tumblr, feminists are using digital tools and platforms to aid in the pursuit of social justice. Offers students an opportunity to develop a timeline that traces feminists’ engagement with the Internet, new media, and technological innovations from the late seventies to the present. Examines the strengths and challenges that the digital world creates for feminist engagement. MSCR 2505 and WMNS 2505 are cross-listed.

Attribute(s): NUpath Creative Express/Innov, NUpath Interpreting Culture, NUpath Writing Intensive

MSCR 2895. Film Analysis. (4 Hours)

Introduces the ways in which films are produced, marketed, and distributed, along with the basic elements of film grammar, from shot construction to editing to sound. Offers students an opportunity to learn how film analysis is conducted, including an introduction to the study of film genre, film history, and film theory. Covers basic concepts regarding the relationship between film and culture, including national and regional identity; the relationship between a film “text” and the audience; and the relationship between film and other forms of cultural production such as art, literature, music, and theatre. Aims to provide a nuanced understanding of a variety of cinematic works as products of specific cultures, times, and places.

Attribute(s): NUpath Interpreting Culture

MSCR 2990. Elective. (1-4 Hours)

Offers elective credit for courses taken at other academic institutions. May be repeated without limit.

MSCR 2991. Research in Media and Screen Studies. (1-4 Hours)

Offers an opportunity to conduct introductory-level research or creative endeavors under faculty supervision.

MSCR 3300. Media Activism. (4 Hours)

Explores media activism and tactical media as practices emerging at the intersection of political activism, the heritage of the twentieth-century avant-gardes, and technological innovation. By examining social movements media, avant-garde techniques, and critical media theories, offers students an opportunity to acquire the theoretical foundations necessary for a critical understanding of contemporary media activism and tactical media. Couples such historical examination with the review of a variety of contemporary tactical media interventions. Students who do not meet course prerequisites may seek permission of instructor.

Prerequisite(s): MSCR 1220 with a minimum grade of D-

MSCR 3389. Screenwriting. (4 Hours)

Approaches the unique narrative form of the dramatic short film, with the goal of having students produce a short film screenplay (under twenty minutes in length) which could eventually be shot. Takes students through the storytelling process, from conception to visualization, dramatization, characterization, and dialogue, ending in a project which should reflect the student’s own personal voice and unique vision. Offers students an opportunity to work on many writing exercises involving free association, visualizations, and character explorations, and to evaluate and critique each other’s work in a workshop setting.

Attribute(s): NUpath Creative Express/Innov

MSCR 3390. Screenwriting: Feature Films. (4 Hours)

Features an array of screenwriting tools and techniques used in the process of developing ideas into screenplays for feature films. Offers instruction in writing highly effective scenes; building compelling and dimensional characters; crafting authentic dialogue; and a variety of methods to add texture, depth, and meaning to a story. Students develop an outline for a feature film that they refine through ongoing in-class workshops based on informed and supportive collaboration. The cumulative nature of the course encourages students to learn, practice, and demonstrate a wide range of foundational skills they can continue to build upon to finish their feature film screenplay and apply to any future screenplay ideas.

MSCR 3392. Gender and Film. (4 Hours)

Examines the representation of gender in film. Uses concepts and research from film and media studies to investigate the influences and consequences of gender representations in film. WMNS 3392 and MSCR 3392 are cross-listed.

Attribute(s): NUpath Difference/Diversity

MSCR 3420. Digital Media Culture. (4 Hours)

Investigates social and cultural dynamics emerging parallel to the spread of digital technologies, from the 1960s to the present. Analyzes the impact of technologies (such as computers, mobile phones, and video games) on media products and practices (such as remix culture, social media, and surveillance). Offers students an opportunity to develop the skills that are necessary to critically examine and write about digital media content and the technologies necessary for their consumption.

Prerequisite(s): ENGW 1111 with a minimum grade of C or ENGW 1102 with a minimum grade of C or ENGL 1111 with a minimum grade of C or ENGL 1102 with a minimum grade of C

Attribute(s): NUpath Writing Intensive

MSCR 3422. Media Audiences. (4 Hours)

Explores how mass media audiences interpret and actively use media messages and products as listeners, readers, and consumers. Examines the different stages of ethnographic research, audience meanings and interpretations, pleasure and fanship, the role of media in everyday life, and the use of ethnographic research methods in communication studies. Students who do not meet course prerequisites may seek permission of instructor.

Prerequisite(s): ENGW 1111 with a minimum grade of D- or ENGW 1102 with a minimum grade of D- or ENGL 1111 with a minimum grade of D- or ENGL 1102 with a minimum grade of D-

Attribute(s): NUpath Writing Intensive

MSCR 3437. Media and Identity. (4 Hours)

Examines representations of identity (race, gender, sexuality, and class) in the media, investigates their influences, and considers their repercussions. The class especially focuses on understanding identity as a construction, rather than as inherently “natural.” Broadly, we discuss the relationship between identity and media representations; more specifically, we look at cultural texts, sites, and practices where the existing racial categories mix, merge, and/or rub up against each other in ways that problematize the naturalness of essentialized identities. Students who do not meet course prerequisites may seek permission of instructor.

Prerequisite(s): MSCR 1220 with a minimum grade of D-

Attribute(s): NUpath Difference/Diversity

MSCR 3446. Documentary Production. (4 Hours)

Focuses on single-camera video production in service of crafting documentary stories. Offers students an opportunity to learn nonfiction storytelling by examining documentary history and theory as well as participating in screenings, workshops, and hands-on projects designed to prepare them to take an idea and develop it into a final five-to-seven-minute final documentary short. Requires supplemental technical assignments for students with no previous production experience.

Attribute(s): NUpath Creative Express/Innov

MSCR 3600. Film Theory. (4 Hours)

Explores the movement from modernist concern with the art object to postmodern concerns with subjectivity and spectatorship, race, and gender. Requires a paper using formalist analysis and later revision using cultural analysis, psychoanalysis, philosophy of perception, race studies. Also offers students an opportunity to learn research methods in cinema studies and perform a metacritical review of their own work and to present their findings from film journals, databases, Web sites, blogs. Presents the relation of perception to reality; levels of representational realness; reception theory; digitalization in its relation to movement and meaning. Seeks to enable students to recognize structures and problems for analysis in a film and to apply appropriate theoretical models to analyze these structures.

Prerequisite(s): ENGL 1111 with a minimum grade of C or ENGL 1102 with a minimum grade of C or ENGW 1111 with a minimum grade of C or ENGW 1102 with a minimum grade of C

Attribute(s): NUpath Interpreting Culture, NUpath Writing Intensive

MSCR 3700. Queer Media. (4 Hours)

Examines queer representation within media, ranging from film and television to social networks and video games. Offers students an opportunity to read, present, and write about theories of difference from a diverse range of perspectives within the interdisciplinary fields of queer theory and media studies.

Prerequisite(s): ENGL 1111 with a minimum grade of C or ENGL 1102 with a minimum grade of C or ENGW 1111 with a minimum grade of C or ENGW 1102 with a minimum grade of C

Attribute(s): NUpath Difference/Diversity, NUpath Writing Intensive

MSCR 3920. Topics in Film Studies. (4 Hours)

Focuses on a specific issue and topic in film studies. Course content varies from semester to semester.

MSCR 3990. Elective. (1-4 Hours)

Offers elective credit for courses taken at other academic institutions. May be repeated without limit.

MSCR 4208. TV History. (4 Hours)

Explores U.S. network television in the “precable” era, which ranges from 1949 to the 1980s. Studies television programming through its historical, cultural, and industrial contexts. The media studies component of the class considers topics such as aesthetics, narrative, genre, and representation.

Prerequisite(s): ENGW 1111 with a minimum grade of C or ENGW 1102 with a minimum grade of C or ENGL 1111 with a minimum grade of C or ENGL 1102 with a minimum grade of C

Attribute(s): NUpath Writing Intensive

MSCR 4623. Media and Screen Studies Capstone. (4 Hours)

Focuses on key concepts and ideas from media and screen studies to prepare students to complete a final project in a format of the student’s choice: research paper, short narrative film, documentary, podcast, photo essay, or short film screenplay.

Prerequisite(s): MSCR 1220 with a minimum grade of D- or COMM 1220 with a minimum grade of D-

Attribute(s): NUpath Capstone Experience

MSCR 4970. Junior/Senior Honors Project 1. (1-4 Hours)

Focuses on in-depth project in which a student conducts research or produces a product related to the student’s major field. Combined with Junior/Senior Project 2 or college-defined equivalent for 8 credit honors project. May be repeated without limit.

MSCR 4990. Elective. (1-4 Hours)

Offers elective credit for courses taken at other academic institutions. May be repeated without limit.

MSCR 4992. Directed Study. (1-4 Hours)

Offers independent work under the direction of members of the department on a chosen topic. Course content depends on instructor. May be repeated without limit.

MSCR 4994. Internship. (4 Hours)

Offers students an opportunity for internship work. May be repeated without limit.

Attribute(s): NUpath Integration Experience