GS 150 - Critical Media Literacy

Credit Hours: 3

This course exposes students to the complexities of critical media literacy, develops critical thinking skills, and it provides the methods of analysis necessary to interpret media content as well as methods of critical writing appropriate to media analysis. Students will develop an informed and critical understanding of the nature of mass media -as information sources, as entertainment, and as an industry-as well as to examine, interpret, and evaluate the messages contained within, and their social, cultural and political implications. This course will be taught by faculty with this academic background. Note: This course is not a substitution for CA140.

Course Outcomes
Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to:

critique the role of the media in individual day-to-day decision-making;
identify the stages of cognitive, emotional, and moral development and their relationship to media literacy;
evaluate general information about mass media, including the definition, media types, and how it is used, both currently and historically;
critique the media’s influence on behavior, values, and ethics;
evaluate the ideological importance of the media and its influence on society;
acquire critical skills for understanding the construction of media messages, both print and electronic;
critique their media consumption patterns by developing a media-literate critical perspective in a world that is increasingly dominated by electronic, aural, and visual messages; and
demonstrate knowledge of contemporary critiques of the effects of stereotyping in mass media on marginalized groups.

F/S (C,N,S)