“Rhetoric, Media, and Polarization”
This “Studies” course will be grounded intensively in popular culture and digital media. It will engage students in both individual and collaborative explorations of modern rhetoric, allowing them to examine how the media is rhetorical, and especially how it is integral to the rising social and political divisions (the “tribalism” and the “polarization”) characterizing the US’s contemporary “public sphere.” Such explorations will involve analyzing mainstream media forms, like movies, television shows, and social media platforms, as well as short-form content, like Tik Tok and Youtube. The course’s main “writing” project will comprise an effort to intervene in social and/or political polarization through a critical/creative production, which might be text-based but can also be multimodal in form.
The formal assignments for the course will involve (1) a portfolio of flexible “participatory projects” (some of which will include short informal essay-writing in response to readings, graded on a “contract” basis, while others will include creative responses to digital media); (2) one fairly short rhetorical analysis essay exploring one example of polarization at work in the public sphere; (3) a major project that involves a critical/creative intervention into an existing space of polarization; and (4) a very brief personal essay reflecting on that major project, which will serve as a final take-home exam. The course will proceed as many Studies courses do: through seminar-style discussions of readings; collaborative work applying and understanding critical theories of rhetoric, media, and the public sphere; and process-based instruction in writing/multimodal composing.