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CAS 415 – Rhetoric of Film and Television

Students Teaching Students

In coordination with an undergraduate-run organization called Students Teaching Students, CAS department faculty members mentor exemplary students who develop and teach 1-credit courses on a variety of subjects that advance expertise in communication and its role in public life. This semester, Associate Teaching Professor Lori Bedell is supporting undergraduates Kara Miller (who was in Lori’s RCL course a few years back) and Jess Strait as they teach a course titled “Period Talk: The Impact of Stigma on the Menstrual Equity Movement.”
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CAS 415 – Rhetoric of Film and Television

From the silent films and classic sitcoms of the twentieth century to the rise of Netflix and transmedia storytelling in our era, film and television have helped define the intersection of race, class, and gender as well as public perceptions of diverse subjects, from criminality and war to romance and sexuality.  As the production and consumption of popular culture has changed in the last decade, new and important questions emerge about the role television and film in establishing a public vocabulary for identity and politics.

Course Objectives

  • Introduce concepts for analyzing the rhetorical dimensions of television and film;
  • Assess how technological innovations and economic shifts impact the selection of framing of fiction and nonfiction subjects;
  • Develop a sustained analysis of a television show or film and trace its implications on some aspect of social life in the U.S.