While gender shapes media messages and institutions, simultaneously media powerfully structures our understandings of gender. Students interested in media and communication need to understandhow and why media reflect gender ideologies, convey gender messages and represent gender issues. The course requires students to analyze how textual narratives and visual images construct gender stereotypes and propel a range of positive and negative socio-political processes. We will also address gender in relation to news organizations, news values and social institutions.
Advertising and news, print media, radio, television, film and the internet are defining contributors to modern life therefore this course explores how media can "re-present” and create new gender realities that advance social, economic and cultural development.