About this course
Have you ever wondered why the internet feels the way it does — why certain memes take off, why online arguments spiral, or why our phones feel like extensions of our bodies? This course looks at how media doesn’t just entertain us, but actively shapes us and the culture around us. Starting with Marshall McLuhan’s famous idea that “the medium is the message,” the notion that how we communicate matters just as much as what we say, we’ll explore everything from social media and dating apps to film, television, digital activism, and influencer culture. It’s a crash course in understanding the media-saturated world you already live in, with new eyes.
Course objectives
- How media shapes the way we think, communicate, and relate to others — not just what we say, but how we say it.
- Why Marshall McLuhan’s ideas about media environments still matter in a world of TikTok, Netflix, and dating apps.
- How to critically read and write about popular culture — from film and television to memes and influencer trends.
- How digital platforms influence identity, community, and power in the twenty-first century.
- How to bring your own experience as a media user into academic conversations about rhetoric and culture.
- How to analyze and write about media in ways that connect theory to real life.
Course highlights
- You’ll get to analyze the media you already engage with every day — films, shows, social media posts, memes — through new critical frameworks.
- Assignments invite creativity: you might write short critical reflections on the trends you encounter daily, analyze a trending cultural moment through a video format, create a zine to explain theoretical concepts to the public, or connect theory to your own media experiences through more formal writing assessments.
- We’ll bring theory to life through group discussions, hands-on media analysis, and examples pulled straight from current pop culture.
- The course emphasizes conversation over memorization. I’m not looking for “right answers,” but about learning to see and think differently.
This is an introductory course open to all students. No specific background in Writing & Rhetoric is required. The midterm assignment is a short essay and the final assignment is a research essay.
A personal note from your instructor
Billie Anderson
I was inspired to teach this course because we’re living in a “chronically online” era, but also a moment where media literacy feels more urgent than ever. Media isn’t just something we scroll through, it shapes how we think, communicate, and understand the world without us having to actively acknowledge that these things are happening; it’s all passive. I want students to develop the tools to read and analyze media critically without shaming them for being online all the time. This course is a chance to explore pop culture, digital platforms, and theory in ways that are rigorous, relevant, and actually fun.