Happy Holidays from all of us at MCS!

From all of us at the Media and Cinema Studies Program, we wish you all the best this holiday season and in the new year! Next December, why not consider taking Prof. Blair Davis' "MCS 353: Bah Humbug! - Analyzing Christmas Media Texts" course? Students analyze a wide range of classic Christmas films and TV shows using various media studies methodologies. It's the perfect way to get into the holiday spirit... with such topics as "How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Semiotics"! "Elf and Psychoanalysis"! "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Marxist Analysis"! "A Christmas Carol and Cultural Studies"! "A Charlie Brown Christmas and Religious Studies"! "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians and Paracinema"! 

"Films like It’s a Wonderful Life and programs like A Charlie Brown Christmas are commonly among the most re-watched media texts for most people – we watch them more often over the course of a lifetime than most other movies and shows," says Prof. Davis. "In turn, it would seem natural that we should critically analyze these media texts that we regularly return to in the same ways that we seek to find the cultural, aesthetic and/or political meanings inherent in popular Hollywood blockbusters and prime-time television series. But should Christmas media texts only be consumed emotionally rather than intellectually? Does studying these beloved films and shows somehow rob them of their joy, or does this process have just as many intellectual rewards as when we analyze more traditional media texts?" he asks.

image courtesy of cbs.com

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, he argues for instance, is “an enlightening tale of class politics at work at the North Pole that benefits from a Marxist analysis of how labor is represented… when Hermey the elf and Rudolph declare themselves to be a ‘couple of misfits,’ each rejects their class designations to declare a new identity, one which is not tied to the division of labor at the north pole. When the Abominable (or the Bumble) is finally welcomed at the North Pole it is because he is the only one who can put the star on top of the Christmas tree. So in other words, once he has unique labor potential, he becomes a useful part of North Pole society.”

"MCS 353: Bah Humbug! - Analyzing Christmas Media Texts" is offered as a fully online course in the December intersession term, and Prof. Davis plans to offer it again in December 2015.

Prof. Kessler at the Television Academy Foundation Faculty Seminar in Los Angeles

Media and Cinema Studies Professor Kelly Kessler recently attended a week-long stay in Los Angeles at the Television Academy Foundation Faculty Seminar.

The seminar chooses 20 faculty members annually to be flown out to Los Angeles for an intensive week of lectures and studio tours with those working within the television industry, such as producers, writers, directors, editors and entertainment lawyers. Kessler met with industry professionals and other academics working together to bridge the gap between production and the classroom. Kessler noted how the seminar gave her “some great info to take back to our students… Basically, it's a week of us learning more about how the television industry works by talking to industry folks and seeing how the industry works.”

“I went to an amazing talk being given as part of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender and Media and had a really great talk with her about the divide between industry and academia. It was pretty amazing,” says Kessler.