Course Catalog

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MEDIA INDUSTRIES: STRATEGIES, MARKETS & CONSUMERS (CM2003)

This course examines how the media industries – from movies and television to music and magazines – have been transformed by the disruptive impact of the Internet and new forms of consumer behavior. Economic terms such as “creative destruction” will help students understand how the Internet disrupted old media business models and shifted market power to consumers. Case studies include Apple’s impact on the music industry, the emergence of “streaming” services such as Netflix and Spotify, the decline of traditional print-based journalism with the emergence of online platforms, and Amazon’s transformation of the book industry.

COMPARATIVE COMMUNICATIONS HISTORY (CM2004)

This course provides historical background to understand how contemporary communication practices and technologies have developed and are in the process of developing and reflects on what communication has been in different human societies across time and place. It considers oral and literate cultures, the development of writing systems, of printing, and different cultural values assigned to the image. The parallel rise of mass media and modern western cultural and political forms and the manipulation and interplay of the properties and qualities conveyed by speech, sight, and sound are studied with reference to the printed book, newspapers, photography, radio, cinema, television, new media.

MEDIA GLOBALIZATION (CM2006)

What is globalization? Why study the media? What is the relationship between the media and globalization? What are the consequences of media globalization on our lives and identities? This course critically explores these questions and challenging issues that confront us today. Globalization can be understood as a multi-dimensional, complex process of profound transformations in all spheres – technological, economic, political, social, cultural, intimate and personal. Yet much of the current debates of globalization tend to be concerned with “out there” macro-processes, rather than what is happening “in here,” in the micro-processes of our lives. This course explores both the macro and the micro. It encourages students to develop an enlarged way of thinking – challenging existing paradigms and providing comparative perspectives.

FILMMAKING I (CM2007)

his course is designed to give you strong technical and creative abilities in filmmaking. In addition to preparing you for future work in film and video production, students will develop skills that are useful in many other fields, including journalism, media and communications, and studio art. Filmmaking I will also allow you to go on to take more advanced film production courses at AUP. Through group and individual projects, you will become proficient in camera operating, sound recording, and video editing. You will learn to develop a film project from start to finish, including pre-production planning, working collaboratively on set, and the post-production stages of editing, sound mixing, and color grading. Each project will challenge you to explore new skills, techniques, and forms related to documentary, fiction, and experimental filmmaking. Class time will be made up of technical demonstrations, in-class exercises, editing labs, and screenings and discussions. You will regularly use AUP cameras and sound equipment to shoot projects and exercises outside of class.

DIGITAL JOURNALISM (CM2012)

This course is a workshop that will focus on training students for digital journalism. Students will learn writing, editing and curating skills for an online environment, notably in news, reviews, and opinion writing. Emphasis will also be placed on using online tools for researching and sourcing, as well as digital tools for graphics and big data.

AUDIOVISUAL CRITICAL PRACTICE (CM2013)

This course explores audiovisual production and video editing, not only as creative tools, but as modes of critical inquiry. It is a highly creative, hands-on course designed for students to reflect critically on their own habits of media production and reception while consolidating their audiovisual skills and digital literacy. Students will develop foundational skills in audiovisual production, from image composition to the principles of montage, video editing, sound mixing, audiovisual remix… With each new skill acquired, students will discover alternative ways of weaving criticality and reflexivity into their media practices. They will use the audiovisual medium to ask questions and produce knowledge on the social, cultural and political issues of our times. Students will be encouraged to create videographic projects shaped by their (inter)disciplinary interests and engage creatively with media linked to their other ongoing courses or final thesis. No filmmaking or editing experience required.

COMPARATIVE JOURNALISM : GUTENBERG TO GOOGLE (CM2014)

Studies will study the production of journalism in different historical, political and cultural contexts. Theoretical approaches to media and journalism (for example, authoritarian vs liberal models) will be studied to understand the relationship between politics and journalism – and, more generally, the media that operate as industries regulated by states. The course also examines the transformation of the journalism profession by new technologies, notably the impact of the web and social media on newsgathering and other journalistic practices. Issues such as censorship and surveillance will be examined through case studies such as Google and Facebook and new “gatekeepers” of news.

SCREENWRITING FOR TELEVISION (CM2018)

Over the past twenty years, Granada, HBO, and the BBC have been creating series such as The Singing Detective, Cracker, MI5, The Sopranos, and The Wire that are much darker and more persuasive and perverse than anything else on television or on the big screen. Students will examine these 'visual texts,' and will also outline one or two series of their own, working on individual scenes that will be dramatized in class.

PARIS FASHION HISTORIES & GEOGRAPHIES (CM2022)

Paris is widely recognized as the global capital of fashion and haute couture. This reputation continues to be reinforced today by magazines, advertising, and social media. This course will begin by examining the historical development of the luxury industry in Paris, tracing its roots back to the Middle Ages and exploring how artisanal trades were regulated during that period. Following the French Revolution, commercial activity became increasingly structured around new urban spaces such as covered passages and department stores, while the emergence of haute couture further solidified the city’s identity as a fashion capital.Rather than offering a simple chronological account of major fashion houses and designers, the course adopts a critical perspective that considers the political and sociological dimensions of Parisian fashion. Students will engage with questions related to gender, social class, and migration, analysing how these factors intersect with fashion production and consumption. The course also examines the spatial dimension of fashion, analysing how the urban planning of Paris and its surrounding suburbs has evolved in response to the demands of the luxury industry, not only in terms of retail, but also production. This includes both mass production hubs such as Aubervilliers and centres of exceptional craftsmanship like Le 19M. Field visits to key neighbourhoods, museums, and exhibitions, an integral part of the course, will provide students with the opportunity to enrich their theoretical knowledge through direct observation and experience.

DOCUMENTARIES IN ACTION: THE ART OF THE REAL (CM2032)

Course divided into theoretical and practical sections. The practical half of the course includes daily exercises in "hands-on" documentary research, scripting, sketching and shooting in the streets of Paris, with small video cameras, producing work that will then be critiqued in class. The theoretical component surveys the history of documentary film and different approaches to making documentaries.