Dr. Stevens' research delves into the intersection of ideological formation and media message formation. This work comprises studies of such topics as how journalists cover scientific and technological issues in news media, how cultural messages are formed and passed through popular media, how technology infrastructure affects the delivery of media messages (and how conflicts in this area are discussed) as well as general studies in how technology is changing the American system of media production and delivery.
keywords
Media message construction, technology diffusion analysis, textual analysis
CMCI 1030 - Becoming CMCI: Thinking Across Disciplines
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2018
Engages key principles and practices in the fields of media, communication and information. Emphasizes the analyses of new and old media, information technologies, verbal and visual literacies, communicative interactions and cultural practices through process-based learning and hands-on projects utilizing multiple modes of expression. Accelerated, one-semester version of the introductory CMCI course for transfer students to CMCI. Formerly CMCI 1030. Requires a grade of C- or better to count toward degree.
CMCI 1040 - Foundational Concepts and Creativity in Media, Communication and Information
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2023
Provides first-year students with an understanding of key principles and practices used in the fields of media, communication and information. Develops insight into processes of storytelling, conversation, information and images as foundational to learning in media, communication and information, and supports students in learning to use creativity and multiple modes of expression to produce projects relevant to a range of disciplines across the college.
CMCI 2030 - Thinking Across Disciplines in Media, Communication and Information
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2023
Engages key principles and practices in the fields of media, communication and information. Emphasizes the analyses of new and old media, information technologies, verbal and visual literacies, communicative interactions and cultural practices through process-based learning and hands-on projects utilizing multiple modes of expression. Accelerated, one-semester version of the introductory CMCI course for transfer students to CMCI. Requires a grade of C- or better to count toward degree.
CMCI 4021 - Prime Time: Public Performance and Leadership
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2024
Intercollegiate athletics and the college athlete experience are undergoing fundamental transformations as athletes gain control of their name, image and likeness and begin monetizing their personal brands for the first time. This course considers collegiate and professional athletes as a special kind of public figure, whose public personas can create opportunities to earn income from sponsors and commercial interests, but also as influential advocates for social justice and cultural influence.
FYSM 1000 - First Year Seminar
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2018 / Fall 2019 / Fall 2020
Provide first year students with an immersive experience in an interdisciplinary topic that addresses current issues including social, technical and global topics. Taught by faculty from across campus, the course provides students with an opportunity to interact in small classes, have project based learning experiences and gain valuable communication skills. Seminar style classes focused on discussion and projects.
MDST 1002 - Introduction to Social Media
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2018 / Summer 2018 / Summer 2019 / Fall 2019 / Spring 2020 / Summer 2020 / Spring 2021 / Summer 2021 / Summer 2022 / Fall 2022 / Spring 2023 / Summer 2023 / Spring 2024
Introduces students to network structures and principles, the technology and infrastructures that allow them to flourish, and the cultures that grow up through and around them. Explores how social media enables community, how it assembles and empowers agents of change and how design informs individual and group behavior.
MDST 2021 - Comic Books: Culture and Industry
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2018 / Fall 2020
Explores practices of comic culture across a broad range of graphic stories. Using culture studies approaches to industry analysis and fan community discourses, students examine culture created through and around graphic texts, particularly representations of race, gender, sexuality, institutions and ideology. Considers the political economy of the comic industry, the struggles of independent producers and active fan practices.
MDST 3021 - Comic Books: Culture and Industry
Primary Instructor
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Summer 2021 / Fall 2021 / Summer 2022 / Fall 2022 / Spring 2023 / Summer 2023 / Fall 2023 / Summer 2024
Explores practices of comic culture across a broad range of graphic stories. Using culture studies approaches to industry analysis and fan community discourses, students examine culture created through and around graphic texts, particularly representations of race, gender, sexuality, institutions and ideology. Considers the political economy of the comic industry, the struggles of independent producers and active fan practices.
MDST 3022 - Social Media Cultures
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2018
Expands students' understanding of network cultures, including how social media tools influence conversation strategies, how interfaces interact with perceived communication values, and how network boundaries reinforce distinct cultural identities. Students engage in projects to measure network behavior, create strategic messages to achieve communication and information goals, and to engage in social listening.
MDST 3331 - Sports-Media Complex
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2024
Explores the rich connections between the sports industry, spectating, the media complex and social life. Using theories of cultural studies and drawing on specific examples from the sports world, students focus on how sport shapes and reinforces understandings of gender, race, class and sexuality. Addresses major questions about the political economy, commodification, mediation and reception of the spectacle of the sports complex, as well as politics and cultural consequences of its transnational reach. Degree credit not granted for this course and JRNL 3804.
MDST 4401 - Fan and Audience Studies
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2020 / Spring 2021 / Summer 2024
Considers how audiences and fans are conceptualized, how they are constructed by media enterprises and how they operate within their cultural ecosystems. While media shape the sociocultural, political and economic dimensions of the social world, fan studies suggest a more active set of practices form sites of resistance and enable a greater degree of influence over cultural production.
MDST 4402 - Transmedia Worldbuilding
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2022 / Spring 2023 / Spring 2024
Guides students to develop entertainment concepts for transmedia delivery. Students will develop concepts and characters built around storytelling themes capable of producing serial and multimedia storylines. This course considers essential elements of storytelling; how to design and actively participate across media platforms; essential elements of meta-narratives; and how to create an immersive and interactive experience for audiences.
MDST 4931 - Internship
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2018 / Summer 2018 / Summer 2019 / Fall 2019 / Spring 2020 / Summer 2020 / Fall 2020 / Spring 2021 / Summer 2021 / Spring 2022 / Summer 2022 / Fall 2022 / Spring 2023 / Summer 2023 / Fall 2023 / Spring 2024 / Summer 2024 / Fall 2024
MDST 6711 - Media and Popular Culture
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2019 / Spring 2022 / Fall 2023 / Spring 2024
Introduces fundamental methods for understanding the construction of meaning in film, television, popular music and advertising. Traces the study of popular culture through film theory, mass media analysis and cultural studies. Surveys various strands of research that seek to understand popular culture and its effects.
MDST 7001 - PhD Colloquium Series
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2019 / Spring 2020 / Fall 2021 / Spring 2022
Introduce the new doctoral students to the Media Research and Practice program and its faculty members and their research. The colloquium series will also include workshops on program planning, publishing, attending conferences, writing a dissertation, preparing and presenting a job talk, etc.
