Histories of Media Convergence

Entertainment and communications forms combine and blend, and they have done so across millennia. However, the phenomenon of media convergence has taken on a special salience over the last one-and-a-half-centuries, as exemplified by the growing intermixture of film, radio, television, gaming, and the internet. In particular, critics, consumers, politicians, and producers used convergence as structuring principle in understanding, regulating, and planning for the future of media culture. This course engages with contemporary worries and enthusiasms about convergence by considering the specific conditions in which the phenomenon has been understood and practiced. Tracing a historical arc though the Twentieth Century, we will first examine convergences of radio and film, film and music publishing, television and film exhibition, and disparate corporate entities as basis for understanding more recent media combinations. Building on that foundation, the majority of the course will consist of case studies of media convergence since 1980, considering it in terms of industry, technology, regulation, and audiences. These case studies will also provide students with a survey of and inquiry into questions of historiographic theory and method. Note: This course satisfies the history & historiography requirement for the FMS Graduate Certificate. Required Screenings: Mondays @ 7pm.

Course Attributes: EN H; BU Hum; AS HUM; FA HUM; AR HUM

Histories of Media Convergence

FILM AND MEDIA STUDIES 423

Section A

Section 01