Pop Culture, Race & The Media
As an entertainment journalist, understanding the intersection of race and pop culture is vital to successfully covering (and uncovering) what makes Hollywood tick. From #OscarsSoWhite to the Kardashians’ rampant cultural appropriation, Pop Culture, Race, and the Media (JOUR 378) thoughtfully examined the myriad ways that race, racial identity, and racism infiltrate all aspects of entertainment. Students were expected to stay well-versed in pop culture news, produce response papers, collect compelling data, and manage a carefully curated list of sources, all building up to a final long-form reporting project that attempts to answer a specific question/problem within the entertainment world. Guest speakers from USA Today, ESPN’s The Undefeated, the Washington Post and the New York fashion community dropped in to enhance class discussions and offer reporting wisdom from the trenches. This course was taught by Arienne Thompson Plourde as a Doyle Seminar in fall 2022. Please refer to the current course catalog for an up-to-date description of the course.
