Prerequisites: At least one prior course in media studies or in the film/photo/video program with a critical component.

The course is designed for advanced Division II and first-semester Division III students committed to reading and analyzing existing qualitative studies about audiences, gamers, and other media users, as well as to conceptualizing, carrying out, and documenting qualitative studies of their own. Prior to beginning individual projects/studies, we will explore: various theorizations of audiences, gamers, and other media users; the qualitative methodologies employed to study them; and results of prior studies investigating how people respond to - and make sense of - popular media forms such as television, film, advertisements, online videos, and video games. This is a rigorous, time- and labor-intensive course that requires *significant* independent work outside of class. Students should have completed at least one prior course in media studies or the film/photo/video program at Hampshire (with a critical component), and students should begin the course with a general sense of the issues or media texts they wish to explore in their studies.