Senior Seminar: History of Audiences

In this course, we will navigate the shifting histories of media audiences as social constructions and lived experiences. For the first part of the semester, we will consider questions of film spectatorship from the earliest years of cinema to the coming of sound. Students will have the opportunity to research the history of early moviegoing in the Middlebury and Burlington communities. For the second part of the semester, we will examine the impact of digital media technologies on audience experience, interrogating theories of the active audience, fan engagement, and the Internet as authorship tool. (Open to senior FMMC majors or minors or by consent of instructor) 3 hrs. lect./3 hrs. screen.