The popular media is a source of entertainment and excitement, but also social controversy.  It is central to the circulation of cultural and subcultural images, thus encouraging communal identities but also underline social divisions.  It is embedded in our culture of media consumption, and it a repository of representations of gender roles, race, sex, and class. This course is designed to help students acquire the critical skills required for the analysis of cultural texts in a range of forms of popular media, including television shows, advertisements, magazines, music, comics, films and the internet.  The course will encourage students to reflect critically on the content and form of popular media, and to assess the relationship between their consumption of popular culture and their broader life in society.