If college students were given the chance to design and teach their own classes, what would they pick to study? Judging by this semester’s student-initiated courses program at UVA, the bulk of their curriculum might be TV shows.
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"The Daily Show" |
But we’re not talking about MTV reality shows or “Lost” reruns. Rather, students who take “The West Wing: Where Hollywood Fantasy and Reality Collide” or “Political Satire in the New Media Age” will explore the politically charged world of today’s television, both fictional and non.
Matthew Moran, a junior at UVA, teaches the three-credit “West Wing” course, in which students will watch full episodes of the popular drama and compare what they see to the realities of the American presidency. According to Moran, the aim of his class is to show students “that our perceptions of the presidency are reinforced by Hollywood and the media.”
“Political Satire in the New Media Age,” co-instructed by media studies students Bri Rizzo and Courtney Stokke, examines the evolution of nightly news from traditional network broadcasts to more entertainment-based news media—a transition that “has huge implications for the way we view politics and traditional news outlets,” says Stokke. Politics aside, who wouldn’t want to take a class where homework assignments include viewing clips from “The Daily Show,” “The Colbert Report,” and “South Park”?
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