What interpretations do we derive from messages disseminated in mass media and in digital cultures? Why do some messages evoke multiple, even competing interpretations whereas others evoke consensus?

This advanced theoretical course will survey different approaches to the construction of meaning in communication studies: cultural/literary, psychological/cognitive, and speaker-centered/strategic It will discuss the relationship between theory and method in producing knowledge about the process of interpretation. Students will select a combination of theoretical approaches and analytical techniques to develop a research paper exploring the meaning encoded in a particular media text/phenomenon and the range of audience decodings of it.