Media in Cultural Context
This MIT OpenCourseWare course examines how television programs travel across borders and settle into foreign broadcast schedules. Students look at the international trade in TV texts, weighing economic accounts of how global markets are structured against ethnographic research on how imported content shapes hybrid national identities. A recurring focus is the role American programming plays once it lands in non-American markets, and what that reveals about globalization more broadly. The course draws on comparative media studies and cultural studies scholarship, presenting multiple theoretical positions rather than a single argument. Materials include readings, discussion questions, and assignments typical of MIT's Comparative Media Studies/Writing curriculum, freely available through MIT OpenCourseWare with no certificate offered. It suits students interested in media globalization, television studies, or the politics of cultural exchange.