By examining problems in the production, distribution and sale of information within and outside formally structured markets, students develop alternative ways of understanding the role of information in the process of social control. Art, Artists and Society. Applications of communicational, social and psychological principles to the study of the creation and appreciation of aesthetic objects and events. Artistic processes and products viewed in terms of cultural and historical definitions of the nature of art and the role of the artist. An introduction to the qualitative analysis of textual and verbal matter.
Many empirical inquiries rely on data cast in language.
As the sole reason for such data is their meanings, the course reviews various theories of meaning in view of analyzing texts and talk in the context of how people, use, interpret and accomplish things with them. The course moves form notions of code, reference, sense and vocabulary usage, thorugh how metaphors frame cognition, how speech acts create facts, conventions, and institutions, to the politics of meaning making and maintenance. The examination of various theories, methods and approaches to the study of visual communication from the viewpoint of language, ethnography, psychology and aesthetics. Comparison of various analytic strategies relevant to research in visual communication. An introduction to cybernetics and systems theory, whose concepts are fuelling the present information revolution.