Course Overview: What is the relationship between the mass media and our cultural understanding of race, ethnicity and gender? Race, Class and Ethnicity: A critical analysis of film, television, radio, music and advertising explores this ques- tion, asking how the media has interpreted and explained our stratified society. The online course will - over its 4 weeks - focus on motion pictures, television, radio and advertising through a combination of readings, screenings, live lectures and threaded discussions. The class will utilize a wide variety of writings that are part of a cultural studies approach to examining the media’s influence on society. Cultural studies first developed within the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies at the University of Birmingham in the 1960’s. It became widely accepted under the guidance of it second director, Stuart Hall, combining the insight of social sciences with the critical lens coming from humanities. Cultural studies is interdisciplinary in its makeup, embracing a wide variety of social science and humanity-oriented fields, including feminist theory, classical Marxism, social theory, political theory, history, philosophy, film/video studies, communi- cation studies, literary theory and political economy. Cultural Studies seeks to understand how meaning is creat- ed, disseminated, and produced through beliefs, institutions, and political