Popular culture: revolutionary forms or vulgar practices? For centuries, reclusive scholars, avid collectors, astute philosophers, worried politicians, intellectual cranks, and eager consumers have either been romanced or repulsed by those forms of belief, art, fashion, film, and music widely circulating among various communities.

Memes, tweets, fake news: More than ever, we are forced to consume a multiplicity of texts without having a sense of their social meanings and consequences. How did this happen? What could they mean? This course is an exploration of the power of new media and technologies, and those popular forms of entertainment—from vaudeville to virtual reality—that have impacted the way we see the world today.