MLT 210 - China in the News

Course Units: 1

Over the past few decades, China has emerged as a key player in global affairs. US news media and reports about China often sound the alarm bell that creates fear that China’s economic growth and political sphere of influence will disrupt US interests. This course focuses on making sense of current events in China and other Chinese-speaking countries and how these events are represented or misrepresented in US news media. The amount of information circulating about China is rich and often times overwhelming. We will use media literacy tools to examine how the framing of news contentinfluences assumptions, attitudes, and behaviors. We will focus on student-driven topics, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, nationalism, etc. to think critically about perspectives, reliable evidence, and freedom of expression. Students will become familiar with the role of mainstream and social media in both the US and China and how they shape perception. CC: LCC, HUL, WAC, GCHF, GSPE