VICE Media to start new class at annenberg

The USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and VICE Media will launch a new class in Spring 2018 about VICELAND’s Emmy-nominated documentary series WOMAN, with Gloria Steinem, to learn about gender representation in the media. The class will incorporate guest speakers and episodes from the eight-part documentary series as well as media images from the 20th century to the present to explore gender’s relationship with power, voice, race, socioeconomic status and sexual orientation. Students will also learn how to use their own media for social change.

Students will learn about the process followed to create the series in order to understand how to create their own media. Such parts of the process will include pitching, shaping and production, among others. The work produced by the students will be published on VICE’s site Broadly, which focuses on women’s issues and experiences.

“By the conclusion of the class, our hope is that students will have a project to enact social change,” professor and Vice Dean of USC Annenberg Sarah Banet-Weiser told USC News. “Beyond that, they’ll have an understanding of the cultural representations of gender identity and ways to practice storytelling in the context of disenfranchised communities. They will have a deeper knowledge of institutional policies that create barriers or avenues to social justice.”

WOMAN conveys violence against women in different parts of the world through reporting by on-site correspondents and emphasizes the need for viewers to take action to create change. The documentary includes feminist writers and activists Gloria Steinem and Amy Richards. This is the first VICE documentary to be used as a teaching tool for higher education.