GI403 Half Unit
Gender and Media Representation
This information is for the 2025/26 session.
Course Convenor
Dr Sadie Wearing
Availability
This course is compulsory on the MSc in Gender, Media and Culture. This course is available on the CEMS Exchange, MBA Exchange, MPhil/PhD in Gender, MSc in Gender, MSc in Gender (Research), MSc in Gender (Rights and Human Rights), MSc in Gender (Sexuality), MSc in Gender, Development and Globalisation, MSc in Gender, Peace and Security, MSc in Gender, Policy and Inequalities and MSc in Organisational and Social Psychology. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. This course uses controlled access as part of the course selection process.
Students should apply by 10am UK time on Friday 26 September 2025. Offers will be made after 10am on this date and will continue until all places are filled.
All students on the MSc Gender, Media and Culture (for whom the course is compulsory) will be given a place. Priority is then given to home department students and then to those who have the course listed in their programme regulations who apply in the first 24-hours (by 10:00am, Friday 26 September 2025), space permitting. Please note the timing of your request within the first 24-hours will not impact chances of being accepted onto the course. Requests received after this timeframe, or outside option requests, will be allocated randomly if space remains.
Please do not email the Course Convenor with personal expressions of interest as these are not required and do not influence who is offered a place. Contact gender@lse.ac.uk with any queries.
Course content
This course aims to enable students: to think critically about representations of gender in a range of different media; to apply a range of theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of the media and culture; to examine changing representations of gender in the context of wider social changes and to explore questions concerning the interpretation and use of different media formats and content. The course focuses on examples largely drawn from Anglo-American media but students are encouraged to research and write on a wider range of contexts. The course usually includes topics such as gendered approaches to contemporary cinema; celebrity culture; online environments and gender; and contemporary cultural representations of feminism. It critically explores the history of gender studies and feminist scholarship in relation to media content and considers questions of media representations of gender in relation to dimensions such as sexuality, class, race, age and (dis)ability.
Teaching
15 hours of seminars and 15 hours of lectures in the Autumn Term.
This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn Term.
In addition there are timetabled screenings for some weeks.
Indicative reading
- Carter C and Steiner L, Lisa McGlaughlin (eds) (2014) The Routledge Companion to Media and Gender
- Dyer, R. (2002) The Matter of Images: Essays on Representation.
- Gill, R. (2007) Gender and the Media
- Hall, S et al . (2013) Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices (2nd edition).
- hooks, B. (1994) Outlaw Culture Resisting Representations
Assessment
Essay (85%, 2500 words)
Short answer questions (15%)
Key facts
Department: Gender Studies
Course Study Period: Autumn Term
Unit value: Half unit
FHEQ Level: Level 7
CEFR Level: Null
Keywords: Gender Representations, Media Representation, Feminist Film Theory, Digital Media Activism, Gender and Technologies, Histories of Gender and Media
Total students 2024/25: 37
Average class size 2024/25: 18
Controlled access 2024/25: YesCourse selection videos
Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.
Personal development skills
- Leadership
- Self-management
- Team working
- Problem solving
- Application of information skills
- Communication
- Commercial awareness
- Specialist skills