Business in the media: a pedagogical approach to understanding basic business concepts

Abstract

This paper describes an unusual course offered recently at a regional university in the Southern US. The course discussed in this paper was different for a number of reasons; these include the fact that the course was team-taught (a new concept in this institution, although not new to more established universities), the course dealt with the psychology of perceptions (specifically how business is perceived through popular media), and the format of the course used a variety of media (predominantly film, but also software, television and popular fiction) to investigate how perceptions are created and manipulated and the justifications for these manipulations. This paper discusses the development of the course, the selection of the various media used to present the course, and concludes with the student responses to the course.