From the shuttering of local newspapers to the proliferation of platform-based gig work, contemporary media labor is increasingly unstable. As some media workers unionize, some suffer massive layoffs, and some– a very few– become fabulously wealthy, scholars and activists are reevaluating how labor impacts how we create, consume, and understand media. In this course, we will 1) analyze the urgent media and labor issues of our current moment, especially the challenges of understanding work and justice in digital environments; 2) explore how questions of labor impacted the development of major media industries over the twentieth century; and 3) understand how race, gender, sexuality, ability, and other social systems produce disproportionate opportunities and challenges for media workers and consumers across historical periods. Students will hear from media workers and organizers throughout the semester, and will produce either scholarly research papers or activist-oriented media projects by the end of term.