Responding to contemporary events, this course will focus on the texts, images, and symbols that bring such events to our attention and map their paths. The course will seek to address issues of the moment, with impeachment, elections, and the pandemic likely candidates for analysis. Tools of discourse and visual analysis will be introduced and utilized to analyze the materials identified by the class participants. Materials can include official reports, epidemiological maps, twitter feed, newspaper articles, and political campaign videos. This course is affiliated with "Discourse Analysis: Theories and Methods" and the two courses may be taken in sequence or separately.