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Dustin Luca
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SALEM, MASS. – Pop icon and global influencer Taylor Swift is coming to Salem State University this spring… as a special topics seminar course offered by the media and communication department.
Titled “The Media Impact and Societal Influence of Taylor Alison Swift,” the hybrid special topics course is led by Lauren Torlone, a journalist and adjunct faculty member in the department who is also a pop culture aficionado and self-professed “Swiftie.”
The course is one of many emerging on campuses across the country that take a deep academic dive on Swift and her influence on American life and politics. It’s the latest generational example of colleges and universities seeking to understand and explore the impact that pop culture icons have on society and culture as they’re actively generating that impact.
“Across the United States, we have many professors who are willing to step outside the traditional educational box and do these types of creative classes,” said Amy Smith, chairperson of the media and communication department. “We’re doing that more and more now in the post-pandemic world, but if we had been teaching this class 25 years ago, we would’ve been talking about Oprah. If we were teaching this class 35 years ago, Dolly Parton.”
That’s because Swift’s experience, extraordinary as it is, “isn’t completely unique to being Taylor Swift,” Torlone said.
“It came together for me in terms of conceptualizing the course because she represents many parts of the human experience; at the same time there’s no doubt that Swift is the figurehead to draw people in,” Torlone said. “Pop culture influences society and culture, and the reverse is also true. Taylor Swift is emblematic of many things – she’s a female voter in election season; she’s a businesswoman; she’s an entrepreneur and so much more. She’s a person who represents many of the things we’re talking about in the media and with students in our department.”
Academic courses that lean on copyrighted material are able to do so through the Technology, Education And Copyright Harmonization (“TEACH”) Act. The law carves out an exemption in copyright law to allow copywritten content to be used for educational purposes.
“We do this because we want education to be accessible. It’s impossible to go out into the world and be a good journalist or media person and not have your finger on the pulse of what’s going on,” Torlone said. “We’re using her as an example, albeit an incredibly huge and impactful one. There isn’t a day where Taylor Swift isn’t a headline.”