It is a common student fantasy to take and ace a class about their favorite artist. For fans of Bad Bunny, that will soon be a reality. 

A graduate course on the rising star will be offered in the spring 2023 semester, taught by Dr. Nate Rodriguez, associate director of journalism and media studies at SDSU.

Rodriguez specializes in cultural impacts on journalism and media, particularly towards the Latinx and LGBTQ+ communities. 

As someone who identifies with both communities, Rodriguez will speak on the impact Bad Bunny has on the two communities. As a professor of journalism and media studies, Rodriguez will impart how the Puerto Rican artist’s style and activism leave their mark on the Spanish-speaking media.

Rodriguez is no stranger to teaching about influential Latinx celebrities, having taught a course on Tejano singer Selena, as well as American rapper Cardi B. Rodriguez aims to incorporate Bad Bunny’s impact on the media as well as his contributions to areas of civil unrest and/or natural disaster.

Rodriguez plans to introduce Bad Bunny’s impact on media by looking at different types of journalistic practices in the United States that have to do with Spanish language media.

“In terms of Media Studies, we’re looking at the music, we’re looking at the pop culture element of it, we’re looking at television and we’re looking at Bad Bunny’s relevancy in terms of music, wrestling, consumerism,” Rodriguez said. “He’s selling out not just in terms of his concerts, but also in terms of every time he endorses a product. He endorses Crocs, Adidas, those things sell out automatically, and all of his merch sells out automatically.”

Rodriguez will also connect Bad Bunny’s influence to the changing attitudes of Latinx and Spanish-speaking Americans.

“The elections are coming up pretty soon. By the time spring hits, we’re gonna have more information about how the Latinx voter votes,” Rodriguez said.“ Not just buying power, but voting power of the Latinx, Hispanics, Chicanx voter, so all of those things are gonna be extremely relevant (when relating to) how Bad Bunny uses his (celebrity status) and his music platform to speak about activism and other types of culturally relevant content.”

Rodriguez highlights Bad Bunny’s philanthropy and activism as key elements in his influence on Latinx media. 

“He speaks out about Puerto Rico, he speaks out about the Uvalde shooting victims and uses his platform to raise money and help them. How does he speak out against transphobia? Support the LGBTQ community? How does all of that happen? So yes, it’s very much relevant to Journalism and Media Studies and cultural studies. So it’s all of that mixed into one,” Rodriguez said.

As this course will be a graduate course, Rodriguez said the students are going to be able to dig a little bit deeper than if it was an undergraduate class because they already have the practice of going through their undergraduate courses.

Rodriguez also underlines the more serious aspects of his future lesson plans. 

“This Bad Bunny course isn’t just going to be ‘let’s go and listen to music and twerk’, it’s going to be ‘let’s discuss these real issues that are relevant to the Latinx community right now, using Bad Bunny as a cultural lens to examine it,’” Rodriguez said. 

Temple Northup, the Director of the School of Journalism and Media Studies, highlights Rodriguez’s best qualities as a professor and gives his blessing to the course to be taught. 

“Dr. Rodriguez is one of the most innovative and engaging faculty members in JMS and SDSU,” Northup said. “He is an expert at using what he calls Pop Culture pedagogy — bringing in relevant examples of popular media to engage students in discussions about important topics, such as media representations of different groups. Using Bad Bunny as a way to foster conversations is a great idea and I look forward to the class happening in the spring.”

Martha Martinez, a senior majoring in mathematics, shares her interest in a course on her favorite artist, despite not being a student of journalism or cultural studies.

“I’m a Bad Bunny fan, like, I love him. It’s cool that this is actually happening. I can see this being helpful if you’re a marketing major or a music major, I think there’s a lot to unpack there,” Martinez said.