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Degree course goes to The Wire

THE Wire, a cult US television series about the fight against crime in Baltimore, has become the subject of a British university course.

The American police show will be studied at the University of York from this autumn as part of its sociology degree.

Titled The Wire as Social Science Fiction?, it will use the HBO series to look at topics including class, race, political process and the city.

The lecturer behind the course believes the popular show could challenge traditional methods of teaching and presenting social science.

Professor Roger Burrows, head of sociology at the university, said: ’’We look at The Wire as a form of entertainment that does the job some of the social sciences have been failing to do.

’‘It’s a contrast to dry, dull, hugely expensive studies that people carry out on the same issues.“

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .