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Classes

Media and Popular Culture, Spring 2010

Film 4810, Spring 2010
Wednesday 1:00-3:30, 506 Classroom South
Office: 738 One Park Place South
Email: ted@tedfriedman.com
Website: http://www.tedfriedman.com/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tedfriedman

Course Description
Popular culture is often described as “escapist” entertainment. But this dismissal evades some very serious questions. What are we escaping? Where are we escaping to? Does everybody go to the same place? How might the trip affect us, once we get back? This class looks at the social consequences and political implications of mass mediated entertainment. Its goal is to develop the theoretical tools and critical perspective to interrogate the TV shows, commercials, films, books, songs, videos, and web sites that saturate our lives.

Readings
The coursepack is sold by Bestway Copy Center, 18 Decatur Street SE (on the first floor of One Park Place South). Links to additional optional readings will be distributed via the Twitter hashtag #popcult.

Schedule

Unit I: Introducing Cultural Studies

1/13 Culture as Struggle and Negotiation

1/20 Sentimental Education and the Circuit of Culture
Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction: http://godsaveprint.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/mechanicalrepro1.pdf
Clifford Geertz, “Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight”:
http://webhome.idirect.com/~boweevil/BaliCockGeertz.html
Ted Friedman, “Introduction,” Electric Dreams: Computers and American Culture: http://www.tedfriedman.com/electricdreams/2005/02/introduction.php

1/27 Subcultures and Mass Culture
Dick Hebdige, excerpt from Subculture: The Meaning of Style
Malcolm Gladwell, “The Coolhunt”: http://gladwell.com/1997/1997_03_17_a_cool.htm
Gladwell, “The Science of Shopping”: http://gladwell.com/1996/1996_11_04_a_shopping.htm

Unit II: The Circuit of Culture

2/3 Regulation and Production
Thomas Schatz, “The New Hollywood”
Robert McChesney, “The Market Uber Alles”
Chris Anderson, “The Long Tail”:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/tail.html

2/10 Representation
Ellen Seiter, “Semiotics, Structuralism and Television”
Roland Barthes, “Myth Today”

2/17 Audience and Identity
Barbara Ehrenreich et al, “Beatlemania: Girls Just Want to Have Fun”
Henry Jenkins, “Strangers No More, We Sing: Filking and the Construction of the Science Fiction Fan Community”
Choose one article to read from Transformative Works and Cultures:
http://journal.transformativeworks.org

Unit III: Culture and Power

2/24 Ideology, Hegemony and Resistance
James Kavanaugh, “Ideology”
John Fiske, “British Cultural Studies and Television”
Stuart Hall, “Encoding, Decoding”

3/3 Culture and Status
Janice Radway, excerpts from Reading the Romance
Assignment: Buy in a store and skim a romance novel for class discussion

3/10 Spring Break - No Class

3/17 Race
Sut Jhally and Justin Lewis, “Enlightened Racism”
Take-Home Midterm Due

3/24 Gender
Ariel Levy, excerpts from Female Chauvinist Pigs
Alexander Doty, “There’s Something Queer Here”

Unit IV: New Media Futures

3/31 Comics
Scott McCloud, excerpts from Understanding Comics
Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield, Freakangels:
http://www.freakangels.com/?p=23 (read at least through Volume 1)

4/7 Games
Ralph Koster, excerpts from A Theory of Fun for Video Games
McKenzie Wark, excerpts from GAM3R 7H3ORY: http://www.futureofthebook.org/gamertheory/ (read “Agony: on The Cave,” page cards 1-25)
Assignment: Download and play World of Warcraft. Free 10-day trial at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com.

4/14 Social Media
Choose two articles to read from Tara McPherson, ed., Digital Youth, Innovation, and the Unexpected: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/toc/dmal/-/4 and/or David Buckingham, ed., Youth, Identity and Social Media: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/toc/dmal/-/6

4/21 Globalization
Benedict Anderson, excerpts from Imagined Communities
Arjun Appadurai, excerpts from Modernity at Large

4/28 Activism
Naomi Klein, excerpts from No Logo

Take-Home Final Exam due 5/5

Assignments

The class assignments add up to total of 100 possible points. Your final grade for the class is determined by adding up your grades for each assignment, adjusting for attendance, then applying the final number to the following scale:

A 100-93 B+ 89-88 C+ 79-78 D 70-65
A- 92-90 B 87-83 C 77-73 F 64-0
B- 82-80 C- 72-70

Take-Home Midterm - 45 points
The take-home midterm will require you to relate concepts from the readings and lectures to the films screened for the first three class units. Due in class March 17.

Take-Home Final - 45 points
The take-home final will be structured just like the midterm, covering units 4-7. Due May 5.

Presentation – 10 points
You will sign up with two partners to research the creators, economics, and audience contexts of a television program or video game. You will then choose a sample episode or gameplay experience, present your research to the class, screen the episode/game for the class, then participate in the class discussion. More information will follow in a separate handout.

Attendance Adjustment
As Woody Allen put it, “80 percent of success is showing up.” It’s less than that in this formula, but the bottom line is that you can’t contribute to the class if you’re not there. You’re allowed one unexcused absence for the semester. After that, each unexcused absence subtracts one point from your grade total. Excused absences include medical and family emergencies. You will be expected to schedule any employment responsibilities around this class, or accept the consequences of missed classes for your grade. If you do need to miss a class, please contact me ahead of time, and make arrangements to catch up on missed material.Policies

Re-Writes and Makeup Tests
Opportunities for revision and improvement will be available for the midterm, the presentation, and the research paper prospectus. In addition, I will look at optional drafts of the research paper submitted on or before the deadline listed above. One rule: a 24-hour cool-down period after the return of any assignment. Wait a day before coming to talk to me, and I’ll be happy to listen to your concerns and help you improve your work.

Late and Unsubmitted Papers
Late papers will be marked off by ½ point for every day overdue unless an extension is agreed upon before the due date. No work can be accepted after the deadline for the take-home final. Any unsubmitted papers will receive a 0. Likewise, any unanswered exam questions will receive a 0. So, if you answer only 2 out of 3 required exam questions, you will get a 0 on the third question.

Academic Honesty
The university’s policy on academic honesty is published in On Campus: The Undergraduate Co-Curricular Affairs Handbook, available online at http://www.gsu.edu/~wwwcam. The policy prohibits plagiarism, cheating on examinations, unauthorized collaboration, falsification, and multiple submissions. Violation of the policy will result in failing the class, in addition to disciplinary sanctions.

The Internet makes it easy to plagiarize, but also easy to track down plagiarism. Bottom line: Don’t plagiarize. It’s wrong, and it’s not worth it. There’s always a better way. Cite all your sources, put all direct quotations in quotation marks, and clearly note when you are paraphrasing other authors’ work.

Withdrawals
Students withdrawing on or before the midsemester point will receive a W provided they are passing the course. Students who withdraw after the midsemester point will not be eligible for a W except in cases of hardship. If you withdraw after the midsemester point, you will be assigned a WF, except in those cases in which (1) hardship status is determined by the office of the dean of students because of emergency, employment, or health reasons, and (2) you are passing the course.

Incompletes
Incompletes may be given only in special hardship cases. Incompletes will not be used merely for extending the time for completion of course requirements.

Changes to the Syllabus
This syllabus provides a general plan for the course. Deviations may be necessary.

Posted by tedf at January 19, 2010 01:02 AM

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