Course Schedule:
Any readings not linked through the syllabus will be disseminated in class.
This syllabus provides a general plan for this course—deviations may be necessary as the semester progresses.
***Note: Please complete each reading and/or writing assignment BEFORE the appropriate class.
Week 1
MON June 6- Introduction to course and syllabus
WED June 8- Media & Popular Culture? & Theoretical Foundations
Benjamin, excerpts from “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”
PDF available here: BenjaminWORKOFART
Fiske (Chapter 1), “Understanding Popular Culture”
https://is.muni.cz/el/1421/podzim2008/MVKK_07/um/6_B1_Fiske__1989__Reading_the_Popular.pdf
du Gay, et al.,”What is ‘culture'” and “Meanings and practices”
PDF available here: duGayWHATISCULT
Plato, “The Allegory of the Cave”
http://classicalastrologer.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/plato-allegory-of-the-cave.pdf
Adorno and Horkheimer, “The Culture Industry as Mass Deception”
http://ada.evergreen.edu/~arunc/texts/frankfurt/hork/hork.pdf
Adorno and Horkheimer can be difficult to read. You may want to check out these reading notes to help make sense of some key points.
The slides that accompany these readings may be found here. and here.
Week 2
MON June 13- Theoretical Foundations
Gramsci, “Hegemony, Intellectuals and the State”
Hegemony Intellectuals State Gramsci
Althusser, “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses”
https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/althusser/1970/ideology.htm
*Note: Althusser can be tough to read, so you may want to check out these links. They offer a nice summary/breakdown of some key ideas:
http://www.cla.purdue.edu/english/theory/marxism/modules/althusserideology.html
http://www.cla.purdue.edu/english/theory/marxism/modules/althusserISAs.html
The slides that accompany these readings may be found here.
WED June 15 – Theoretical Foundations & The Circuit of Culture
Hall, “Encoding, Decoding”
http://faculty.georgetown.edu/irvinem/theory/SH-Encoding-Decoding.pdf
Kellner, “Cultural Studies, Multiculturalism, and Media Culture”
http://mediaandsocialidentity.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/culturalstudiesmulticulturalism2.pdf
The slides that accompany these readings may be found here and here.
Week 3
MON June 20 – Industry and Production
Schatz, “The New Hollywood”
http://asu.edu/courses/fms200s/total-readings/Schatz_New%20Hollywood.pdf
Perren, “A Big Fat Indie Success Story”
http://scholarworks.gsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1006&context=communication_facpub
The slides that accompany these readings may be found here and here.
WED June 22- Industry and Production
McChesney (Chapter 5), “The Market Uber Alles”
http://kropfpolisci.com/media.mcchesney.eliteclass.pdf
Schatz, “Desilu, I Love Lucy, and the Rise of Network TV”
PDF available here: Schatz+–+Desilu,+I+Love+Lucy,+and+the+Rise+of+Network+TV
The slides that accompany these readings may be found here and here.
6/24/16 – TAKE HOME MIDTERMS DUE VIA EMAIL BY 5:00 PM
Week 4
MON June 27 – Texts and Representation
Seiter, “Semiotics, Structuralism, and Television”
PDF available here: pdf008
Barthes, “Myth Today”
http://faculty.georgetown.edu/irvinem/theory/Barthes-MythToday-excerpt.pdf
Here is a helpful outline/summary.
The slides that accompany these readings may be found here and here.
WED June 29- Texts and Representation
Hasinoff “Fashioning Race for the Free Market”
Fashioning_race_for_the_free_market_on_A
Jhally and Lewis, excerpts from Enlightened Racism
PDF available here: Jhally+and+Lewis_Enlightened+Racism+Excerpts
Watch an episode of The Cosby Show. Come to class ready to discuss.
The slides that accompany these readings may be found here and here.
Week 5
MON July 4 – No Class
WED July 6- Bridging Text and Audience
Fiske, “Active audiences”
PDF available here: Fiske_Active Audiences
Fiske, “Activated texts”
PDF available here: Fiske_Activated+Texts
Radway, “Women Read the Romance”
http://www.uky.edu/~addesa01/documents/WomenReadtheRomance.pdf
Go to a store. Purchase a romance novel. Read/skim it. Come to class ready to discuss.
The slides that accompany these readings may be found here and here.
Week 6
MON July 11 – Audiences and Advertising
Jenkins, “Star Trek Rerun, Reread, Rewritten: Fan Writing as Textual Poaching”
http://web.mit.edu/21l.432/www/readings/star%20trek%20rerun.pdf
Read some Star Trek fan fiction and come to class ready to discuss: https://www.fanfiction.net/movie/Star-Trek-2009/
Alperstein, “Advertising as Social Practice” from Advertising in Everyday Life
PDF available here: ALPER_ADEVERYDAY
The slides that accompany these readings may be found here and here.
WED July 13 – Culture and Power: Celebrity
Hollander, “Michael Jackson, the Celebrity Cult, and Popular Culture”
PDF available here: HollanderMICHAELJACKSON
Henderson, “From Barnum to ‘Bling’: The Changing Face of Celebrity Culture”
https://repository.si.edu/bitstream/handle/10088/16810/npg_BarnumToBling.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Complete In-Class Screening: The Bling Ring (2013)
Watch for class: The Bling Ring (2013)
The slides that accompany these readings may be found here and here.
NOTE: THE FINAL EXAM MAY BE FOUND HERE.
Week 7
MON July 18 – Subculture and Resistance
Hebdige, Chapters 6-8
PDF available here: 181899847-Subculture
Peruse Banksy’s work: http://banksy.co.uk/out.asp
The slides that accompany this lecture may be found here.
WED July 20 – “Nerd” Culture: Comics
McCloud, Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art Chapters 1-3
McCloud PDF available here: http://www.jessethompsonart.com/artpage/Pre_C_drawing_Video_files/Understanding%20Comics%20%28The%20Invisible%20Art%29%20By%20Scott%20McCloud.pdf
Purchase and read/skim a comic book or graphic novel. Come to class ready to discuss.
The slides that accompany this lecture may be found here.
Week 8
MON July 25 – Last Class – “Nerd” Culture: Games
Warke, GAM3R 7H3ORY (Read “Agony: on The Cave,” page cards 1-25)
http://futureofthebook.org/gamertheory/
The readings below are optional, but strongly recommended:
Andersen & Kurti, “From America’s Army to Call of Duty”
http://faculty.fordham.edu/andersen/andersen_WarAndVideo.pdf
In Media Res Theme Week: Gaming (Read all five entries)
http://mediacommons.futureofthebook.org/imr/theme-week/2010/49/gaming-december-6-10-2010
Ebert, “Video Games Can Never be Art”
http://www.rogerebert.com/rogers-journal/video-games-can-never-be-art
Play a game. Think about it. Come to class ready to discuss.
The slides that accompany this lecture may be found here.
WED July 27 – FINAL EXAMS DUE VIA EMAIL BY 5:00 PM