Syllabus

Journalism and Media Communication 562
Media Studies and Culture
Fall 2009
Tuesday and Thursday, 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM, MER 347

Professor: Elana Levine
Office: 131 Johnston, 229-4718
E-Mail: ehlevine@uwm.edu
Office hours: Tuesday & Thursday, 9:30 AM – 11:00 AM and by appointment

Course Description:
This course is the advanced course in the Journalism and Media Communication Media Studies sub-major. It is designed to explore some of the issues covered in JMC 262, Principles of Media Studies, in greater depth. As such, this course will engage with theories of media and culture, as well as the application of those theories to media analysis. In addition to studying some of the theories and methods foundational to the cultural studies approach to media, we will consider three media-related issues in depth. These issues—consumer culture, convergence culture, and sex, gender and media—represent some of the current concerns in the field of media and cultural studies. Through exploration of significant theories, methods, and issues, as well as through the execution of individual research projects, students will develop a more sophisticated perspective on contemporary media and cultural studies.

Course Objectives:
By the end of this course, you will:
1) Understand some of the key theories that inform media and cultural studies scholarship
2) Understand the complexities of the relationships between media industries, media texts, media audiences, and the social contexts within which they are created and received
3) Improve your media analysis skills, both oral and written
4) Improve your ability to read and understand media studies scholarship
5) Further develop a critical, sophisticated perspective on your own relationship to media

PLEASE NOTE: Due to Prof. Levine’s family leave, class will not meet in person for the final three sessions of the semester. You may have a guest discussion leader for 1 – 3 class sessions prior to that, as well. In lieu of meeting in person for the final three sessions, you will be working on your final papers and posting a digital presentation of those papers to the class blog. You will also be responsible for commenting on other students’ presentations and of responding to comments posted to your own presentation during this period. Final papers will be submitted electronically, due the last day of class. The final exam will still take place in person, as scheduled below. Professor Levine may be available by email only sporadically during this period.

Readings:
Available at the UWM Bookstore
Jenkins, Henry. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. Revised edition. (New York: New York University Press, 2008).
Also on reserve at the Golda Meir Library

Available on e-reserve through the UWM Library Homepage (or available online, see citation for specifics)
Berger, Arthur Asa. Selections from Media Analysis Techniques, Third Edition (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2005), 3-17, 33-36,166-173.
Fiske, John. “British Cultural Studies and Television,” Channels of Discourse, Reassembled ed. Robert C. Allen (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992), 282-323.
Fiske, John. “Signification,” “Notting Hill: Realistic Metonym,” and “Ideology and Meanings.” In Introduction to Communication Studies, 2nd ed. (New York & London: Routledge, 1990): 85-91, 104-110, 164-187.
Fiske, John, Bob Hodge, and Graeme Turner. “Shopping.” In Myths of Oz: Reading Australian Popular Culture. (Boston: Allen & Unwin, 1987): 95-116.
Giroux, Henry A. “Kids for Sale: Corporate Culture and the Challenge of Public
Schooling.” In Stealing Innocence: Youth, Corporate Power, and the Politics of Culture (St. Martin’s, 2000): 83-108.
Hall, Stuart. “The Narrative Construction of Reality: An Interview with Stuart Hall,” Southern Review 17 (March 1984),
Ingraham, Chrys. “Romancing the Clone: The White Wedding.” In White Weddings: Romancing Heterosexuality in Popular Culture. (New York and London: Routledge, 1999): 77-121.
Kellner, Douglas. “Cultural Studies, Multiculturalism, and Media Culture.” In Gender, Race, and Class in Media, 2nd ed. Edited by Gail Dines and Jean M. Humez. (Thousand Oaks: Sage, 2003): 9-20.
Levine, Elana. “The New Soaps? Laguna Beach, The Hills, and the Gendered Politics of Reality ‘Drama’.” Flow 4:10 (August 2006) http://flowtv.org/?p=19 [Online]
Mayer, Jennifer. “What Do Women Watch? Tuning In to the Compulsory
Heterosexuality Channel.” In Reality TV, edited by Susan Murray and Laurie Ouellette. (New York: New York University Press, 2004): 197-213.
Mittell, Jason. “The Cultural Power of an Anti-Television Metaphor: Questioning the ‘Plug-In Drug’ and a TV-Free America.” Television and New Media 1, no. 2 (May 2000): 215-238.
Rose, Ava and James Friedman. “Television Sports as Mas(s)culine Cult of Distraction.” In Out of Bounds: Sports, Media, and the Politics of Identity, edited by Aaron Baker and Todd Boyd. (Bloomingon & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1997): 1-15.
Schor, Juliet. “The New Politics of Consumption: Why Americans Want so Much More than they Need.” In Gender, Race, and Class in edia, 2nd ed. Edited by Gail Dines and Jean M. Humez. (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2003): 183-195.
Seiter, Ellen. “Toys ‘R’ Us: Marketing to Children and Parents.” In Sold Separately: Children and Parents in Consumer Culture. (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers, 1993): 193-226.
Thornham, Helen. “‘It’s a Boy Thing’: Gaming, Gender, and Geeks.” Feminist Media Studies 8:2 (2008), 127-142.
Wang, Jennifer Hyland. “ ‘A Struggle of Contending Stories’: Race, Gender, and
Political Memory in Forrest Gump.” Cinema Journal 39, no. 3 (Spring 2000): 92-115.

Evaluation:

Class participation – 15%

All students are expected to contribute to class discussion, to listen attentively to fellow students, and to put thought into their comments and questions. Students will be evaluated on the frequency and quality of their contributions to class discussion.

Attendance policy: Attendance is expected at each class session. Students are responsible for all materials covered in those sessions. Students are granted three absences without penalty. These are not “freebies,” but are designed to allow for illness or unforeseen circumstances. For every absence in excess of three, the class participation grade will be lowered by 1/3 grade (e.g., A to A-, A- to B+); any student with more than six absences will be given an automatic failing grade for the course. Every three days that a student is late will count as one absence. Students are required to make up any missed work for all absences.

Reading questions– 10%

Each student will be responsible for posting questions based on the assigned readings to our class blog, located at mediastudiesandculturefall2009.blogspot.com. These should be posted by 10:30AM each class day. Students should submit 2-3 questions for each article or chapter assigned. These may be points of clarification, questions about the application of the article to a different media product or issue, or speculation about the implications of a given article’s argument. The course contains 23 different reading assignments. Each student must submit questions for 17 of those assignments. Questions will not be graded but students will be expected to improve the depth and insight of their questions over the course of the semester and in response to the professor’s feedback.

Case study discussions – 10%

Each student will be responsible for presenting a case study example and leading discussion connecting his or her case to that day’s readings for 25 minutes of the class period one time during the semester. You will sign up for days to present your case early on in the semester. Your example/case study can be a video clip, a website, a verbal description, or some other example of some kind of media or cultural phenomenon. You will present this material to the class, explain its relationship to that day’s readings, and conduct a discussion of the material with the rest of the class.

Research project – 45% total

Students will engage in a research project in which they will apply the theories and methods of cultural studies to analyze a media or cultural product or phenomenon in its social and cultural context. After submitting a topic and having it approved, students will gather primary and secondary sources for use in the paper. Students will submit an annotated bibliography summarizing each source and its applicability to the paper (10%). In the last weeks of the semester, students will present their projects to the rest of the class electronically, posting their presentations to the class blog, mediastudiesandculturefall2009.blogspot.com. Students will be expected to comment on others’ presentations and respond to comments about their own work (10%). Final papers, which should include a clear thesis statement/argument, should draw on a cultural studies theory and/or method, and should be 10-15 pages long, are due, via email, the last day of class (25%).

Graduate student papers should be 20-25 pages long and should reflect a more advanced level of analysis.

Final Exam – 20%

The final exam will cover all of the material in the course. It will be all essay questions and will ask students to make connections between various course materials (readings, class discussions and lectures).

In order to pass the course, all work must be completed. Late assignments will be penalized 1/3 grade per day (e.g., A to A-, A- to B+).

Academic misconduct/Plagiarism
Students are responsible for the honest completion and representation of their work, for the appropriate citation of sources, and for respect of others’ academic endeavors. Any instances of academic misconduct, including plagiarism, will receive the full penalties, per the policies and practices of the Department of Journalism & Mass Communication, the College of Letters & Science, and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Special accommodations
If you need special accommodations in order to meet any of the requirements of this course, please contact me as soon as possible.

Students will be allowed to complete examinations or other requirements that are missed because of a religious observance.

In the event of disruption of normal classroom activities due to an H1N1 swine flu outbreak, the format for this course may be modified to enable completion of the course. In that event, you will be provided an addendum to this syllabus that will supersede this version.

For university policies on these and other matters, please see http://www4.uwm.edu/secu/facdocs/1895B.pdf .

Weekly Schedule
Each day’s class will revolve heavily upon the readings assigned for that day. It is thus essential that you come to class prepared to discuss them.

Week One
9/3/09 – Introduction: Media Studies and Cultural Studies

Part I: Basics of cultural studies
Week Two
9/8/09– What is culture?/What is cultural studies?
Kellner, “Cultural Studies, Multiculturalism, and Media Culture”
Deadline for signing up for class blog (reply to email invitation)
9/10/09 – Semiotics and signification
Berger, selections from Media Analysis Techniques [treat as one for reading
questions]

Week Three
9/15/09 – Levels of signification: denotation/connotation/myth
Fiske, “Signification” and “Notting Hill: Realistic metonym” [treat as one for
reading questions]
9/17/09 – Myth and the construction of reality
Hall (interview), “The Narrative Construction of Reality”

Week Four
9/22/09 – Ideology and hegemony
Fiske, “Ideology and Meanings”
Fiske, “British Cultural Studies and Television,” pp. 284-291 [treat as one for
reading questions]
9/24/09 -- Hegemony theory and media: Encoding/decoding
Fiske, “British Cultural Studies and Television,” 292-321

Week Five
9/29/09 – Applying the cultural studies approach: Discourse analysis
Mittell, “The Cultural Power of An Anti-Television Metaphor: Questioning the ‘Plug-In
Drug’ and a TV-Free America”
10/1/09 – Discourse analysis II: Placing texts in context
Wang, “‘A Struggle of Contending Stories’”: Race, Gender, and Political
Memory in Forrest Gump”

Part II: Issues for Media and Cultural Analysis
Issue I: Consumer culture
Week Six
10/6/09 – Critical approaches
Schor, “The New Politics of Consumption”
10/8/09– Critical approaches
Giroux, “Kids for Sale: Corporate Culture and the Challenge of Public Schooling”

Week Seven
10/13/09 -- Cultural approaches
Fiske, Hodge, & Turner, “Shopping”
Research topic and theoretical approach due, by email, by 10:30AM
10/15/09 – Cultural approaches
Seiter, “Toys ‘R’ Us”

Week Eight
10/20/09 & 10/22/09-- Research Plan meetings, No regular class

Issue II: Convergence Culture
Week Nine
10/27/09 – Theorizing Media Convergence
Jenkins, Introduction
10/29/09 – Convergence and Reality TV
Jenkins, Chapters 1 & 2

Week Ten
11/3/09 – Convergence, Sci Fi, and Fantasy I
Jenkins, Chapter 3 [chapter 4 recommended]
11/5/09 -- Convergence, Sci Fi, and Fantasy II
Jenkins, Chapter 5 [chapter 4 recommended]

Week Eleven
11/10/09 – Convergence Culture and Democracy
Jenkins, Chapter 6 and Conclusion [treat as one for reading questions]
11/12/09 – Convergence Culture Wrap-up
Annotated bibliography due

Issue III: Gender and popular culture
Week Twelve
11/17/09 – Masculinity and culture: Sports
Rose and Friedman, “Television Sports as Mas(s)culine Cult of Distraction”
11/19/09 – Masculinity and culture: Gaming
Thornham, “‘It’s a Boy Thing’: Gender, Gaming, and Geeks”

Week Thirteen
11/24/09 – Feminine fantasies: Weddings and heterosexual romance
Ingraham, “Romancing the Clone”
11/26/09 – No class. Happy Thanksgiving!

Week Fourteen
12/1/09 – Women’s genres? Reality TV
Levine, “The New Soaps? Laguna Beach, The Hills, and the Gendered Politics
of Reality ‘Drama’” [online, see above citation for URL}
Maher, “What Do Women Watch?”


Part III: Class Presentations
Students will work on their presentations and post them online by 5PM on 12/7/09. Each of you will be expected to comment on the presentations of at least 4 other students (to be assigned). You will also be expected to respond to any comments or questions posted to your own presentation by 5PM on 12/10/09.

Week Fifteen
12/10/09 – Papers due to Professor Levine by email, by 5PM

Final Exam – Tuesday, December 22, 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM