Assignments

Media Object Presentation -- You will be a required to sign up for an oral presentation once during the quarter. For your presentation, you will read the texts assigned for that week, select a media object, a specific example, and then generate a set of connections, provocations, and questions to get class discussion started for the day. Presentations are 5-10 minutes and may be done individually or in pairs.

Midterm and Final Exam -- You will have two in-class exams, which will consist of identifications and short answer questions. Exams will be cumulative and based on the class readings, media objects, and class discussions.

Media Studies Final Project -- At the end of the semester, you will do a final project related to a specific media form we have explored, that draws on specific terms, concepts, or issues we have engaged with in class, and that articulates the importance of a critical relationship to media. The project asks you to make connections and to create an argument across different kinds of evidence. Your final project can be a traditional research paper, a media production (which includes a substantive analytical component), or a hybrid of the two.

Information Sheets

The following are handouts, informational sheets, and readings that will be assigned or used over the course of the quarter. Each student will recieve a copy of each as a handout in class during the appropriate week. If you miss a sheet, feel free to print out a new copy.

Ed's Top Ten List of "Ways to Survive University"

Ed's Top Ten Rules of Writing

Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing

MLA Citation and Bibliographic Format

What is Close Reading?

Readings

There is one required text for the class in addition to a reader of short readings. The textbook is available via the Drew Bookstore (or through any reputable bookseller). The course reader is available for purchase in the main English office in 108 Sitterly House. All of the short readings for class are also available via the course Moodle. Consult the course syllabus for the week's required reading. The following is a full bibliographical list of the class readings:

Adebe, Nitsuh. "We Must Be Superstars: In Defense of Pop (and Maybe Narcissism, Too)." New York Magazine. 10 Jul. 2011. http://nymag.com/arts/popmusic/features/narcissism-2011-7/.

Adorno, Theodor W. "On Popular Music." soundscapes.info. Jan. 2000. http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/DATABASES/SWA/On_popular_music_1.shtml.

Anderson, Benedict. "Introduction." Imagined Communities. New York: Verso, 1983. 1-8.

---. "Cultural Roots." Imagined Communities. New York: Verso, 1983. 9-36.

---. "Origins of National Consciousness." Imagined Communities. New York: Verso, 1983. 37-46.

Barlow, John Perry. "A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace." Electronic Frontier Foundation. 8 Feb. 1996. 26 Mar. 2010. https://projects.eff.org/~barlow/Declaration-Final.html.

Bogost, Ian. "Introduction: Media Microecology." How to Do Things with Videogames. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2011. 1-8.

Bolnick, Deborah A. et al. "The Science and Business of Genetic Ancestry Testing." Science. 318.5849 (19 Oct. 2007): 399-400.

Bolter, Jay David and Richard Grusin. "Remediation." Configurations. 4.3 (1996): 311-358.

Castronova, Edward. "Preface." Exodus to the Virtual World: How Online Fun is Changing Reality. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. xiii-xix.

---. "Dreams Fashioned in Silicon." Exodus to the Virtual World: How Online Fun is Changing Reality. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. 3-20.

Chang, Edmond Y. & Timothy Welsh, "'Would You Kindly?': Bioshock and Posthuman Choice." In Media Res. 10 Mar. 2011. http://mediacommons.futureofthebook.org/imr/2011/03/10/would-you-kindly-bioshock-and-posthuman-choice.

Cohen, Patricia. "Giving Literature Virtual Life." New York Times. 21 Mar. 2011. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/22/books/digital-humanities-boots-up-on-some-campuses.html.

Jenkins, Henry. "Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture." Confessions of an Aca-Fan: The Official Webblog of Henry Jenkins. 20 Oct. 2006. http://henryjenkins.org/2006/10/confronting_the_challenges_of.html.

Johnson, Steven. "Television." Everything Bad Is Good For You: How Today's Poplar Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter. New York: Riverhead Books, 2005. 62-115.

Keller, Bill. "The Twitter Trap." New York Times. 18 May 2011. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/22/magazine/the-twitter-trap.html.

Kolker, Robert. Media Studies: An Introduction. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.

Konnikova, Maria. "Why Facebook Makes Us Unhappy." The New Yorker. 10 Sep. 2013. http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2013/09/the-real-reason-facebook-makes-us-unhappy.html.

Lippi-Green, Rosina. "Teaching Children How to Discriminate: What We Learn from the Big Bad Wolf." Reading Contexts. Ed. Gail Stygall. New York: Thomson Wadsworth, 2005. 405-428.

McGonigal, Jane. "Growing Up Gamer." AvantGame. Sep. 2008. 22 Mar. 2012. http://www.avantgame.com/growing_up_gamer_mcgonigal_sept2008.pdf.

McLuhan, Marshall. "The Medium is the Message." Essential McLuhan. Eds. Eric McLuhan and Frank Zingrone. London: Routledge, 1997. 151-161.

Nayar, Pramod K. "Bodies." An Introduction to New Media and Cybercultures. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010. 65-86.

Postman, Neil and Camille Paglia. "Two Cultures--Television Versus Print." Communication in History: Technology, Culture, Society. Eds. David Crowley and Paul Heyer. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 2008. 252-263.

Ramamurthy, Anandi. "Constructions of Illusion: Photography and Commodity." Reading Contexts. Ed. Gail Stygall. New York: Thomson Wadsworth, 2005. 599-634.

Rosen, Jeffrey. "The Web Means the End of Forgetting." New York Times. 21 Jul. 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/magazine/25privacy-t2.html.

Smith, Greg M. "'It's Just a Movie': A Teaching Essay for Introductory Media Classes." Cinema Journal. 41.1 (Fall 2001): 127-134.

"The Transhumanist Declaration." World Transhumanist Association. 23 Mar. 2012. http://transhumanism.org/resources/TenQuestions.pdf.

Media

The Celluloid Closet. Dir. Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman. Sony Pictures Classics, 1995. DVD.

"Digital Nation." Frontline. 2 Feb. 2010. http://video.pbs.org/video/1402987791/.

Miss Representation. Dir. Jennifer Siebel Newsom. Girls' Club Entertainment, 2011. DVD.

Spinelli, Alexander Calder. "Generation Radio (A Documentary Film about the Evolution of the Broadcast Radio Industry)." Online video. YouTube. 3 May 2013. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PJElJA24pQ.

"War of the Worlds." Podcast. Radiolab. Season 4, Episode 3. http://www.radiolab.org/story/91622-war-of-the-worlds/.

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