Critical Studies in Mass Media

Instructor: Jay Hamilton

Room and time: Welles 24; Tuesdays and Thursdays, 3:25-4:40 p.m.

Office and office hours: Blake-B 120; Mondays and Wednesdays, 2:00-3:20.

Office phone and e-mail: 245-5223; hamilton@uno.cc.geneseo.edu

Visit the department’s home page on the World Wide Web for more information about the instructor, the department, resources, and about department-sponsored clubs, grants and scholarships. After reaching the SUNY-Geneseo home page, select Academics, Academic Departments, then Communication.

Required books

  • Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. London: British Broadcasting Corporation and Penguin Books, 1972.
  • Coursepack. Available at Sundance Books, or find and read them in their original format. See the complete listing at the end of this syllabus.
  • du Gay, Paul, Stuart Hall, Linda Janes, Hugh Mackay, and Keith Negus. Doing Cultural Studies; The Story of the Sony Walkman. London: Sage, 1997.
  • Lacey, Nick. Image and Representation; Key Concepts in Media Studies. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998.

Course description

Products of the mass-media industries are there for us to enjoy, despise, or ignore, but their effects and implications go far beyond individualistic concerns to encompass fundamental social, political, and cultural issues. The purpose of this course is to provide students with a basic familiarity with current cultural and critical theoretical perspectives regarding media and society as well as the skills to critically analyze media products and, by doing so, understand their social, political, and cultural roles.

Assignments

I expect you to attend all class sessions, complete all readings and all assignments to the best of your ability, and to discuss material frequently and knowledgeably in class. I also encourage you to discuss your work and the course material with each other.

However, all written work submitted in this class must be solely your own product. Be sure to read the guidelines at the end of this syllabus regarding my policy on plagiarism. I expect that you know what plagiarism is and how to avoid it. This policy will be adhered to strictly. If you have any questions about this policy, be sure to raise them with me prior to turning in an assignment.

Synopses of readings (4) (due as noted in the syllabus). Select one of the readings in each section (noted in syllabus), then write a synopsis of it. A synopsis should include the following: a) the full citation of the reading, b) the topic the reading addresses, c) the major parts of the argument and their connection to each other, d) the major conclusions reached. In addition, the synopsis should e) be written in your own words, rather than by piecing together direct quotations. Requirements for getting credit:

  • All readings are eligible except for those in Section 2 (see the schedule).
  • They must conform to the requirements for all written assignments as noted below, and they cannot exceed two pages, double-spaced.
  • Feel free to turn in synopses ahead of schedule.
  • Grading criteria: the synopsis exhibits all the requirements as noted above = A; one full grade will be deducted for each requirement (a-e above) that it does not completely fulfill; none turned in = E.
  • If you don’t get the grade you want on a synopsis, you can turn in additional ones on other readings in the same section. If the grade on a later one is higher, it will replace the lower grade.

Short assignment (1) (due as scheduled). The purpose of this is to make students more aware of traditional ways of interpreting texts.

Major assignments (2) (due as scheduled). These put into practice what has been learned in the semester. More details will be distributed during the term.

Final exam (Thursday, May 13). This provides an opportunity to pull together course material and apply it in a test setting. More detail will be discussed during the semester.

Grading

All assignments are assessed on a 100-point scale. General grading criteria for assignments are insightfulness; organization, focus, and clarity of writing; and spelling, punctuation and grammar. Specific descriptions and criteria are distributed as needed during the semester.

In addition, please follow these guidelines on all work turned in for evaluation.

1) All assignments must be typewritten or done on a computer. No hand-written assignments will be accepted. Text should be double-spaced, with at least 1" margins on all sides. If setting the character size is an option, the size selected should be 12 points.

2) In fairness to all students, assignments must be turned in at the beginning of the session at which they are due, with a one-full-grade-per-day penalty for those that are late.

Grades are weighted according to the following list.

  • 40% reading synopses (four at 10 percent each)
  • 10% short assignment
  • 30% major assignments (two at 15 percent each)
  • 20% final essay

Total points for the semester are located on the scale below to determine the final grade.

A = 92-100
A- = 90-91
B+ = 88-89
B = 82-87
B- = 80-81
C+ = 78-79
C = 72-77
C- = 70-71
D = 60-69
E = below 60

Getting help

I’m happy to talk to you about the course, issues, ideas, academia, careers, or anything else that is on your mind. My office hours are listed on front.

Schedule

Listed below is the tentative reading and assignment schedule, subject to change as the semester progresses.

Introduction to critical media research

1. Jan. 26, 28.

Introduction to the course and the topic.

"Mass" communication and society.

READING DUE: Coursepack #1.

2. Feb. 2, 4.

Roots of traditional media research.

READING DUE: Coursepack #2.

Roots of traditional media research (cont.).

READING DUE: Coursepack #3.

SYNOPSIS DUE: Summary of any one reading in Section 1.

Traditional methods of textual analysis

3. Feb. 9, 11.

Traditional literary methods.

READING DUE: Coursepack #4 (not eligible for a reading summary).

SHORT ASSIGNMENT DUE: Analyze (make sense of) the Hemingway short story in Coursepack #4 as you would for a literature class (3 pgs. maximum). Be prepared to discuss your analysis in class.

Methods of analysis in traditional media research.

READING DUE: Coursepack #5 (cont.).

4. Feb. 16, 18.

Methods of analysis in traditional media research (cont.).

Tools of image analysis.

READING DUE: Image and Representation, chpt. 1.

 

Semiotic analysis

5. Feb. 23, 25.

Rationale and concepts of semiotic analysis.

READING DUE: Image and Representation, chpt. 2.

Rationale and concepts of semiotic analysis (cont.).

READING DUE: Doing Cultural Studies, pp. 7-40.

6. Mar. 2, 4.

Analysis.

READING DUE: Image and Representation, chpt. 3.

Analysis.

READING DUE: Portion of Image and Representation, chpt. 4, pp. 82-123.

7. Mar. 9, 11.

Analysis.

READING DUE: Coursepack #6; Doing Cultural Studies, pp. 62-74.

Analysis.

READING DUE: Coursepack #7.

8. Mar 16, 18 (mid-semester).

Analysis.

SYNOPSIS DUE: Summary of any one reading in Section 3.

Applying semiotics.

MAJOR ASSIGNMENT DUE: Montage and analysis. Be prepared to discuss your analysis in class.

9. Mar. 23, 25. SPRING BREAK; NO CLASS.

Analysis of cultural form

10. Mar. 30, Apr. 1.

Rationale and concepts of an analysis of cultural form.

READING DUE: Coursepack #8, Coursepack #10.

Social grammar of images.

READING DUE: Coursepack #9.

11. Apr. 6, 8.

Digital camera and graphics software instruction for group project (this is a mandatory meeting in order to get credit for the group project). MEET IN BLAKE B 208.

READING DUE: Ways of Seeing, pp. 7-34.

Analysis.

READING DUE: Ways of Seeing, pp. 45-64.

12. Apr. 13, 15.

Analysis.

READING DUE: Image and Representation, chpt. 6.

Analysis.

READING DUE: Ways of Seeing, pp. 129-155.

13. Apr. 20, 22.

Development of media and cultural forms.

SYNOPSIS DUE: Summary of any one reading in section 4.

Applying an analysis of cultural form.

ASSIGNMENT DUE: Cultural form of images. Be prepared to discuss your work in class.

Cultural logics of capitalism

14. Apr. 27, 29.

Mass culture heritage of media research and social criticism.

READING DUE: Coursepack #11; Doing Cultural Studies, pp. 84-109.

Complicating the mass-culture debate.

READING DUE: Coursepack #12; Coursepack #13.

15. May 4, 6.

Complicating the mass-culture debate (cont.).

SYNOPSIS DUE: Summary of any one reading in section 5.

Wrap-up; review.

Final exam: Thursday, May 13, 3:30-6:30 p.m., Welles 24

Coursepack readings
  1. "Normative Theories of the Media." From Lawrence Grossberg, Ellen Wartella, and D. Charles Whitney, MediaMaking; Mass Media in a Popular Culture. London and Thousand Oaks: Sage, 1998.
  2. James Curran, Michael Gurevitch, and Janet Woollacott, "The Study of the Media: Theoretical Approaches," pp. 21-29. Excerpt from Michael Gurevitch, Tony Bennett, James Curran, and Janet Woollacott, eds., Culture, Society, and the Media. London and New York: Routledge, 1988.
  3. Stuart Hall, "The Rediscovery of ‘Ideology’: Return of the Repressed in Media Studies," pp. 56-65, 89-90. Excerpt from Michael Gurevitch, Tony Bennett, James Curran, and Janet Woollacott, eds., Culture, Society, and the Media. London and New York: Routledge, 1988.
  4. "The Little Red Hen" and "The Little Red Caboose" (traditional children’s stories). Ernest Hemingway, "Hills Like White Elephants," from Men Without Women, New York: Scribner’s, 1928.
  5. "The Interpretation of Meaning." From Lawrence Grossberg, Ellen Wartella, and D. Charles Whitney, MediaMaking; Mass Media in a Popular Culture. London and Thousand Oaks: Sage, 1998.
  6. Mark Crispin Miller, "Getting Dirty." From Boxed In; The Culture of TV. Evanston: University of Chicago Press, 1988.
  7. Charles R. Acland, " ‘Tall, Dark, and Lethal’: The Discourses of Sexual Transgression in the Preppy Murder." Journal of Communication Inquiry 15:2 (Summer 1991): 140-158.
  8. Raymond Williams, "Content." Excerpt from Communications. New York: Barnes and Noble, 1967, pp. 36-37, 86-96.
  9. Janice Peck, "Religious Television and the Historical Appeal of Form." Journal of Communication Inquiry 15:2 (Summer 1991): 13-31.
  10. James Carey, "Technology and Ideology: The Case of the Telegraph," pp. 210-230. Excerpt from Communication as Culture; Essays on Media and Society. Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1989.
  11. Tony Bennett, "Theories of the Media, Theories of Society," pp. 30-47, 54-55. Excerpt from Michael Gurevitch, Tony Bennett, James Curran, and Janet Woollacott, eds., Culture, Society, and the Media. London and New York: Routledge, 1988.
  12. Thomas Frank, "A Cultural Perpetual Motion Machine: Management Theory and Consumer Revolution in the 1960s." From The Conquest of Cool; Business Culture, Counterculture, and the Rise of Hip Consumerism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997.
  13. Thomas Frank, "Liberation Marketing and the Culture Trust." From Erik Barnouw et al., eds., Conglomerates and the Media. New York: The New Press, 1997.

Regarding plagiarism

"Plagiarize" means "to take and use as one’s own the writings or ideas of another."

It is plagiarism if you:

• buy a term paper from an individual or company and submit it to an instructor as your own;

• copy articles (in whole or in part) from newspapers, magazines, books or journals and present them as your own;

• have another student do all or any part of a paper or report for you;

• turn in an old paper from high school or from another course, because each new assignment is to be a new experience;

• take material from sources (books, reference materials, audio-visual materials, and so on) and do not properly give credit to those sources.

Students typically have the most questions about the last point listed above. You can use material from sources in three ways:

1) direct quotation (transcribed, word for word, from the source).

2) paraphrase (information is in your own words and sentence structure, but accurately conveys the meaning of the source material in about the same number of words).

3) summary (similar to a paraphrase, but a more condensed version of the original; still must retain meaning of original source).

For term papers, most people are aware that direct quotations must be placed in quotation marks, transcribed accurately and attributed. However, paraphrases and summaries must also be attributed, even if they are in your own words and sentence structure, because the information or analysis is someone else’s.

Remember: To take another’s sentence structure is plagiarism, and in some cases could also be a legally actionable violation of copyright. If you prefer the sentence structure and diction of another person, quote directly, use quotation marks and in-text recognition of the source.

Ultimately, it is the responsibility of the student to recognize plagiarism and to avoid it. The minimum penalty for plagiarism is a failing grade for the assignment in question, with the maximum being failure for the course.