Syllabus

Welcome to THST 2450 Approaches to Media Studies with Mark Lipton. On this page you will find a copy of our course syllabus for you to download.

I'm looking forward to an exciting semester! mark

Here's the syllabus:

**//THST 2450.01 Approaches to Media Studies//**

//Professor Mark Lipton; //

//Office extension: 56049; Skype //

//Office hours: Tuesday 5pm – 7pm & by appointment//

//Class meets: 7pm – 9:50, MacKinnon room 209//

//Course Wiki:// 

//Lipton’s Introductory Remarks//

“Displacing is a way of surviving” (Minh-ha, 1990, 332).

This course begins its approach to studying media by addressing the complex relationships between the role of identity and displacement. To this end, the course’s ongoing discussions question and reconsider the rules of identity and subjectivity as defined by traditional media practices through an analysis of the historical development of cultural (and subcultural) theory and the practices of everyday life. To reach these goals, this course examines the many levels of resistance and appropriation that occur within media practices that pertain to subjective cultural formations people perform/live-through as outsiders, audiences, and displaced persons. With a long and rich history in the disciplines of anthropology and sociology, the study of cultures has as its core an attempt to understand the nature of social order and of social action as it unfolds in the mundane, taken-for-granted aspects of our daily lives. Whether approached from North American traditions following the Chicago School, or from European perspectives, the objects of inquiry for the analyst of cultures are located and directed by the flow of quotidian practice as a cultural schema that manifests patterns of agency and structure. Beyond immediate concerns with micro-social relations and interaction, research in culture today, also referred to as cultural studies, presses on important social analytical concerns. These include but are not limited to: the relation between cultural hegemony and consumption; the operation of mundane reason and common sense epistemologies; subjectivity and domination; subcultures as a moral, ethical and/or political space; the material-technological and environmental-spatial mediation of cultures; and questions of sub/culture as a gendered, embodied, and sensual set of practices. Such concerns drive some of the most important and influential work in the academy today. The theoretical thrust of the work in this course, then, brings together voices from many different marginalized groups—groups that are often isolated from each other as well as from the dominant culture. It joins issues of gender, race, sexual diversity, and class in one forum but without imposing a false unity on the diverse cultures represented. This is the theoretical starting point for our analysis of media and our forays into experiments into social media.

One of the greatest challenges and goals of conducting Media Studies research at this historical moment is to keep apace with the rapidly changing face of media use, production, and practices. To this end, the object of inquiry for many scholars is to strike a balance between theory and practice. Praxis describes a new research/creative exercise where theory and practice move in and out, like breath, its potentialities containing the promise of disruption, reflection, internalization, and the responsibility towards something beyond one’s subjectivity. Utilizing a variety of media to theorize provides this engagement with the ideological underpinnings of inter/multi/transdisciplinarity. In addition, this approach to praxis, where the ways in which media itself can be utilized to theorize about a range of issues addresses several concerns in contemporary Media Studies research. As Boler (2008) writes, “We need more than new theoretical frameworks and concepts to help us understand what is happening and how to intervene. We also need to know what interventions are happening and how they are working” (31). This call is for scholarly attention to the applications of theory to today’s social media world.

Ethnographic researchers were some of the early pioneers in the uses of experimental video as a both a method and a construct in the discipline of anthropology. Qualitative researchers today also owe a debt to the research (and creative) practices of the Situationist International (SI) movement (Debord 1957, 1967) whose revolutionary ideas addressed the power dynamics separating intellectual and artistic creations; members of the SI worked to redress this imbalance. By 1975, researchers working at the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies at the University of Birmingham were applying and representing these radical changes to our cultural landscape when they undertook detailed studies of cultures, subcultures and class (Hall and Jefferson 1976). Members of this school engaged in ethnographies about political and social identities, including such subjects as the Teds, Mods, Sinkheads, drug users, black music, and street boy culture. In their work on ethnography, they recognize how these subcultures and their acts of “resistance through rituals” function through particular creative practices in the form of bricolage, i.e., ideological play with the form and thus meaning of particular texts (etymologically from French: to fiddle, tinker and, by extension, to make creative and resourceful use of whatever materials are at hand regardless of their original purpose). From this, creative practices entered the academic halls as a viable means for uncovering such important intellectual projects as new methodological frameworks, theoretical trends, textual interpretations, critical approaches, political implications, and so on. In fact, “bricolage” is quickly becoming a theoretical apparatus in many qualitative and ethnographic handbooks as a starting place for engaging in a research practice.

The underlying principles for this course emerge from these theoretical beginnings, but are very much based on an exploration in the critical experimentation of social media and other representational technologies. Following a basic premise of media literacy education, applying these theoretical tendencies is to engage in modes of inquiry that rely on “practical work” or media production. Many education theorists have long argued, “if students are to understand media texts … then it will obviously be helpful if they have first-hand experience of the construction process from the inside” (Masterman, 1985, 26). This element of practical work is based on an approach to media research that seeks to identify and rely on praxis in order to discover new understandings about the important areas in current Media Studies research. These may include such topics as political and social identities; the relationships among audiences, political representations, action, and media use; constructions of publics and counterpublics; affective dimensions; changing natures of power and politics.

This course applies praxis by studying approaches to social media (e.g., Lessig 2008). The social web and the devices that make its existence possible are tools of human interaction that foster growth in communities, both on and offline. Chester (2007) describes how today’s “new digital media enable us to tell many more stories that may actually assist us to better govern ourselves. But to have such stories told, we have to ensure that our new digital communications readily permit such messages to be meaningfully heard” (xix). This course takes the position that praxis in Media Studies research is the best way to be //meaningfully heard//. Praxis, then, must be addressed first as a mode of production and then, applied to social media systems that can circulate these stories informed by theory/practice. To apply these messages, then, this course also seeks to take up Boler’s call for attention to interventions and their inner workings. Through considerations of such media as social network websites like Facebook and Twitter and how they mobilize public opinion and/or the rise in smartphone use and its ability for synchronous (eg. Improv Everywhere, flash mobs) and asynchronous communication and culture (e.g., Pew 2009), our goal will be to be heard and to intervene. In this way, praxis in Media Studies research, inevitably and itself, can be seen as a political act. Questions may emerge addressing how communities and individuals identify themselves through social media channels; what roles and rules participants follow; the role of (digital) democracy; technologically-mediated networks and flows; activism and culture jamming; and political engagement and political subjects.

//Works Cited//

//Boler, Megan, 2006. Digital Media and Democracy: Tactics in Hard Times. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT.//

//Chester, Jeff. Digital Destiny: New Media and the Future of Democracy. New York: New Press, 2007.//

//Debord, Guy. 1957. Report on the Construction of Situations. .//

//Debord, Guy. 1967. La société du spectacle; in English: The Society of the Spectacle, Zone Books 1995, Society of the Spectacle, Rebel Press 2004.//

//Improv Everywhere. Web. 12 Dec. 2009. .//

//Lessig, Lawrence. 2008. Remix: Making Art and Commerce thrive in the Hybrid Economy. New York: Bloomsbury.//

//Hall, Stuart and Jefferson, Tony. (Eds.). 1976. Resistance Through Rituals: Youth Subcultures in Post-War Britain. London: Harper Collins Academic.//

//Masterman, Len. 1985. Teaching the Media. London and New York: Routledge.//

//"Wireless Internet Use | Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project." Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project. Web. 12 Dec. 2009. .//

//Required Texts//

(1) Ferguson, R., Gever, M., Minh-ha, T. T., and West, C. (Eds.). 1990. //Out There: Marginalization and Contemporary Cultures//. New York: The MIT Press.

(2) Kosinski, Jerzy. 1965. //The Painted Bird.//

(3) Mason, Matt. 2008. //The Pirate’s Dilemma: How Youth Culture is Reinventing Capitalism//. New York: Free Press.

(4) Other readings will be generated by student research and distributed via course wiki.

R//ecommended Texts//

Flew, Terry & Richard Smith. 2011. //New Media: An Introduction//. Don Mills: Oxford U. P.

//Grade Determination//

//Narrative Essay 20% (1000-1500 words)//

//Due:// January 24th

Use narrative language to introduce your social identity in relation to our dominant culture. Consider Brake's use of Raymond Williams's (1961) notion of "ways of life" when he writes:

We are born into social classes, themselves complexly stratified with distinct //ways of life//, modified by region and neighbourhood. This local subculture into which we are first socialised is that parochial world against which we measure social relations that we meet in later life, and in which we begin to build a social identity. Our social identity is constructed from the nexus of social relations and meanings surrounding us, and from this we learn to make sense of ourselves including our relation to the dominant culture (Brake, 3).

As examples, look at how Gever, Anzaldúa, Rodriguez and Mercer mark out their subjectivities and affirm their identities as caught up in the cultural politics of difference. Focus on a specific aspect of your subjectivity and capture your experiences in the form of a narrative. Rely on the semiotic techniques of //metaphor// and //synecdoche// to make your point. Please include a one-page postscript that includes a self-reflexive consideration of your writing.

//Social Media Participation (Digital Portfolio) 40%//

All students must participate with social media experiences throughout the term. Required experiences include wiki participation, folksonomy, photo and video production and sharing, and other textual creativity productions. Student uses of social media will play an important role in learning for this course, and will act as a communication tool between students, instructor, and other course participants. At the end of term, students will submit a digital portfolio that documents and reflects on this learning. Your portfolio should include and show evidence of:


 * weekly, scholarly reflections/responses of course activities, readings, and presentations;
 * frequent reading and analysis of key articles, media, and/or other tagged information;
 * interaction with other students through commenting;
 * sharing and review of discovered resources;
 * thoughtful, critical reflection of the use of technology through ongoing experimentation;
 * demonstrated understanding of the principles of folksonomy, remixing and mash-ups, intertextuality, bricolage, creative commons, etc.

To help focus the //creative practice// necessary in social media participation, students //must// do the following:

(1) Join the wiki that has been created for the purposes of (a) engaging discussion, (b) revising ideas, (c) mentoring others, (d) learning social media tools, (e) circulating interventions; wiki is available at: http://guelphwinter2012media.wikispaces.com/

(2) Join an online social bookmarking service. Every student must identify readings for the online course reading list. The goal is to learn a non-hierarchical classification system and to get accustomed to participating in and reading how users “tag” or index the social web, generating a folksonomy (social indexing, social tagging). The course recommends < [] >. Begin tagging sites specific to your subject of inquiry, but also follow the practices and methods of collaboratively creating and managing content—thus your annotated research will address a larger set of resources related to Media Studies.

(3) Scour photo/video sharing websites (e.g., http://www.youtube.com/, http://www.reddit.com) for relevant examples, based on reading list. Tag and annotate the content for collaborative knowledge management.

The final portfolio //must// also include necessary metacognitive responses. Please provide writing (3-5 pages) that demonstrates your self-reflection about the course, your readings, and your understanding of social media. //Don’t forget to include a final letter to me.//

//Major Digital Projects 40%//

Students will develop a digital project related to social media and culture. This project is wide-open to possibilities. Ideas will be discussed in class. Students must produce at least two works, but may work on a maximum of 5 projects. //Student collaboration is required.// You may not work on both projects alone. Students must produce a new/social media artifact (e.g., narrative, slide deck, audio, video, concept map, other visual, etc.) that demonstrates an attempt at learning social media. These artifacts should reference particular course experiences (e.g., reflections, assessments, readings, class lectures, class topics, presenters, networking, experimentation, etc.) that contribute to the greater understanding of social media and culture. Students will present these artifacts (in whole or in part), or make them available to others throughout the semester. In the last weeks of the course, students will summarize and synthesize their final work via a presentation. Additionally, a reflective component to each project should be included in the final portfolio.

//Class meeting schedule//

//Notes: 1. Based on the theoretical approaches and goals of this course, each class is designed as part lecture; part seminar; part lab; 2. Reading schedule is open as students are required to search for readings, then tag and/or post these to the class wiki for discussion; 3. Each week student are asked to post agenda items to the course wiki; 4. Noted page// #//s are approximate; 5. All schedules are subject to change.//

//January 10th// Introductions Syllabus Review

//January 17th//

Subjectivity, Ideology, Culture?

Required Readings:

q Gever, Martha, "The Names We Give Ourselves," in __Out There__, pp. 191-202. q Anzaldúa, Gloria, "How To Tame a Wild Tongue," in __Out There__, pp. 203-212. q Mercer, Kobena, "Black Hair/Style Politics," in __Out There__, pp. 247-264 [Also in __Subcultures__, pp. 420-465]. q Rodriguez, Richard, "Complexion," in __Out There__, pp. 265-280. q Brake, Michael, “The use of subculture as an analytic tool in sociology.”

//January 24th// Ethnography and Agency//—discussion// Due: Essay

Suggested Readings:

q Clifford, James, "On Collecting Art and Culture," in __Out There__, pp. 141- 169.

//January 31st// Adaptations, intertextuality, and digital appropriation Manufactured Economies of Scale//—discussion// Suggested Readings:

q Wallace, Michelle, "Modernism, Postmodernism and the Problem of the Visual in Afro-American Culture," in __Out There__, pp. 39-50. q West, Cornel, "The New Cultural Politics of Difference, in __Out There__, pp. 19-38. q Bhabha, Homi, "The Other Question: Difference, Discrimination and the Discourse of Colonialism," in __Out There__, pp. 71-88.

//February 7th//

Creative Practices: Theft and Creation //—discussion// Read:

q Mason, Matthew. __The Pirate’s Dilemma__.

//February 14th// Symbols, Texts, Contexts and their Meanings Disputing Taste and Leisure Suggested Readings:

q Deleuze, Gilles, and Guattari, F., "What is a Minor Literature?" in __Out There__, pp. 59-70.

//Reading week: February 20th – 24th//

//Please read:// The Painted Bird

//February 28th// Space, Place and Territory//—discussion// Recommended Readings:

q Deutsche, Rosalyn, "Uneven Development: Public Art in New York City," in __Out There__, pp. 107-132. q Minh-ha, Trinh T., "Cotton and Iron," in __Out There__," pp. 327-336. q Said, Edward, "Reflections on Exile," in __Out There__, pp. 357-366.  q Peckham, Linda, "Ons Stel Nie Belang Nie/We Are Not Interested In: Speaking Apartheid," in __Out There__, pp. 367-376.

//March 6th// Revisiting Subjectivity: Don’t Forget where you come from. . . Sex and Gender//—discussion// Recommended Readings:

q Wittig, Monique, "The Straight Mind," in __Out There__, pp. 51-58. q Lourde, Audre, "Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference," in __Out There,__ pp. 281-288. q Cixous, Helene, Castration or Decapitation?" in __Out There__, pp. 345-356. q Watney, Simon, "Missionary Positions: Aids, Africa, and Race," in __Out There__, pp. 89-106.  q Dyer, Richard, "Coming To Terms," in __Out There__, pp. 289-298.

//March 13th// //Project work day – no class scheduled//

//March 20th// Memes and Ethernomics//—discussion//

//March 27th// Assessing Collective Intelligence//—discussion//

//April 3th// //Presentations—discussion//