Media Studies: Ideas
Department of Media Studies and Film
The New School
Fall 2010
Instructor: Peter Asaro
asarop AT newschool.edu
TA: Allison Cooper coopa662
AT newschool.edu
Time: Monday, 4:00 - 5:50 pm
Location: Arnhold Hall 55 W13th
Course webpage is here: http://peterasaro.org/courses/2010MSIm.html
Course blog is here: http://msif10m.wordpress.com
Course wiki is here: http://msif10m.pbwiki.com
Course Description
This course is a survey of ideas: Media Ideas. Media Studies
is an inter-disciplinary field of study. We tend to assume that
ours is an exceptional era, one unprecedented in its mediatization,
unique in its digitality, its information- and image-centricity.
But even if the conditions of our media environment are unprecedented,
these claims of exceptionality are not new nor are the practices
of thinking about and theorizing media and communication. In
this course we will focus on the schools of thought that have
shaped the study of media throughout the 20th century, and the
theories that have lain the foundation for media studies in the
21st century. We will discover that media studies, as it has
come, and continues to come, into its own as an academic discipline,
has borrowed from a variety of other fields, including literary
theory, art history, anthropology, sociology, history, and philosophy,
to name just a few. As we come to appreciate the interdisciplinary
nature of media studies, we will also have to consider what distinguishes
our field from others: What constitutes a medium? What is communication?
And, furthermore, what is "theory" and what good is
it to theorize the media, or any cultural practice or product,
for that matter? We have time this semester only to survey the
field to see the primary ways others have approached the study
of media and, in the process, to acquire a vocabulary of theory
and establish a set of questions we can apply to the study of
media.
Too often, media and technological change assume the character
of transparency, invisibility or inevitability. This course aims
at a critical analysis of how media have changed (and are changed
by) the social perception of reality, modes of social communications,
and power relations, and are inextricably linked to social structures,
life practices, cultural developments, and material technologies.
To this end we will consider three fundamental areas: Aesthetics,
Power and Technology.
Media Studies: Ideas will serve not only as a foundational
course for intermediate and advanced courses in the Media Studies
Program, but as a sharp critical engagement of the roles the
media play in our individual and collective experience. Selected
viewing and listening assignments will supplement readings and
provide material to work with in class discussions.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING:
Class Attendance and Participation:
20%
Blog Entries & Comments: 25%
Mid-Term Project: 25%
Final Project: 30%
Class Attendance and Participation:
20%
You are expected to have thoroughly and thoughtfully read the
assigned texts and to have prepared yourself to contribute meaningfully
to the class discussions. For some people, that preparation requires
taking copious notes on or abstracting the assigned readings;
for others, it entails supplementing the assigned readings with
explanatory texts found in survey textbooks or in online sources;
and for others still, it involves reading the texts, ruminating
on them afterwards, then discussing those readings with classmates
before the class meeting. Whatever method best suits you, I hope
you arrive at class with copies of the assigned reading, ready
and willing to make yourself a valued contributor to the discussion,
and eager to share your own relevant media experiences and interests.
Your participation will be evaluated in terms of both quantity
and quality.
As this is a survey course, regular attendance is essential.
You will be permitted two excused absences (you must notify me
of your inability to attend before class, via email or phone).
Any subsequent absences and any un-excused absences will adversely
affect your grade.
Blog Entries & Comments: 25%
Students will be required to make weekly blog entries commenting
on the readings for the week. You will be required to create an
account on WordPress, and send me an email with their LoginID,
so that you can be added as authors for the collective course
blog. Everyone will be posting to a common blog page, and this
will be readable by your classmates, as well as the entire internet.
Any discussions you would like to keep within the class should
take place on the Blackboard discussion space. When writing and
making comments, you are expected to treat other students with
the same respect and courtesy as you should in the classroom.
Discussion questions will be posted each week to help stimulate
the writing process. You are also expected to read the posts of
your classmates, and to comment on at least 2 other posts each
week. Posts will not be graded, but I will read them and occasionally
comment on them myself.
Blog posts and comments will be due before the start of each
class. They are time stamped when you post them. Discussion questions
for the next week will be posted shortly after each class.
Mid-Term Project: 25%
Proposals Due: October 4
Project Due: October 18
There will be a midterm project due before Fall Break. You will
have the following options:
1) Design a media project which interrogates media theories,
practices, technologies, or products. The media project could
be video, audio, image-based, text-based, interactive, or even
a performance. It could be traditional or digital media (digital
documentation will be required for non-digital media). Projects
should be documented, including at least a written description
of the project, its goals, and its means of execution, and digital
documentation (audio/visual) as appropriate. All projects should
respect copyright and fair-use standards. Group projects must
be approved, proposals for group projects must clearly indicate
which group members are responsible for which parts of the project,
and each member of the group must provide their own project description
and summary.
2) Write a 1500 word (approx 5-6 page, Times New Roman, 12pt
font, double spaced) paper on a topic related to the theories
discussed in class. This could entail analyzing a media industry,
genre, product or practice using the concepts from the class.
Or it could compare two of the theoretical approaches discussed
in class. Explain how they agree or disagree, and discuss the
strengths and weaknesses of each approach. Your paper should
be submitted to me in electronic form (Word Perfect, MS Word,
PDF, HTML, RTF and plain TXT are all fine). All quotations and
references must be properly cited.
Final Paper: 30%
Proposals Due: November 15
Paper Due: December 13
Length: 3000-5000 words (approx. 12-18 pages)
There will be no final exam. Instead, a 3000-5000 word (Times
New Roman, 12pt font, double spaced) term paper is due on December
13th, by 7:00PM. If that time will not work for you, you need
to make other arrangements at least ONE WEEK IN ADVANCE.
Paper topics can address any aspect of the topics and materials
discussed in class. They can focus on the theories themselves,
or in applying the theories to media phenomena. Papers should
include materials beyond what is directly covered in class, as
appropriate for your topic. The blog will provide many ideas for
papers, as will class discussion. You will have to write a proposal
for your paper by November 15, but you should be thinking about
possible topics throughout the semester.
Your paper should be submitted to me in electronic form (Word
Perfect, MS Word, PDF, HTML and plain TXT are all fine). Late
papers will not be accepted, as I must turn in grades shortly
thereafter.
Useful Resources:
Lawrence Grossberg, Ellen Wartella & D. Charles Whitney,
Media Making: Mass Media in Popular Culture, Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage, 1998.
Vincent B. Leitch, Ed., Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism,
New York: W.W. Norton, 2001.
Dominic Strinati, An Introduction to Theories of Popular Culture,
New York: Routledge, 1995.
W.J.T.
Mitchell's "U Chicago Media Theory Glossary"
Kristi Siegel,
"Introduction to Modern Literary Theory"
Tips for Reading Theory:
"How
to Read Theory," James Klumpp, University of Maryland
"Five
Skills a Good Theorist Must Master," James Klumpp, University
of Maryland
"Heuristics
for Studying Theory," Vincent Leitch, University of Oklahoma
"Hints
on How to Read Theory," Michelle Murphy, University of Toronto
Benjamin
Bloom's Taxonomy, University of Victoria
READINGS
All readings will be available electronically, via the web,
in PDF, MS Word, HTML, or similar format.
Part I: What is Media Theory?
Week 1: August 30
Introduction
Course Overview
How to create a WordPress
Account, and make a Blog Entry
Watch: Merchants
of Cool (2001) PBS Frontline
Labor Day: September 6
NO CLASS
Week 2: September 13
What is Media? What is Media Theory?
Required:
Marshall
McLuhan, "The Medium is the Message," in Meenakshi
Gigi Durham and Douglas M. Kellner, Eds., Media and Cultural
Studies: KeyWorks, Rev. Ed., Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2006:
129-138.
Mark
Hansen, "Media Theory," Theory, Culture & Society,
23(2-3) (2006): 297-306.
Denis
McQuail, "First Approaches," in McQuail's Mass Communication
Theory, 4th ed., London: Sage, 2000: 4-15.
Recommended:
Georg
Stanitzek, "Texts and Paratexts in Media," Critical
Inquiry 32.1 (Autumn 2005): 27-42.
Kevin
Williams, "Introduction: Unraveling Media Theory" and
"Section 1: Developing the Field: A History of Media Theory,"
in Understanding Media Theory, London: Arnold, 2003: 1-70.
W.
J. T. Mitchell, "Medium Theory: Preface to the 2003 Critical
Inquiry Symposium," Critical Inquiry, 30/2 April,
2003.
Watch: Marshall
McLuhan clips on CBC
The World is a Global Village (1960)
McLuhan predicts 'World Connectivity' (1965)
A Pop Philosopher (1965)
Oracle of the Electronic Age (1966)
McLuhan and Mailer Go Head-to-Head (1967)
Week 3: September 20
What is Theory?
GUEST LECTURER
Required:
Jonathan
Culler, "What Is Theory?" In Literary Theory: A
Very Short Introduction, New York: Oxford University Press,
1997: 1-17.
M.
H. Abrams, "The Orientation of Critical Theories,"
In The Mirror and the Lamp: Romantic Theory and the Critical
Tradition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1953: 3-29.
Recommended:
Vincent
B. Leitch, "Preface," "Assessing Reading Practices:
From New Criticism to Poststructuralism to Cultural Studies,"
and "Theory Fashion", in Theory Matters, New
York: Routledge, 2003: vii-x, 9-15, 29-33.
Terry
Eagleton, "The Rise and Fall of Theory" and "The
Path to Postmodernism," in After Theory, New York:
Basic Books, 2003: 23-73.
Antonio
Gramsci, "The Study of Philosophy," in Selections
from the Prison Notebooks of Antonio Gramsci, New York: International
Publishers, 1971: 323-377.
Mediology Maps:
mediology-map.html
appliedtheory.jpg
WhyMediology.html
Listen:
Radiolab
program on Words, August 9, 2010
Part II: Media and Power
Week 4: September 27
Power I: Deception & Propaganda
Required:
Edward
Herman & Noam Chomsky "A Propaganda Model," in
Meenakshi Gigi Durham & Douglas M. Kellner, Eds., Media
and Cultural Studies: KeyWorks, Rev. Ed., Malden, MA: Blackwell,
2001: 280-317.
Max
Horkheimer & Theodor Adorno, "The Culture Industry:
Enlightenment as Mass Deception," in Meenakshi Gigi Durham
and Douglas M. Kellner, Eds., Media and Cultural Studies:
KeyWorks, Rev. Ed., Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2001: 71-101.
Recommended:
Stuart
Hall "Encoding/Decoding," in Meenakshi Gigi Durham
and Douglas M. Kellner, Eds., Media and Cultural Studies:
KeyWorks, Rev. Ed., Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2001: 166-176.
Watch: Manufacturing
Consent (1992)
Week 5: October 4
Power II: Ideology & The Public Sphere
MIDTERM PROJECT PROPOSALS DUE
Required:
Karl
Marx & Frederick Engels. "The Ruling Class and The Ruling
Idea," reprinted in Meenakshi Gigi Durham and Douglas M.
Kellner, Eds., Media and Cultural Studies: KeyWorks, Rev.
Ed. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2001: 39-42.
Jürgen
Habermas, "The Public Sphere: An Encyclopedia Article,"
reprinted in Meenakshi Gigi Durham and Douglas M. Kellner, Eds.,
Media and Cultural Studies: KeyWorks, Rev. Ed. Malden,
MA: Blackwell, 2001: 102-107.
David
Joselit, "The Video Public Sphere," in Nicholas Mirzoeff,
Ed., The Visual Culture Reader, New York: Routledge, 1998:
451-457.
Nicholas
Garnham, "The Media and the Public Sphere," in Habermas
and the Public Sphere, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1995: 359-376.
Watch: Jimmy
Carter on The Daily Show
Read: Paul
Krugman's October 3 Op-Ed from The New York Times
Recommended:
Nancy
Fraser, "Rethinking the Public Sphere," reprinted in
Simon During, Ed., The Cultural Studies Reader, 2nd ed.,
New York: Routledge, 1993: 518-536.
Antonio
Gramsci. "History of The Subaltern Classes, and The Concept
of 'Ideology'," reprinted in Meenakshi Gigi Durham and Douglas
M. Kellner, Eds., Media and Cultural Studies: KeyWorks,
Rev. Ed., Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2001: 43-47.
Craig
Calhoun, "Introduction," in Habermas and the Public
Sphere, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1995: 1-50.
Week 6: October 11
Power III: Discipline and Control
Required:
Michael
Foucault, "III. Discipline, 3. Panopticism," in Discipline
& Punish: The Birth of the Prison, New York: Vintage
Books, 1975 (translated from the French by Alan Sheridan, 1977):
195-228.
Alexander
R. Galloway and Eugene Thacker, "Protocol, Control, and
Networks," Grey Room, 17, Fall 2004: 6-29.
Recommended:
Gilles
Deleuze,"Control and Becoming" and "Postscript
on Control Societies," in Negotiations, 1972-1990,
New York: Columbia University Press, 1995: 169-182.
Joshua
Meyrowitz, "Media and Behavior: A Missing Link," in
No Sense of Place: The Impact of Electronic Media on Social
Behavior, New York: Oxford University Press, 1985: 13-34.
Alexander
R. Galloway, "Protocol," Theory, Culture & Society,
vol. 23 (2006): 317-320.
Part III: Media and Technology
Week 7: October 18
Technology I: Science & Technology Studies
MIDTERM PROJECTS DUE
Required:
Pablo Boczkowski
& L. Lievrouw, "Bridging STS and Communication Studies:
Scholarship on Media and Information Technologies," in O.
Amsterdamska, E. Hackett, M. Lynch & J. Wajcman (eds.), The
Handbook of Science and Technology Studies, Third edition,
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2007: 949-977.
Bruno Latour, "A
Collective of Humans and Nonhumans," in Pandora's Hope:
Essays on the Reality of Science Studies, Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press, 1999: 174-215.
Gary
Lee Downey, Joseph Dumit & Sarah Williams, "Cyborg Anthropology,"
Cultural Anthropology, May 1995, Vol. 10, No. 2: 264-269.
Recommended:
Bruno Latour, "Glossary,"
in Pandora's Hope: Essays on the Reality of Science Studies,
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999: 303-311.
Week 8: October 25
Technology II: Cybernetics & Information
Required:
Norbert Wiener,
"Information, Language and Society," in Cybernetics,
or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine. Paris:
Hermann and Co., Cambridge, MA: The Technology Press, and New
York, NY: John Wiley and Sons, 1948: 155-165.
N.
Katherine Hayles, "Liberal Subjectivity Imperiled: Norbert
Weiner and Cybernetic Anxiety," in How We Became Post-Human:
Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature and Informatics,
Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1999: 84-112.
Recommended:
Peter Asaro, "Cybernetics,"
in Raul Rojas (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Computers and Computer
History, London, UK: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 2001: 219.
Peter
Asaro, "Cybernetic Writings of Norbert Wiener," in
Raul Rojas (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Computers and Computer
History, London, UK: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 2001: 220.
Warren Weaver,
"Recent Contributions to the Mathematical Theory of Communication,"
in Claude E. Shannon & Warren Weaver, The Mathematical
Theory of Communication. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois
Press, 1948: 3-28.
Norbert Wiener,
"The First and the Second Industrial Revolutions,"
in The Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society.
Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1950: 136-162.
Week 9: November 1
Technology III: Trans-Humanism & Cyborgs
Required:
Donna
Haraway, "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism
in the Late Twentieth Century," in Simians, Cyborgs,
and Women: The Reinvention of Nature, New York, NY: Routledge,
1991: 149-181.
Martti
Lahti, "As We Become Machines: Corporeal Pleasures in Video
Games," The Video Game Theory Reader, Mark J. P.
Wolf, and Bernard Perron (eds.), New York, Routledge, 2003: 157-170.
Recommended:
Manfred
E. Clynes & Nathan S. Kline, "Cyborgs and Space,"
Astronautics (September, 1960): 27-31. Reprinted in The
Cyborg Handbook, Edited by Chris Hables Gray, New York, NY:
Routledge, 1995: 29-33.
Manfred E. Clynes,
"Foreword," To Cyborg: Evolution of the Superman,
Daniel S. Halacy, New York, NY: Harper and Row, 1965: 6-8.
Peter
Asaro, "Cyborg," in Raul Rojas (ed.), The Encyclopedia
of Computers and Computer History, London, UK: Fitzroy Dearborn
Publishers, 2001: 221.
Week 10: November 8
Technology IV: New Media & Remediation
Required:
Jay
David Bolter & Richard Grusin, "Theory," in Remediation:
Understanding New Media, Cambridge, MA: MIT University Press,
1999: 20-84.
N.
Katherine Hayles, "Print Is Flat, Code Is Deep: The Importance
of Media-Specific Analysis," Poetics Today, 25:1
(Spring, 2004): 67-90.
Recommended:
Lev
Manovich, "What is New Media?" in The Language of
New Media, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001: 18-55.
Watch: Web
2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us (2007) Mark Wensch
"Text
Messaging Versus Morse Code" (2006) Jay Leno's Tonight
Show
New Interface Talks on TED:
Anand
Agarawala: BumpTop desktop (2007)
Blaise
Aguera y Arcas: Photosynth (2007)
Johnny
Lee: Wii Remote Hacks (2008)
Johnny Lee
YouTube Video (2008)
Week 11: November 15
Power IV: Bias and Representation
FINAL PAPER PROPOSALS DUE
GUEST LECTURER
Required:
Nikolas
Rose & Thomas Osborne, "Do the Social Sciences Create
Phenomena: The Case of Public Opinion Research," British
Journal of Sociology, 50, 3 (1999): 367-396.
Herman
Gray, "The Politics of Representation In Network Television,"
in Meenakshi Gigi Durham and Douglas M. Kellner, Eds., Media
and Cultural Studies: KeyWorks, Rev. Ed. Malden, MA: Blackwell,
2001: 439-462.
Lisa
Nakamura, "Menu-Driven Identities: Making Race Happen Online,"
in Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet,
London: Routledge, 2002: 101-135.
Watch: The
Persuaders (2004) PBS Frontline
430
Demographics (2008) TheOnion.com
Recommended:
Harold Innis, "The
Bias of Communication," in The Bias of Communication,
Toronto: University of Toronto Press: 33-60.
Judith Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion
of Identity (excerpt)
Arjun Appadurai, "Disjuncture and Difference in the Global
Cultural Economy," in Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions
of Globalization, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota
Press, 1996: 27-47.
Week 12: November 22
Fall Break
(NO CLASS: Thanksgiving, November 25)
Part IV: Media and Aesthetics
Week 13: November 29
Aesthetics I: Reproduction & Simulation
Required:
Walter
Benjamin, "The Work of Art in the Age of its Technological
Reproducibility," in The Work of Art in the Age of its
Technological Reproducibility and Other Writings on Media,
Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 2008: 19-55.
Jean
Baudrillard, Simulations, New York; Semiotexte, 1983.
Recommended:
Teodor
Adorno, "On the Fetish Character in Music and the Regression
of Listening," in The Culture Industry, J. M. Bernstein
(Ed.), New York: Routledge, 2001: 29-60.
Watch: (Re)Creativity:
Remixing and Copyright (2007) Larry Lessig on TED
Week 14: December 6
Aesthetics II: The Beautiful, the Sublime
and the Work of Art
Aesthetics III: Perception & Embodiment
Required:
John Dewey, "The Act
of Expression," and "The Expressive Object," in
Art as Experience, Perigee Books, New York, NY, 1934:
58-105.
Jonathan Sterne,
"Audible Technique and Media," The Audible Past:
Cultural Origins of Sound Reproduction, Durham, NC: Duke
University Press, 2003: 137-177.
Michael Taussig,
"Physiognomic Aspects of Visual Worlds," in Lucien
Taylor (ed.), Visualizing Theory: Selected Essays from V.A.R.
1990-1994, New York and London: Routledge, 1994: 205-213.
Torben
Grodal, "Stories for the Eye, Ear, and Muscles: Video Games,
Media, and Embodied Experiences," in The Video Game Theory
Reader, Mark J. P. Wolf, and Bernard Perron (eds.), New York:
Routledge, 2003: 129-155.
Recommended:
Immanuel
Kant, "Analytic of Aesthetic Judgement, Analytic of the
Beautiful," Critique of Judgment, James Creed Meredith
(trans.) Oxford University Press, 2007: pp. 35-74
Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Kant's Aesthetics and Teleology
Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Dewey's Aesthetics
Hans
Belting, "Image, Medium, Body: A New Approach to Iconology,"
Critical Inquiry, vol 31 (Winter 2005): 302-319.
Bernadette
Wegenstein, "The Medium is the Body," Getting Under
the Skin: Body and Media Theory, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press,
2006: 119-162.
Listen: "Around
the World On The Phonograph" Thomas Edison (1888)
"To
President Benjamin Harrison" Lord Stanley (1888)
"The
Electric Light Quadrille" Issler's Orchestra (1889)
"Message
to Posterity" Florence Nightingale (1890)
"Personal
Speech to the Future" P.T. Barnum (1890)
"Campaign
Speech excerpt" Grover Cleveland (1892)
"Columbia
Exposition March" Gilmore's Band (1893)
"The
Star Spangled Banner" U.S. Marine Band (1895)
"Yazoo
Dance" Sousa's Grand Concert Band (1895)
"Speech
to the Republican Convention" William McKinley (1896)
"The
Serenade" Vess L. Ossman (1897)
"Sentiments
on the Cuban Question" Buffalo Bill Cody (1898)
Week 15: December 13
Aesthetics IV: Image, Cinema & Spectacle
FINAL PROJECTS DUE
Required:
Susan
Sontag,"The Image-World," in On Photography,
New York: Picador, 1973: 153-180.
Paul
Virilio, "Cinema isn't I See, it's I Fly," in War
and Cinema: The Logistics of Perception, London: Verso, 1989:
11-30.
Guy
Debord, "The Commodity as Spectacle," reprinted in
Meenakshi Gigi Durham and Douglas M. Kellner, Eds., Media
and Cultural Studies: KeyWorks, Rev. Ed., Malden, MA: Blackwell,
2001: 139-143.
Watch: La
Société du Spectacle (1973)
December 20
No Class (Day Classes Do Not Meet,
Evening is Wednesday Schedule)
