| Unit One: First Essay - Writing Focus: Living In the Age of the Image; Close Textual Reading |
| 1 |
Introduction to the Class as a Writing Community And to the Academic Study of Mass Media |
 Caughey, John. Excerpt in Imaginary Social Worlds: A Cultural Approach. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1984. ISBN: 9780803214217.
Jhally, Sut. "Image-Based Culture: advertising and popular culture." Excerpt in Gender, Race, and Class in Media. Edited by Gail Dines, and Jean Humez. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1994. ISBN: 9780803951648. |
| 2 |
Image Culture and Media Artifacts
Advertising, Media Literacy and Close Reading
Discussion: Notebook Assignment |
Kellner, Douglas. "Cultural Studies, Multiculturalism and Media Culture." In Gender, Race, and Class in Media. pp. 5-17.
"Advertising." Introduction in Gender, Race, and Class in Media. pp. 71-75.
Jhally, Sut. "Image-Based Culture: advertising and popular culture." In Gender, Race, and Class in Media. pp. 77-87. |
| 3 |
Writing as Process: Prewriting, Drafting, Revising Advertising: A Case Study of Mass Media |
Goldman, Robert. "Constructing and Addressing the Audience as Commodity." In Gender, Race, and Class in Media. pp. 88-92.
Kellner, Douglas."Reading Images Critically: Toward A Postmodern Pedagogy." In Gender, Race, and Class in Media. pp. 126-132. |
| 4 |
Strategies of Close Reading: Ads as Representative Texts: Finding Patterns |
Seiter, Ellen. "Different Children, Different Dreams." In Gender, Race, and Class in Media. pp. 99-108.
Steinem, Gloria. "Sex, Lies and Advertising." In Gender, Race, and Class in Media. pp. 112-120.
Kilbourne, Jean. "Beauty and the Beast of Advertising." In Gender, Race, and Class in Media. pp. 121-125.
Documentary Film: Killing Us Softly 3. Media Education Foundation, 2000. |
| 5 |
Strategies of Close Reading: Constructing Arguments About Advertising Texts
Living in Consumer Culture Theories of Social Control and Social Reflection |
Ewen, Stuart. Excerpts in Captains of Consciousness. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 1977. ISBN: 9780070198463.
Schudson, Michael. Advertising: the Uneasy Persuasion. New York, NY: Basic Books, 1986. ISBN: 9780465000807. |
| 6 |
Writing Workshop: Peer Review of Drafts |
Postman, Neil. Amusing Ourselves to Death. New York, NY: Viking, 1985. ISBN: 9780670804542. |
| 7 |
Using Secondary Sources: Library Workshop |
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| Unit Two: Second Essay - Writing Focus: Working with Primary and Secondary Sources; Crafting Individual and Group Identities in the Age of Mass Media and Consumer Culture |
| 8 |
The Individual in the TV Age: Working With Primary Source Data: Interviews, Letters, etc.
The Art of Interviewing |
Caughey, John. Imaginary Social Worlds: A Cultural Approach. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1984. ISBN: 9780803214217. |
| 9 |
The Individual in the Media Age: Growing Up on TV (cont.) |
Postman, Neil. Amusing Ourselves to Death. New York, NY: Viking, 1985. ISBN: 9780670804542. |
| 10 |
The Individual in the Media Age: The Interview Transcript as Primary Source
Identifying Key Passages |
Fiske, John. "Gendered Television: Femininity." In Gender, Race, and Class in Media. pp. 340-347.
Rapping, Elaine. "Movie of the Week." In Gender, Race, and Class in Media. pp. 445-453.
Pettegrew, John. "A Post-modernist moment: 1980s Commercial Culture and the Founding of MTV." In Gender, Race, and Class in Media. pp. 488-498. |
| 11 |
The Individual in the Age of Television and Mass Media: Interpreting Interview Material Within the Context of Secondary Sources |
Gerbner, George. "Television Violence: The Power and The Peril." In Gender, Race, and Class in Media. pp. 547-557.
Gray, Herman. "Television, Black Americans and the American Dream." In Gender, Race, and Class in Media. pp. 430-437.
Butsch, Richard. "Ralph, Fred, Archie and Homer: Why Television Keeps Recreating the White Male Working-Class Buffoon." In Gender, Race, and Class in Media. pp. 403-412. |
| 12 |
The Individual in the "Digital Revolution"
Discuss: Assigned Readings
Managing and Citing Sources
Issues of Structure
Bookending: Intros and Conclusion |
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| 13 |
Generating Hypotheses from Case Studies: From Individual Lives to Social Patterns
Hypothesis Exercise
Television Analyses |
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| 14 |
Workshop, Draft, Essay 2 |
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| Unit Three: Writing Focus: Comparative Analysis: Print Into Film |
| 15 |
From Print to Film: Thinking Critically About the Potentialities of Different Media for Storytelling
Literature, Film and the Depiction of Madness |
Kaysen, Susanna. Girl, Interrupted. New York, NY: Vintage, 1994. ISBN: 9780679746041. |
| 16 |
From Print to Film: Questions of Comparative Analysis
Discuss: Susanna Kaysen, Girl, Interrupted |
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| 17 |
Film Showing: Girl, Interrupted (James Mangold,1999) |
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| 18 |
From Print to Film
Discuss: Novel and Film, Girl, Interrupted |
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| 19 |
Writing About Film
Film as Language
Discuss: "Reading Films Critically" |
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| 20 |
Incorporating Secondary Sources on Film and Print-to-film Adaptation
Types of Writing About Film
Small Groups: Scene Analysis Exercise |
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| 21 |
Workshop: Draft, Essay 3
Revision Strategies |
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| 22 |
Advanced Revision: The Potential of Publication
Discuss: Assigned Readings |
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| 23 |
Course Evaluations
Portfolio Preparation |
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| 24 |
Advanced Revision Workshop: Essay 1, Essay 2 |
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| 25 |
Student Readings
Course Overview |
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| 26 |
Final Class
Student Readings
Submission of Portfolios |
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