Readings, Media & Lectures

The following table lists the media viewed and discussed in class, readings assigned for each session, and provides selected lecture notes.

Course readings, media and lecture files.
LEC #	TOPICS and MEDIA (In-class)	LECTURE SLIDES	READINGS
1	Welcome: Introduction to the course; explanation of assignments		None
I. From Old Media to New Media to Banal Media
2	Media The Guild FilmCow. "Charlie the Unicorn." January 10, 2008. YouTube. Accessed May 20, 2011. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsGYh8AacgY Hitler Takedown Videos		Gitlin, T. "Supersaturation, or, the Media Torrent and Disposable Feeling." In Media Unlimited: How the Torrent of Images and Sounds Overwhelms Our Lives. Metropolitan Books, 2001. ISBN: 9780805048988. [Preview with Google Books]
3	Media technology apart from content: McLuhan and Lundemo	(PDF)	Lundemo, T. "Why Things Don't Work. Imagining New Technologies From The Electric Life to the Digital." In Experiencing the Media: Assemblages and Cross-overs. Edited by T. Sihvonen, and P. Väliaho. University of Turku, 2003, pp. 13-28. McLuhan, M. "The Medium is the Message." In Media and Cultural Studies: KeyWorks. Edited by M. G. Durham, and D. M. Kellner. Wiley-Blackwell, 2005. ISBN: 9781405132589.
4	Technologies have biases Media Lumière Brothers. "Arrival of a train at La Ciotat (1895)." YouTube. Accessed May 20, 2011. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dgLEDdFddk "Hindenberg disaster." YouTube. Accessed May 20, 2011. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F54rqDh2mWA [Herb Morrison's radio report synchronized with newsreel footage] "CNN: Challenger Disaster Live on CNN." January 28, 1986. YouTube. Accessed May 20, 2011. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfnvFnzs91s	(PDF)	Ong, W. Chapters 1 and 2 in Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. Methuen, 1982. ISBN: 9780416713800. Bush, V. "As We May Think." The Atlantic Monthly. July 1945. Carey, J. "Technology and Ideology: The Case of the Telegraph." Chapter 8 in Communication as Culture: Essays on Media and Society. Routledge, 1992. ISBN: 9780415907255. [Preview with Google Books]
5	Discussion		None
6	Media Various editions of Metropolis		Gustafson, S. "The Emerging Media of Early America." Chapter 17 in Cultural Narratives: Textuality and Performance in American Culture before 1900. Edited by S. Gustafon, and C. Sloat. University of Notre Dame Press, 2010. ISBN: 9780268029760.
7	Cinema	(PDF)	Manovich, L. "Old Media as New Media: Cinema." In The New Media Book. Edited by Dan Harries. BFI Pubublications, 2008. ISBN: 9780851709253. Simons, J. "New Media as Old Media: Cinema." In The New Media Book. Edited by Dan Harries. BFI Publications, 2008. ISBN: 9780851709253.
II. Methods matter
8	Media South Park. "You Have 0 Friends." Season 14, episode 4 (airdate April 7, 2010).		Newcomb, H. "Narrative and Genre." In The SAGE Handbook of Media Studies. Edited by J. Downing, D. McQuail, P. Schlesinger, and E. Wartella. Sage Publications, Inc, 2004. ISBN: 9780761921691. Nardi, B. Chapters 1 and 2 in My Life as a Night Elf Priest: An Anthropological Account of World of Warcraft. University of Michigan Press, 2010. ISBN: 9780472050987. [Preview with Google Books]
9	Textual analysis		McKee, Alan. Selections in Textual analysis: A Beginner's Guide. SAGE Publications Inc, 2003. ISBN: 9780761949930. - Chapter 1, "What is Textual Analysis?" [Preview with Google Books] - Chapter 4, "How Do I Know What's a Likely Interpretation?" [Preview with Google Books] Baym, N. "Finding the Quality in Qualitative Research." In Critical Cyberculture Studies. Edited by D. Silver, and A. Massanari. New York University Press, 2006. ISBN: 9780814740231.
III. Seeing more clearly: the visual
10	John Berger's Ways of Seeing. Four 30 minute episodes, BBC Television, 1972. [View all episodes at UbuWeb]		Berger, John. Ways of Seeing: Based on the BBC Television Series. Penguin, 1972. ISBN: 9780140135152.
11	Field trip to Powered Up 2010 Boston Expo		Sontag, Susan. "In Plato's Cave." In On Photography. Picador, 2001. ISBN: 9780312420093. [Preview with Google Books] Dyer, R. "The Light of the World." Chapter 3 in White. Routledge, 1997. ISBN: 9780415095372.
IV. Hearing and sound
12	Audio: various in-class listening		Gura, P. "Straddling the Color Line: The Print Revolution and the Transmission, Performance, and Reception of American Vernacular Music." Chapter 12 in Cultural Narratives: Textuality and Performance in American Culture before 1900. Edited by S. Gustafon, and C. Sloat. University of Notre Dame Press, 2010. ISBN: 9780268029760. Sterne, J. "The MP3 as Cultural Artifact." New Media Society 8, no. 5 (2006). Gitelman, L. "Media, Materiality, and the Measure of the Digital; or, the Case of Sheet Music and the Problem of Piano Rolls." In Memory Bytes: History, Technology, and Digital Culture. Edited by L. Rabinovitz, and A. Geil. Duke University Press, 2004. ISBN: 9780822332411. [Preview with Google Books]
13	Peer review of analysis paper/workshop		None
14	Conducting interviews		None
15	Conducting interviews (cont.)		None
V. Convergence
16	Media Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog		Jenkins, H. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York University Press, 2006, pp. 1-19. ISBN: 9780814742815. [Preview with Google Books]
17	Discussion		Papper, R., M. Holmes, and M. Popovich. "Middletown Media Studies II: Observing Consumer Interactions with Media." Chapter 3 in Understanding Media Convergence: The State of the Field. Edited by A. Grant, and J. Wilkinson. Oxford University Press, 2008. ISBN: 9780195327779. Kornegay, V. "Media Convergence and the Neo-Dark Age." Chapter 5 in Understanding Media Convergence: The State of the Field. Edited by A. Grant, and J. Wilkinson. Oxford University Press, 2008. ISBN: 9780195327779.
VI. Transmedia
18	Read and discuss Henry Jenkins blog excerpts		Jenkins, Henry. Selections from Confessions of an Aca-Fan. "Transmedia Storytelling 101." March 22, 2007. "Transmedia Generation." March 31, 2010.
19	Media Animatrix Excerpts from The Matrix	(PDF)	Williams, S. "Authentic Revisions: James Redpath and the Promotion of Social Reform in America, 1850-90." Chapter 15 in Cultural Narratives: Textuality and Performance in American Culture before 1900. Edited by S. Gustafon, and C. Sloat. University of Notre Dame Press, 2010. ISBN: 9780268029760.
VII. Games and social media
20	The game industry and gamification	(PDF)	Radner, J. "The Speaking Eye and the Listening Ear: Orality, Literacy, and Manuscript Traditions in Northern New England Villages." Chapter 9 in Cultural Narratives: Textuality and Performance in American Culture before 1900. Edited by S. Gustafon, and C. Sloat. University of Notre Dame Press, 2010. ISBN: 9780268029760. Schell, J. "Design Outside the Box." Presentation in the D.I.C.E. (Design Innovate Communicate Entertain) 2010 Summit, February, 2010. Video. Hecker, C. "Achievements Considered Harmful?" Lecture in the 2010 Game Developers Conference, March, 2010. Text, video.
VIII. Transnational/global media
21	Media Ugly Betty (2006-2010)		Medina, C. "Illegal Immigration in the Melting Pot: A Textual Analysis of 'Ugly Betty.'" In "Understanding the ABC's of Ugly Betty: A Rhizomatic Analysis of the Illegal Immigrant Narrative in Ugly Betty, the Political Economy of Latino(a) Television Audiences, and Fan Engagement with Television Texts." Ohio University, 2011. Doctoral dissertation.
22	Media Yo Soy Betty La Fea (1999-2001)		See prior session
23	Discussion		Aksoy, A., and K. Robins. "Banal Transnationalism: The Difference that Television Makes." Transnational Communities Programme, paper WPTC-02-08, 2008. (PDF) Tunstall, J. "Television Soap Operas, Telenovelas, Brazil." In The Media Were American: U.S. Mass Media in Decline. Oxford University Press, 2008. ISBN: 9780195181470.
IX. Summing things up
24	Final project presentations		None
25	Final project presentations (cont.)		None