Medium Specificity and Representation

 Lily Allen, "Hard Out Here"

Keith Negus, "Popular Music: Between Celebration and Despair" 
Van Zoonen, "Gender, Representation and the Media"
Corea, "Racism and the American Way of Media"

Desjardins, "Cinema and Communication"
Thomas, "Myths in and About TV"
*Articles are from Downing et al (eds), Questioning The Media: A Critical Introduction (Sage, 1996)

Defined Lines, the Blurred Lines parody

Project-Unbreakable by Photographer Grace Brown 

Article on the parallels between the Blurred Lines lyrics and Project-Unbreakable here.

Signs, Meaning, Power

Articles related to our discussion on signs, meaning and culture and their intersections with the construction of identity, desire and power. Enjoy.

Kellner, "Advertising and Consumer Culture"

Sut Jhally, "Image Based Culture"

Mieke Bal, Semiotics for Beginners
Scott McCloud, from Understading Comics: Chapter 2, Semiotics
Jonathan Bignell, Media Semiotics: Introduction + The Cinema

Audiences

Ang, "The Nature of the Audience"
Gandy, "Tracking the Audience"
Meehan, "Don't Blame The Viewers"
Nussbaum, "What Would Tina Fey Do For A SoyJoy?"

Media Consolidation Infographic

An up-to-date infographic on media consolidation. Use this to think through the issues of consumer sovereignty, the illusion of the market as democratic regulator, the media's role in democracy and its social function, etc. as well as the issues raised by Herman and Curran and our discussions in class.


Source: Frugal dad

What Makes Mainstream Media Mainstream?

This chart looks good but it's outdated. Get the 'big picture' here at Free Press.
The question we will be discussing in class is: What makes mainstream media mainstream? How does this prevent the media from fulfilling the social roles that liberal democratic theory assigns to it?

Noam Chomsky, What Makes Mainstream Media Mainstream
James Curran, Mass Media and Democracy Revisited
Eric Alterman, What Liberal Media?
Ed Herman, Media in the US Political Economy

Cinderella: Ideology, Race and Gender

Required readings:

Van Zoonen, "Gender, Representation and the Media"
Corea, "Racism and the American Way of Media"

Desjardins, "Cinema and Communication"
Thomas, "Myths in and About TV"
*Articles are from Downing et al (eds), Questioning The Media: A Critical Introduction (Sage, 1996)

Here are a couple of articles that many of you could use to integrate the readings in light of your different projects. Remember that the assigned readings are also integral in helping you develop your project and paper.

Kellner - Advertising and Consumer Culture
Apologies as the pages for this last article are in inverted order.
Peggy Orenstein - What Wrong With Cinderella?
This last one is not an academic article but it nonetheless raises a number of good questions and issues. From the New York Times, free registration might be required.

Cinema, TV, Gender and Race + Final Paper Assignment

Mufasa and Scar Face Swap

Van Zoonen, "Gender, Representation and the Media"
Corea, "Racism and the American Way of Media"

Desjardins, "Cinema and Communication"
Thomas, "Myths in and About TV"
*Articles are from Downing et al (eds), Questioning The Media: A Critical Introduction (Sage, 1996)

The Treachery of Images

Magritte, The Treachery of Images

Articles related to our discussion on signs, meaning and culture and their intersections with the construction of identity, desire and power.

Sut Jhally, "Image Based Culture"
Scott McCloud, Semiotics (from Understanding Comics)
Keith Negus, "Popular Music: Between Celebration and Despair" (from Questioning The Media)
Jean Kilbourne, "Cutting Girls Down To Size"

Final Paper Assignment is here.

Mickey Vader

Believe it.

Disney buys Lucasfilm and announces new Star Wars film for 2015.
(For the Comics students here's Dark Horse's reaction to the acquisition). For everyone else, remember this is not just news. Think of the implications this has for what we have been discussing during the course of the semester.

Audiences and Study Guide

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Ang, "The Nature of the Audience"
Gandy, "Tracking the Audience"

Here is the study guide.

Media Consolidation Infographic

An up-to-date infographic on media consolidation. Use this to think through the issues of consumer sovereignty, the illusion of the market as democratic regulator, the media's role in democracy and its social function, etc. as well as the issues raised by Herman and Curran and our discussions in class. 
Study guide tomorrow in class.
 


Source: Frugal dad

Stop the Presses: Big Bird Fired!

Some links and tidbits on the 'debate' following the statements made during the presidential debate by Romney and his 'intention to fire Big Bird'.

Links to the original statement (in context: note that it follows a statement on the need to 'cut the budget'); the response from PBS (official press release + CNN interview and comment by PBS CEO Kerger); an Op-Ed in the NYTimes ("Don't Mess With Big Bird"); a Google image search result page for 'big bird romney'); a couple of 'big bird' meme pages (on Know Your Meme and Quick Meme).

Below is a tweet by Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist, director of the Hayden Planetarium in NYC and host of the PBS program NOVA ScienceNOW.

Media and Political Economy

The question we have been discussing in class is: What makes mainstream media mainstream? How does this prevent the media from fulfilling the social roles that liberal democratic theory assigns to it? I am including here readings which should be able to give you a nice understanding of the issues and the problems.

Noam Chomsky, What Makes Mainstream Media Mainstream
Curran, Mass Media and Democracy Revisited
Eric Alterman, What Liberal Media?
Ed Herman, Media in the US Political Economy