The Social Construction of Race, Part Deux

This is the bulk of readings for the 'discourses of race' section of the course as we wade through it this week and next. Please have these articles read in the order posted. Pay particular attention to Zook's article on the Fox Network as it invests that political economic perspective that is so well dramatized in Bamboozled as well as the Means-Coleman article on 'black sitcoms' which is a good example of textual analysis.

Kristal Brent Zook, "The Fox Network and the Revolution in Black Television"
Robin R. Means-Coleman, "Black Sitcom Portrayals"
Donald Bogle, "Workplace Dramas, Ensemble Casts 1990s Style"
Chyng Fen Sun, "Ling Woo in Historical Context: The New Face of Asian American Stereotypes on Television"

Participatory Culture and Collective Intelligence

Jenkins, "Worship at the Altar of Convergence"

Jenkins, "Spoiling Survivor"

from Convergence Culture

Marshall, "Forms of Interactivity: The Disappearance of the Audience"

Jenkins, "Interactive Audiences? The Collective Intelligence of Media Fans"

Lessig, "Building Blocks: Commons and Layers" + "Commons on the Wires"

from The Future of Ideas

Himanen, "From Netiquette to Nethic"

from The Hacker Ethic

The Social Construction of Race I

This a short introductory article on race and the media. As we watch Spike Lee's Bamboozled and discuss the film, Ash Corea's "Racism and the American Way of Media" is a good summary of the issues raised in the film and those that you will be reading about in greater detail with the next group of articles. As a bonus, a classic article by Stuart Hall.

Ash Corea, "Racism and the American Way of Media" from Questioning the Media
Stuart Hall, "What is This 'Black' in Black Popular Culture" from Stuart Hall: Critical Dialogues in Cultural Studies




Clip from a 1949 film, Hollywood Varieties, where actors Glenn Vernon and Edward Ryan apply blackface make-up while on stage and reminisce about 'the good ol' days' --as they say-- of ministrelsy.

Violence, Sexuality & 'Effects'

Gauntlett, "Ten Things Wrong With The 'Media Effects' Model"

Plaisance, "Violence" from The Handbook of Media Ethics

Wyatt & Bunton, "Perpectives on Pornography Demand Ethical Critique" from The Handbook of Media Ethics

Race&Gender + New Media/Digital Media Cultures 5 Minute University

After the wise and profound words of Father Guido here's the much agonized for Study Guides:

Race and Gender
New Media/Digital Media Cultures

Manovich, What Is New Media

This is the complete chapter from Lev Manovich's The Language of New Media. Reflect on the qualities that he identifies as pertaining to 'new media' as we integrate our encounters with the technologies and changed social contexts of digital converged media.

Manovich, What Is New Media?

Emancipatory Uses of The Media

Here are the new readings: Please find below Hans Magnus Enzensberger's "Constituents of a Theory of the Media" together with an article over viewing 'radical media' in Italy and the use of new communication technologies by political movements during the late '60s and '70s. This last article should accompany your viewing of Marco Tullio Giordana's I Cento Passi and provide you with context (both for the film itself and the historical period in which Enzensberger wrote the 'Constituents' article). The Hesmondalgh is an article attempting to define and focus the features of 'alternative' and 'radical' media.

Something to think about in relation to the film is how Peppino Impastato's attempts at carving out a space for communication and direct political action (a public sphere within the confines of a small community dominated by organized crime) is dramatized in the film --from traditional political rallies to 'free radio', after navigating dadaist street theater, pamphleteering, film screenings and be-ins. Think specifically of the characteristics of RadioAut --programming, control, voice, 'mission', etc. Does the 'network' finally deliver on those expectations?

Enzensberger - Constituents of a Theory of the Media
Downing - Radical Media in Italy

Hesmondalgh - Alternative Media, Alternative Texts?

Extra Readings on Old vs. New Media Conceptions:
Michael Crichton - Mediasaurus (1993)

Jack Schaefer - Reflections on Mediasaurus

Ethics, Society and Moral Reasoning: Content and Ratings

Day, Ethics and Society (Chp. 2 of Ethics in Media Communication; Wadworth, 2006)
Day, Ethics and Moral Reasoning (Chp. 3 of Ethics in Media Communication; Wadworth, 2006)
Johnson, Ethical Perspectives (Chp. 1 of Organizational Ethics: A Practical Approach; Sage, 2011)

Please watch the following, famous episode of Ellen's coming out aired on ABC in 1997. Consider questions of content and 'ratings'. Be ready to discuss the ethical implications of airing the episode on mainstream broadcast television. Be prepared to discuss your reasoning and perspective.

Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema: Psychoanalytic Feminist Film Theory

"Woman as image, man as bearer of the look"

Otto Preminger's Laura (1944)

Laura Mulvey, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema"
You can also find it in html format here.

This is the article that failed to post relating to the readings assigned for Week 4:
Jean Kilbourne, “The More You Subtract, the More You Add: Cutting Girls Down to Size”

Construction and Performance II: Masculinities

Eminem, Lose Yourself

Jackson Katz, "Advertising and the Construction of Violent White Masculinity: From Eminem to Clinique for Men"
Brian Locke, "Here Come The Judge: The Dancing Itos and the Televisual Construction of the Enemy Asian Male"
Gail Dines, "King Kong and the White Woman: Hustler Magazine and the Demonization of Black Masculinity"

Harold & Kumar

New Media: The Internet as Technology

Jeremy G. Butler, "The Internet and the World Wide Web"
P. David Marshall, "The Internet: The Multi-Media Accessible Universe and the User"
Bolter & Grusin, "The World Wide Web" (from Remediation)

Corporate Media, Regulation and Taking Back The Media

In the readings below you can find a good summary of the ideas that we have been debating in class around the organization of media systems, their ability to serve the public good and the resistances to regulation. Many of you have encountered these ideas in your other media studies classes but this is as good a moment as any to go over them in the systematic manner in which these readings do. LINKS ARE NOW FIXED

McChesney, Corporate Media and the Threat to Democracy
Sanders, "Why Americans Should Take Back The Media"
Spence et al, "The Business of the Media and the Business of the Market"
Anthology of articles from The Future of the Media

Bonus: After yesterday's screening follow this link and take the BBC's Silvio Berlusconi Birthday Quiz. After all it was his birthday yesterday. Then you can watch Lloyd Kaufman on media consolidation below.

New Media: Gaming

Pac-Man Skull

These are two articles on videogames and their history. Use them in conjunction with the screening of Game On: The Unauthorized History of Video Games screened in class.

Bolter & Grusin, "Computer Games" (from Remediation)
P. David Marshall, "Playing Game Cultures: Electronic Games"

Super Mario 25th Anniversary

Media Law and Codes of Ethics

Here is the link for Poynter's Online Media Law short course. The readings on media reform will be posted tomorrow evening. Below you can also find two Codes of Ethics, one for Journalists and one for Marketers. Please be ready to discuss these in class on Tuesday along with the other readings.


The Poynter course is at: http://tinyurl.com/39ejw9x
Journalism Code of Ethics: http://tinyurl.com/ylfb554
Marketers Code of Ethics: http://tinyurl.com/yktg9pq

Text and Context: Political Economy & Reception

Janice Radway, "Women Read The Romance: The Interaction of Text and Context"

Jan Nederveen Pitersem, "White Negroes"
David Croteau & William Hoynes, "The New Media Giants: Changing Industry Structure"
Sut Jhally, "Image-Based Culture: Advertising and Popular Culture"

EXTRA READING: Stuart Hall, "Encoding-Decoding"

Opening of last night's 2011 Emmy Awards: "To men, you're womanish, to women, you're mannish."