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.
To complement the other readings, here are three different discussions of 'semiotics' and semiotic analysis and their use for cultural studies and the analysis of media representations. These are not required readings if you have encountered 'media semiotics' before. I would however suggest, to those of you who are encountering 'semiotics' for the first time, to treat these readings as required readings: your work in class, your ability to grapple with the other required readings and your final project would certainly benefit from a familiarity with the concepts presented here.
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.
from Sigmund Freud's notebooks: Comics as dream work
Here are a couple of examples of comics that we can use to continue our discussion of what comics are and what they are not. It is also a good excuse to test out your comic book readers (.cbr and .cbz). Let me know if you encounter any problems reading these files.
These are the readings for the first weeks of class and discussion. Remember that we are still in the process of investigating the concept of 'new' media and trying to go beyond a mere chronology of new technologies in favor of a more nuanced and specific understanding of the truly 'new' aspects of digital converged media and the social potential/consequences from a politically progressive perspective --the 'what's new for society' question.
The articles here will introduce you to some of the more practical transformations that the appearance of digital technologies have produced in 'old' media like film and television. Please note that as we discussed in class, even in this case, the transformations are both smaller and larger than those one could imagine: on the one hand, the film and televisual experience is for the most part unchanged; on the other, however, the film medium and the specificity of the photo/cinematographic image has been dramatically transformed as it loses its indexicality and the medium goes from a synthetic to an analytic one while television's horizon ceases to be that of a regulated/national context to an open/transnational one.
all readings (except the online Peggy McIntosh) are from Dines and Humez (eds), Gender, Race and Class in Media: A Text-Reader; 2nd Edition(Sage, 2003)
Assuming that at this point you should be (basically) all done with the Garofalo textbook, here are the reading assignments up to the end of the session:
On Jamaican Music:
from Dick Hebdige, Cut'n'Mix here.
On 'co-optation':
Thomas Frank's "Commodify Your Dissent" here.
On Gender:
Simon Frith and Angela McRobbie, "Rock and Sexuality"
Simon Frith, "Afterthoughts"
"Richard Dyer, "In Defense of Disco"
Find these articles here as a single PDF file.
On 'sub-cultures':
Here are the Dick Hebdige chapters from Subculture: The Meaning of Style. Refer back to the Punk: Attitude film screening.
The Ramones, "Do You Remember Rock'n'Roll Radio?" Live in Rome, 1980
Also, to clarify (or further obscure) 'postmodernism' please help yourself --in case you have not encountered it in your other studies-- to Fredric Jameson's "Postmodernism and Consumer Society"
Here are a couple of articles to integrate Keightley's Reconsidering Rock article. The first Frith article is required; the second article is a highly recommended read. Enjoy the Lester Bangs reviews from Creem. Reebee Garofalo's article on Soul ("Popular Music and the Civil Rights Movement") is required.
Also, here is Andrew Chester's "For A Rock Aesthetic", Richard Merton's response, "Comments" and Chester's response to the response, "Second Thoughts on a Rock Aesthetic: The Band". It's all here at this link --the whole epochal exchange in one handy location.
Please read in 'Rocking Out' up to and including Chapter 8.
AC/DC, Let There Be Rock (1977)
Reverend Bon tells you all about it. As you can see the 'aura' is back around Angus' head.
-Middleton, "Pop, Rock and Interpretation"
-Street, "Rock, Pop and Politics" n.b. The Middleton and Street are highly recommended readings but you will not be responsible for them for the midterm. We will discuss the issues and concepts raised in them after the exam. I do however urge you to read them as they offer a lot of points for review of material that will actually be on the midterm and give you a sense of how to approach the analysis of the record for your short paper.
In Garofalo you should read up to and including Chapter 5.
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Janice Radway, 
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