Queering Texts: Popular Culture and LGBTQ+ Representation

Diane Raymond, "Popular Culture and Queer Representation: A Critical Perspective"
Susan J. Hubert, "What's Wrong With This Picture: The Politics of Ellen's Coming Out Party"
Alexander Doty, "Modern Family, Glee, and the Limits of Television Liberalism" 

Richard Dyer, "Judy Garland and Gay Men"
Richard Dyer, "In Defense of Disco"

Fred Fejes, "Advertising and the Political Economy of Lesbian/Gay Identity"
Kylo-Patrick R. Hart, "Representing Gay Men on American Television"

"I'm A Rebel"

"I Know You Are But What Am I?"

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. 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. The Herman Gray article if fundamental as well. The other articles you can use for your papers, if relevant and/or to expand on our class discussion.

Kristal Brent Zook, "The Fox Network and the Revolution in Black Television"
Robin R. Means-Coleman, "Black Sitcom Portrayals"
Herman Gray, "The Politics of Representation in Network Television" from Watching Race: Television and the Struggle for Blackness (University of Minnesota Press, 1995/2004)

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"

This is the  'incomplete sentence' vaudeville routine by Mantan Moreland & Ben Carter from the Charlie Chan movie The Scarlet Clue (Phil Rosen, 1945)

Below is Sarah Jones' 'Your Revolution' (with DJ Vadim) from Def Poetry Jam's Season 1 (2002)

The Social Construction of Race I

Reminder that on Monday (June 10) after the exam we're meeting to screen Spike Lee's Bamboozled at 1.30pm. Screening will not be in our regular classroom but in GG1.

This is 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 the 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.

Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema: Psychoanalysis, Feminism and Film + Midterm Study Guide

Stills from Otto Preminger's Laura, 1944

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

[Study Guide Here]


Laura Mulvey, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema"

‘Men dream of women. Women dream of themselves being dreamt of. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. Men look at women, women watch themselves being looked at. -John Berger, Ways of Seeing

Jill Soloway, the creator of the TV series Transparent and  I Love Dick (based on the Chris Kraus novel of the same title about having a crush on cultural critic and author Dick Hebdige which some of you might have read in previous classes). This is a talk she gave on 'The Female Gaze' at the Toronto Film Festival.

Text and Context: Political Economy and Reception + Jackson Katz on Masculinity

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

David Croteau & William Hoynes, "The New Media Giants: Changing Industry Structure"

Jackson Katz, "Advertising and the Construction of Violent White Masculinity: From Eminem to Clinique for Men"

EXTRA READINGS:

Stuart Hall, "Encoding-Decoding"
Sut Jhally, "Image-Based Culture: Advertising and Popular Culture"

That James Dean vs That Daydream Nation Look: Taylor Swift covered by Ryan Adams and Gendered Media Spaces

Here's a nice press review of the discourses surrounding the Ryan Adams/Taylor Swift operation. I've also included a few articles from the past past, mainly Taylor Swift profiles from mainstream magazines like The New Yorker and New York Magazine. Make sure you all read the Tavi Gevinson article linked to at the bottom of the post in .pdf format. I've also included a recent article from The Atlantic about authorship in pop music and the strategies used by record companies to downplay the 'outsourcing' of pop hit manufacturing. Enjoy.

Ryan Adams’s 1989 and the Vindication of Taylor Swift

Ryan Adams’s 1989 and the mansplaining of Taylor Swift

No Blank Space, Baby: Taylor Swift Is The Soul Of Ryan Adams

Ryan Adams isn’t revealing something ‘good’ about Taylor Swift’s ‘1989.’ The album was already great.

Platinum Underdog: Why Taylor Swift Is the Biggest Pop Star in the World

You Belong with Me

How Taylor Swift made teen angst into a business empire.

Taylor Swift Is Confusing

Haters Gonna Hate: Listening to Ryan Adams’s “1989”

The Reinvention of Taylor Swift

Flavorwire Interview: Talking Taylor Swift With Tavi Gevinson

JUST KIDDING, LOVE SUCKS

NOTES ON TAYLOR SWIFT

The complete version of this article by then 16-year old Tavi Gevinson published in The Believer in 2013 is below in PDF. Tavi Gevinson started the Style Rookie blog when she was 12. Rookie Mag below is a treasure of 'readings' of Tween/Teen culture from a non mainstream perspective --with all of its exhilaration and limitations.

Tavi Gevinson, JUST KIDDING

Rookie Mag 

Why must we hate the things teen girls love?

Hit Charade: Meet the bald Norwegians and other unknowns who actually create the songs that top the charts.

Beats 1 Ryan Adams interview about '1989' with Taylor Swift call in 'surprise'

Textuality: Semiotics

*Apologies for cancellation today. We will make up the missed time. Take advantage to catch up with readings, make sure the Kellner and the Lull are done as well as review what's in this post*

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.

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

Construction and Performance I: Privilege and Representation

Power, Privilege and Discrimination (...or...how I got woke)

Peggy McIntosh, "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack"

Cultural Studies & Representation: Ideology and Hegemony

Douglas Kellner, "Cultural Studies, Multiculturalism and Media Culture"
James Lull, "Hegemony"

Stuart Hall, "The Whites of Their Eyes: Racist Ideologies and the Media"

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)

Welcome to SUMMER I 2018/Race and Gender in Media

SKAM + The Show About The Show

Find the clips from Season 4 of SKAM here. 

(nb. Final episodes are at the top of the page so you should scroll down to find earlier ones)

Below you can find the Pilot, "Why Did We Greenlight This?" of Caveh Zahedi's The Show About The Show which 'aired' on the BricTV network on YouTube. Relate this to the concept of Complex TV.

Extra Class on Thursday @7:15pm in GK1.1

This is to confirm that we will be meeting for our makeup class Thursday afternoon at 7.15pm in GK1.1 (please note the room, this is not our usual classroom but across the hall). Right after class, those who are interested (and why wouldn't you be) will have the opportunity to see the video installations of the Expanded Cinema class that will be set up around the Guarini campus. Qué fun.

Eric B & Rakim - Paid in Full (Coldcut's 7 Minutes of Madness Mix)

Sources:
Drums: Soul Searchers -ashleys roachclip (main drums) Sound experience - Boogie Woogie(conga break) Play school lp "Bang on a drum (BBC) -end break Sounds: Soul Searchers -ashleys roachclip (flute) salsoul Orcherstra - ooh i love it(intro) Dennis Edwards - Dont look any further(replayed bassline) James Brown - Hot pants(gitar) Vocal Bits: Geoffrey sumner - this is a journey into sound,train sequence(decca 1958) Eric b and Rakim - i know you got soul(pump up the volume, dance with the record) Ofra haza - in nin alu Saturday night style - Mikey Dread(You make me feel so good) Industrial spy -Mikey Dread (oh my gosh the music just turns me on) Soul man - Sweet Charles (he is a sweet soul brother) His Imperial Majesty - Mikey Dread & Rod Taylor(Please sir would you mind saying that again) orginal concept - pump that bass Peech boys -Don't make me wait(hahahaha) Lyn Collins - we want to parrty(let me count it off 1,2,3,4) James Brown - Hot Pants(1,2,3,uh) hasan and 7-11 - emotions can be serious(female crying) bye George, even London grooves - The Buggers - bugger groove Nu Sound Express Ltd - One more time, you all (was it good enogh for ya) Howdy Doody - good night kids Steinski & Mass media - Well be right back (its so fresh) Movies & Radio: Adventures of superman ep01 baby from krypton 02.12.1940(I throw this switch) Big Sleep - Humphrey Bogart (Wait a minute, you'd better talk to my mother") Little caesar(1932)(Back in the club) We interrupt this broadcast to bring to you A special news bulletin from out On the spot passport - Don Pardon(SNL) Tvs greatest hits OK, alright(Ronald Reagen) - 7" single with magazine Scratches:
Fab five freddy - change the beat (aaah) Free expression - chill out (huuh)

Complex TV and the Future of Narratives

Complex TV Basics

from Jason Mittell's Complex TV: The Poetics of Contemporary Television Storytelling
--Chapter 1: Complexity in Context


SKAM

Article on the original SKAM that aired in Norway on public broadcaster and on social media NRK TV here.

Announcement of Skam/Shame US, set in Austin and released on Facebook Watch
SKAM Austin: Release Date, Trailer, and News

(Blocked Trailer here. Meh.)

Cinema, Postmodernism and Television

Nichetti's 'Ladri di Saponette' being broadcast on the Canale5 network: a film about the impact of commercial television as it airs on Italy's preeminent commercial network owned by Silvio Berlusconi's Fininvest/Mediaset.

Millicent Marcus, "From Conscience to Hyperconsciousness: Maurizio Nichetti's The Icicle Thief"

Umberto Eco, "Make Your Own Movie"

Fredric Jameson, "Postmodernism and Consumer Society"

For context:

Umberto Eco, "A Guide to the Neo-Television of the 1980s"

Paul Ginsborg, "The Making of a Television Empire"

The clips below are from Videocracy (2009), a documentary by Erik Gandini.

Fatal Strategies & Slackers: Withdrawing or Accelerating?

Matthias Leupold, Im Kino / In the Cinema, Part II Berlin GDR, 1983

Baudrillard, "The Masses: The Implosion of the Social in the Media"

Additional Recommended Baudrillard Readings:

Jean Baudrillard, Requiem for the Media
Jean Baudrillard, The Implosion of Meaning in the Media from Simulacra and Simulation

The Foucault Reader, edited by Paul Rabinow.

Please read the section 'Disciplines and Sciences of the Individual' in Part II, particularly the first four segments (from "The Body of the Condemned" to "Panopticism")

Foucault, "The Repressive Hypothesis" from The History of Sexuality, Vol. I

Faster! Faster! Faster!


#Accelerate: Manifesto for an Accelerationist Politics (Srnicek & Williams)
Steven Shaviro, "What is Accelerationism?" from No Speed Limit: Three Essays on Accelerationism

Bonus:
Xenofeminism: A Politics for Alienation (Laboria Cuboniks)

+

What About 'Today'?

Christian Fuchs, "Participatory Web 2.0 as Ideology" from Foundations of Critical Media and Information Studies

McKenzie Wark, The Hacker Manifesto

"Every single commodity you produce is a piece of your own death"
"Withdrawing in disgust is not the same thing as apathy."

Screenings: EPISODE III: ENJOY POVERTY by Renzo Martens in GG1 @3pm on Friday, April 13

Please note that the screening will NOT be in our regular classroom. 
Screening will be on Friday, April 13 @3pm in GG1.

This is mandatory viewing for all students in COM 470 Advanced Communication Theory.


"Enjoy Poverty: Disclosing the Political Impasse of Contemporary Art" in Art Papers

-an interview with Renzo Martens

Paul O'Kane, "Renzo Martens: Episode III" review in Third Text, 2009

T.J. Demos, "Poverty Pornography, Humanitarianism and Neo-Liberal Globalization: Notes on Some Paradoxes in Contemporary Art"

Bonus Interview from the "Africa is a Country Blog" here.

Bonus Reading:

Susan Sontag, "Looking At War/Regarding the Pain of Others"