Seminar: Media Studies
SP 510
Winter 2006


Tues. /Thurs. 12:00-1:50
NH 26

Professor: Leslie T. Good, Ph.D. (http://www.comm.pdx.edu/faculty/good.php)
Office: NH 34
Phone: 503-725-3608
E-mail: goodl@pdx.edu
Office Hours: Thurs. 2:00-3:15, and by appointment

Course Description:

This graduate seminar examines the diverse disciplinary forebears of media studies, their contemporary progeny, and freshly-emerging thought and research about the role of media in society. A critical understanding of the interrelationships among media institutions, the messages they produce, and their audiences requires making sense of the corresponding dynamics of social power. Thus, we will focus on the theoretical and philosophical issues raised when implicit questions of power-the social relations that form the context for all media-- are brought out of the background and confronted directly. Principal topic areas addressed are:
  1. The cross-disciplinary grounding of contemporary media studies;

  2. The "canonic works"-do they cast shadows or shed light (or both)?

  3. The critical politics of the image today.

Course Objectives:
  1. To familiarize you with the key seminal and contemporary issues in media studies;

  2. To help you understand the complex relationship between media institutions and other social institutions;

  3. To help you develop and refine analytic skills that will, in turn, help you appreciate ways that theory, method, and social practice are interrelated in media inquiry.


Format:

The format of this course is collaborative learning through group discussion. We will focus on intensive analyses of assigned readings, as well as your presentations of outside readings. I will not lecture except to integrate and provide context to our discussions from time to time. You are expected to come to all class meetings prepared to interrogate the assigned readings, and to subject them to critical scrutiny. I will ask different members of the seminar to partner with me in leading discussion of assigned readings each week. You will also be reading extensively outside our assigned readings on your own, and will be expected to contribute the fruits of your ongoing exploration of the theoretical and research literature, as well as your own critical insights, to our class discussion meetings.

Texts:

Durham, M. G. & Kellner, D. M. (Eds.). (2005). Media and cultural studies: KeyWorks (2nd ed.). Oxford, U.K.: Blackwell.

Katz, E., Peters, J. D., Liebes, T., & Orloff, A. (Eds.). (2003). Canonic texts in media Research: Are there any? Should there be? How about these? Cambridge, U.K.: Polity Press.

Peters, J. D. (1999). Speaking into the air: A history of the idea of communication. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Outside readings to be determined by individual students.

Evaluation:

As already indicated, one of your primary obligations is to come to each class meeting prepared to engage in extensive discussion, and your active participation is a significant part of your course grade. Your major class assignment is to conduct an ongoing literature review for the purpose of constructing an intellectual biography of a major media scholar (assignment attached). From within your search, you will choose two relevant works to present to the class, critique, and open up for group discussion. Finally, you will be presenting your intellectual history to the class at the end of the term. The approximate weighting of assignments for your final grade is:

70% Intellectual history (including in-class critiques and final presentation)
30% Contributions to class discussion
Course Schedule:

Week One: 1/10-1/12
Introduction(s); Communication in the Public Sphere
Read: Durham & Kellner, Introduction; Katz et al., Introduction; Peters, Introduction (for Thursday)

Week Two: 1/17-1/19
Significant Beginnings
Read: Durham & Kellner, Part I (Ch. 1,2,3,4,5,6); Katz et al., Parts I (Ch. 1,2) & II (Ch. 3,4,5)

Week Three: 1/24-1/26
Further Reflections on "The Canons"
Read: Katz et al., Parts III, (Ch. 6,7,8) IV (Ch. 9,10), & V (Ch. 11,12,13)

Week Four: 1/31-2/2
Social Life and Cultural Studies
Read: Durham & Kellner, Part II (Ch. 7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14)

Week Five: 2/7-2/9
Political Economy
Read: Durham & Kellner, Part III (Ch. 15,16,17,18,18,20,21)

Week Six: 2/14-2/16
The Politics of Representation; The Postmodern Turn and New Media
Read: Durham & Kellner, Parts IV (Ch. 22,23,24,25,26,27) & V (Ch. 28,29,30,31,32)

Week Seven: 2/21-2/23
Globalization and Social Movements
Read: Durham & Kellner, Part VI (Ch. 33,34,35,36,37,38)

Week Eight: 2/28-3/2
New Media in Every Age: Back to Beginnings
Read: Peters, Ch. 1,2,3,4

Week Nine: 3/7-3/9
Communication as a Problem of Power, Ethics, and Art; Presentations
Read: Peters, Ch. 5,6, & Conclusion

Week Ten: 3/14-3/16
Presentations
Intellectual histories due in class Thurs. 3/16

Week Eleven: Thurs. 3/23 10:15-12:05 AM
Presentations (if time needed)