Links to Movies Online That Were Discussed In Class

Sherlock Jr.

The Corner in Wheat -which can also be downloaded from the Internet Archive.

The Kleptomaniac Transcript
(Movie can be watched in Online Reserve)

Century Of the Self (Part 1 of 4)

Media Journal Reminder!

Dear Media 180 Secs 001 & 002,

Don't forget! Your entire media journal (including entry #12) is due next Monday May 11th in our discussion section (along with Assignment #3).

In your final entry (#12), please evaluate the media journal assignment throughout the semester. Did you find the journal a useful part of the class experience? Why or why not? How do you think the form that you chose to write the media journal in affected your experience (i.e. looseleaf or notebook, blog, handwritten vs. typed etc.)? Optionally, you may also write about something that you learned in the class which you found of interest. (Be as broad or specific as you like.)

-Along with entry #12, please turn in all your other entries next Monday, May 11th in the discussion section. Turn in any missing entries as well at this time, if you haven't already. Visit the blog for a list of journal entries and the readings corresponding to each one. Please note: your entries should be all bound together! I will not accept a stack of looseleaf paper - be sure to either staple/clip or put in binder or folder!

-Don't forget to include journal entry #11 as part of your complete journal. Note: I will return entry #11 to you this week at the Wednesday May 6th lecture. Please be sure to find me at the front of the room to pick up your entry. As usual, I will be sitting up in the front to the left of Professor Ewen.

-I will be returning the journals, along with your 3rd assignment, at the final on Wednesday May 20th, 2009. If you would like your journal back sooner to help you study for the exam, please let me know and I will return it to you in the last lecture class on Wednesday May 13th. (Note: I will only do this if I hear from you in advance!)

As usual, let me know if you have any questions.

-Ariana

More posters & pics

Posters from the Viral Marketing Campaign

More pics

Check out more pics from class at Chloe's Flickr site!

Pictures from Wednesday's class

Viral Campaign for Universal Healthcare

Dear IMA Students, Faculty, Staff:

I don't know whether you've heard about this yet, but we are encouraging artists, designers, media visionaries, citizens of the world, outraged pitchmen and women, armchair academics, and frustrated couch potatoes to contribute to a mounting "Viral Campaign for Universal Healthcare."

Choose the surface. medium and occasion for your intervention, but please intervene.

This is an attempt to bring the discussion of healthcare in line with the all-embracing network of life of which we are a part, and emancipate it from the individualistic, free market claptrap that has held the issue hostage in the United States since the late 1940s.

Built around the theme "Healthcare: Not a Private Matter," it's an attempt to remove the issue of universal healthcare from the ideological stereotypes that have crippled it for more fifty years (socialist, tax and spend, we can't afford it, unfair competition to private insurers, Harry and Louise) and remind people that while we may experience illness personally, we are all part of a vast human organism.

As long as some are at risk, all are at risk. The nature of illness and prevention needs to be reframed by the unavoidable biological connectedness of an extended ecosystem, and this is an attempt in that direction. Current news about the swine flu simultaneously avoids and dramatizes this fact of life.

Some of the early work is posted below, but the idea is to move the ball way beyond that. Post it whereever you think it will turn the buzz into a roar. Spread the word. Let no social network go untouched. For submissions to Stereotype & Society, send file to archiebishop@mac.com. But don't stop here. Let no stone go unturned.

Let the great rumpus begin. And continue until the medical-industrial complex and its legislative toadies tremble, and healthcare is organized for the common well being of humanity.

Some of the early work is up at http://stereotypeandsociety.typepad.com, but the idea is to move the ball way beyond that. That's up to you.

Best,

Stuart Ewen

Social Marketing PR Campaign Information

This may be of interest to you as you work on your 3rd assignment:

Promoting Nutrition and Physical Activity Through Social Marketing: Current Practices and Recommendations
(UC Davis)

Also, visit the Social Marketing Institute for more information and further links.

Some Interesting Links

Branding These Days:
New York Times: "Putting Yourself Out There on a Shelf to buy."

Game links from Giancarlo:
Team Fortress 2 is a class-based First-Person Shooter (FPS) which requires players to work together as part of a cohesive team in order to achieve a number of goals (Controlling/defending territory, capturing the flag, or escorting/stopping a moving object)

cp_well developer commentary (explains map design, HUD elements, The Medic as a class, and designing maps to make Snipers useful.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrohjqB0XII
part 2 (slight overlap, explains taunts, the use of silhouettes, color and shading to convey relevant information): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utiGY9IX0Lc

tc_hydro developer commentary (explains Total Control gametype, neutral color schemes, map boundries, stylized game design as opposed to realistic): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfufWOSWMYQ
part 2 (no overlap, class design and ability choices, voice acting, J.C Leyendecker's influence on the game art): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rhn0rM-LPuY

J.C Leyendecker art examples:

http://www.coldbacon.com/pics/art/leyendecker.jpg
http://drawn.ca/wordpress/wp-content/images/leyendecker.jpg
http://parahlemen.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/leyendecker1.jpg

Final Exam Questions

Please note: exam is Wednesday May 20th from 11:20-1:30 pm in Hunter West room 615.

Introduction
 to 
Media
 Studies
 Prof.
 Stuart
 Ewen

MEDIA 
180
 (Sections 
001‐011,
 084, 
161) 

Dept.
 of 
Film 
&
 Media
 Studies

Spring
 Semester 
2009
 
 
 
 
 
 











Office:
 501 C
North



FINAL
 EXAM
 STUDY 
QUESTIONS



On
 Wednesday,
 May
 20th,
 at
 11:20
 AM,
 three
 (3)
 of
 the
 following
 questions
 will
 appear

on
 the
 final
 examination.
 
 You
 will
 be
 expected
 to
 write
 in
 response
 to
 two
 (2)
 of
 these.


As
 with
 the
 midterm,
 the
 exam
 will
 be
 open
 book
 and 
open 
notebook.

 While
 you
 are 
not

permitted
 to
 bring
 in
 pre‐written
 exam
 questions,
 you
 should
 feel
 free
 to
 develop
 outlines
 that
 included
 relevant
 quotes
 from
 readings,
 lectures,
 sections,
 etc.
 You
 will
 have

two
 hours
 to
 complete
 the 
exam.



1)
 In
 1816,
 Thomas
 Jefferson
 wrote
 that
 "if
 a
 nation
 expects
 to
 be
 ignorant
 and
 free...it
 expects

what
 never
 was
 and
 never
 will
 be."
 
Write
 an
 essay
 in
 which
 you
 discuss
 the
 ways
 that
 the
 rise
 of

public
 relations
 in
 the
 20th
 and
 21st
 centuries
 relates
 to
 Jefferson’s
 concern.
 
Has
 public
 relations
 contributed 
to
 public
 ignorance 
or 
public 
enlightenment?
 How 
have 
shifting
 ideas
 about 
the 
public,
 and
 changing
 ideas
 about
 how
 of
 communicate
 with
 the
 public
 heightened
 public
 awareness
 or
 ignorance?

 Ground
 your 
argument
 in 
history,
 and
 include 
lucid
 examples 
from
 at
 least 
three 
of
 the
 following
 in
 developing
 your
 essay:
 “Century
 of
 the
 Self,”
 “Visiting
 Edward
 Bernays,”
 “Selling
 Lucky
 Strike 
Cigarettes 
to
 Women,”
 online
 reserve
 selections
 from
 Walter Lippmann.



2)
 Making
 specific
 references
 to
 scenes
 and
 episodes
 from
 Sherlock,
 Jr.
 (1924),
 write
 an
 essay
 in

which
 you
 discuss
 Buster
 Keaton’s
 film
 as
 a
 “tale
 of
 before
 and
 after.”
 
 To
 what
 extent
 is
 Keaton’s

film
 similar
 to
 notions
 of
 self‐improvement
 encountered
 in
 one
 of
 the
 following
 literary
 works:

Franklin’s
 Autobiography,
 Alger’s
 Ragged
 Dick
 or
 the
 Autobiography
 of
 Malcolm
 X?
 
 To
 what
 extent
 does
 Sherlock,
 Jr.
 represent
 a
 significant
 departure
 from
 ideas
 about
 self‐improvement
 encountered
 in
 these
 other
 works?
 Give
 clear
 examples
 from
 Keaton’s
 film,
 and
 from
 the
 literary
 works
 you 
have 
chosen 
to
 discuss
 in
 developing
 your 
essay.



3)
 In
 The
 Photoplay:
 A
 Psychological
 Study
 (1916),
 Hugo
 Münsterberg
 claimed
 that
 movies
 “act
 as
 our
 imagination
 acts.
 [They
 have]
 the
 mobility
 of
 our
 ideas
 which
 are
 not
 controlled
 by
 the
 physical
 necessity
 of 
outer
 events 
but 
by
 the
 psychological
 laws
 for
 the
 association
 of
 ideas. 

In
 our
 mind
 past
 and
 future
 become
 intertwined
 with
 the
 present.
 The
 photoplay
 obeys
 the
 laws
 of
 the
 mind
 rather
 than
 those
 of 
the 
outer
world.”


 Making
 specific
 reference
 to
 plot,
 scenes
 and
 filmmaking
 techniques
 in
 “The
 Kleptomaniac”
 (1905),
 “A
 Corner
 in
 Wheat”
 (1909)
 and
 “Sherlock,
 Jr.”
 (1924),
 write
 an
 essay
 in
 which
 you
 discuss
 the
 evolution
 of
 storytelling
 in
 American
 movies
 from
 a
 method
 based
 on
 the
 factual
 presentation
 of
 “outer
 events”
 to
 one
 that
 increasingly
 “obeys
 the
 laws
 of
 the
 mind.”
 
 From
 lectures
 and
 from
 your
 reading
 of
 “City
 Lights,”
 what
 social
 developments
 may
 have
 influenced
 the
 change
 towards
 an
 increasingly
 psychological
 approach 
to
 storytelling?



For
 the 
next
 part 
of
 your
 essay, 
select
 either
 advertising
 or public
 relations
 as your 
subject. 

Discuss
 two
 significant
 ways
 that
 changes
 in
 the
 industry
 you’ve
 chosen
 mirrors
 the
 changes
 (indicated
 above)
 that
 affected
 American
 movies
 over
 the
 first
 three
 decades
 of
 the
 twentieth
 century.
 Be
 specific,
using
 clear
 examples
 from 
lectures,
 readings
 and
 video/film
 presentations.


4)
 In
 Chapters
 8,
 9
 and
 10
 of
 All
 Consuming
 Images,
 Ewen
 argues
 that
 social
 ideas
 about
 value,

power
 and
 disposability
 are
 communicated,
 often
 silently,
 through
 a
 language
 of
 images.
 Selecting
 one
 of
 these
 three
 areas
 (value,
 power,
 disposability),
 clearly
 and
 concisely
 summarize
 the
 argument
 that
 Ewen
 is
 making.
 
 Do
 you
 agree
 with
 this
 interpretation?
 
 Now,
 using
 a
 “typical”
 print
 image
 (advertising
 or
 editorial)
 that
 you
 have
 selected
 from
 a
 current
 magazine,
 offer
 a
 clear
 and
 detailed
 explanation
 as
 to
 how
 your
 image
 supports
 and/or
 counters
 Ewen’s
 explanation
 of
 the
 ways
 that 
images 
transmit
 social
 ideals.

 Attach
 a
c copy
 of
 your 
image
 to 
your 
essay.


5) In 
lectures
 as
 well
 as 
in
 Bernays '
"Selling
 Lucky
 Strike 
Cigarettes
 to
 Women" 
we see 
how 
advertising,
 from
 the
 1920s
 onwards,
 begins
 to
 speak
 less
 about
 the
 products
 being
 sold
 and
 more
 and
 more
 about
 the
 lives,
 aspirations,
 and
 anxieties
 of
 prospective
 consumers.
 Write
 an
 essay
 in
 which
 you
 discuss
 the
 extent
 to
 which
 three
 social
 realities
 of
 an
 emerging
 consumer
 society
 helped
 propel
 this
 change.
 What
 assumptions
 about
 "the
 consumer"
 may
 have
 contributed
 to
 the
 emergence
 of
 modern
 advertising
 strategies?
 Select
 a 
recent 
magazine
 advertisement
 or 
television
 commercial
 that
 has
 appeared
 this
 semester
 (between
 January
 and
 May
 2009)
 and
 discuss
 how
 the
 lived
 experience
 of
 consumers
 continues
 to
 be
 a
 subject
 matter
 in
 product
 advertising.
 (Be
 sure
 to
 include
 a
 copy
 or
 detailed
 description
 of
 the
 advertisement
 you 
are
 analyzing
 along
 with
 your
 answer.)



6)
 In
 1859
 Oliver
 Wendell
 Holmes,
 Sr.
 wrote
 that,
 with
 the
 birth
 of
 photography,
 "Form
 is
 henceforth 
divorced 
from
 matter...
Men 
will
 hunt
 all
 beautiful
 and
 grand
 objects
 as
 they
 hunt
 the
 cattle 
in
 South America,
 for
 their
 skins,
 and
 leave
 the
 carcasses
 as
 of 
little
 worth.”


To
 what
 extent
 was
 Holmes
 describing
 the
 changing
 physics
 of
 perception,
 a
 shift
 in
 the
 relation‐
ship
 between
 human
 perception
 and
 the
 material
 world?
 In
 a
 clearly
 written
 essay
 offer
 a
 detailed
 discussion
 using
 examples
 of
 the
 changing
 physics
 of
 perception
 as
 it
 relates
 to
 one
 of
 the
 following:
 1)
 the
 rise
 and
 development
 of
 mass
 produced
 style
 or
 2)
 changes
 in
 the
 meaning
 of
 visual
 truth
 from
 photography
 onward.
 Relevant
 class
 materials
 include:
 "The
 Stereoscope
 and
 the
 Stereograph,"
 All
 Consuming
 Images,
 "City
 Lights,"
 “The
 Photoplay:
 A
 Psychological
 Study”,
 the
 Zoom
 book,
 and 
the
 silent
 films
 that 
we’ve 
seen
 in
 class.


7)
 It
 has
 been
 argued
 this
 semester
 that
 visual
 images,
 though
 often
 silent,
 are
 powerful
 tools
 for

transmitting
 social
 values
 and
 ideas.
 
 Write
 an
 essay
 in
 which
 you
 discuss
 three
 ways
 that
 commercial
 images
 transmit
 specific
 social
 ideas
 regarding
 one
 or
 more
 of 
the 
following:




 a.
Structures
 of
 social
 power;


 b.
Patterns 
of
 consumption 
and
 waste;


 c.
Ideas
 about
 economic
 value.



In
 developing
 your
 essay
 use
 specific
 examples,
 drawn
 from
 the
 media
 and
 from
 All
 Consuming
 Images,
 which
 help
 to
 support
 your
 argument.
 
 To
 what
 extent
 do
 the
 images
 and
 ideas
 you
 are
 writing 
about 
conceal
 other
 possible
 ways 
of
 understanding
 the
 world?




8)
 In
 the
 second
 half
 of
 the
 course,
 we
 have
 explored
 the
 ways
 that
 the
 idea
 of
 self‐improvement,

or
 the
 construction
 of
 self,
 has
 evolved
 from
 Benjamin
 Franklin
 in
 the
 late
 18th
 century
 through
 the
 case
 of 
Heidi
 Cee
 in 
2007.

 Write
 an
 essay
 in
 which
 you
 compare 
and 
contrast
 the
 tale
 of
 before 
and
 after 
in 
relation
 to
 three
 of 
the 
following.



a. Benjamin
 Franklin’s
 Autobiography;

b. Horatio
 Alger’s 
Ragged
 Dick;

c. Buster
 Keaton,
“Sherlock 
Junior”;

d. Malcolm 
X,
 The 
Autobiography
 of
 Malcolm
 X;

e. The 
rise
 of
 modern
 advertising, 
and
 its 
emerging
 concept 
of 
self;

f. “Vera”
(film
 on 
reserve);

g. The
 Hunter 
College/IACC
 course
 and 
the 
invention
 of 
Heidi
 Cee.



Drawing
 on
 readings,
 films,
 lecture
 content
 and
 material,
 and
 discussions,
 discuss
 your
 particular
 examples
 in
 relation
 to
 the
 historical,
 cultural
 contexts
 out
 of
 which
 they
 came.
 How
 did
 social
 circumstances
 influence
 or
 shape
 the
 examples
 you
 are
 writing
 about?
 Think
 about
 the
 distinction
 between
 “character”
 and
 “personality”
 in
 writing
 your
 essay,
 between
 living
 in
 “good
 faith”
 and
 “bad
 faith.”
 Where
 relevant,
 discuss
 the
 impact
 of
 religious
 ideas,
 media
 technologies
 and
 media
 forms,
 changes
 in
 the
 economic
 context,
 and
 the
 particular
 definition
 of
 audience
 as
 it
 relates
 to
 each 
of your 
examples.






A Visual Petition For Universal Healthcare Coverage

Media 180 PR Stunt

Dear Media 180,

As Professor Ewen mentioned in today's lecture, for Wednesday's class we will be creating a PR spectacle of our own. With swine flu in the news and billions of bailout dollars used to keep corporate America afloat, while the health care system continues to deteriorate, this is a ripe time to speak out regarding the need to universalize health care in this country. It is arguable that universal health care would have cost far less to implement that the bailouts have cost the American taxpayer. To speak to these events and the dire need for healthcare issues to be addressed we will all wear surgical masks and take a photo, to be submitted with a relevant caption to various media outlets.

This event is a great opportunity to be part of a media intervention and will also be helpful in conceiving of your last assignment.

Additional description of the project from Prof. Ewen:

"As long as healthcare is seen as an issue of individual access, we lose sight of the fact that health is an issue for all of us for part of a collective organism. While being sick seems personal, each of us is only a small part. Epidemiology is a reminder that illness is not an individual affliction but something that relates to all of us.

Again: Protect Everyone and Protect Us All. Without universal care, we all are at risk."

So Wednesday we will set some time aside for the mask photo, anyone who doesn't want to participate can leave once its picture time.

Best,

Elizabeth
Dylan
Leslie
Jennifer
Ariana
Chloe

BBC article: Chinese kids sold "barbie" dream

Check this out:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8004910.stm

Media 180 Third Assignment Due May 11, 2009

Introduction to Media Studies
Prof. Stuart Ewen
MEDIA 180 (001-011, 084/161)
April 22, 2009

PLANNING AN ETHICAL PUBLICITY CAMPAIGN

In his 1948 essay, "The Engineering of Consent," Edward L. Bernays wrote "Today it is almost impossible to overestimate the importance of engineering consent; it affects almost every aspect of our daily lives. When used for social purposes, it is among our most valuable contributions to the efficient functioning of modern society." In this essay he also outlines the steps needed to construct a public relations campaign, which if done successfully can contribute to influencing public opinion.

Your assignment is to pick a social issue that matters to you and that you think could benefit from an ethical and effective public relations campaign that will leave the public more aware of the issue from your perspective.

You are to follow Bernays' steps, listed below, and write a 2-4 page memo that outlines those steps in relation to your campaign. You must also produce and submit a visual and/or textual prototype (example, trial product, blog, web site, etc.) that both embodies and expresses the concept behind your campaign idea. This may be in the form of a well-designed drawing, a physical object, or an online sample to be used as part of your campaign. It may also take the form of a storyboard, a stealth or apparent symbol, and/or slogan. Finally, make sure to craft a fitting title to your campaign and a clear plan for where and how your project will be seen or en-countered by the public.

Planning a Campaign
1. Study the public. Identify your intended audience in detail, the people or groups of people you are trying to reach (Hunter students, residents of a particular neighborhood, members of particular community, specific job workers, unemployed, straight people, etc.)

2. Think about the value of research (public opinion polls, etc.) to identify how you plan to study or analyze your intended audience. Be sure to identify and describe the research you have al-ready done in developing your publicity campaign, and what more will be necessary.

3. Clearly articulate your themes, strategy and how you plan to organize your campaign. Identify your issue clearly, your particular angle of approach to that issue, and your overall strategy for reaching the public in a truthful way.

4. Tactics are pieces of that strategy. Specify three of the specific actions you will take to reach the public and/or the methods of distribution, exhibition, or communication. The prototype you submit with your memo should be a fundamental piece of this tactical approach.

5. Ethical considerations are central to this assignment. Do not try to deceive the public or by-pass people’s capacity to think and understand. Your point is to provide an eloquent and well-informed campaign that will promote critical thinking and is designed to increase public aware-ness and civic participation. Conclude your memo with an analysis of how the elements of your campaign will effectively accomplish this task.

PROJECTS ARE DUE ON MONDAY, MAY 11, 2009. THEY SHOULD BE SUBMITTED TO YOUR SECTION LEADER ON THAT DAY.

Keywords for Lectures April 20, 22 & 27 2009

Keywords:
 Advertising
 Lectures
 (April
 20,
 22,
 27,
 2009)





George 
Orwell,
 1984 ,
“Double
Think”

touch‐up 
artists

advertising
 as
 a
 philosophical
 system

representation
 of 
gender

representation
 of 
identity

photogenic
 ideals

negative
 self‐consciousness

metamorphosis:
the
 tale 
of
 before
 and 
after

objects 
as 
subjects

aestheticization

Egon
 Friedell,
 A
 Cultural
 History
 of
 the 
Modern
 Age:
 From 
the 
Black
 Death
 to
 the
 Great
 War

New
 marketing
 priorities

New 
social
 conditions 
of
 everyday 
life

Changes 
in 
physics 
of
 perception

Oliver
 Wendell
 Holmes

Walter
 Benjamin

structural
 changes
 ( society)

line 
production

scientific
 management
 (Frederick
 W.
 Taylor)

industrial
 psychology

advertising
 psychology

experiential
 changes
(culture)

proletarianization

search
 for 
new
 meanings

1900‐1920 
strike
wave

social 
management

Christine 
Frederick

Frances
 Alice
 Kellor:
 American
 Association
 of 
Foreign
 Language
 Newspapers

Helen
 Woodward

Edward
 Filene

Georges 
Duhamel

instrumental
 images 
( to
 promote
 response; 
influence
 behavior)

Pavlovian 
psychology

Tlazolteoltl
 ( Aztec
 Moon
 Goddess)

Traditional
 images 
(rooted
 in 
experience,
 and
 material
 conditions)

Contemporary
 images
 ( no
 half‐life,
 unrooted,
 changing
 field
 of 
vision)

Oliver
 Wendell
 Holmes
( form
 divorced 
from
 substance;
 images
 as
 currency)

computer
 images
 (no
 visible
 sense 
of
 human
 agency)

aestheticization
 of 
cultural
 values
 (economic
 values,
use
 of
 resources,
 power)

immateriality

Planned
 obsolescence
 (pre‐meditated 
waste)


Avatars

I found this Onion video on YouTube about world of warcraft and avatars. The video, like all Onion products, is a satire and this one in particular is making fun of Internet personas and RPGs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rw8gE3lnpLQ&NR=1

Media Journal Entries Due This Semester

Here is a list of all the journal entries due this semester. Please note that all entries through #9 were due before spring break. (If you are behind, your grade will be lowered, so please be sure to catch up on all missing journal entries by class on Monday, April 20th.)

Journal Entry #1:
Your responses to Ewen, All Consuming Images (ACI), “Introduction to the New Edition,” “Shoes for Thought,” and Part One, Chapter 1, “Images Without Bottom.”

Journal Entry #2:
Fahrenheit 451 (& Style Wars)

Journal Entry #3:
Frederick Douglass, “Learning to Read and Growing in Knowledge”; John Ross, “Exercises in the Restoration of History”; Jean Wheeler-Smith, “Frankie Mae.”

Journal Entry #4:
ACI, Part One, Chapters 2 and 3; Ewen and Ewen, “The Ends Justify the Jeans.”

Journal Entry #5:
Oliver Wendell Holmes, “The Stereoscope and The Stereograph”; Lewis Hine, “Social Photography.”

Journal Entry #6:
Benjamin Franklin, “Continuation of the Account of my Life…,” selection from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin; Horatio Alger, Ragged Dick.

Journal Entry #7:
Alex Haley, “Saved,” selection from The Autobiography of Malcolm X.

Journal Entry #8:
Hugo Münsterberg, “The Psychology of the Photoplay.”

Journal Entry #9:
Ewen and Ewen, “Immigrant Women and the Rise of the Movies."
Andrew Adam Newman, “The True Story of a Bogus Blog.” Adweek. May 5, 2008;
Michelle Jana Chan, “Identity in a Virtual World.” CNN Online, June 14, 2007;
Shannon McRae, “Coming Apart at the Seams: Sex, Text and the Virtual Body.”;
Judith Donath, “Being Real” (2000).
Extra Credit for responding to: “Identity and Body in Cyber-space” http://www.greenlloyd.com/bodyincyberspace.htm.

**Over spring break, read ACI part 4 (chapters 8, 9 and 10) and conclusion.**

Journal Entry #10 (due April 27th):
ACI part 4 and conclusion

Journal Entry #11 (due May 4th):
Selections from Walter Lippmann and Edward Bernays: "Promoting 'Lucky Strike' Cigarettes to Women in the late 1920s"; "Public Opinion and the Phantom Public"; "The Engineering of Consent". Stuart Ewen, “Visiting Edward Bernays.”

Journal Entry #12 (due May 11th):
Final observations on readings, class discussions and your journaling experiences.

Virtual Reality & Identity

http://www.0100101110101101.org/home/portraits/essay.html

Essay by Domenico Quaranta for a series of portraits done of second life avatars by artists Eva and Franco Mattes. A great piece on virtual identity.

More on 3D Technology

3D Technology:

Someone in our last class had a question about who invented 3D film technology, which is based on the stereoscope. It was not Munsterberg, but at least two people - William Friese-Greene and Frederick Eugene Ives were credited to help develop the first 3D films. Interestingly, Edward S. Porter - who made "The Kleptomaniac" that we saw in last class, is considered one of the first to show a 3D film (in 1915, a year before Munsterberg published his essay.)

Read more about this here.

What's due Monday April 6th

1. Assignment #2

2. Journal entry #9 responding to:

• Ewen and Ewen, “Immigrant Women and the Rise of the Movies.
• Andrew Adam Newman, “The True Story of a Bogus Blog.” Adweek. May 5, 2008
• Michelle Jana Chan, “Identity in a Virtual World.” CNN Online, June 14, 2007
• Shannon McRae, “Coming Apart at the Seams: Sex, Text and the Virtual Body.”
• Judith Donath, “Being Real” (2000).

You will also get extra credit if you read and respond to one of the articles on “Identity and Body in Cyber-space” at http://www.greenlloyd.com/bodyincyberspace.htm

Keywords for Lectures March 25 & April 1st

Keywords: Visual Language & Early Film; Image and Audience
(March 25, April 1, 2009)

Buster Keaton, “Sherlock, Jr.” (1924)
“Dream Sequence” in Sherlock, Jr. Mimicking imagination.
film within a film
Cecil B. De Mille
vamps
consumption dramas, elegant settings
special effects, movie magic
film as guide to life
Hugo Münsterberg, The Photoplay: A Psychological Study (1916)
“The photoplay obeys the laws of the mind rather than those of the outer world.”
Sigmund Freud, identification and projection.
Muybridge & Eakins
Nickelodeons
film audiences as communities
working class audiences (interactive)
the sound of silence
gesture vs. speech
Edwin S. Porter, “The Kleptomaniac” (Porter/Edison, 1905)
social facts, the capture of the real
static camera position (camera as a neutral witness)
D.W. Griffith, “The Corner in Wheat” (American Biograph, 1909)
middle class audiences (spectatorship)
active camera position (camera as interpreter, outlook of individual eye)
Walter Lippmann, Public Opinion (1922)
montage; juxtaposition
close-ups

Keywords for Lectures March 16 & 18

Keywords: The Media of Self‐Improvement; Before & After: Questions of Identity, Character and Personality (March 16, 18, 2009)

the tale of before and after
self‐improvement
Abraham (Ibrahim) and Isaac
covenant of faith, covenant of grace (Antinomianism)
pre‐destination
visible saints
covenant of works (Arminianism)
Protestant Ethic
Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
perfectionism
self‐made man
Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography
character
personality
Horatio Alger, Ragged Dick
virtues of the street, “street smarts”
intrinsic self
extrinsic self
Rags to Riches
Autobiography of Malcolm X
From bad faith to good faith

What's due Monday March 30

Journal entry #8 should be a response to:

Buster Keaton, “Sherlock, Jr." (film shown on Monday March 23) and Hugo Münsterberg, “The Psychology of the Photoplay.” (reading on Electronic Reserve).

**Keep in mind that late or missing journal entries will affect your grade.**

Missing Chapters of Autobiography of Malcolm X and more revelations

Check this out:

Interview with historian Manning Marable, who is publishing "Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention" this year.

What's due Monday March 23

So there's no confusion:

Journal entry #7 due on Monday March 23 should be a response to the Autobiography of Malcolm X reading (assigned for Wednesday March 18th) and this week's class discussions.

Links to More Reading March 16

Links to some of the things we talked about in class this Monday:

Franklin Covey Planner

Poor Richard's Almanack

The Gilded Age (1860s-1890s)

What's due Monday March 16

Due Monday March 16:

Journal entry #6 is due Monday March 16th, and should be based on the readings due this week: the Benjamin Franklin essay and first half of Horatio Alger's "Ragged Dick" novel.

Don't forget: the proposal for Assignment #2 describing what images and stories you are working on is also due. (This will not be graded.)

Media 180 Midterm Exam Questions

MIDTERM STUDY GUIDE
On March 11th, two or three of the following questions will appear on the midterm exam. You will be expected to write a response to one of them. Keep in mind that this is an open note and book exam, but you may not bring pre-written answers to the questions.

---

1. In his 1859 essay The Stereoscope and the Stereograph, Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote:

Form is henceforth divorced from matter… Matter in large masses must always be fixed and dear; form is cheap and transportable. We have got the fruit of creation now, and need not trouble ourselves with the core. Every conceivable object of Nature and Art will soon scale off its surface for us. Men will hunt all curious, beautiful, grand objects, as they hunt cattle in South America, for their skins and leave the carcasses as of little worth.

Holmes’s comment here is both insightful of the impact of technological changes on our psychological views of reality, as well as prescient—accurately foreseeing changes to come. These changes in technology and perception have led to how we understand style today. Write an essay in which you discuss how specific developments in economy, socio-political hierarchy, technology, art, and design have contributed to our modern notion of style as “something to be used up.”

Use what you have learned from the lectures and All Consuming Images to build your case. Map out these historical changes from the medieval period to our present day in a narrative that speaks to the dynamic relations between the market of fashion and our current culture’s democratic ideals of freedom and individuality.

How is this modern relationship represented through commercial media? How does it function in our daily lives? Draw upon specific examples given in All Consuming Images and “The Ends Justify the Jeans” to portray the tensions between the narratives that are told through advertising and the stories that are left (out) behind them.



2. A French sociologist named Gustave Le Bon once observed:

It is not...the facts in themselves that strike the popular imagination, but the way in which they take place and are brought under notice. It is necessary that…they should produce a startling image, which fills and besets the mind.

Stories are not simply facts or fictional occurrences that are strung together without purpose. To be effective, they must strategically employ language, symbols, perspective and a mixture of narrative and dramatic technique in order to encourage readers or audiences to see things in a particular way. In the process, other ways of seeing often remain concealed.

Write an essay in which you talk about the ways that Fahrenheit 451 and Style Wars structure their narratives to provide a particular way of seeing the stories being told and the issues that are being addressed.

How does each text set up contrasts and struggles between “good and evil” in terms of specific characters, ideas and institutions? How are the ideals of free thought and expression defined in each case? How do the two stories seek to influence the audience’s point of view about the role of media in society? Compare Fahrenheit 451 and Style Wars in terms of how successful they are at engaging you as a reader or viewer, and why they are or aren’t successful. For both texts, also discuss the extent to which a calculated “appeal to the popular imagination” has clarified and/or confused what you see to be significant social issues.

Support your argument persuasively. Be specific, citing quotations and or scenes, throughout. Vague generalizations should be avoided. Think about how your own ideas are being “brought under notice,” and how current social conventions influence your thoughts and work.



3. In Frederick Douglass’ account, “Learning to Read and Growing in Knowledge,” Douglass states:

This was a new and special revelation, dispelling a painful mystery against which my youthful understanding had struggled and struggled in vain, to wit, the white man’s power to perpetuate the enslavement of the black man. ’Very well,’ thought I, ‘knowledge unfits a child to be a slave.’ I instinctually assented to the proposition, and from that moment on I understood the direct pathway from slavery to freedom.

This statement illustrates the potential relationship between freedom and knowledge. How does his mistress’ ban on further educating Douglass reveal the systemic oppression that Douglass is ensnared in. How does he come to understand and assess both his own personal experiences in slavery and slavery as an oppressive institution? To what extent did reading give rise to Douglass’ emergence as a free man, writer and political leader? Compare Douglass’ and Frankie Mae’s experiences in terms of the acquisition of knowledge.

Based on the readings, lectures and discussion sections, do you think that access to knowledge does have the potential to challenge and/or disrupt the status quo? Using an example from your own experience explain why and how.



4. The photograph has an added realism of its own; it has an inherent attraction not found in other forms of illustration. For this reason the average person believes implicitly that the photograph cannot falsify. Of course, you and I know that this unbounded faith in the integrity of the photography is often rudely shaken. For, while photographs may not lie, liars may photograph.
- Lewis Hine, “Social Photography”

People tend to see images and words as different things. Words are often viewed as open to interpretation, yet images are viewed as self-explanatory, speaking instantaneously and without an agenda.

Write an essay in which you discuss photography as a medium that defies interpretation and encourages us to view it as a record of something that is true. Cite examples from Oliver Wendell Holmes’ essay, “The Stereoscope and the Stereograph” and Lewis Hine’s essay, “Social Photography.” Using the descriptions of photography discussed by Holmes and Hine, describe the problem of visual truth.

Using a specific example, discuss how modern advertisers use the instantaneous power of images to market their products. This example can come from ads shown in lecture or discussion, in the reading, or you may bring in an ad that you have found and include it with the exam.



5. “No, I ain't running the system, I'm bombing the system.”
-Skeme, Style Wars

Much of our work in this class has been focused on understanding the conflict between official and vernacular culture, beginning in medieval Europe and moving through modern cultural movements like hip hop and graffiti. These cultural conflicts both created the need for, and shaped the development of mass media. Using our lectures, readings and discussions, write an essay in which you describe two specific cultural conflicts where print or image mass media served as a tool for the reinforcement of power or as a tool for disputing the system of control. In each case, be sure to describe the cultural, political and economic context in which the conflict was occurring, and how this conflict both may have transformed the culture, as well as any internal conflicts that may have existed. What kinds of conclusions do you draw regarding relationship between consuming media, creating media and social change?



6. In Jean Wheeler Smith’s story, Frankie Mae brings up her accounting figures to compare and contrast with those of Mr. White Junior. He replies, “Long as you live, bitch, I’m gonna be right and you gonna be wrong. Now get your black ass outta here.”

Write a well-substantiated essay in which you discuss how different media have been controlled and shaped both by hands that are invested with social authority (and those that are not) to affirm and challenge relations of power throughout history. Use specific examples taken from at least three of the following to illustrate your argument: All Consuming Images, Frederick Douglass’ “Learning to Read and Growing in Knowledge,” John Ross’s Exercises in the Restoration of History, and the film Style Wars.



7. In writing about photography, Oliver Wendell Holmes claimed “We have the fruit of creation now, and need not trouble ourselves with the core.” According to Holmes, photography has
fixed the most fleeting of our illusions, that which the apostle and the philosopher and the poet have alike used as the type of instability and unreality. The photograph has completed the triumph, by making a sheet of paper reflect images like a mirror and hold them as a picture.

Write an essay in which you explain how the invention of photography contributed to the refinement of a previously long desired effort to reproduce “visual” truth, as measured by the index of the human eye.

Explain how photographic reality and earlier visual forms that anticipated it contributed to the transfer of value between concrete items (land and physical possessions) to abstract representation (money and images, for example). In addition to Holmes, use three specific examples from All Consuming Images in developing your answer.


8. You are a film reviewer. Write a review of the film The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords in which you discuss the film in relation to the history of print as it has been covered in class and in the readings. Focus on two or three of the newspapers depicted in the film (the Chicago Defender, the Pittsburgh Courier, etc.) and relate their particular stories to the broader history of the relationship between language and power.

Be sure to use at least five specific examples taken from these newspapers in developing your review-essay. As a reviewer, discuss the extent to which the method of storytelling in the film serves its purpose. (A transcript of the film is available at: http://www.pbs.org/blackpress/film/fulltranscript.html)



9. “As style reached out to a more broadly defined ‘middle class’ of consumers, the value of objects was less and less associated with workmanship. Material quality, and rarity, more and more derived from the abstract and increasingly malleable factor of aesthetic appeal.” - Stuart Ewen, All Consuming Images

As a result of mass-produced goods style works fast and travels easily. Mass produced goods are dressed up to signify their elite predecessors. “Believable imagistic fictions” (All Consuming Images) become commonplace in Western Europe and the US. The possibility to merge ideal image with objects (readily available, affordable products, permanent images of oneself etc) creates a tension between what something appears to be, or its skin, and its substance. Goods are created not just to be used but to signify. With the mass produced goods now available to a larger group of people, a new servitude towards appearance develops.

Write an essay in which you discuss the ways that mobile, marketable images contributed to a society that was both more democratic and more superficial. Discuss in particular the role played by photography, fashion, mass produced goods and money in influencing this development. Make specific reference to at least five examples taken from readings, images shown in lectures and discussions, and the film Style Wars.

Second Take-Home Assignment

Second Take-Home Assignment:

What “Is” and What “Might Be”
Creating Your Own Stories From “Found” Images

Proposal Due: Monday, March 16, 2009
Assignment Due Date: Monday, April 6, 2009

Images can be used to present different perspectives. As a rule, the context in which they are displayed shapes the way we see them. The same image can illustrate a newspaper story or sell the latest fashion; we might see it posted on the wall of a subway station or hanging in a museum. In each context, its meaning is different.

Pictures are frequently used to tell stories, and depending upon their captions or the sequence and context in which they are presented, the same images can be used to tell stories of a very different nature. It is the role of the artist, journalist, media activist, writer and producer to contextualize images, and to cast them within a particular narrative perspective.

Your assignment is to tell two very different stories using the same series of “found” images, culled from a public medium (the street, magazines, internet, television, movies, graphic novels, old Sears catalogues, coupon circulars, newspapers, etc.) and presented in a format of your choosing. If you like, you may also produce your own images for this assignment (photos, drawings, etc.)

Part One: What “Is.”
Choose 6-10 images from a public medium, and combine these images with your own text to tell a documentary-based story, grounded in the language of everyday “reality.” This should be a story of mundane things – it should be focused on talking about a real person, place, thing, idea or event – but should be told in a compelling fashion.

Part Two: What “May Be.”
Take these same 6-10 images and rewrite the story. This time, your focus will be on creating a story that is fantasy-based. Use these same images (not necessarily in the same order) and with a new text, create a highly imaginative work of fiction. This story can be as broad and as far-reaching as you would like it to be. Take this time to explore your creative possibilities.

You will submit the finished product, comprised of parts one and two, on Monday, April 6.

The Proposal:
You will hand in a proposal (1-2 pages) on Monday, March 16. This proposal should describe what you’re thinking about creating, what images you’re likely to use, and what sources you’ll be looking to for images. Describe also what form your project will take when it is completed (for example: a single-page collage, a folded map, a three-minute video, a photo-blog, an animation, a book or journal, etc.) Whatever you do, make sure the format you choose enhances—and doesn’t work against—the visual story you wish to tell. Be equally careful with the text. How much text do you need for each image? Your image choice and context should tell your story without relying too heavily on text. Don’t let your text become a substitute for the eloquence of your images

Tie your proposal into ideas we have been discussing in class. This proposal will serve as a theoretical and practical guideline for your creative project., and while the content of your work may differ from your proposal once you embark on its creation., the overarching ideas should (in most cases) remain the same.

Possible Ways to Begin:

One way to attempt this project is to decide what story you want to tell in advance and then find images to illustrate it. Another way would be to dig around for compelling images, and then create a story to compliment them.

Whatever your strategy of image gathering, you should be very selective. Only use images that will effectively tell your stories. Think about the point of view presented by each image, the way that it offers a particular perspective on its subject matter. Keep in mind the relationship between your collection of images and how it may affect each image’s individual meaning.

Recommendations:

• Be very thoughtful of what images you use – think about how an image works to communicate what you want to communicate. For example: close up images are often used to convey emotions, while factual accounts are often portrayed by middle-distance shots. Think about the framing of the images you choose, the perspective they are shot from, and where their subjects are placed.

• You will want to collect more images than you will eventually use. Give yourself room to try different ideas, or present a similar visual message in a couple of different ways.

• For both parts one and two, one way to approach the assignment is to draw on your own personal experience to inscribe a convincing narrative. The best stories are always told about things you know well, and this is true even if they are fantasy-based. Let your own conscience guide you.

• Think carefully about the relationship between the images and the texts. The text can be serious, humorous, critical or ironic. It can be evocative or poetic. It can add to the story, or promote an idea. It can even sell a product.

• Text should not simply explain or describe the images, it should complement them, work in tandem with them. Be sparing with your text. Let the images do the talking.

• Carefully edit both arrangements of images and texts before you submit your project. Make sure they have focus and clarity and tell both stories effectively. Your overall presentation should have visual appeal. Neatness and design sense definitely count on this assignment. There is no length requirement per se, as projects will vary depending on the format they are presented in, but projects should be as long or as short as they need to be.

Reminder: Late Policy On Assignments

As I mentioned in class on Monday, there is a late policy for the assignments. Any assignment turned in after Wednesday February 25 will be marked down a 1/2 grade for every class that it is late. For example, presuming the paper would have received "A" grade, if you turn it in next Monday the highest grade you can get is an A-, if you turn it in the following Wednesday the highest grade you can get is a B+ and so on. (This will apply to the second and third assignments due later this semester as well.)

Also, please turn in print copies of your essay to me in tomorrow's class. Once again, I will be in the front of the room before and after the lecture to pick them up.

Change to Syllabus March 2-Mar 9

Professor Ewen has adjusted the syllabus slightly for the next couple of classes. Please note that the lecture from Mar 9 has been rescheduled to Mar 2. See below:

March 2 (M)
Lecture: Photography and the Evolution of a Visual Vernacular.
Read for this class: OR, Oliver Wendell Holmes, “The Stereoscope and The Stereograph”; Lewis Hine, “Social Photography.”
Second Take‐Home Assignment Distributed

March 4 (W)
Film: Stanley Nelson, “The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords” (Part One)
MID‐TERM EXAM QUESTIONS DISTRIBUTED

March 9 (M)
Film: Stanley Nelson, “The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords” (Part Two)

Threat Level: whatever the in color is this moment...

Lets not forgot the most dangerous sub group of all... hipsters. Out to destroy the very definition of cool ... (Sorry Ariana)

http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/79/hipster.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAO4EVMlpwM

Keywords for Lectures Feb 23, 25 & March 2nd

corporate—>individualist
hierarchical—>egalitarian
indecipherable—>vernacular
sacred—>secular
distant, remote—>near, accessible
landed value (material economy)—> portable value (symbolic economy)
Photo-Op
Framing
synchronicity
perspective
realist
aesthetics
iconographic representation
Alhazen (Abu Ali Al-Hasan Ibin Al-Haytham, 965-1038)
Optics
Visual Truth
Roger Bacon
linear perspective
vanishing point
camera obscura
visual vernacular
realism
spectator
first-handedness
narrative
chromolithography (multi-color printing technique)
Photography
Joseph Niepce
Louis Daguerre (daguerreotype)
William Henry Fox Talbot (paper negative)
Stereoscope and Stereograph
portraiture, far away places, natural world, historical documentation,
criminology, pseudo-reality

In Case Anyone's Ever Questioned The Power of Images...

New York Post Wednesday February 18, 2009

Keywords for Lectures Feb 9, 11 & 18

Keywords:
 Print
 Lectures 
(February
 9,
 11, 
18 2009)



Jeremy
 Bentham

Panopticon

perception 
management

technological 
determinism

Pi
Sheng 
(10th
 C, 
China)

secular
 markets,
 merchant 
capitalism

Johann
 Gutenberg
 (Mainz,
 goldsmith,
 moneyer)

artisan
 craft
 (handcraft,
 uniqueness
 of
 objects

matrix,
 patrix

mass
 production 
(machine
 production,
 standardization
 of
 objects)

scribal 
culture, 
monasteries,
 scriptorium

Duke
 de 
Berry, Très 
Riches
 Heures
 (Book
 of
 Hours)

Koberger
 Press

William 
Caxton 
(mercer,
 Bruges)

Renaissance

Feudalism

hierarchy

censorship

Latin, 
official
 language 
of
 Church

Lilith

vernacular

popular
 culture/oral 
folk
 culture

Eduardo 
Galeano,
 Memory
 of
 Fire

access

interpretation (exegesis)

Immanuel
 Wallerstein,
 The
 Modern
 World
 System

subsistence 
economy 
(arable)

agricultural 
capitalism 
(pasturage)

mobile
 wealth;
 mobile 
poverty

world 
market 
economy

Protestant
 Reformation

Martin
 Luther

William
 Tyndale
 (1526
 translation
 of 
New
 Testament
 in
 English)

Carlo 
Ginsberg, 
The
 Cheese 
and
 the
 Worms

Menocchio
 (Domenico 
Scandella)

Inquisition

pamphleteering

Gerard
 Winstanley 
(True
 Levellers,
 Diggers)

Frederick
 Douglass, 
My
Bondage
 and 
My 
Freedom
 (autobiography)


Dangerous Sub Groups

A major sub group considered dangerous in the past was the Mormon church. They threatened the very fabric of Christian life and endangered peoples souls. Their founder Joseph Smith founded the religion as a purely American religion going so far as to say that the Garden of Eden was originally in Jackson Missouri. Joseph Smith was killed by an angry mob, but not after founding two cities and inspiring people to form a third in Utah, where polygamy was practiced until the turn of the century, when it was finally ended by the federal government through the threat of military intervention. Today Mormons ride the subways looking for converts, run for president, or play quarterbacks for the 49ers. You can read more about Mormons in a fabulously written book, "Under The Banner of Heaven".

Mini-Assignment Over Break

As I mentioned in the last class, since we are not meeting next Monday February 16th there is a little mini-assignment I'd like you all to do over the break:

Think of a cultural (or subcultural) example that was viewed (either now or in the past) as dangerous by official or mainstream culture. Some examples that we've already discussed include the graffiti art movement documented in Style Wars, rock music, and the internet. The example you choose should be as broad or as specific as you like, but please give a description of the example, why you think it was viewed as dangerous in mainstream culture, and if/how it was repressed (i.e. made illegal, censored, etc.).

Please write up your example as a comment to this post. If possible, include links on your example for further reading.

We will be discussing these examples in our next class on Monday February 23rd.

The commercialization of urban culture

Hi all,

I found this energy drink in a nearby convenience store and it reminded me of the film we saw in class and our ensuing discussions. Here Arizona has named their energy drink "All City" in reference to NY street artist, producing an "energy infused beverage for the city that never sleeps" (that's written on the can). Oh, and the can is covered in graffiti. Here's a link to the site for this drink: http://www.drinkarizona.com/ProductCart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=2&idproduct=242

Logistics 3: Electronic Reading Reserve

How to access online reading reserve:

Instructions for Downloading Readings from Electronic Library Reserve:

1. Go to http://hunter.docutek.com/eres
2. Select Electronic Reserve & Reserve Pages.
3. Select Any course Field Contains and type in “Ewen,” or Course Pages by Instructor. Then select the professor’s name, “Ewen,” in the pull down menu. Click on Search.
4. Select MEDIA 180.00 for Spring 2009.
5. When the copyright agreement box appears, type in the course specific password, which is ewen180, with no spaces or caps.
6. Then click accept.
7. Select the title needed by clicking on the PDF icon to its left.
8. This takes you to the Document Info page, and you can click to down-load the document at the bottom of that page.
9. Print out articles for reading, note-taking and future reference. As the mid-term and final examinations are “open book” exams, these printouts may be of considerable use.

Logistics 2: First Assignment

First Assignment: “My Image and Myself”

We live in a society where we are often encouraged to project an image of our-selves to the world, to present, and sometimes even construct, an identity that tells others who we are or who we are not. Many of us work in jobs, live in com-munities, or have social lives that reinforce this expectation. With the growth of social networking and self-publishing on the Internet (Facebook, MySpace, You-Tube, Twitter, blogs, etc.) new opportunities to present ourselves to the world are only expanding, and the tools for “inventing” oneself are more and more available.

Your job is to produce a thoughtful autobiographical essay (3-4 pages) entitled “My Image and Myself,” in which you explore and discuss your own “image,” the role it plays in your own life, your thinking, your behavior, and your interactions with other people – friends, acquaintances, strangers, employers, teachers, etc.

Rely on your own firsthand experience and actions as your primary resource, though you should discuss your thoughts on the ways society, products, technol-ogy, and the expectations of others affect how you present yourself to the world. If you have different identities for different contexts, discuss these. You may want to include thoughts about how your “image” benefits you, or causes diffi-culties for you in your life, or both. You should also discuss the tension between your outer and inner self if this is an important issue. Use clear and specific ex-amples from your life in developing your essay. Write in plain and straightfor-ward language.

At the end of the essay, your assignment may include visual matter, or URL’s and/or computer screenshots when relevant, but they must reflect or portray your own relationship to the role that image plays in your life.

Before attempting to respond to this assignment, read the following sections from All Consuming Images: “Preface to the New Edition,” “Introduction: Shoes for Thought,” and Chapter 1, “Images Without Bottom.” In these sections of the book you will learn how other Hunter College students, in the 1980s and 1990s, responded to a related assignment. While none of these students used or even knew about the Internet, and their responses reflect an earlier time, their thoughts and reflections should help you to begin your own assignment. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO WRITE YOUR ESSAY WITHOUT HAVING READ THESE PASSAGES. You should refer to specific stories in these chapters if they are relevant to your essay.

Deliver assignment to your Section Leader by February 25, 2009. Put section number on essay.

Logistics 1: Syllabus

Full-text of syllabus, below:

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Introduction to Media Studies
MEDIA 180 (Sections 001-011, 084, 161)
Spring Semester, 2009
Prof. Stuart Ewen
Dept. of Film & Media Studies
Office: 501C North Building

SYLLABUS

In today’s world, the media are an increasingly pervasive presence in people’s lives. Where¬ver we turn they are with us, supplying us with persuasive, captivat-ing, and sometimes misleading renditions of the world. On the internet, an in-teractive media environment is unfolding and, with e-mail, video chats, search engines, blogs, file sharing, networking sites, etc., more and more human in-teractions are taking place in cyberspace, reweaving the fabric of human inter-action. These arenas are altering conventional assumptions about communica-tion, challenging customary definitions of personal identity, and altering the physics thought, emotion and bodily experience.

This course is meant to provide a clear and critical historical exploration of the media as influential ingredi¬ents of contemporary life. We will examine their roots, the ways they’ve made disembodied experiences increasingly common. We will explore the power that they exert in the world, the forces that shape and have shaped their development, and the ways that they affect the ways that people understand themselves and other people.

In the course, media institutions, technologies, methods, myths and messages will be examined within the social and historical context in which they have grown and changed. Some of our study will focus on media in the United States yet, for them to be more fully grasped, media must also be considered as they’ve taken hold in and influenced the world at large.

Throughout the course you will be expected to analyze and make sense of visual culture: paintings, photographs, movies, videos, and the boundless arenas of fashion and style. This will require you to be more aware of the language of im-ages, the ways that images present the world and convey a point of view and, in the process, may obscure other points of view.

Related to this, the importance of “media literacy” will be central throughout this course, and each of you will be asked to produce some visual projects, just as you would be expected to write essays in a literature or composition course. As many Film & Media Studies courses aim to educate students in creative ap-proaches to public expression, these assignments are calculated to get you to explore ways you can use media tools to effectively convey ideas, outlooks and knowledge.

Course Mechanics:

Every Monday and Wednesday, between 12:10 and 1:00 PM we will meet for a lecture session in Room 615 of the West Building. In lecture, general course themes will be introduced and developed. These sessions will also be used for a number of film and video screenings, as indicated the class schedule below. Lecture topics and readings that must be read by the date of each lecture are also listed in the schedule.

General Requirements:

During lectures you are expected to be attentive and, when called for, to par-ticipate. Turn cell phones off before class begins. If you are using a computer in class, it should only be used for note taking. Please treat each other, and the learning environment, with respect.

In addition to lectures on Mondays and Wednesdays at 12:10, everyone enrolled in this course is enrolled in a discussion section that meets at other times. At-tendance and participation in discussion sections is required. If you do not at-tend, you will not pass the course. Section leaders for the course are:

Section 001 Ariana Souzis
Section 002 Ariana Souzis
Section 003 Jennifer Jacobs
Section 004 Jennifer Jacobs
Section 005 Dylan Gauthier
Section 006 Dylan Gauthier
Section 007 Chloe Smolarski
Section 008 Chloe Smolarski
Section 009 Elizabeth Knafo
Section 010 Elizabeth Knafo
Section 011 Leslie Synn
Section 084/161 Leslie Synn

Get to know your discussion leader, learn her or his name, and find out when he or she has scheduled office hours. If you have questions, things you want to dis-cuss, or need help with the course, your discussion leader should be there for you. Section leaders will announce their contact information and office hours when you meet in discussion section. Section leaders will also be giving you specific written or other assignments for submission to them.

Required Readings:

The following books are required reading for all students in the course. They are available at Shakespeare & Co., on Lexington Avenue, between 68th and 69th Streets, across the street from the main entrance to Thomas Hunter Hall. You may also want to check Amazon to see if you can get free shipping on your total order and save some money on books for the course:

• Horatio Alger, Ragged Dick
• Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451.
• Stuart Ewen, All Consuming Images. (1999 Edition, listed as ‘ACI’ in the schedule below) The first week’s readings from this book are available for library reserve download online. See below for access details.
In addition to these books, there are a number of required “Online Reserve” readings (listed after the letters ‘OR’ in the schedule below). You can gain access to these readings and download them without cost as PDF’s from the Li-brary Reserve page on the Internet. It is strongly recommended that you print these out for reading and reference.

Instructions for Downloading Readings from Electronic Library Reserve:
Step 1: Go to http://hunter.docutek.com/eres
Step 2: Select Electronic Reserve & Reserve Pages.
Step 3: Select Any course Field Contains and type in “Ewen,” or Course Pages by Instructor. Then select the professor’s name, “Ewen,” in the pull down menu. Click on Search.
Step 4: Select MEDIA 180.00 for Spring 2009.
Step 5: When the copyright agreement box appears, type in the course specific password, which is ewen180, with no spaces or caps.
Step 6: Then click accept.
Step 7: Select the title needed by clicking on the PDF icon to its left.
Step 8. This takes you to the Document Info page, and you can click to down-load the document at the bottom of that page.
Step 9. Print out articles for reading, note-taking and future reference. As the mid-term and final examinations are “open book” exams, these printouts may be of considerable use.

Readings are an essential part of this course. If you do not do them and are not prepared to discuss them, it will negatively affect your performance in this class. Readings must be completed by dates indicated in the schedule of classes that begins on the next page. To do well in this course, your exams, papers, and class participation must exhibit a functioning knowledge of assigned readings.

Exams, Assignments, Grades:

Over the course of the semester there will be two exams: a Mid-Term and a Final. Both will require you to write thoughtful responses to several short essay ques-tions. Dates for both are found (in bold type) below. In addition, there are three take-home assignments. Pertinent dates for these are also found (in bold type) below. Please note that the first take-home assignment is being distrib-uted at the first lecture session, February 2, 2004.

Course grades will be based on the quality of your performance on these exams and assignments, also on your attendance participation and work in discussion sections. Questions regarding a grade-related issue must be raised directly with your Discussion Section Leader.

The following guidelines will be applied to your final course grade:

Mid-Term Exam 20%
Final Exam 25%
Assignments 30% (10% each)
Discussion Section 25% (based on attendance, participation, section coursework)

You may reach Prof. Ewen by email at: sewen@gc.cuny.edu

Schedule of Classes

January 26 (M) Lecture: Course Mechanics and Introduction.
Read: Ewen, All Consuming Images (ACI), “Introduction to the New
Edition,” “Shoes for Thought,” and Part One, Chapter 1, “Images Without Bottom.”
First Take-Home Assignment Distributed (page 7, below)

January 28 (W) Film: “Style Wars.”
Read: Begin Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451.

February 2 (M) Lecture: Media in the Modern World.

February 4 (W) Lecture: Fahrenheit 451, Text and Context
Read: Complete Bradbury by this class.

February 9 (M) Lecture: The Rise of Print
Read: Online Reserve (OR), Frederick Douglass, “Learning to Read
and Growing in Knowledge”; John Ross, “Exer-cises in the
Restoration of History”; Jean Wheeler-Smith, “Frankie Mae.”

February 11 (W) Lecture: The Lexicon of Power

February 16 (M) No Classes—President’s Day

February 18 (W) Lecture: Literacy and Democracy
Read: Complete all readings from February 9.

February 23 (M) Lecture: Image and Power in a Changing World
Read: ACI, Part One, Chapters 2 and 3.

February 25 (W) Lecture: Aesthetics and Social Change
Read: OR, Ewen and Ewen, “The Ends Justify the Jeans.”
First Take-Home Assignment Due

March 2 (M) Film: Stanley Nelson, “The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords”
(Part One)
Second Take-Home Assignment Distributed

March 4 (W) Film: Stanley Nelson, “The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords”
(Part Two)
MID-TERM EXAM QUESTIONS DISTRIBUTED

March 9 (M) Lecture: Photography and the Evolution of a Vis-ual
Vernacular.
Read: OR, Oliver Wendell Holmes, “The Stereo-scope and
The Stereograph”; Lewis Hine, “Social Photogra-phy.”

March 11 (W) MID-TERM EXAMINATION

March 16 (M) Lecture: Personal Salvation and the Culture of
Self-Improvement.
Read: OR, Benjamin Franklin, “Continuation of the Account of my
Life…,” selection from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin;
Horatio Alger, Ragged Dick.

March 18 (W) Lecture: Tales of Before and After
Read: Complete Alger, also read OR, Malcolm X,
and Alex Haley, “Saved,” selection from The Autobiography
of Malcolm X.

March 23 (M) Film: Buster Keaton, “Sherlock, Jr.

March 25 (W) Lecture: Visual Rhetoric and the Rise of the Mov-ies
Read: OR, Hugo Münsterberg, “The Psychology of
the Photoplay.”

March 30 (M) Lecture: Changing Relations Between Image and Audience
Read: OR, Ewen and Ewen, “Immigrant Women and the
Rise of the Movies.

April 1 (W) Lecture: Becoming An Image: Identity in Flux
Read: All in OR: Andrew Adam Newman, “The True Story of a
Bogus Blog.” Adweek. May 5, 2008; Michelle Jana Chan, “Identity in a Virtual World.” CNN Online, June 14, 2007; Shannon McRae, “Coming Apart at the Seams: Sex, Text and the Virtual Body.”; Ju-dith Donath, “Being Real” (2000).
Suggested: see also “Identity and Body in Cyber-space” http://www.greenlloyd.com/bodyincyberspace.htm.

April 6 (M) Film: Jason Simon, “Vera.”
SECOND ASSIGNMENT DUE

April 8 (W) No Classes—Spring Recess

April 13 (M) No Classes—Spring Recess

April 15 (W) No Classes—Spring Recess
April 20 (M) Lecture: Advertising as a Way of Life
Second Take-Home Assignment Due
Read: All Consuming Images, Part Four.

April 22 (W) Lecture: The Social Roots of the Consumer Culture
Read: Complete ACI, Part Four.
Third Take-Home Assignment Distributed

April 27 (M) Lecture: The Political Elements of Style
Read: All Consuming Images, “Conclusion.”

April 29 (W) Lecture: The Rise of Public Relations
Read: OR, Selections from Walter Lippmann, Ed-ward
Bernays, “The Engineering of Consent.”

May 4 (M) The Grooves of Borrowed Thought
Read: OR, Stuart Ewen, “Visiting Edward Ber-nays.”

May 6 (W) Film: “The Century of the Self” (First Part)

May 11 (M) Lecture: Public Relations and Public Life: Is De-mocracy
Possible?
Third Take-Home Assignment Due

May 13 (W) Final Exam Questions Distributed and Discussed

Media Journal Entries

Just a reminder: your media journal entries are due every Monday at the end of class. If you haven't turned them in, please give to me no later than this Wednesday. Late or missing journal entries will lower your grade!

Also, if you're using a notebook for your media journal and have turned it in to me in class, please find me at the Wednesday lecture class so that I can return it to you.

Be Seen (Not Heard)

Thanks to everyone who contributed to our lively class discussions today! Here is more info on Seen, the graffiti artist I had mentioned who's work later became successful in the art world...

Seen on Wikipedia
Seen's website

How does his career trajectory relate to Professor Ewen's comments today on the idea of official culture vs. popular culture?

Media Journal Class Assignment

Everyone will be expected to turn in a media journal by the end of the semester. This will be your personal record of your responses and observations related to the class readings, lectures and discussions. The journal can take any form you choose (such as a bound book, binder, blog or website) but you will be expected to include a 1-2 page written entry for every scheduled week of the class (beginning Monday Feb 2, 2009).

Each entry should include a response to class readings from that week. For these responses, be sure to:

• Summarize (briefly) the main points of the reading and add your thoughts about it.
• Does the reading make sense to you? Do you have any questions?
• Do you agree or disagree with the author? Why?
• How do you think this relates to the lectures and larger class discussion?
  

Along with the reading responses, you are encouraged to add any other comments or ideas (including any suggested images, videos or links) that may relate to our ongoing class discussions.

You will be expected to bring in your weekly entries to class each week. I will be asking several students each week to briefly present their entry in class. The entries will all be collected at the end of each class and returned to you later. If you choose to do your journal online please be sure to bring a paper copy of your weekly entry for class that week. I will not be grading the individual entries (although I will read and comment on them), but I will be grading the entire journal that you will present to me on the last week of class.

Note: The media diary is a MANDATORY REQUIREMENT for the class. Turning in late or incomplete entries will result in your grade being SIGNIFICANTLY lowered.

Your first entry will be due Monday February 2, 2009 and should include your response to the readings from All Consuming Images (Introduction to the New Edition, Shoes for Thought, and Chapter 1: Images Without Bottom).

Ariana Souzis Office Hours

Just a reminder: My office hours are Mondays between 11 am - 12 pm, usually in the adjunct office Room 515HN. Email or speak to me during class to set up an appointment ahead of time.

Typo in Syllabus

On page 5 of the syllabus: the readings for March 9th (Oliver Wendell Holmes and Lewis Hine) are both available through online reserve. Ignore the code CP that's written there - it should read OR (online reserve) instead.

Note: Syllabus and First assignment are also online on Hunter's Electronic Library Reserve.

Welcome to Media Studies 180

Welcome to Introduction to Media Studies! Check here frequently for information, resources, and discussions relating to Sections 001 and 002 of the Media 180 class.