Sample Syllabus

Survey of Contemporary Media

(A revised version of this syllabus, with other readings removed, just to suggest where different Keywords pieces could fit in such a class)

0.1 Why Study the Media / Introduction

Section 1 – Technologies

1.1 How Technology Changes Society

“Space” (Helen Morgan Parmett)

1.2 How Technology (Alone) Doesn’t Change Society

“Technology” (Jennifer Daryl Slack)

“Access” (Elizabeth Ellcessor)

1.3 New Media Technologies

“New Media” (Lisa Gitelman)

“Network” (Marina Levina)

“Infrastructure” (Lisa Parks)

Section 2 – Industries

2.1 Regulation, Deregulation, and Reregulation

“Policy” (Jennifer Holt)

“Copyright” (Kembrew McLeod)

2.2 Ownership

“Industry” (Amanda D. Lotz)

2.3 The Culture Industries

“Labor” (Vicki Mayer)

“Production” (Derek Johnson)

2.4 Commercial Biases & Other Filters

“Commodification” (Alison Hearn)

“Gender” (Rosalind Gill)

2.5 Counting Likes and Looks: The Business of Big Data

“Data” (Melissa Gregg & Dawn Nafus)

“Surveillance” (Kelly Gates)

2.6 Market Fragmentation & Narrowcasting

“Brand” (Sarah Banet-Weiser)

“Personalization” (Joseph Turow)

Section 3 – Texts and Meanings

3.1 What to do with Texts & Genres

“Genre” (Jason Mittell)

“Author” (Cynthia Chris)

“Aesthetics” (Lev Manovich)

3.2 Formal Analysis

“Realism” (Greg Smith)

“Reflexivity” (Mark Andrejevic)

3.3 Power, Ideology, & Hegemony

“Hegemony” (Justin Lewis)

“Ideology” (Jo Littler)

“Power” (Nick Couldry)

3.4 Semiotics

“Myth” (Jonathan Bignell)

“Domesticity” (Mary Beth Haralovich)

“Discourse” (Nico Carpentier)

3.5 Formal & Ideological Analyses in Action

“Sound” (Michele Hilmes)

“Irony” (Amber Day)

3.6 Meaning Outside the Text

“Text” (Jonathan Gray)

“Convergence” (Jean Burgess)

“Celebrity” (Suzanne Leonard & Diane Negra)

“Flow” (Derek Kompare)

Section 4 – Representations

4.1 Citizenship & the Public Sphere

“Public” (Jennifer Petersen)

“Citizenship” (Laurie Ouellette)

4.2 Representation & Stereotypes

“Stereotype” (Ellen Seiter)

“Representation” (Lisa Henderson)

“Race” (Herman Gray)

“Memory” (George Lipsitz)

4.3 Multiplying Representations: Articulation, Intersectionality, & Cultural Binaries

“Intersectionality” (Brenda R. Weber)

“Class” (Laura Grindstaff)

“Assemblage” (J. Macgregor Wise)

“Temporality” (Sarah Sharma)

4.4 The Gaze & Othering

“Gaze” (Michele White)

“Feminism” (Susan J. Douglas)

“Othering” (Angharad Valdivia)

4.5 “Good,” “Bad,” & Better Representations

“Queer” (Karen Tongson)

“Appropriation” (Beretta E. Smith-Shomade)

Section 5 – Audiences and Identities

5.1 Identity & Hybridity

“Identity” (Myria Georgiou)

“Hybridity” (Marwan Kraidy)

5.2 Examining the Audience

“Audience” (Matt Hills)

“Mass” (Jack Z. Bratich)

“Resistance” (Stephen Duncombe)

“Popular” (John Clarke)

5.3 Fans

“Fan” (Henry Jenkins)

“Play” (Matthew Thomas Payne)

“Affect” (Carrie Rentschler)

“Taste” (Elana Levine & Michael Z. Newman)

5.4 Participatory Cultures

“Interactivity” (Tama Leaver)

“Ordinary” (Graeme Turner)

5.5 Cultural Imperialism

“Nation” (Melissa Aronczyk)

5.6 Global Media

“Globalization” (Aswin Punathambekar)

“Cosmopolitanism” (Lilie Chouliaraki)