Course Description: This
course seeks to answer five key questions: What is communication? Where does it
occur? How does it occur? Why does it matter? How do we study it? In answering
these questions the course provides an introduction to major issues in the
field of communication, and also to the main areas of focus in this department.
Course texts Required:
- Unless otherwise noted, the readings for the class can be found in the course reader, An Introduction to Communication, (Other texts are either on TED or directly linked). The course reader is available for purchase from
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COURSE:
An Introduction to Communication
INSTRUCTOR(S): Boatema Boateng, Zeinabu Davis, Brian
Goldfarb
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- Copies of some assigned texts that are not in the reader will be noted on they sillabus as (TED) and available on
the TED course site in the content area. Videos will be placed on
media e-reserve through the library (Password: bg10).
Assignments
- Three-Part Communication Analysis term project: Guidelines (final version due Mon, Mar 17)
Course Policies
1. Courtesy and consideration for others (also
required of the professor and TAs). The position taken in this class is that
are no stupid opinions, only uninformed ones. Therefore in disagreeing with
others' opinions, it is necessary to provide them with information that might
persuade them to think differently instead of simply dismissing their views out
of hand. All participants in the class are also required to observe the UCSD
Principles of Community which can be found at: http://www.ucsd.edulexplore/about/principles.html
2. You are expected to read course materials before
all lectures, sections and screenings. You are also expected to participate in
all section discussions.
3. Attendance at all lectures, sections, and
screenings is required. Unexcused absenses will affect your grade final course grade. Missing two sections meetings will result in a course grade reduction of 2 grade points (your maximum course grade will go from an A+ to A-), missing three section meetings will result in a reduction of 4 grade points ((your maximum course grade will go from an A+ to B), Missing 4 section meetings will result in a reduction of 8 grade points ((your maximum course grade will go from an, A+ to C-). If you have a legitimate excuse and must miss a class or section meeting, it is your responsibility to: (a) notify your TA, in advance if possible; and provide a written medical excuse when appropriate (b) obtain notes and information on what you missed from classmates (c) complete the assigned readings for the class. Do not ask the professor or your TA about material that you missed before obtaining notes from a classmate.
4. All assignments must be turned in on the due
date indicated on the syllabus. You will lose a grade point for each day that
an assignment is late. This means, for example, that if you get an A on an assignment that is two days late, your grade will drop to a B+
5. Incompletes will only be given for valid
and documented medical or legal reasons (e.g. court appearance). There will
be no exceptions to this policy.
6. In managing this class the professor and
teaching assistants will function as a team and will consult regularly with
each other on all matters concerning the class. In particular,
they will use identical criteria in grading student assignments and will make
every effort to ensure that grades assigned are scrupulously fair and reflect
the quality of the work concerned. Due to this process of consultation and the
use of uniform grading criteria, teaching assistants have complete authority in
all actions that they undertake regarding the course, and the professor is
unlikely to rescind any of their decisions.
7. You are required to observe university
regulations regarding academic integrity. This means no student shall engage in
any activity that involves attempting to receive a grade by means other than
honest effort; for example:
8. All beepers, cell phones, PDAs, and similar devices must be turned off during class. Laptops may only be used during lecture for note taking and web queries relevant to the lecture, NOT for email, social networking, or other coursework.
Assessment
The final
grade will be determined as follows:
- Section participation 25%
- Weekly reading responses in TED discussions 25%
- Three-Part Communication Analysis Term project 50%
Disability Accommodations
The professor is dedicated to making this course as accessible to all students as possible. If you require accommodations or services for disabilities, please communicate with the Professor immediately and register with the Office of Students with Disabilities (OSD) in order to obtain a current Authorization for Accommodation (AFA) letter. This letter is required for eligibility for requests. Receipt of AFAs in advance is necessary for appropriate planning for the provision of reasonable accommodations. OSD Academic Liaisons also need to receive current AFA letters.
For additional information, contact the Office for Students with Disabilities:
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Course Schedule:
Notes: Weekly topics and readings listed here are provisional and may be updated after the course begins--please check this site weekly for updates. Unless otherwise noted, the readings can be found in the course reader. Other texts are either on TED or directly linked. You can view videos that are on e-reseves you will need the passcode: bg10 . Be sure to refresh your web browser so that you are not viewing an older cashed version of the syllabus. Every effort will be made to ensure that any changes are kept to a minimum and that any such changes are announced well in advance.
week: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10
Week Zero
Oct 3 (prezi)
- Introduction and overview
Week One
Oct 6 (prezi)
Oct 8 (prezi)
- Robin Lakoff 1990 “Language, Politics, and Power” Talking Power: The Politics of Language in Our Lives. New York: Basic Books.
- Pages 554-564 of Aki Uchida "When 'Difference' Is 'Dominance': A Critique of the "Anti-Power-Based" Cultural Approach to Sex Differences" (TED)
- Watch before class: Judith Butler--Your Behavior Creates Your Gender https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bo7o2LYATDc
-
- OPTIONAL READING: Pages 482-491 of Deborah Cameron 2005 "Language, Gender, and Sexuality: Current Issues and New Directions" in Applied Linguistics 26 (4): 482-502 (TED)
Oct 10 (prezi)
- George Herbert Mead 1993 “The Self, the I, and the Me” (1929) Social Theory: The Multicultural and Classical Readings Charles Lemert, ed. Boulder, CO: Westview.
- Erving Goffman 1959 “The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life” in The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (TED)
Week Two
Oct 13 (prezi)
- Marcel Danesi 1999 “What Does It Mean? How Humans Represent the World” in Of Cigarettes, High Heels, and Other Interesting Things: an Introduction to Semiotics. St. Martin’s Press.
Oct 15 (prezi)
- Scott Kiesling 2003 “Dude” in American Speech Vol. 79, No. 3.
Oct 17
(prezi)
- Gloria Anzaldua 1987 “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books.
- Geneva Smitherman, 1980 “White English in Blackface or Who Do I Be?” The State of the Language, eds. Leonard Michaels & Christopher Ricks UC Press.
Week Three
Oct 20 (grouped with previous prezi)
- Amy Tan, “The Red Candle” and “Rules of the Game” in The Joy Luck Club New York: Vintage Books, 1989. (TED)
Oct 22 (prezi)
- Stuart Hall 1997 “Introduction” and part of “The Work of Representation” Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices Sage Publications.
OPTIONAL: Stuart Hall, "Encoding, Decoding" in The Cultural Studies Reader, ed Simon During. (TED)
Oct 24 (prezi)
- John Hartley, 2004 "Democratainment" in The Television Studies Reader ed, Robert C. Allen, Annette Hill (TED)
- View Merchants
of Cool (streaming on digital media e-reserves passcode: bg10) and reading interviews on PBS website
OPTIONAL: Dick Hebdige 1979 Subculture: The Meaning of Style
Week Four
Assignment Part 1 due in section
Oct 27 (prezi)
- Dwight McBride 2005 “Why I Hate Abercrombie and Fitch” Why I Hate Abercrombie and Fitch New York: New York University Press. (TED) also Available as e-book through library’s online catalog.
Oct 29 (prezi-grouped with Hartley )
- Johnathan Gray, 2008 "Art With Strings Attached" in Television Entertainment (TED)
OPTIONAL: Julie D’Acci “Television, Representation and Gender” in Robert C. Allen & Annette Hill (eds.) The Television Studies Reader
Oct 31
(prezi)
- Raymond Williams 1974 “The Technology and the Society” in Television: Technology and Cultural Form.
- David Thorburn and Henry Jenkins 2003 "Toward an Aesthetics of Transition," in Rethinking Media Change (TED)
Week Five
Nov
3(prezi-grouped with Williams)
Nov 5 (prezi)
Nov 7 (prezi)
Week Six
Nov 10 (grouped with previous prezi)
- Michael Schudson 2003 “Media Bias (Media Effects Part 2)” The Sociology of News New York: W.W. Norton & Company. (TED)
Nov 12 (prezi)
- Todd Gitlin 2003 “Introduction” and "Media Routines and Political Crisis" in The Whole World is Watching: Mass Media in the Making and Unmaking of the New Left University of California Press.
Nov 14 (prezi)
- Jane Rhodes 1993 “The Visibility of Race and Media History” Critical Studies in Mass Communication 20:2
Week Seven
Assignment Part 2 due in section
Nov
17: (prezi)
- Note: Read the version posted on TED, not from course reader: Theodore Adorno and Max Horkheimer 1993 “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception” The Cultural Studies Reader Simon During (ed.) New York: Routledge. (TED)
OPTIONAL: Tony Bennett, 1982 "Theories of the Media, Theories of Society" in Gurevitch et al., Culture, Society, and Media
Nov
19 (prezi combined with Nov 17)
- Selection from Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, 2006. Control and Freedom: Power and Paranoia in the Age of Fiber Optics, Introduction (P 1-11). (TED)
Nov 21(prezi)
- Vickie Rutledge Shields 2005 “The Less Space We Take the More Powerful We’ll Be.” A Companion to Media Studies, Angharad Valdivia (ed) John Wiley & Sons.
- Watch: Jennifer Siebel Newsom, (2011) Miss Representation (streaming on digital media e-reserves)
Week Eight
Nov 24 (prezi)
- Laura Mulvey 2003 “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” Amelia Jones, ed. The Feminism and Visual Culture Reader. London; New York: Routledge.
- bell hooks 1992 “The “Oppositional Gaze: Black Female Spectators” Black Looks: Race and Representation South End Press.
Optional Viewing
Nov 26 (prezi) In place of lecture today, you are required to watch these two videos:
Nov 28 NO CLASS Thanksgiving Holiday
Week Nine
Dec 1 (prezi)
- Lorna Roth, pages 111-126 of “Looking at Shirley, the Ultimate Norm: Colour Balance, Image Technologies, and Cognitive Equity.” Canadian Journal of Communication, Vol. 34 (1) (TED).
Dec 3 (prezi)
- John Sinclair, Elizabeth Jacka and Stuart Cunningham 1996 “Peripheral Vision” New Patterns in Global Television: Peripheral Vision Oxford University Press.
OPTIONAL:
- View Roots of Third Cinema: https://vimeo.com/12888864
- Sean McBride & Colleen Roach 1989 “The New International Information Order” International Encyclopedia of Communications Erik Barnouw (ed) Oxford University Press
Dec 5 (prezi)
- Stuart Hall 2002 “The West and the Rest: Discourse and Power” Susanne Schech & Jane Haggis (eds.) Development and Power: A Cultural Studies Reader Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers.
- Binyavanga Wainaina “How to Write About Africa” Granta 92: The View from Africa January 2006. http://www.granta.com/Archive/92/How-to-Write-about-Africa/Page-1
- Horace Miner 1956 “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema” American Anthropologist 58:3, June. (TED
OPTIONAL:
- Ella Shohat & Robert Stam, 1994. “Stereotype, Realism, and the Struggle over Representation” Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the Media London: Routledge.
Bill Nichols, 1991. “The Ethnographer’s Tale” Visual Anthropology Review 7 (2) Fall. (TED)
Week Ten
Assignment Part 3 due in section
Dec 8 (prezi))
- Arjun Appadurai 1996 “Disjuncture & Difference in the Global Cultural Economy” Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. Pages. Available as e-book through library’s online catalog.
Dec 10 (prezi))
- Tim Cresswell 2006 “The Production of Mobilities at Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam” On the Move: Mobility in the Modern Western World New York: Routledge.
- Akosua Darkwah 2002 “Trading Goes Global: Market Women in an Era of Globalization” in Asian Women Vol. 15.
Dec 12 (prezi)
- Merlyna Lim 2012 "Clicks, Cabs, and Coffee Houses: Social Media and Oppositional Movements in Egypt, 2004 – 2011" Journal of Communication 62 (TED)
- Vicente Rafael 200, “The Cell Phone and the Crowd: Messianic Politics in the Contemporary Philippines” Public Culture 15:3. (TED)
Finals Week:
Final/Revised Version of Extended Project Due Wed, Dec. 17, 6 p.m.
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