Introduction to Media Studies
Section 01: Tues & Thurs 9:55-11:10 am, Cowell 106
Section 02: Tues & Thurs 12:45-2:00 pm, Cowell 106
Professor David Silver
Office: Kalmanovitz 141
Office Hours: Tues & Thurs 2-3 pm & by appointment
Contact: dmsilver [ at ] usfca [ dot ] edu
Introduction to Media Studies introduces students to the field of media studies in general and media studies at USF in particular. Throughout the semester, we will read, listen, watch, research, discuss, create, and write about the printing press, newspapers, magazines, books, comics, the telegraph, popular music, radio, telephones, film, television, cable television, computers, computer games, the internet, social media, and mobile devices.
Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this course, students will:
1. Be able to explain the key developments and social actors of media history, from the printing press to social media;
2. Be able to explain how these key developments were and continue to be embedded within larger cultural, economic, political, and social conditions; and
3. Become more familiar with USF media studies professors and Gleeson librarians and their different approaches to studying and making media.
Calendar
Tuesday, August 23
Introduction, distribute syllabi.
Thursday, August 25
Prior to class, listen to: Fresh Air with Terry Gross,
Late Night "Thank You Notes" From Jimmy Fallon,
NPR, May 23, 2011 (45 minutes).
Tuesday, August 30
Read: J. Charles Sterin, “Early American Newspaper Publishing,” from
Mass Media Revolution (Allyn & Bacon, 2012), pp. 96-101.
Thursday, September 1
Read: Brooke Gladstone,
Discussion with Steve Coll and Matthew Yglesias,
On the Media, February 20, 2009; and
How News Happens: A Study of the News Ecosystem of One American City,
Journalism.org, January 11, 2010; and listen to: Fresh Air with Terry Gross,
Covering "Tainted Justice" And Winning A Pulitzer,
NPR, May 3, 2010 (38 minutes).
Guest in morning section: Professor
Teresa Moore (Media Studies & Journalism, USF)
Tuesday, September 6
Read: Tom Standage,
A special report on the news industry: Bulletins from the future (This includes: A little local difficulty; Reinventing the newspaper; The people formerly known as the audience; Julian Assange and the new wave; Coming full circle; and The Foxification of news),
The Economist, July 7, 2011.
Guest: Professor
Michael Robertson (Media Studies & Journalism, USF)
Thursday, September 8
Read: Richard Campbell, Christopher R. Martin, and Bettina Fabos, “Magazines in the Age of Specialization,”
Media & Culture: An Introduction to Mass Communication, 7th edition (Bedford/St. Martin's, 2010), pp. 280-303.
Tuesday, September 13
Purchase and read, cover to cover, the current issue of
Adbusters magazine.
Thursday, September 15
Read selections from Rebecca Solnit’s
Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas (University of California Press, 2010).
Tuesday, September 20
Mid-term 1
Thursday, September 22
Field trip to Gleeson Library to see
Monsters on the Bookshelf exhibit.
Guest: J.H. Everett, visual storyteller and writer who has worked with the Jim Henson Company.
Tuesday, September 27
Read: Steven Lubar, “Radio,” in
InfoCulture: The Smithsonian Book of Information Age Inventions (Houghton Mifflin Co, 1993), pp. 213-241.
Guest:
Joe Garity, Reference Librarian and Media Studies Library Liaison, Gleeson Library
Thursday, September 29
Library resources assignment due in class.
Guest in afternoon section: Professor
Steve Runyon (Media Studies and KUSF, USF)
Tuesday, October 4
Readings to be determined.
Guest: Professor
Melinda Stone (Media Studies, Film Studies, and Environmental Studies, USF)
Thursday, October 6
Robert A. Rosentone, “The Historical Film: Looking at the Past in a Postliterate Age,” in Marcia Landy (ed),
The Historical Film: History and Memory in Media (Rutgers University Press, 2000): pp. 50-66.
Guest: Professor
Susana Kaiser (Media Studies and Latin American Studies, USF)
Tuesday, October 11
No class: Fall Break
Thursday, October 13
Guest:
Alex Hochman, Assistant Director of Career Services, USF
Tuesday, October 18
Read: Richard Campbell, Christopher R. Martin, and Bettina Fabos, “Television and the Power of Visual Culture,”
Media & Culture: An Introduction to Mass Communication, 7th edition (Bedford/St. Martin's, 2010), pp. 143-171.
Thursday, October 20
Joseph Turow, “Understanding the Strategies of Media Giants,”
Media Today: An Introduction to Mass Communication, 4th edition (Routledge, 2011): pp. 192-223.
Tuesday, October 25
Watch selections from Martin Scorcese,
No Direction Home: Bob Dylan (2005; 208 mins).
Thursday, October 27
Popular music group projects due in class.
Tuesday, November 1
Media fast assignment due in class.
Thursday, November 3
Mid-term 2
Tuesday, November 8
Read: J. Charles Sterin, “New Media,” from
Mass Media Revolution (Allyn & Bacon, 2012), pp. 194-215.
Thursday, November 10
Read: Ashley Parker,
Twitter’s Secret Handshake,
New York Times, June 10, 2011 ; and Tina Rosenberg,
Crowdsourcing a Better World,
New York Times, March 28, 2011.
Tuesday, November 15
Readings to be determined.
Guest:
Michael Stevenson, lecturer and PhD candidate at the Department of Media Studies, University of Amsterdam.
Thursday, November 17
Read: Rob Walker,
Inside the Wild, Wacky, Profitable World of Boing Boing,
Fast Company, November 30, 2010; Phillip Mlynar,
The Cool Kids: Cool with Recording for Mountain Dew,
SF Weekly, July 27, 2011; and Kim Severson,
Neighbor, Can You Spare a Plum? New York Times, June 10, 2009.
Tuesday, November 22
USF alumni panel featuring:
o
Aaron Dias-Melim, Marketing Associate,
Square, Inc.;
o
Travis Hayes Busse, Production Manager / Assistant Booker,
Thee Parkside;
o
Sara LaFassett, Interactive Media Specialist,
Saint Mary's College of California; and
o
Joseph Montana, Marketing Media Coordinator,
Rickshaw Bagworks.
Thursday, November 24
No class: Thanksgiving Break
Tuesday, November 29
Read: Henry Jenkins, "Searching for the Oragami Unicorn: The Matrix and Transmedia Storytelling," in
Convergence Culture (2006), pp. 95-134.
Thursday, December 1
Read: Zadie Smith,
Generation Why? New York Review of Books, November 25, 2010.
Tuesday, December 6
Final
Grading
30% -- Quizzes, homework, in-class assignments, and group projects
20% -- Mid-term 1
20% -- Mid-term 2
30% -- Final
Attendance Policies
1. Missing class, or attending class unprepared, will significantly affect your final grade.
2. If you do miss class, contact a classmate to find out what we discussed in class and ask to borrow his or her notes. Then, do the same with a second classmate. After doing this, if you have questions about missed material, visit me during office hours or send me an email.
3. On days that assignments are due in class, a complete assignment is your ticket to ride. In other words, if you have not completed the assignment, do not come to class.
Rules
1. No late work accepted.
2. No drinking out of non-reusable containers during class.
On exhibition in the Donohue Rare Book Room through December 16 are over eighty volumes from the Rare Book Room’s Dr. M. Wallace Freidman Collection of L. Frank Baum and Oziana. L. Frank Baum (1856-1919) wrote over thirty-eight children’s books, the most famous of which The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was published in 1900 and later was made into a motion picture by MGM in 1939. Baum went on to write fourteen books in the series. Following his death, the series was continued by Ruth Plumbly Thompson. Baum also wrote several non-Oz titles, including Mother Goose in Prose (1897), The Master Key (1901), Phoebe Daring (1912), The Sea Fairies (1911) and Sky Island (1912) among others. The exhibition brings together a selection of Baum’s work, showing the breadth of his life’s work and a range of illustration by such figures as Maxfield Parish, W.W. Denslow and John R. Neill.
