In this class, we will learn about what it means to be a mediated public by becoming one and reflecting on our practice. As we discuss critical and primary readings on media, democracy, and the public sphere, the class will undergo a process together. We will cultivate our own public sphere, setting rules and adjusting them as we go. The midterm and final projects are short exercises in established genres of media intervention.
Each student is expected to:
For this assignment, draft, revise, and publish an 800-to-900-word op-ed (authored by yourself) or press release (promoting an invented initiative or product from a real organization or company) that makes an intervention in a matter of current public concern, framed in terms of democratic ideals. Through it, make clear the importance and relevance of one or more such ideal.
This project should meet the following expectations:
For this assignment, draft, revise, and publish an analysis of a media campaign of your choosing, individually or as part of a group. Your analysis should be written so as to have an effect for its intended audience. Written projects should be between 1,400-1,600 words, and videos between 4-6 minutes. Standards for other media should be agreed on with the instructor.
Campaigns might include, for instance: an Internet meme, a politician's slogan, an iconic advertisement, a university marketing drive, a blacklisting effort, a struggle for political rights.
The medium should be a recognizable genre of some sort that attempts to make an intervention in a particular audience. You might create, for instance: a news report, an instructional video, a fictional internal corporate memo, a business case study, a presentation, a formal letter, a rant of tweets.
The expectations are as follows:
Grades will be determined as follows:
Each student is allotted 3 unexcused absences. After that, absences without a documented excuse will result in 2 points detracted from the class participation grade.
Badges, worth 1 extra point, will be awarded at the conclusion of each module:
There is a limit of one badge per person per week.
Based on the stated point structure, grades will be awarded as follows: A (94-100), A- (90-93), B+ (87-89), B (83-86), B- (80-82), C+ (77-79), C (73-76), C- (70-72), D+ (67-69), D (63-66), D- (60-62), F (0-59).
Consider and compare the approaches to democracy in the following two essays:
The difference between James and Whitman can be compared to a debate that one often finds in the syllabi of courses like this, between John Dewey and Walter Lippman (summarized here).
Neither of the above visions much reflects what we tend to think of as structured, democratic governance today. Coming from a radical 1960s activist and feminist, here's a famous manifesto about why structure matters:
For a more recent, theoretical expression of what democracy entails, finally, we should read this helpful series of excerpts (thanks to a pretty strange website) from:
On the latter, watch at least the first two episodes, and after that only as far as you like. It's over-long and repetitive, but well-calculated to blow your mind.
On public relations and advocacy:
Need a strong reading on journalistic ethics. Perhaps from The New Ethics of Journalism: Principles for the 21st Century.
Spend a reasonable amount of time exploring the data here:
How does the current data affect how we read this debate at the start of the millennium?
Here are some recent reports on the influx of Silicon Valley-style venture capital in new media platforms:
Do media makers need to organize?
Are you a commoner? Here are some general readings on what the commons is all about:
Media commons:
Finally, silence:
Explore some of the debates about “filter bubbles” online.
And that was before (at least so far as we know) Facebook got into experimenting on us with our news feeds…
Maybe we should be more careful with which search engines we use:
A classic critique:
The Arab Spring:
#BlackLivesMatter and its discontents:
What would a movement-made platform look like?
What makes speech dangerous?
The ongoing P.C. and trigger warning debates:
Online, harassment is real:
Not just for journalists, or women:
Two approaches to “propaganda”: first, the form of perceived imposition…
…and then resistance to it:
This syllabus is a living document. Any part of it may be brought up for discussion and modified by agreement of those present during any official class period.
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