Dr. Christopher Anderson
Class Time / Room: Thursday, 3:35 –5:30 1P / Room 119
Office Hours: Office: 1P / Room 232A Office Hours: Monday, 2:30 – 4:00; Thursday, 1:00 – 2:30

Teaching Assistants:
Andrew Palladino
Jonathan Liguori

Discussion Sections

1563      T    2:30 – 3:20 PM         3N/214
1566     T    3:35 – 4:25 PM          3N/214
1958     W    10:10 – 11:00 AM      3N/214
1984     W    11:15 – 12:05 PM      3N/214
1985     W    3:35 – 4:25 PM          2S/112
1990     TH    9:05 – 9:55 AM      1P/222
1995     TH    10:10 – 11:00 AM      1P/222
1996     M    5:30 – 6:30 PM          2N/114

Required Texts

• Media Literacy (4th Ed.), by W. James Potter
• Detecting Bull, John C. McManus [http://www.detectingbull.com/toc.htm]
• Online course reader of collected texts.

Course Learning Objectives

• To become a more intelligent consumer and producer of media content.
• To understand current issues in the media and in journalism

Course Description

“The media” surround us. The largest percentage of our day is spent engaged in some form of communication, as a member of an audience or as a speaker, writer, or creator. Most of our communication occurs in some mediated form. The purpose of this class is to teach students:

• How to consume media in a literate way
• To teach students about how to produce media in an era in which anyone can be a media maker
• And to understand some of the basic issues affecting journalism and the news industry

Course Requirements

This is the grading breakdown for the course. To receive a passing grade for the class, students must meet all requirements. Missed assignments will automatically result in a failing grade.  If you are confused by any of the readings, or are having trouble keeping up, please be certain to come see me during my office hours right away.

Attendance (25%)
Quizzes (15%)
Homework (15%)
Midterm (20%)
Final (25%)

General Class Structure

If you look ahead to your schedule of classes, you’ll see that this class consists of three basic elements: readings, lectures, discussion sections, and homework / quizes

Readings: You will be expected to complete a number of readings over the course of the semester, and your knowledge of these readings will be tested on the midterm, the final, on your homework assignments, and on in-class quizzes. Some of the readings will be found in Media Literacy (4th Ed.), by W. James Potter, or in Detecting Bull, by John C. McManus. The rest of your readings can be found online as part of your online course packet. You many want to print these readings out, so make sure you have access to a good printer when you download them.

Lectures: Most classes will consist of a lecture and some general discussion of the topic at hand.  These lectures are not a substitute for the readings or for the discussion section, but rather compliment and expand upon them.

Homework: Response to readings. In each discussion section, you will turn in a very short paper, discussing:

The main theme(s) of the assigned readings
Terms or concepts that confused you or that you did not understand
Your personal response to the reading; do you agree, disagree, etc?

Midterm Test

You will have a midterm that will test your knowledge of the assigned readings.

Final Test

You will also have a final that will test your knowledge of the assigned readings. The final will be cumulative; it will include material from the entire semester.

Quizzes

Students will be given randomly assigned quizzes during the course of the semester. These quizzes will count for 15% of your final grade, and cover the assigned readings.

Attendance

Students are expected to attend every session of Introduction to the Media, and every discussion section class. According to college policy, unexcused absences exceeding 15% of course hours can result in a WU grade. 15% of the classes in this class would be two sessions or more. Attendance will be taken in both the lectures and discussion sections. Bottom line: don’t miss class. In the event that a student must miss a class discussion section due to religious observance or family emergency, students must provide advance notice, in writing, of days missed. In the event of class missed due to illness, students must provide the instructor with a doctors’ note. No exceptions.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is a major—perhaps the major—academic offense a student can commit as an undergraduate, graduate student, or as a scholar. Plagiarism is defined as either (1) failure to acknowledge the source of ideas not one’s own or (2) failure to indicate verbatim expressions not one’s own through quotation marks and footnotes. I personally will be relentlessly unforgiving regarding any suspected cases of plagiarism this semester—and I will check. There will probably not be a second chance in this regard, and I will recommend the strict enforce university policy for all cases of plagiarism. Bottom line: don’t do it. If you have any questions, please talk to me before you write rather than afterward. For more information, see the CUNY Policy on Academic Integrity: http://www1.cuny.edu/academics/info-central/policies.html. For a guide on how to cite your sources well, see http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/?option=com_content&view=article&id=130

In order to ensure a respectful and attentive classroom environment, electronic devices (mobile phones, PDAs, digital music players, etc.) must be turned off and stored during class. Use of such devices during class time is prohibited without permission granted by the professor, in cases of real emergency. Unapproved use of such devices (web-surfing, text-messaging, etc.) in class will count as unexcused lateness.

Students using electronic devices in class, or disturbing class in other ways, will be asked to leave.

Schedule of Classes

January 28
Introduction and class overview
LECTURE: What is communication? What is media?

PART I: Media Consumption Literacy

February 4
READING: “Living in the Message Saturated World,” and “The Media Literacy Approach,” from Media Literacy (Potter)
LECTURE: Media literacy and media saturation
SPECIAL HOMEWORK: Media diets

February 11
READING, “Individual’s Perspective,” and “The Industry Perspective on Audiences,” from Media Literacy (Potter)
LECTURE: Audiences
SCREENING:  “War of the Worlds,” episode from Radiolab

February 18:
*** NO CLASS*** (THURSDAY FOLLOWS A MONDAY SCHEDULE)

February 25
READING: “Word Tricks and Propaganda,” (Herman) and “The Aesthetic Pleasures of War,” (Lopez) from Media Literacy: A Reader
SCREENING: Control Room
Lecture: Propaganda, war and critical perspectives on television

March 4
READING: All of “PART IV: Industry,” from Media Literacy (Potter)
LECTURE: Ownership and media industries

March 11
READING ALL OF “PART V: Content,” from Media Literacy (Potter)
LECTURE: What does the media make?

March 18
READING: “Critical Media Literacy, Democracy, and Reconstructing Education,“ (Kellner and Share), from Media Literacy: A Reader
LECTURE: The media and democracy

March 25
*** MIDTERM (IN CLASS) ***

*** SPRING BREAK: MARCH 29 – APRIL 5 ***

PART II: News Literacy and Journalism

April 8
READING: “Chapter Two: Truth vs Truthiness,” and “Chapter Three: The Trouble With Truth,” from Detecting Bull (McManus)
LECTURE: Journalistic Flaws in News Reporting

April 15
READING: “Chapter Four: Personal Obstacles to Reporting the World As It Is,” and “Chapter Five: Institutional Obstacles to Reporting the World As it Is,” from Detecting Bull (McManus)
LECTURE: News and Opinion

April 22
READING: “Introduction,” and “Chapter One: A Sea Change in American Journalism,” from Detecting Bull (McManus), Shirky, “Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable.”
LECTURE: The New World of Journalism

PART III: Media Production Literacy

April 29
LECTURE: Creating
SPECIAL HOMEWORK: Blogging

May 6
LECTURE: Sharing
SPECIAL HOMEWORK: Facebook and Twitter

May 13
LECTURE: Copyright
SPECIAL HOMEWORK: Group review session