No Class Test (5%) of the Presentation Component

The following are the list of students who failed to take the class test / quiz and have been marked zero (0).

52033
42294
51978
51831
49783
51671
51049
51647
51646
50288
51589
51703

Assessment Criteria
15% - Tutorials
15% - Presentation: A) 5% Class Test B)10% Group presentation on media product criticism
30% - Assignment: A) 5% Masculinity / Femininity B) 15% Media Scandals C) 10% Written report on media product criticism
40% - Final Examination

Reminders:

Assessment Criteria
15% - Tutorials
15% - Presentation
5% Class Test
10% Group presentation on media product criticism
30% - Assignment
5% Masculinity / Femininity
15% Media Scandals
10% Written report on media product criticism
40% - Final Examination



GROUP PRESENTATION Guidelines:

1. Be mindful of your time schedule. If you miss it, you will automatically be given a ZERO (0) mark for the 10% Group Presentation on media product criticism.

2. Limit your presentation within 5 to 7 minutes only. Time limit will be strictly observed.

3. Remaining minutes of the allotted 15minutes reporting will be allocated for the preparation of slides, film clips, etc.

4. When the presentation is not completed due to tardiness in coming to the classroom, traffic jam, computer-related problem or for whatever reason, 5marks will be deducted from the total mark earned. Ex: If your schedule is 2:00 – 2:15 and you started at 2:10, reporting should stop at 2:15. Since it is not a completed report, the mark given (say, you are given 5) will be deducted by 5marks. That leaves you 0mark for the 10% Group Presentation.

5. No group shall replace a specific schedule in lieu of the absent presenters.

6. It is assumed that you are free during the scheduled presentation since the schedules are based on our regular tutorial and lecture sessions.

7. If the presentation is in conflict with your other activities (personal or academic), you are hereby advised to approach other groups and swap schedule. Conflict of schedule will not be entertained by the lecturer.

8. All members of the group shall be given opportunity to talk. The presentation must not be monopolized by one or two members only.


Note:
GROUPS WHO ARE NOT LISTED IN THE SCHEDULES PRESENTED BELOW WILL DELIVER THEIR PRESENTATION THIS FRIDAY, 14November, 2008.

COME ONLY DURING YOUR TIME SCHEDULE.

November 14 (Friday)

2:00 – 2:15
Free slot
2:16 – 2:30
Free slot
2:31 – 2:45
Free slot
2:46 – 3:00
Free slot

3:00 – 3:15
Nicholas Lee Lazaroo
Abigail Thein
Shahril Bahrul

3:16 – 3:30
Jody Wong Tze En
Kenny Shim Sheng Chong
Melissa The Lishia
Wong Yin Yee

3:31 – 3:45
Free slot

3:46 – 4:00
Free slot




November 17 (Monday)

2:00 – 2:15
Joveena
Kushaila
Sandra
Aaron

2:16 – 2:30
Emily Cheah
Stanley Choong
Joanne Gan
Adam

2:31 – 2:45
Melissa Tan
Pavan Thadani
Thenamuthan
Manju

2:46 – 3:00
Alloysius
Clinton
Natasha

3:00 – 3:15Chew Yuien Peng
Lai shaiu Hooi
Elizabeth Yeo wei Ling
Lydia Low Yee Marn
Jessica Lam siu Kuan

3:16 – 3:30
Steffi Sara Claudia
Velashini Balakrishnan
Yap Sue Ann

3:31 – 3:45
Lebogang
Geetha
Damiel
Seow Ling

3:45 – 4:00
Ivy Khaw Syn Wen
Isabelle Ki Mei Chuin
Raymond Choy Charng Shii
Tan Li Hui
Peter Ng Chee Kheng



November 20, 2008 (Thursday)

9:00 – 9:15
Patricia
Andrew
Raymie
Vivian
Safiran

9:16 – 9:30
Jilian Liew
Ivan Cheong
Kok Shang Wei
Amanda Khoo
Saby Sonia

9:31 – 9:45
Yap Sook Fun
Ang Bee Har
Lee Chian Hui
Tee Kai Le
Cheng Xiu Wei

9:46 – 10:00
Low Yuen Yin
Tho Wern Ming
Michelle Amanda
Krystle Morais
Haithal



Nov. 21, 2008

2:00 – 2:15
Yap Soh Woon
Tee Xue Rou
Puah Kian Keat
Albert Mah

2:16 – 2:30
Chan Losin
Lee Hwei mei
Mak Wei Wai

2:31 – 2:45
Ja Tar
Wil Son
Charlson
Sha Lyn
Sabrina

2:46 – 3:00
Isabel
Shaquilah
Jolene
Kelly

3:01 – 3:15
Abd Hakim
Joanne wong
Atiyya
Triffany

3:16 – 3:30
Zarul Hafis
Loh Kahy Yan
Jazzlyn Ng
Tham Kah Mun

3:31 – 3:45
Elaine The
Ketmany
Joy Tan Tien
Soon Lon Mung

3:46 – 4:00
Ethan Mark Curzon
Edwin Ang Wai Kit
Chon Hsien Loong
Ng Jhoon Aun
Sylvestor Lien

Primary / Secondary Orality

Lecture Date: 31October 2008

How the Secondary Orality of the Electronic AgeCan Awaken Us to the Primary Orality of Antiquity

or

What Hypertext Can Teach Us About the BiblewithReflections on the Ethical and Political Issuesof the Electronic Frontier

Robert M. Fowler

rfowler@bw.edu

http://homepages.bw.edu/~rfowler/

Baldwin-Wallace CollegeBerea, Ohio 44017





Background
• The computer rewrites the history of writing by sending us back to reconsider nearly every aspect of earlier technologies.
• Orality is enduced by radio and television
• Electronic orality has burgeoned in the last decade


Assumptions
• It is the sensibilities that have allowed us to reacquaint ourselves with the sensibilities of primary oral cultures
• Hypertext as paradigmatic of digital, electronic communication
• Electronic communication brings a host of ethical and political issue.



Theories
• Jay David Bolter’s Writing Space: The Computer, Hypertext, and the History of Writing
• Richard A. Lanham’s The Electronic Word: Democracy, Technology, and the Arts
• George P. Landow’s Hypertext: The Convergence of Contemporary Theory and Technology


What Is Hypertext?
• Non-Sequential Writing
• Includes any kind of information that can be digitized electronically
• Electronic media are networked media.



Fowler’s Hypertext
* Hypertext demands an active reader; it blurs the distinction between author and reader

* Hypertext is fluid, multiple, changing; not fixed or single.
* Hypertext has no beginning or ending, no center or margin, no inside or outside
* Hypertext is Multi-centered; infinitely recenterable
* Hypertext is a Network text
* Hypertext is collaborative
* Hypertext is anti-hierarchical and democratic




ORALITY AND LITERACY
Walter J. Ong

* Orality is “evanescent” not permanent.
* Orality is “additive rather than subordinative”; aggregative rather than analytic.
* Orality is “close to the human lifeworld”.
* Orality is “agonistically toned”.
* Orality is “emphatic and participatory rather than objectively distanced.”
* Orality knits persons together into community.
* Orality is “homeostatic”.


ONG’s MAIN POINTS
• Orality is “evanescent” not “permanent”.
• Writing and print provide a one-way, permanent document.
• An electronic document returns us to more fluid, shifting, open-ended communication.
• Writing and print and the computer are all ways of technologizing the word.
• Technology is both a promise and threat.
• Technologies belong to an age of Second Orality.


Print Culture
• Authors can be distinguished from readers
• A text is the property of its author
• A text is (or should be) fixed
• A text should speak with a single, clear voice
• A text has a beginning and an ending
• The center of a text is fixed, stable and single
• A text is (or should be) clearly organized in a linear structure
• An author writes by himself, and a reader reads by himself
• The act of writing or reading is (or should be) ethically and politically neutral


Ethical and Political Issues
* The inclination toward collaboration in cyberspace
* Creating and maintaining virtual communities
* The fate of the authors moral claim to intellectual property rights and legal claim to copyright
* Who will provide and who will receive services in cyberspace? Who will pay and who will profit?
* The question of human identity and the human/machine interface
* Sex on gender in cyberspace
* Civil liberties in cyberspace
* The electronic media: force for totalitarianism or democracy? For control or freedom?




Inclusions
• Does the incessant quest for novelty bring satisfaction?
• What grand legacies have we trashed needlessly, heedlessly?
• Is it possible that the electronic age will see the return of a culture both deeply rooted in its heritage and at the same time vibrant and open to the future.
• In cyberspace can we conserve the very best of the biblical traditions?
• By means of the electronic media can the biblical traditions become open and vital again?
• Can the biblical traditions break out of the amber of the printed page and once again live, grow, and change?
• The bible is the product of oral and manuscript cultures and achieved its crowning glory in the Age of Print, but what will succeed the printed Bible in the electronic age?
• Where is the interactive multimedia Bible for the 21st century being produced today?
• In multimedia, what will the biblical traditions look, sound, taste, smell and feel like?

MTV and Genderlect

CULTURE OF MTV

• August 1, 1981, 12:01a.m., MTV: Music Television was launched with the words "Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll," spoken by John Lack.
• The first images shown on MTV were a montage of the Apollo11 moon landing.
• Video Killed the Radio Star (The Buggles) was the first music video shown on MTV
• Before 1983, Michael Jackson struggled to receive airtime on MTV because he was a black artist.
• CBS records denounced MTV in a strong, profane statement, threatening to take away MTV's ability to play any of the record label's music videos.
• His harsh stance worked, and MTV began showing “Billie Jean" in regular rotation, forming a lengthy partnership with Jackson and helping other black music artists.
• Then, Jackson's videos were credited for MTV’s success
• Michael Jackson's 13-minute music video Thriller was broadcast on MTV three weeks before Christmas 1983. It was the most expensive video of its time, costing US$500,000, and the Guinness World Records (2006) list it as the "most successful music video", selling over 9 million units



MTV videos become a testing ground for new film techniques. - Jawitz



It is an intellectual breakthrough. – Gregory Ullmer of the Unversity of Florida



MTv promotes not just music but as well movies.- Hunt and Tuben



Issues on MTV
• In 1984, only 4% of lead performers on MTV music videos were black. (Brown and Campbell, 1986 as cited by Croteau and Hoynes)
• Only 12% of MTV videos broadcast featured a female lead.



Madonna and Cindy Lauper
• Madonna and Cindy Lauper introduces resistance and identity (Lisa Lewis)
• Performances that built apparently traditional images of female sexuality and male pleasure – and styles of dress that drew on the same images – were interpreted by teenage fans as expressions of their own desire. (Croteau and Hoynes)
• The sexuality of these videos was a sign of female power, because women were the subjects, not the objects.
• Female fans who imitated the style of these female performers were asserting their demands for fame, power, and control without giving up their identity as girls. (Croteau and Hoynes)
• Texts of these videos are routinely dismissed in the broader culture as negative portrayals of women.
• MTV helped opened the door for female musicians. (Croteau and Hoynes)



MTV displays images of attractive people living comfortable lives surrounded by contemporary consumer goods.


MTV promotes a commitment to the latest styles – clothes, cars, leisure activities – that requires not only consumption but continuous consumption in order to keep up with stylistic changes.


62 MTV music videos – A research study
• R. Baxter
• C. De Riemer
• A. Landini
• L. Leslie
• M. Singletary
Findings:
- Sexual content was relying on innuendo through clothing, suggestiveness, and light physical contact (Baxter, et.al.)
- Sexually oriented, suggestive behavior is portrayed frequently in music videos. (Baxter, et.al.)
- Frequency of instances of violence and crime content also merits further attention (Baxter, et.al.)
- Provocative visual element accentuates the sexual and violent aspects. (Baxter, et.al.)
- Women are passive, Men are directing women. (Baron, Campbell and fisher, 1986)



RAP VIDEOS
• MEN DOMINATE WOMEN…AS OBJECTS OF MALE DESIRES.
(Pareles, 1990; Texier, 1990)
• BLACK GANGSTA RAP MUSICIANS REFER TO WOMEN AS “BITCHES” AND “HOS” NOT EXACTLY RESPECTFUL NAMES (Wood, 1998)


GENDERED VIOLENCE (J. WOOD)
• GENDER INTIMIDATION
• SEXUAL ASSAULT
• ABUSE BETWEEN INTIMATES
• QUID PRO QUO
• HOSTILE ENVIRONMENT
• GENITAL MUTILATION


MTV - a premise on short attention spans. - Gleick




GENDERLECT THEORY – D. TANNEN

- Believes that masculine and feminine forms of communication should be viewed as two distinct cultural dialects rather than as inferior or superior ways of speaking


Biological Differences
Ø Differences of fundamental experience of living.
Ø Due to the presence of two X chromosomes rather than an X and Y and/or to differing levels of various hormones
Ø Some differences in the structure of the body
Ø Some differences, apparently, in patterns of brain function.



Social Differences
- There is the idea that there is a woman's culture, created in part by male dominance and the exclusion of women from certain realms.
- These differences are enforced as well by ideological practices which associate women with the primitive societies with promiscuity, with dark forces, with the working classes, with irrationality, etc.



Psychological Differences
Based on biological and on social or cultural difference in the main; women are seen as more open, less aggressive, more discerning/intuitive, more nuance in their perceptions and responses.




COMPARATIVE RESEARCH: Men vs Women

MEN

1. Striving for status in a hierarchical social order where they are either one-up or one-down
2. Trying to protect themselves from others influence and from getting pushed down
3. Goal to get and keep the upper hand
4. Asymmetry is an element of status
5. We are separate and different
6. Report talk preserves independence
7. Public speaking
8. Mistake laments for requests for advice
9. Conversations are a competition
10. Conflict is accepted, sought out, enjoyed
11. Struggle to be strong
12. Jockey for position and compete for floor time
13. See interruptions as a struggle for control
14. Comfortable giving information and speaking authoritatively
15. Home is a sanctuary where you don’t have to talk
16. Practiced his whole life dismissing his thoughts and keeping them to himself
17. Want to be the protector because it is the dominant role
18. Masculine talk is associated with leadership and authority
19. Powerful speech is confident




WOMEN
1. Striving for intimacy
2. Trying to protect themselves from being pushed away
3. Goal is to establish connection by having intimate knowledge
4. Symmetry creates equality and community
5. We are close and the same
6. Rapport talk gets at the connection and the relationship
7. Private speaking
8. Laments are part of rapport talk
9. Conversations are negotiations for closeness
10. Conflict is a threat to connection and is to be settled without direct confrontation
11. Struggle to keep the community strong
12. Accommodate their conversation style and yield the floor
13. See interruptions as part of rapport talk because it shows participation and support
14. Comfortable supporting others and cautious about stating information
15. Home is a sanctuary where you can say what you want
16. Practiced her whole life verbalizing her thoughts in private conversations with people she is close to
17. Become the protected which is the subordinate role
18. Talking with leadership and authority is being a bitch
19. Powerless speech hedges, hesitates, and apologizes

Masculinity

What does it take to be a man?

Concept of masculinity – describe the complexities of male social positions, identity and experience

Jackson Katz – the class structure and gender order produce ideas of masculinity which are stratified by socioeconomic class, racial and ethnic differences and social orientation

In a patriarchal culture, violent behaviour is considered masculine

Males are usually engaged with an ongoing process of creating and maintaining their own masculine identity



Males in contemporary advertisements

-Contemporary adverts usually contain dominant, violent and dangerous looking men
-Shows confidence, decisiveness, power etc
-How men use their bodies as instruments of power, dominance and control
-The male’s physical body provides the means of achieving and asserting “manhood”
-Signs of insecurities, as not being able to hold power would somehow make them less manly
-Historically, use of gender in advertising has stressed differences implicitly and even explicitly reconfirmed the “natural” dissimilarity of males and females
-By stressing gender differences through the media, it will continually reinforces the idea of what is masculine/feminine
-Using the image system, men are usually associated to violence (active) while women are usually associated with passivity
-Violent male icons would exploit consumers’ feelings by making them less manly



1) Violence as genetically programmed male behaviour
-Use of male icons or types from popular history
-Associate the product with manly needs and pursuits that have existed from the past
-Men’s aggressiveness and brutality and their dominance over women are biologically based

2) Use of military sports symbolism to enhance the masculine identification and appeal of product
- Military and sports: two key subsets in the symbolic image system of violent masculinity
-Features uniformed soldiers/players with their weapons/gears
-Military/sports actions promote leadership, respect and pride; visions of masculinities
-Providing a standard form of “manhood” for all classes
-The use of violent male athletes can also help sell products that are feminine based
-Will not lose their masculinity due to their violent nature

3) The association of muscularity with ideal masculinity
-The male body – the ideal male body
-Men regardless of class and race might feel insecure with their masculinity due to their socioeconomic position
-Their uncertainties on how to respond to the challenges of women in many areas of social relations
-But males continue to have an advantage over the females in the area of physical size and strength
-Besides the functional ability to defend and perform manual labor, muscles are also markers that separate men from each other and from women
-Size and strength are valued by men across class and racial boundaries

4) The equation of historic masculinity with violent masculinity
-The cultural power in constructing violent masculinity is not limited to the movies but also in advertising
-Violence often more glamorized than heroic and perpetuated overwhelmingly by males



IDEOLOGIES OF MASCULINITY (O’Shaughnessy and Stadler)

• WE LIVE IN A PATRIARCHAL SOCIETY – LAW OF THE FATHER
• - LINEAGE (FATHER’S FAMILY NAME)
• - LEGAL AND POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS HAVE DEVELOPED AS MALE INSTITUTIONS
• MOST CULTURES HAVE PRIVILEGED MEN WITH GREATER RIGHTS THAN WOMEN.
• DOMINANT VALUES OF PATRIARCHAL SOCIETY ARE LINKED TO VALUES ENCOURAGED IN MEN AND MASCULINITY – WARFARE IS THE ULTIMATE PROBLEM-SOLVING DEVICE OF PATRIARCHY



MASCULINITY IN CRISIS

• - FEMINISM
• - GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENTS



GENDER: MEN v WOMEN
• - ESSENTIALLY (INEVITABLY) DIFFERENT IN THEIR BIOLOGICAL AND EMOTIONAL MAKE-UP, AND THAT THIS DETERMINES HOW THEY FEEL AND ACT (Essentialism)

• - GENDER AS PURELY A CONSEQUENCE OF HOW PEOPLE ARE SOCIALIZED. (Social Constructionism)



MASCULINITY IS NOT ONLY IN CRISIS BUT IS ALSO A PROBLEM FOR OUR SOCIETY.

• - MEN ARE SEXIST AND OPPRESS WOMEN
• - MEN TOO SUFFERED UNDER PATRIARCHY




MEDIA AND MASCULINITY (O’Shaughnessy and Stadler)

MEN AND WOMEN TOGETHER
• MASCULINITY DEFINES ITSELF IN RELATION TO FEMININITY.
• POWER – KEY SIGNIFIER AND DEFINER OF MASCULINITY
• OVER WOMEN
• OVER MEN
• OVER ENVIRONMENT
• OVER THEMSELVES


MEN TOGETHER
THEMES: STRUGGLE AND FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN MALE BUDDIES
• MALE RIVALRY TURNS TO MALE FRIENDSHIP
• HEROES IN STORIES UNDERGO THE PROCESS OF TESTING INITIATING THEM INTO MASCULINITY
• AMERICAN BEAUTY – revels in moments of male aggression and male power, show how futile and destructive, to self and others, such masculinity is.
• Both a celebration and critique of masculinity.
Buddy Films – depicts intimacy between men in certain situations
• Validate male friendship but reject any homosexual possibilities
• Male bonding = male misogyny
• Critics argue that buddy films suggest strong love and erotic attraction between men


MEN AND FEELINGS
• - Rationality over feelings
• - Boys Don’t Cry
• - Anger and Aggression


MALE VIOLENCE
• - Destruction of Others
• - Self-Destruction



MEN IN FROCKS
• -BLURS NORMAL GENDER DEFINITIONS
• - HUMOROUS
• - TRANSGRESSIVE



GAY REPRESENTATIONS
• FILMS TENDED TO PATHOLOGISE GAY CHARACTERS AS SICK OR CRIMINAL
• UNHAPPY NARRATIVE RESOULUTIONS
• (1980s) GAY MEN AND WOMEN OPTIMISTIC RESOLUTIONS



MEN ADVERTISING COSMETICS
• MAKING MEN OBJECTS OF DESIRE
• STILL PROJECTS TRADITIONAL MASCULINITY AND VIRILITY



MALE PIN-UPS
• MALE BODY AS OBJECT OF DESIRE (SINCE MID 1970s)
• LINKED TO GAY CULTURE
• FUNNY OR SEXUAL



LET’S HEAR IT FROM THE BOYS
How men are not presented stereotypically?







IDEOLOGY OF FEMININITY(O’Shaughnessy and Stadler)


TRADITIONAL
“IT STARTS WHEN YOU SINK IN HIS ARMS AND ENDS WITH YOUR ARMS IN HIS SINK”
(A FEMINIST, 1970)


SOFT PORN
WOMEN ARE ENCOURAGED TO TAKE ON THE TRADITIONALLY MALE PLEASURES OF PORNOGRAPHY

FOREGROUNDING AND CELEBRATION OF WOMEN’S SEXUALITY


SEXUAL POWER OVER MEN (J. WOOD)
• POSITIVE – acknowledges female sexuality
• NEGATIVE – reduces women to their sexuality – sex objects that denies women other forms of power. It devalues women who are not stereotypically sexy.


ACTIVE FEMALE SEXUALITY
TAKING SEXUAL PLEASURE IN OBJECTIFYING THE MAN

IF PEOPLE WERE SEXUALLY HAPPY, THESE ADS, WHICH SEEM TO BE OFFERING US SEXUAL SATISFACTION THROUGH PURCHASE OF GOODS, WOULD NOT WORK.



FASHION VICTIM
• - FASHION IS IN THE BLOOD OR UNDER YOUR SKIN
• IMAGE OF HARM
• PLASTIC SURGERY
• AUGMENTATION
• OTHER FORMS OF SELF-WOUNDING
AN ATTACK ON THE HEART OF FEMININITY


• ARE WOMEN PRIMARILY SEXUAL BEINGS RATHER THAN AS SOCIAL BEINGS?

• ARE WOMEN TAKEN ON A MALE PLEASURE THEREBY DEFINING PLEASURE IN MALE TERMS AND LEGITIMIZING THE PORNOGRAHY INDUSTRY?



Images of femininity

What makes you feminine?
- Possessing qualities or characteristics considered typical or appropriate to a woman
-Opposite of masculine


Women’s identities:
-Achieving the ideal image has become an obsession
-Beauty important in a male dominated culture
-Females with dominant characteristics are often considered undesirable
-Male culture has silenced women by categorising them
-Culture stereotypes women to fit into the beauty myth
-They fall in two categories – beauty without intelligence or intelligence without beauty
-Mass culture perpetuates the idea of the pretty-plain pairing
-There can be one winner and one loser
-Judith Butler in Gender Trouble referred to “women” as the subject of feminism
-Feminism is a doctrine or movement that advocates equal rights for women


Feminism
n The modern women’s movement emerged from the late 1950s onwards
n Involved the analysis and critique of how and why popular culture has represented women in an unfair, unjust and exploitative manner
n Looked at within the context of framework of gender inequality and oppression


3 strands of feminism

Liberal feminism
-Criticizes the unequal and exploitative employment and representation of women in the media and popular culture
-Advocates for equal opportunities

Radical feminism
-Sees the interests of men and women as being fundamentally different
-Regards patriarchy or the control and repression of women by men as the most crucial historical form of social division and oppression
-Argues for female separation
-Butler believed that studying women as “political representation” is complicated and controversial
-Representation serves as the operative term within a political process that seeks to extend visibility and legitimacy to women as political subjects
-Women are only recognized through power struggles


Socialist feminism
-Accepts the idea of patriarchy but incorporates it into an analysis of capitalism
-Argues that the emergence of a socialist society necessary to transform the relations between the genders
-Women are represented by equal rights – not putting them into an oppressed position
-Representation is the normative term which can either reveal or distort what is assumed to be true of women
-What that is supposedly being represented may or may not be true
-It is important to develop a theory that could adequately represent women
-Women often misrepresented and sometimes, not represented at all
-Feminism these days more liberal
-Looks at inequalities between the sexes as socially and culturally constructed phenomena
-Attempting to develop feminist analysis that involves both a less dismissive conception of the female audiences for popular culture, together with a theoretical framework which incorporates class, race, ethnicity and other important social divisions

Lectures 1 - 4

I re-edited the lectures. In this post, you can find lectures 1 til 4.

Hope this time you will find it useful.


Lecture 1

The “Media World”

“The world we live and the ways we live are now so heavily influenced and dominated by the media”

MediaFor indirect communication.

“Media” is the plural of “medium”.

“Media” refers to television, cinema, radio, video, photography, advertising, newspapers and magazines, music, computer games and the internet

Media texts: programmes, films, images, websites, etc., that are carried by these different forms of communication.
- Media have a wide-ranging influence over our experience and over public opinion.- It doesn’t just affect our attitudes but are a means of access to the knowledge on which many social activities depend.
- The media is a huge source of pleasure – studying the media will allow us to understand and appreciate the media through understanding how they work
- Media has a positive social power – are capable of sharing ideas across physical distances. In this capacity it is a truly democratic medium

How do the media work?
A) They make sense of the world for us
Representation: The media have become the place through which we receive most of our information about the world
Interpretation:Media gives us information and then explanations, ways of understanding the world we live in
Evaluation:Some issues and identities are devalued while others are praised. That gives a framework to judge the information that we receive

B) Media products construct and re-present reality
Media products are not the real world itself, they are re-presentations or constructions of the world

C) The media is just one of the ways by which we society makes sense of the world
The media combine with other forces of socialisation
Family, religious and education systems teach children how to understand and act in the world
The media generally act to reinforce values that are part of the whole society

D) The media are owned, controlled and created by certain groups who make sense of society on behalf of others


What “media” do to us?
Social Role
C – class
R – race
A – age
S – sex and sexual orientation
H – handicap

•MEDIA ARE TECHNOLOGICALLY DEVELOPED AND ECONOMICALLY PROFITABLE FORMS OF HUMAN COMMUNICATION, HELD EITHER IN PUBLIC OR PRIVATE OWNERSHIP, WHICH CAN TRANSMIT INFORMATION AND ENTERTAINMENT ACROSS TIME AND SPACE TO LARGE GROUPS. (O’Shaugnessy & Stadler, 2002)

•CULTURE GERERALLY REFERS TO PATTERNS OF HUMAN ACTIVITY AND THE SYMBOLIC STRUCTURES THAT GIVE SUCH ACTIVITIES SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPORTANCE. (Wikipedia, 2008)

•“THE WAY OF LIFE FOR AN ENTIRE SOCIETY“ (Raymond Williams)

•IT IS THE STRUCTURES AND PRACTICES, THROUGH WHICH A CULTURE PRODUCES AND REPRODUCES A PARTICULAR SOCIAL ORDER BY LEGITIMIZING CERTAIN VALUES, EXPECTATIONS, MEANINGS, AND PATTERNS OF BEHAVIOR. - J. WOOD

•SOCIETY IS A GROUPING OF INDIVIDUALS CHARACTERIZED BY PATTERNS OF RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN THESE INDIVIDUALS THAT MAY HAVE DISTINCTIVE CULTURE AND INSTITUTIONS, OR, MORE BROADLY, AN ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL INFRASTRUCTURE IN WHICH A VARIED MULTITUDE OF PEOPLE OR PEOPLES ARE A PART. (WIKIPEDIA)

•SOCIETY IS THE ACTUAL ARRANGEMENT OF SOCIAL RELATIONS WHILE CULTURE IS MADE OF BELIEFS AND SYMBOLIC FORMS. (Clifford Geertz)Important existential Issues ON sOCIETY (Richard Jenkins)

•How humans think and exchange information
•Many phenomena cannot be reduced to individual behavior
•Collectives often endure beyond the lifespan of individual members.
•The human condition has always meant going beyond the evidence of our senses; every aspect of our lives is tied to the collective.

FEARS (O’Shaughnessy and Stadler)
•POLITICAL USE OF THE MEDIA
•MEDIA’S INFLUENCE ON MORALS
•MEDIA’S INFLUENCE ON CULTURE


Lecture 2
CULTURAL STUDIESANDMEDIA CULTURE

CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY(O’Shaughnessy and Stadler)
1.CHANGE AND CRISIS
2.INEQUALITY AND DIFFERENCE
3.MAINTAINING CONSENT IN WESTERN DEMOCRACIES

HOW THE MEDIA WORK(O’Shaughnessy and Stadler)

THE MEDIA SHOW US WHAT THE WORLD IS LIKE; THEY MAKE SENSE OF THE WORLD FOR US

.•MEDIA PRODUCTS DO NOT SHOW OR PRESENT THE REAL WORLD; THEY CONSTRUCT AND REPRESENT REALITY

•THE MEDIA ARE JUST ONE OF THE WAYS BY WHICH WE AND SOCIETY MAKE SENSE OF THE WORLD, OR CONSTRUCT THE WORLD.THE MEDIA ARE OWNED, CONTROLLED, AND CREATED BY CERTAIN GROUPS WHO MAKE SENSE OF SOCIETY ON BEHALF OF OTHERS

THE NEED FOR POPULARITY


Lecture 3

Ideology and RaceIdeology and Race (Reference Book: O'Shaughnessy and Stadler)

Discourse
- In its simplest form ; the articulation, voicing or putting forward of a point of view
- Usually part of an exchange of ideas
- It is therefore a social process of constructing meaning
- Definition; collective discussion or interplay of meanings and ideas surrounding a particular subject

Foucault’s theory of discourse:
- Societies tend to bring together a range of voices, ideas and beliefs into overall discourses that offer ways of understanding the world (Fiske, 1987)
- Uses to examine how societies understand and make sense of sexuality, madness and criminality
- For Foucault, discourses are always linked to disciplinary power, they are a means of organising social control



What is Ideology? (O’Shaughnessy and Stadler)

COMMON SENSE DEFINITION - IDEOLOGY - IS A SET OF DELIBERATELY FORMULATED, COHERENT, RATIONAL, USUALLY POLITICL IDEAS THAT IS USED AS A WAY OF DEFINING AND UNDERSTANDING HOW SOCIETY CAN BE ORGANIZED.

MORE USEFUL DEFINITION - IDEOLOGY IS A SET OF SOCIAL VALUES, BELIEFS, FEELINGS, REPRESENTATIONS, AND INSTITUTIONS BY WHICH PEOPLE COLLECTIVELY MAKE SENSE OF THE WORLD THEY LIVE IN.

- Mass media play a vital role in communicating and reinforcing

DOMINANT ideologies
- Ideologies are often not consciously thought out
- It becomes part of our “common sense”
- It is reinforcing power relations and social structures

DOMINANT IDEOLOGY(O’Shaughnessy and Stadler)
- EACH SOCIETY HAS A DOMINANT IDEOLOGY SHARED BY MAJORITY OF PEOPLE. (Althuser )
- DOMINANT IN NUMERICAL TERMS
- DOMINANT IN THE SENSE THAT IT TENDS TO SUPPORT THE INTERESTS OF THE DOMINANT, RULING GROUPS.


MECHANISMS OF IDEOLOGY(Althusser, 1977 in O’Shaughnessy and Stadler)

- REPRESSIVE STATE APPARATUSES (RSAs)
- FORCE PEOPLE TO CONFORM TO THE DOMINANT IDEOLOGY.
- USED DELIBERATELY, TO CONTROL, PUNISH, AND COERCE PEOPLE WHO ATTEMPT TO CHALLENGE THE SYSTEM.

- IDEOLOGICAL STATE APPARATUSES (ISAs)
- WORK MORE LIKE HYNOPSIS, CONVINCING PEOPLE OR WINNING THEIR CONSENT TO THE DOMINANT IDEOLOGY
- THE CHURCH, THE FAMILY, THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM, THE MEDIA


Where do we find ideologies?
1) In language, texts and representations
2) Ideologies in material institutions and in our methodologies and practices.
3) In our heads and hearts



Race
- The term race or racial group usually refers to the concept of dividing humans into populations or groups on the basis of various sets of characteristics(American Association of Physical Anthropologists).
- The most widely used human racial categories are based on visible traits, and self-identification. (Michael Bamshad and Steve Olson)
- "Pure races do not exist in the human species today, nor is there any evidence that they have ever existed in the past." (AAPA)



Racialization
- A form of exclusionary practice
- It is dialectical process of signification to make sense of two meanings: Self and Others.



Racism
- Presumes the existence of decisions and processes which discriminate among people and also the existence of scarcity
- Racism functions as an ideology of inclusion and exclusionThe significance of colour both includes and excludes in the process of sorting people into resulting categories
- But at the same time it also appears as a less logical assembly of stereotypes, images, attributions and explanations which are constructed and employed to negotiate everyday life




Lecture 4


ETHNICITY AND MULTICULTURALISM


What is ETHNICITY? (britannica online)
• Ethnicity refers to the identification of a group based on a perceived cultural distinctiveness that makes the group into a “people.”
• A descriptive label for a group, implicitly defined in terms of racial or national characteristics, where the main emphasis falls on cultural practices and beliefs
• Can be usefully applied to minorities which either have been set apart or have desired separation according to distinct cultural attitudes and traditions
• The concept can only be applied to nation groups when located abroad and do not constitute a part of the ruling elite
• Do not refer to ethnic majorities


• Language
• Music
• Values
• Art
• Styles
• Literature
• Family Life
• Religion
• Ritual
• Food
• Naming
• Public Life
• Material Culture

What is RACE? (britannica online)
• Race refers to the perceived unique common physical and biogenetic characteristics of a population.

What is MINORITY GROUP? (britannica online)
• Minority Group is a group whose unique cultural characteristics are perceived to be different from those characterizing the dominant groups in society.

CATEGORIES OF M.G (britannica online)
• Ethnicity
• Race
• Gender
• Sexual Orientation

Note:
Ethnicity, Race, and Minority Groups are social and cultural constructs
What is MULTICULTURALISM? (wikipedia)

- Multiculturalism generally refers to a defacto state of racial, cultural, and ethnic diversity within the demographics of a specified place.

- Advocates a society that extends equitable status to groups.

- Cultural Pluralism or Plural Society

- Is best understood as a perspective or a way of viewing human life
• 3 central insights of multiculturalism
1) Human beings are culturally embedded in the sense that they grow up and live within a culturally structured world
• Deeply shaped by the culture and belief systems surrounding us
2) Different cultures represent different systems of meanings and visions of the good life
• Need other cultures to help you understand your culture even better
• No cultures are worthless
3) Every culture is internally plural and reflects a continuing conversation between its different traditions and strands of thought
• Every culture’s identity is fluid and open

- From a multiculturalist perspective:
• Nothing can represent the full truth of human life
• Any political doctrine or ideology represent a particular vision of the good life, and is necessarily narrow and practical
• Political doctrines are ways of structuring political life, not offering a comprehensive philosophy of life
• The good society cherishes the diversity and encourages a creative dialogue between its different cultures and their moral visions
• Society must respect its members rights so long as they meet the consensually derived conditions of the good life
• A multicultural society cannot be stable and long lasting without developing a common sense belonging among its citizens
• The sense of belonging cannot be ethnic – must be based on shared values


Societal Trends and Individual Effects (Portrayal of Culture in Films)

- Distortions of Reality – mislead audiences about historic facts.
• It is extended even to non-fictional movies
• D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation (1915)- it glorified Ku Klux Klan
- Violence – viewers imitate what they see in movies
• Scorsese’s Taxi Driver accordingly inspired the attack on Pres. Reagan.
• Disney’s The Program recalled all prints to delete scenes.
- Stereotyping – has treated a large number of female characters as bubble-headed. However, these films accorded their heroines more respect than films made in the supposedly liberated 1960s and 1970s.