Paper or Pair Orals?

Having posted the instructions for the final paper below, I just want to ask you again whether you really want to push through with the final paper requirement or whether you wish to do pair orals instead. I understand that we voted in class already last week. But, having reviewed your marks (where the average score in the Orientalism paper is 80% and the average oral exam mark is 90%), I just want to raise this issue again. I'm not sure whether we are playing to your strengths if we push through with the paper.

What are your thoughts on this? Please vote/comment below. If we have enough responses, I'm considering leaving the final requirement up to each student, where you can get to choose what type of assessment (paper or pair orals) you want for yourself.

I will see you on Tuesday, September 30 for the creative projects presentations. Please start preparing for your final requirements.

Final Paper Instructions

The final paper is an academic essay that critically discusses a specific quotation from a media/communications theorist. The task is to: 1) explain and deconstruct the key concepts found in the quote, 2) situate the quote within the broader issues discussed in Com101, 3) relate this quote with the positions of other theories / theorists, 4) develop a critique of the author’s arguments by identifying its strengths and weaknesses, and 5) applying the key ideas to everyday life.

The paper should be three- to five- pages long, 1.5 or 2-spaced, 12pt font, on short bond paper. This is due October 9, Thursday, 12NN, to be dropped in my pigeonhole at the Department of Communication, 3F Social Sciences Building. This does not include the bibliography page. As this is an academic essay, you are required to cite at least five academic texts (feel free to use some of the quotes I used in my lectures) from books and journals in addition to examples that you might cite from pop culture artifacts (newspapers, websites, tv shows, etc.). Citations should follow the social science format of citation, e.g., “(Ong 2007: 47)”. As the message of the course is one about responsible practices of communication, I will be severe with cases of plagiarism, which breaks all ethical codes of communication.

Papers are to be marked for their a) depth in argumentation, b) breadth of knowledge about the field and related concepts to the article, c) ability to link ideas (discussed in class or in other classes, in the article or in other texts) with one another, d) clarity of argument, e) integration with everyday life, and f) creativity and originality. The key here is NOT to regurgitate the ideas discussed in class but to present your own argument about the topic at hand. In this light, you are given freedom to construct your paper as you see fit. You can, for instance, begin by presenting a real-life example or application of the key concept discussed in the article. Or you can narrate the debates within the field and then present your own stand.

1) “It is all about power, of course, in the end. The power the media have to set an agenda. The power they have to destroy one… The power to shift the balance between state and citizen, between country and country, between state, by the market, by the resistant or resisting audience, citizen, consumer… It is about reach. And it is about representation… It as about the power to listen and the power to speak and to be heard. The power to prompt and guide reflection and reflexivity. We study the media because we are concerned about their power: we fear it, we decry it, we adore it. And we want to harness that power for good rather than ill.” (Silverstone 1999)

2) “Communication has become central to reflections on democracy, love, romance, and our changing times. A great variety of thinkers have dealt with the tragedy, comedy, or absurdity of failed communication. The difficulty of communication across various social boundaries—gender, class, race, age, religion, nation, language—confronts us daily. But horizons of incommunicability loom beyond the merely human as well, in the vexing question of communication with animals, extraterrestrials, and smart machines. Communication is a registry of modern longings. The term evokes a utopia where nothing is understood, where hearts are open, and expression is uninhibited.” (Peters 1999)

3) “What is the epitome of love—the love that occurs between equals who are present to each other in body and soul? Or the love that leaps across the chasms?” (Peters 1999)

4) “Evil is a category of though which has emerged to try and account for the horrors of the world, horrors beyond understanding. Evil refers to actions and thoughts beyond reach, beyond imagination, beyond defence. Evil goes beyond crime, for crime has been imagined and framed in law… The supposed presence of evil has become a reason for not thinking… The presence of the discourse of evil in public culture has to be understood as deeply embedded in the values, ideas and discourses in the wider culture which the media reproduce as well as produce.” (Silverstone 2006)

5) “The problem with multiple images of distant suffering is not their multiplicity but their psychological and moral distance. Repetition just increases the sense of their remoteness from our lives… The message is get real, wise up and toughen up; the lesson is that nothing, nothing after all can be done with problems like these and people like these.” (Cohen 2001)

6) “Proper distance is the understanding of the more or less precise degree of proximity required in our mediated interrelationships if we are to create and sustain a sense of the Other sufficient not just for reciprocity but for a duty of care, obligation, responsibility and understanding… a relationship that is both close and far” (Silverstone 2006)

7) “The primary condition of existing media is already one of conditional hospitality. The news of the world invites the stranger onto page and screen. However the invitation is always conditional on good behavior; on the acceptance, by those who appear, of the editorial controls exercised by those constructing the texts. Even when such hospitality is extended to allow the voice of the Other to be heard, those editorial controls remain in place. They work to constrain those speaking either by marginalizing them in the schedule, or on the page, or by limiting the rights of access to the relatively safe or ordinary… The welcoming process is compromised by the edit, and by its exercise of symbolic power: you are entering the text, always, always on my terms.” (Silverstone 2006)

8) “We are all mediators, translators.” (Derrida 1995)

Lecture 6: Representations of the Other

HERE are the lecture slides available for download. Filename is Reps of the Other 08.

Some questions for discussion:
1) Where do you see Othering today?
2) How do you think should suffering others be represented in the news? Should journalists maintain the objectivity norm, or is it acceptable for them to display emotion, just as Anderson Cooper's ecstatic news reporting of Hurricane Katrina?
3) Do you believe in the compassion fatigue thesis? Or is it really media fatigue?
4) According to Silverstone, what is proper distance? And why should we represent the Other as "both close and far"?

Oral Exam Thesis Statements

1. We study the media because the world is always-already mediated, because issues of inclusion and exclusion abound, most especially in the stories that they tell about distant others—stories that enable or disable the way we see, hear, and touch.

2. Moving away from concerns with accuracy, reach, and speed of the transmission model of communication, John Durham Peters (1999) highlights two contrasting ethics of communication with the dialogue and dissemination models. Dialogue emphasizes soul-to-soul communication while dissemination stresses an asymmetric relation between self and others.

3. The scholars working within the Effects Tradition moved from conceiving the media as having (a) direct effects, (b) to limited effects, (c) to minimal effects, and finally (d) to powerful effects. Although distinct from one another, these approaches all subscribe to a positivist epistemology.

4. Stuart Hall’s (1979) Encoding/Decoding model eschews both the notion of a powerful media and a powerful audience and instead argues that there is a skewed but dialectical relationship between the two. Audiences take different decoding positions as elaborated by a variety of reception studies.

5. The study of representations is a matter of life and death. Using a constructivist, rather than simply a reflectionist, perspective, we gain a more critical understanding of how particular discourses, or regimes of truth, become prominent in how we think about a) race/nation, and b) gender/sexuality.

6. Edward Said’s (1985) discussion of Orientalism elaborates on how different practices of representation, such as scholarship, art and literature, form a racialized knowledge of the Other deeply implicated in the operations of power, namely that of imperialism.

7. It is in the “space of appearance” that we first, if not also exclusively, get to know about the Other. In this light, the media is at the heart of our moral future if we are to sustain a relationship with the Other based not just on reciprocity but on responsibility. This grand moral challenge can be best summed up by Roger Silverstone’s (2006) notion of proper distance, “a relationship that is both close and far”.

8. The Frankfurt School elaborates on how cultural forms sustain capitalist ideology. By manufacturing false needs and hiding individuals’ true needs, the culture industry distributes products that ultimately oppress, inhibit thinking, and control. In this view, power is located solely in media institutions—a view that audience studies scholars have argued against.

Lecture 5: Representations

HERE are the lecture slides for Representations.

Because we don't have class on Thursday, I think that we should use this space to clarify certain concepts, ask questions, and cite examples of representations of nation/race/gender/sexuality in the media.

Feel free to answer the guide questions below.
1. Give an example of a recent tv show/movie/advert/etc and how it constructs stories about nation/race/gender/sexuality. How does your chosen media text enable and/or disable, empower and/or oppress?
2. What assumptions do we have about what it means to be a Filipino? How "must" a Filipino act, according to discourses in the media and in everyday life? How do these assumptions become naturalized or taken for granted?
3. In class, I cited the show Ugly Betty as a show that has 'progressive' representations in the sense that it makes available different narratives about nation/race/gender/sexuality. Rather than rely on existing stereotypes, Ugly Betty, I argue, puts forth alternative ideas about what it means to be American, male or female, homosexual, transsexual, etc. and is therefore more inclusive and democratic in its representations. Do you have a media text that you admire for its challenging representations?
4. In class, I also cited the film 300 for its negative representations of non-Western people as being villainous/hideous/barbaric/exotic/homosexual/etc. What media text do you find has restrictive and simplistic representations of nation/race/gender/sexuality?

FINAL FINAL Schedules

Please see revised schedules. Chavez et al and Co et al have new reading assignments.

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July 31: no classes

Aug 5: Representations seminar
+ reading presentations
Media Audiences - De Guzman et al
Mediating the Nation - Balmaceda et al
Media Discourse - Agoncillo et al
+ reading assignments to be fixed for the term

Aug 7: no classes

Aug 12: Representations of the Other Lecture

Aug 14: Representations of the Other Seminar
+ WRITTEN QUIZ
+ reading presentations
Exhibiting Masculinities - Baranda et al
Orientalism - Crespo et al
+ REVEAL ORAL EXAM QUESTIONS

Aug 19: no classes

Aug 21: Student Presentations Part 2
5 = reflectionists/constructivists take on travel magazines - Abello
6 = typology of news about Philippine tragedies - Castro
7 = representations of non-Manilenyos in the Philippines - Cortez
8 = Orientalism today - Romualdez
9 = media fatigue or compassion fatigue? - Libongco

Aug 26: Culture Industry Lecturette/Seminar
+ reading presentations
Theories Part 1 - Cayaba et al
Theories Part 2 - Chavez et al

Aug 28: Orals Preparation Day
+ reading presentations
9/11 - Bautista et al
Why Study the Media? (the Other) - Castro et al
+ post SIGN UP SHEET FOR ORALS

Sep 2: Oral Exam

Sep 4: Oral Exam

Sep 9: Media and Morality Lecture 1 (plenary)

Sep 11: Media and Morality Lecture 2 (plenary)

Sep 16: Media and Morality Seminar (Jason)
+ WRITTEN QUIZ

Sep 18: Paper Writing Plenary (Jason)

Oct 2: Creative Projects Presentations
1 = culture industry - Aldover
2 = dialogue and dissemination - Crespo
3 = why study the media? - Alegre
4 = proper distance representations of poverty - Chavez
5 = media as environment - Abello

Oct 7: Creative Projects Presentations
6 = Orientalism in Hollywood movies - Castro
7 = how to represent suffering? - Cortez
8 = children watching children - Romualdez
9 = media power and audiences - Libongco

Oct 9: Conclusion
Why Study the Media Conclusion - Co et al

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Below is the list of all the required readings that we have for this class. These required readings are important for your oral exams and final paper (and, for some of you, even the creative projects). These readings are to be photocopied by the beadle and distributed to everyone. But, as you know, we have supplementary readings that you and your classmates report on. These supplementary readings are good to consult when you prepare for your orals and final papers (and creative projects). You may request copies of supplementary readings from me or from the groups that reported on them in class.

*ORAL EXAMS*
1. INTRO TO MEDIA: Silverstone. Why Study the Media? Chapter 3.
2. INTRO TO COMM: Peters. Dialogue and Dissemination. Speaking into the Air.
3. NATURE AND PROCESS OF THEORIZING: none. consult notes.
4. EFFECTS TRADITION: Gitlin. 'Media sociology: The Dominant Paradigm.' TCS.
5. ENCODING/DECODING AND RECEPTION STUDIES: none. consult lecture slides.
6. REPRESENTATIONS: Hall. Representation. Chapter 1.
7. REPRESENTATIONS OF THE OTHER: Hall. Representation. 'The Spectacle of the Other.'
8. CULTURE INDUSTRY: Strinati. An Introduction to Theories of Popular Culture. Chapter on Frankfurt School.

*FINAL PAPER*
9. MEDIA AND MORALITY:
* Cabanes. Agency and Responsibility: On the Question of Being Human in a Mediated World.
* Ong. Children Watching Children: How Filipino Kids Represent and Receive News Images of Distant Suffering. Journal of Children and the Media.
* Ong. The Cosmopolitan Continuum. Locating Cosmopolitanism in Media and Cultural Studies. Media Culture and Society.

Quiz 1 Hall of Fame + Announcement

For the top performers for quiz one, please post your answers here for all to see. Kindly indicate which question you answered.

Also, I am canceling classes for tomorrow, 17 July. I am attending the AMIC Conference in Manila Hotel to support some colleagues in the department.

We will see each other on 22 July for the creative projects presentations in our regular classroom for seminars. Future presenters (especially those with no readings yet), please email me at jo296@cam.ac.uk or bertiebott@hotmail.com.

See you next week!