COM 345.1 Madrid, Spring 1998
(English)
Class Tuesdays, 19:00 - 21:30, International Institute, Aula 304
Professor Kevin G. Barnhurst,
Ph.D., Associate Professor
School of Public Communications, Syracuse University
This course provides the opportunity to view, discuss, and analyze the power of current media images. It has no prerequisites and is open to all students. We will examine examples from the media in Spain as well as the United States, including television, newspapers, magazines, and movies. We will talk about the advertising as well as the content — news and information along with fiction and entertainment. Many forms of imagery will be included, such as pictures, trademarks, infographics, and graphic designs.
The course is organized around critical issues. For example, we will look at the impact of television news on minorities, the representation of men and women, and the ethics of cross-cultural imagery. The major activities include viewing, actively joining in class discussions, oral practice in small groups, reading the textbooks, writing a 4-page paper based on your life experience with the media, presenting and writing a short analysis of a media example, and taking the midterm and final exams.
Readings
Readings for each unit come from two required textbooks: Representation, edited by Stuart Hall (London: Sage, 1997), and Seeing the Newspaper (New York: St. Martin's, 1994). Supplementary materials may be put on reserve in the library.
The course has three goals: First to deepen your skills for viewing the media, second to increase knowledge needed to analyze visual media, and third to develop the judgment to evaluate media imagery. To reach these goals, we will join in the following activities:
Viewing, This is a visual course. Every class session will include images films, slides, videos, and/or printed designs. You will also collect and bring images to class. Always have a magazine, a newspaper, an ad, or even a video with you when you come to class. Begin collecting images don't toss these out!
Discussion. The discussions will be free-ranging, with some structured as Socratic dialogues. With careful reading and preparation, you will learn quickly how to respond to questions. Despite the serious name, it's a fun approach to talking and thinking.
Experience. In class we will try simple exercises individually or in groups, based on the topics being discussed. These are designed to help you understand the concepts and require no specific talent or training beyond the class readings and assignments. You will begin analyzing visual images in small groups.
Assignments. With each different unit, the homework will require that you look at the media using the ideas from class. Most cases involve examining media images and outlining a short think piece. One assignment is to write a life history of your experiences with one particular issue and the media.
Presentations. Each assignment will include an informal (usually small-group) presentation and discussion. One of these will be presented/discussed with the entire class, then written up as a term paper.
Exams. The two exams will be your opportunity to view samples from the media and demonstrate the skills you learned in class for analyzing images.
Unit
1. Visible Signs
Week 1 January 27
How to interpret the things you see in the media. We'll review the basics of
semiotics looking at the image itself for signs of meaning using specific
media examples.
Reading. Representation, Chapter 1. Come to today's class prepared to
discuss the reading.
Week 2 February 3 Presentations & Critique
Assignment 1. Description outline. Pick an ad (or other image) and describe
it in detail using semiotic terms. Come to today's class prepared to present
the image and your typewritten outline.
Unit 2. Picture Narratives
Week 3 February 10
Do images tell meaningful stories? We will examine the place of narrative
in the ways images communicate.
Reading. Representation, Chapter 2; Seeing the Newspaper,
Chapter 2, pp. 2144.
Week 4 February 17 Life History essay
Assignment 2. Life History essay. See the instruction sheet.
Reading. Seeing the Newspaper, Chapter 1.
Unit 3. Stereotyping
Week 5 February 24
Can an image be unfair? We will explore how showing things "as they are"
perpetuates stereotypes.
Reading. Representation, Chapter 4; Seeing the Newspaper, Chapter
3, pp. 808, 93100, 1058.
Week 6 March 3 Presentations & Critique
Assignment 3. Compare/contrast outline. Pick a news page (or other image) and
analyze it for stereotypes.
Week 7 March 10 Midterm Exam
Unit 4. Visual Form
Week 8 March 17
How do images present another culture? We will review the elements of form to
see what they communicate.
Walking tour of a commercial center in Madrid, TBA.
Reading. Representation, Chapter 3; Seeing the Newspaper, Chapter
5, pp. 161178.
Week 9 March 24 Presentations & Critique
Assignment 4. Technical description outline. Analyze a display (or other image)
using formal terms.
Unit 5. Spectatorship
Week 10 March 31
Who looks at an image? We will study the ways images appeal to and include some
viewers, not others.
Reading. Representation, Chapter 5 (Optional: Seeing the Newspaper,
Chapter 4, pp. 13959.)
Week 11 April 7 No Class, Spring Break
Week 12 April 14 Presentations & Critique
Assignment 5. Exposition outline. Pick a magazine layout (or other image) to
see how it positions spectators.
Unit 6. Genre
Week 13 April 21
Are some images designed to attract just some people? We will see how genre
categories work.
Reading. Representation, Chapter 6.
Week 14 April 28 Presentations & Critique
Assignment 6. Media use diary. Pick a genre to view for five days, following
instructions from the chapter.
Week 15 May 5 Final Exam
Participation 20 percent
Life History essay (Assignment 2) 15 percent
Other assignments (5 percent each for 4 of 5) 20 percent
Class presentation (the other of the above 5) 5 percent
Term paper (based on the presentation) 15 percent
Exams (10 Midterm + 15 Final) 25 percent
Attendance
Policy
Class attendance is required and included in the participation grade. I keep
a record of attendance and tardiness. Assignments are due at the beginning of
the class. Late work drops a grade for each class meeting. Please talk to me
in case of illness or university designated emergencies (personal travel is
not excused).
The following items are background materials which you may want to study for additional enrichment and cite in your term paper Please let me know if you need help locating any of these.
Reading
Adatto, Kiku. Picture Perfect. New York: Basic Books, 1988.
Barnhurst , Kevin G. The Alternative Vision: Lewis Hine's Men at Work
and the Dominant Culture." In Inter-Textualities: Photographs and Literature.
Ed. Marsha Bryant. London: Associated University Presses, 1996.
Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. London: BBC/Penguin, 1972. (also on video)
Craig, Robert L. "Designing Ethnicity: The Ideology of Images."
Design Issues 7.2 (Spring 1991): 34-42.
Ewen, Stuart. All Consuming Images: The Politics of Style in Contemporary
Culture. New York: Basic Books, 1988.
Ewen, Stuart. Captains of Consciousness. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1976.
Fiske, John, and John Hartley. Reading Television. New Accents. London:
Methuen, 1978.
Goethals, Gregor T. The Electronic Golden Calf.: Images, Religion, and the
Making of Meaning. Cambridge: Cowley, 1990.
Gross, Larry, John Stuart Katz, and Jay Ruby. Image Ethics: The Moral Rights
of Subjects in Photographs, Film, and Television. New York: Oxford, 1988.
Leach, William. Land of Desire: Merchants, Power & the Rise of a New
American Culture. NY: Pantheon, 1993.
Marchand, Roland. Advertising the American Dream: Making Way for Modernity,
19201-940. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985.
Margolin, Victor, ed. Design Discourse: History Theory, Criticism. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1989.
Mirsky, Lawrence, and Silvana Tropea, ed. The News Aesthetic. New York:
Cooper Union, 1995.
Postman, Neil. Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of
Show Business. NY: Viking, 1985.
Vinzant, Carol. "FAT: How Celebrities Cost You, the Little Guy, Big Bucks
Through the Fabulousness-Added-Tax." Spy 8.4 (February 1994): 34-50.
Williamson, Judith. Decoding Advertisements: Ideology and Meaning in Advertising.
London: Boyars, 1978.
Note on Videotaping
I have a television and VCR with cable hookup and will be happy to tape any
program or you need for your analyses, or you may come to my house to make a
tape yourself. Please supply a blank videotape and give me as much notice as
possible.