Cultural Analysis

Free Trials of Adobe Products

Here are the links to 30-day trials for Adobe products (just click on the "free trial" tab):

• Photoshop (image editing/manipulation) http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop.html 
• Premiere (video editing) http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere.html
• Audition (audio editing) https://creative.adobe.com/products/audition

Other links that Ty showed us:

• The Noun Project https://thenounproject.com/
• Free Sound http://freesound.org/
• Save From http://en.savefrom.net/?rmode=true

Final Paper/Project + Presentations

The final project will be your opportunity to express your own informed, critical view on the media artifact of your analysis. This can take many forms, from a traditional project (final paper, appx 6-8 pages) to a non-traditional project (performance, play, music video, digital campaign, physical artifact like a poster, clothing, installation) that illustrates a.) what the social, cultural, historical and media context is of the artifact you are analyzing b.) 3-5 key concepts from class (think core bullet points from the lectures), appropriately chosen, defined and applied to your artifact and c.) the use and application of at least 2 critical lenses using intersectionality or a treatment of how various lenses intersect and interact. Papers and projects will have different rubrics assigned, so please see the appropriate rubric for your approach.

ALL finals will be accompanied by a 3-4 minute presentation on Tuesday, June 2. Students doing projects will show what they have finished so far and what their vision is, and students doing papers will outline what their argument is and how they will support it in the paper. ALL presentations should identify:

• The media artifact + background/context
• What concepts from class have been incorporated
• What critical lenses have been utilized
• A thesis statement that gives a critical assessment of the media artifact being analyzed.

You will ONLY be graded according to the rubric that pertains to the form of the final you turn in (i.e. if you did a project, you will only be graded according to the project rubric, and the paper assignment grade will be a dash ("-") in your gradebook, indicating that you are exempt from this grade). Rubrics are linked to below:

Paper: https://canvas.du.edu/courses/11373/assignments/97614

Project: https://canvas.du.edu/courses/11373/assignments/97615 

Tutorial - ripping videos from YouTube and Creative Commons

http://communicationinthedigitialage.blogspot.com/2015/02/visual-tutorial-ripping-youtube-videos.html

Video Game Analysis

Final Topic Media Response Paper

Final Topic Media Response Paper (150 pts): Find a media piece (article, blog post, comment, tweet, etc.) that addresses your cultural object and write 3 pages responding critically to it. Things to address: whether you agree with the point of view of the media piece (you may qualify your agreement, meaning you may agree with part but not all of it), what point of view the media piece was written from, whether the author exhibits any cultural “blind spots”, what issues the author adequately and inadequately addresses, and additional points of view that you would like to add to the dialogue. You may also find multiple media piece and bring them into conversation with each other. Use your creative freedom.

Rubric: https://canvas.du.edu/courses/11373/assignments/93981

Queer Analysis

Bud Lite Pulls Labels that Promote Rape Culture

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/04/29/403030019/bud-light-pulls-label-with-message-that-sparked-backlash

Assignment: Social Media Post Series

Final Topic Social Media Series (150 pts): You must either create a social media account for this project or use an already-existing account if you are comfortable with that. You can use any social media platform (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Reddit, etc.). Create a series (3-5) social media posts that use hashtags and replies to specific accounts that intersect interests with your final project - these posts must build upon your proposed final topic in an effort to engage in or begin a dialogue with the online community. The goal is to be as interactive as possible. Submit on Canvas either: the link(s) to your posts (if publicly available) and/or screenshots of your social media interactions.

**The person with the most social media engagements (replies, favorites, shares/retweets, etc) will receive 10 extra credit points. Please note that this extra credit component is the only place where QUANTITY matters, however, QUALITY of engagements is a (small) part of the grading rubric.

Rubric is available on Canvas: https://canvas.du.edu/courses/11373/assignments/91791

Due Tuesday, May 12 at the start of class. Please come to class that day prepared to discuss any insights to your topic you gained from this exercise.

Gender Stereotyping Marketed to Babies

http://boingboing.net/2015/05/05/sexismbegins.html

Extra Credit Opportunity

Comm in the Workplace’s ‘What is Work?’ poster session 

2:30-3:30 on Wednesday April 29th in 451 Sturm. 

"My students have each deconstructed the nature of work in a variety of different pop culture artifacts including, but not limited to, The West Wing, Scrabble, and Dancing with the Stars. I have a great feeling about the work they have been doing, and I think it will be a lot of fun to see the fruits of the labor being visually displayed. Plus, there will be snacks."

• 10 points for attending (must sign in, will be verified by the instructor)
• 20 points for presenting an overview to the class

Feminist Analysis

In Class Instructions for Intersectionality/Privilege Walk Day

Debriefing from Readings on Intersectionality

1. “Intersectionality, for many theorists (see Brah, 1996; Brah and Phoenix, 2004; Lewis, 2006), is a way to challenge subjectification based on gendered assumptions, essentialized difference, racialization, and other post-colonial regimes of power….dimensions of social life (economic, political, cultural, psychic, subjective, and experiential) cannot be divided into singular realms of analysis, but must be addressed in accordance with their ‘contradictory and conflictual relations to each other’” Use this passage to create your own definition of intersectionality as it
   relates to the study of media and popular culture.
2. Please reflect on what you think the author means by: “cultural identity is ‘not an essence, but a positioning’”
3. “The privileged nature of white/Western feminism means that the ‘otherness’ of the Other woman ‘disrupts the unity of “women” as the foundation for feminism’ and thus, we are forced to confront and engage with difference instead of relying on the (un)common ground of ‘woman’ (Ang, 2001:182).” Reflect briefly on how this relates to the #FeminismIsForWhiteWomen and #BlackPowerIsForBlackMen movements

Snowball activity

• Take out a piece of paper (do NOT put your name on it)
• Please write down responses to the following:
• Overall, how did it feel to take part of the activity?
• How did it feel to take steps forward?
• How did it feel to take steps back?
• Were there any statements that made you feel particularly uncomfortable?
• What was the point of this activity?
• How can you apply what you learned in this activity to the study of popular culture and mass media?
• Finally, does this activity give you any ideas for rules of conduct that you’d like to propose to the class going forward with critical media discussions?
• Crumple up the piece of paper, and throw it into the center of the room
• After everyone else has done so, please choose one ball of paper, read it, and decide if you would like to read it out loud and/or respond to it in the class discussion.

Unarmed People of Color Killed by Police, 1999-2014

http://gawker.com/unarmed-people-of-color-killed-by-police-1999-2014-1666672349

Intro to Criticality

Convergence Culture

Participation Points

I will allow blog comments to count towards your participation grade. Here are the rules:

• Comment on the blog post that corresponds to the most recent class lesson.
• You must comment on a lesson/discussion/lecture, etc., before the next class for it to count.
• Comments on the blog will be assessed in the same way that I assess in-class comments: for substance, relevance, thoughtfulness, respect, etc.
• Online comments can increase your participation grade for that day by one point only.

Final Topic Proposal

Final Topic Proposal (150 pts): Your final project will analyze a popular culture event, product, artifact, campaign etc. (examples: Guardians of the Galaxy, Robin Williams’ death, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, etc.) from an intersectional (meaning using multiple frames of analysis) point of view. Your analysis must cover as many “lenses” (i.e. Marxist analysis, Feminist analysis, Queer analysis, Racial analysis, etc.) as possible and discuss how these lenses intertwine. Post a 250-500 word proposal on Canvas covering: 

a.) what the object of your analysis is (30 pts)
b.) the background and context of the object (30 pts)
c.) the media context of the object (30 pts) (where it was covered, when, by whom, how it was treated differently on different platforms)
d.) your personal connection to the object (why it is of interest to you) (30 pts)
e.) what various critical lenses are applicable to the object (30 pts)

*possible lenses include, but are not limited to:

• Marxist Analysis (how capitalism/the need for profit impacts culture)
• Class Analysis (how different classes are treated or represented differently in culture)
• Feminist Analysis (how different genders are treated or represented differently in culture)
• Queer Analysis (how different sexual identities are treated or represented differently in culture)
• Racial Analysis (how different races are treated or represented differently in culture)
• Religious Analysis (how different religions are treated or represented differently in culture)
• Nationalist Analysis (how different nationalities are treated or represented differently in culture)

Daily Current Schedule

Date	Presenter 1	Presenter 2
4/9	Mariah Pawlas	Abbey Garcia
4/14	Sierra Owens	Emma Crisman
4/16	Mackenzie Krall	Darian Brunetti
4/21	Yibai Liu	Chloe Lu
4/23	Amanda Gilbert	Paige Murray
4/28	Grant Wilkinson	Emma Jones
4/30	Lauren Coco	Paul Miller
5/5	Laney Feighan	Connor Davis
5/7	Maddie Utter	Ryan Irwin
5/12	Tianyu Zhang	Yuanyuan Cai (Cyy)
5/14	Jake Wilson	Grace Lambrecht
5/19	Montana Doe	Ryan Massey
5/21	Hanna Krivit	Macy Trotter

Memes: Spreadable Culture

RIP: A Remix Manifesto

Just a reminder to myself and others that we watched until 1:09 yesterday. We will pick up there on Tuesday and watch until the end.
RIP : A Remix Manifesto from Laurent LaSalle on Vimeo.

The Social Organization of Popular Culture

Introduction to Media Studies

What is Popular Culture?

• Everyone is talking about it/came out of nowhere
• What we deem popular
• What corporations want us to consume
• Something we all relate to
• Huge influence in people's lives but dismissed as not imporant
• Consumable Products
• Trends/trending
• Out-of-the-box; novelty; re-invention
• People feel pressured to participate in/all-consuming
• Movies
• Music/Music Videos
• Boy bands!
• Sports
• Podcasts
• Celebrity culture
• Political developments/issues/campaigns
• Viral videos
• Memes
• Social media
• Cartoons
• Video Game
• Parodies
• Advertisements

Introductions

• Name
• Hometown
• Year
• Major
• Why you are taking this class
• The last TV show you binge-watched

Critical Media Studies - Ott and Mack

Please note: our textbook, Critical Media Studies by Brian Ott and Robert Mack is available for FREE through the library website (you must log in with PioneerWeb credentials): http://ca.eblib.com/patron/FullRecord.aspx?p=1557284