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.