VM101 History of Media Arts II

Spring 2016, Section 09 2-3:45pm, Ansin 604

Rachelle A. Dermer
Ansin 916D
rachelle_dermer@emerson.edu
Office Hours: T/R 10:30am-12pm
Catalog Course Description
This is the second of a two-semester course that explores the historical
development of the media arts, focusing on the continuing development of the
film, broadcasting, and sound recording industries after 1965, as well as the
development of video and digital technologies. Investigates the relationships
between economics, industrial history, and social and political systems, and the
styles and techniques of specific films and videos, broadcast programs, and
digital media products.
Course Text & Materials
Textbook: Lucia, Cynthia, Roy Grundmann, and Art Simon, American Film History,
Selected Readings, 1960-Present (Wiley, 2016) available in the college bookstore.
Additional Reading: as assigned, available on Canvas or the College Library.
Screenings: The screenings will be mostly in-class, with some assigned out-ofclass; if you miss an in-class screening, you are expected to watch the material on
your own. Amazon, Netflix and/or Hulu and other streaming services are
useful, but not required. All media that we screen is available through Emersons
library.
We will use CANVAS for the course and you will see the syllabus and all
relevant materials and assignments will be found on the course site (with the
exception of the textbook).
Course Objectives
Students will engage in understanding an overview of the history of media
from 1965 to the present.
Students will engage with historical and contemporary media.
Students will gain an understanding of modes of production and access to
modes of production.
Students will gain an understanding of the form and the context of media.
Students will learn to critically evaluate media texts through readings and
screenings.
Students will develop tools with which they can critically assess and
understand media.
Students will understand the connection between media and a larger social,
political and cultural context.

Course Requirements
Participation
Participation consists of attendance and your thoughtful contribution to class
discussion. Your contributions should evidence your reading for that week.
Please note that your attendance is required in order for you to participate.
Attendance is part of your participation grade in the course.
Weekly Critical Responses
Every week, the reading and screening(s) require a critical response on your part.
This is a short, written assignment for which no research is required. It is simply
your critical assessment of the reading and the screened material. Although there
is no research required, you must use evidence from the reading/screening to
support your position. If there are multiple readings/screenings, you can
compare and contrast or integrate your response in some thematic method.
You should use proper essay format. Begin with an introduction with a thesis
statement at the end of the introductory paragraph. The thesis is simply your
response to the material. Then, in the next two or more paragraphs, support your
response with evidence and examples from the material (readings and
screenings). Finally, write a conclusion paragraph that re-states your position
and summarizes the paper. Never add new information in the conclusion. These
papers should be one - two pages in length, typed in standard 12 point type,
double-spaced. I assign ten Critical Responses. Your grade will consist of the best
eight of these responses (your bottom two grades on this exercise will be
dropped).
Research Paper
You will write one research paper for this class. I will give you more information
when I give the assignment. This is a basic research paper of 3-5 pages with
appropriate research and footnotes. The purpose of this paper is to help you
develop your skills as a researcher, your critical thinking skills in relation to
media, and your voice as a writer.
Midterm & Final Exam
I will give both a midterm and a final exam. The midterm will be given before
spring break (as noted on the schedule) and the final exam on the scheduled date
for the final exam for this class (again, noted on the schedule). Both exams will be
multiple choice, true/false with one essay question. It is more important to
understand ideas and be able to critically engage with media history than to be
able to regurgitate dates, people, places, although there is some necessity in this
in order to expand and grow your intellectual skills. This will be reflected in the
types of questions that you will find on the exam. I will provide additional
information on the exam in class and I will have a review session for each exam.

Dermer VM101 Spring 2016

Grading Policy
Your final grade in this course is calculated according to the following weights:
Participation
10%
Weekly Critical Responses
40%
Research Paper
20&
Midterm Exam
15%
Final Exam
15%
Grades are assigned using the colleges grading scale. All work should be
submitted electronically via the course folder. Late work will receive a grade
reduction of one letter grade for each day that it is late.
Academic Integrity
It is the responsibility of all Emerson students to know and adhere to the
College's policy on plagiarism, which can be found at:
http://www.emerson.edu/policy/plagiarism. If you have any questions
concerning the Emerson plagiarism policy or about documentation of sources in
work you produce in this course, speak to your instructor.
Disability Statement
Emerson College is committed to providing equal access to its academic
programs and social activities for all qualified students with disabilities. While
upholding this commitment, we require all Emerson students to meet the high
standards of achievement that are essential to the Colleges programs and
services. To advance these dual aims, the College will provide reasonable
accommodations to disabled students who request accommodations through the
Colleges Disability Services Office (DSO), if the DSO determines that
accommodations are both medically necessary and reasonable. Please note that a
requested accommodation will only be approved as reasonable if it does not
compromise any essential requirements of a course. Students who wish to
request a disability accommodation must submit their request to the DSO, and
not to faculty, since only the DSO is authorized to approve or deny any requests
for accommodations. College employees and students family members cannot
request accommodations on a students behalf. Rather, students who wish to
request accommodations must themselves contact the DSO since Emersons
philosophy is that its students are independent and self determined and students
with disabilitieslike non-disabled studentshave control over their lives here
at Emerson and are ultimately responsible for making their own decisions.
Students who know at the start of a semester that they will need
accommodations must submit their accommodation requests to the DSO within
the first two weeks of the semester. If a student becomes ill or disabled during
the course of a semester, or discovers after the start of a semester that he or she
needs a disability accommodation, he or she is encouraged to submit his or her
request to the DSO as soon as possible since the process of approving
accommodations takes time, and approved accommodations will not be granted
retroactively. The Director for Disability Services can be reached at: 617-8248592, dso@emerson.edu, 5 Floor 216 Tremont Street.
th

Dermer VM101 Spring 2016

Diversity and Inclusion

Every student in this class will be honored and respected as an individual with
distinct experiences, talents, and backgrounds. Students will be treated fairly
regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identification, disability,
socio-economionc status, or national identity. Issues of diversity may be a part of
class discussion, assigned material, and projects. The instructor will make every
effort to ensure that an inclusive environment exists for all students. If you have
any concerns or suggestions for improving the classroom climate, please do not
hesitate to speak with the course instructor or to contact the Office of Diversity
and Inclusion at 617-824-8528 or by email at diversity_inclusion@emerson.edu.

Dermer VM101 Spring 2016

Week 01

Introduction/Critical Engagement with Media History

T 01/12

Course Overview
Read: Setting the Stage: American Film History, 1960-1975, in American
Film History (AFH)

R 01/14

Screen: Smothered: The Censorship Struggles of the Smothers Brothers Comedy

Hour (2002), 93 min.
Read: Key Players, in Curtin & Shattuc, The American Television
Industry (2009), The Classic Network System, 1965-1975, in Michele
Hilmes, Only Connect: A Cultural History of Broadcasting in the United
States (2006).

Week 02

1965-1979

T 01/19

The Late 1960s Counterculture/Youth Culture

Due: Critical Response 01
Read: Thomas Schatz, Seismic Shifts in the American Film Industry, in
AFH

R 01/21

Screen: Blow Up (1966)

Read: Horace Newomb, The Television Artistry of Norman Lear, in
Prospects (1976); Derek Nystrom, The New Hollywood, in AFH; Aniko
Bodroghkozy, Negotiating the Mod, How The Mod Squad Played the
Ideological Balancing Act in Prime Time, in Goove Tube (2001)
Screen: (on your own) Episodes from Norman Lears ouvre: All in the
Family, Maude, Good Times

Week 03

1965-1979 cont.

T 01/26

1970s Television/Rating System & New Hollywood

Due: Critical Response 02
Read: Alex Lykidis, Black Representation in Independent Cinema: From
Civil Rights to Black Power, in AFH

R 01/28

Screen: The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973), Directed by Ivan Dixon
Read: 1970s Lifestyle Feminism, the Single Woman and The Mary Tyler
Moore Show, in Prime Time Feminism: Television, Media Culture and the
Womens Movement Since 1970 (1996)

Week 04

1965-1979 cont.

Dermer VM101 Spring 2016

T 02/02

Civil Rights & 1970s (Second Wave) Feminism

Due: Critical Response 03
Read: Lucy Fischer, Feminism, Cinema, and Film Criticism, in AFH

R 02/04

Screen: Wanda (1970), Written & Directed by Barbara Loden

Read: Nashville: Putting on the Show: Or, Paradoxes of the Instant and
the Moment, in AFH.
Screen: (on your own) Nashville (1975), Directed by Robert Altman

Week 05

1965-1979 cont.

T 02/09

Hollywood Blockbuster | Documentary Film and New Technologies

Due: Critical Response 04
Read: Barry Keith Grant, Ethnography in the First Person, Frederick
Wisemans Titicut Follies, in Documenting the Documentary (2013);
Charles Warren, Cinema Direct and Indirect: American Documentary,
1960-1975, in AFH

R 02/11

Screen: Titicut Follies (1967)

Read: Graham Thompson, Film and Television, in American Culture in
the 1980s (2007)

Week 06

1980-1990

T 02/16

1980s: The Reagan Years & The Rise of Cable Television

Screen: Genesis, Land of Confusion (music video, 1986), Directed by
John Lloyd & Jim Yukich
Read: Susan Jeffords, Back to the Future: Hollywood and Reagans
America, in AFH
Due: Critical Response 05

R 02/18

Screen: sex, lies and videotape (1989), Stephen Soderbergh

Read: Jake Austen, Video Vanguard, MTV, Music Videos, and the
History of Rock and Roll on TV, in TV a-Go-Go (2007)

Week 07

1980-1990

Dermer VM101 Spring 2016

T 02/23

MTV & 1980s Youth Culture

Due: Critical Response 06
Ed Guerro, The Rise and Fall of Blaxploitation, in Framing Blackness:
The African American Image in Film (1993)

R 02/25

Screen: Do the Right Thing (1989), Spike Lee

Read: Selections from Scott MacDonald, American Ethnographic Film and
Personal Documentary (2013); Lucy Fischer, Documentary Film and the
Discourse of Hysterical/Historical Narrative, in Documenting the
Documentary
Screen: (on your own) Shermans March (1985), Ross McElwee

Week 08

Midterm

T 03/01

Review for Midterm Exam

R 03/03

MIDTERM EXAM

03/08 & 10

SPRING BREAK

Week 09

1990-Present

T 03/15

Personal Documentary
Read: Setting the Stage: American Film History, 1991 to the Present, in
AFH; Janet K. Cutler, Reclaiming the Black Family, Charles Burnett,
Julie Dash, and the L.A. Rebellion, in AFH

R 03/17

Screen: Daughters of the Dust (1991), Directed by Julie Dash

Read: Michael Bronski, The Queer 1990s: The Challenge and Failure of
Radical Change, in AFH

Week 10

1990-Present

T 03/22

New Queer Cinema

Due: Critical Response 07
Read: Branded Cable Networks, and The New Economies of TV
Information, in in The American Television Industry (2009)

R 03/24

Screen: Velvet Goldmine (1998), co-Written & Directed by Todd Haynes

Dermer VM101 Spring 2016

Read: TBD
Week 11

1990-Present

T 03/29

Revisiting Documentary
Due: Critical Response 08
Read: TBD

R 03/31

Screen: Operation Filmmaker (2007), by Nina Davenport

Read: TBD

Week 12

1990-Present

T 04/05

Due: Critical Response 09

Read: Kristen Whissel, Plasmatics and Prisons: The Morph and the
Spectacular Emergence of CGI; Bart Beaty, The Blockbuster
Superhero in AFH

R 04/07

Screen: The Dark Knight (2008), Directed by Christopher Nolan

Read: TBD

Week 13

1990-Present

T 04/12

Expanded Deployment
Due: Critical Response 10

R 04/14

Screen: Chi-Raq (2015), Directed by Spike Lee

Week 14

REVIEW

T 04/19

Review for Final Exam

R 04/21

NO CLASS READING DAY

04/28

FINAL EXAM 1-3pm

Dermer VM101 Spring 2016