MDSA01H3F (LEC99: Online) Summer 2020 (May11-June22)

Critical
Media Studies
Tuesdays 11am-1pm; Thursdays 12-2pm Lectures via Collaborate (Quercus)

INSTRUCTOR INFORMATION

Instructor: Dr. Sarah Lynn Kleeb

Email: sarah.kleeb@utoronto.ca (Please try to use email, rather than Quercus inbox)
Office: Virtual, via Skype
Office Hours: Mondays, 12-6pm, by sign-up (see details below)

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course utilizes contemporary critical theory to assist students in understanding the complex and
changing role of mass media in society. Students are introduced to 12 different critical perspectives,
which are organized according to their emphasis on media industries, messages, or audiences. The
central aim of this course is to foster and promote critical citizenship. To help facilitate this aim, the
textbook regularly incorporates media labs. The labs are designed to clarify, test, and reinforce the
theoretical concepts found in the text and covered in class lectures and discussions .

REQUIRED READINGS

Ott, B.L. & Mack, R.L. (2019). Critical media studies: An

introduction (3rd ed.) Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.

“The centrality of the media, all media, to human

experience—from the conduct of everyday life, to the
exercise of power, to the creation of culture—is
inescapable.”
~ Roger Silverstone

Additional required readings provided online and/or through library links. See the Course
Timeline below for the full list of readings for each week, including links to most readings
(see Quercus for non-linked readings).

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 CONTENT NOTE

As a course in Media Studies, we will – of course! – be engaging a variety of media examples

and artifacts. At times, this may include potentially disturbing materials, including coarse
language/profanity, violence, brief nudity, and/or other “R-rated” materials. While such
items will not be used gratuitously, and while every effort will be made to provide advance
notice of such materials via a Content Note, students must be prepared to engage and
analyze potentially challenging materials, images, videos, and/or texts in this course.

NOTE ON READINGS AND VIEWINGS LIST

In the Course Schedule at the end of this syllabus, you will see the readings and viewings you
must complete. These are separated into the following categories:

 Required Readings
 Required Viewings
 Recommended Readings

 Recommended Viewings

Required material must be completed and are subject to inclusion on exams.

You will not be tested on recommended materials. Rather, these are simply additional
sources that students may find interesting, in relation to the theory we are studying at that
time. They might also be able to serve as resources for the Critical Essay
Assignment (which will be addressed shortly)

NOTES ON THE COURSE STRUCTURE

Normally, MDSA01 is a standard, first-year, introductory course, with an instructor standing at

the front of a large hall lecturing, occasionally asking students questions or otherwise
encouraging some measure of connection between members of the classroom community.
That simply isn’t going to work this term, as the university is unable to live broadcast to nearly
400 people simultaneously.

With this in mind, the general course structure is as such:

Prior to Each Class

- Review the weekly required readings/viewings (and the recommended ones, if you
can/want to), listed in the Course Schedule at the end of this syllabus. Most can be found
via the hyperlink in the work’s title there (usually, this will take you to a library screen,
where you will login with your utorid). Those readings that are not hyperlinked will be
made available on Quercus.

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During Scheduled Class Time
- Evidently, 250+ enrollment courses are the university version of Thor’s Hammer (which
is impossible to lift by [almost] anyone other than Thor). Sadly, the university does not
have the technology to handle a course as mighty as MDSA01, with its 380+ students,
and Thor doesn’t appear to be dropping by to help any time soon (though I’m not sure
he’d be much help in this specific dilemma).

So, by the scheduled time for each class, (Tues 11a-1p; Thurs 12-2p), I will post a
recorded lecture on Quercus. The lecture will cover aspects of the required readings
and help you connect these theories of media to media objects you encounter in the
world. Students who need or want to engage with me directly should sign up for my
office hours, or email me if you are unavailable during that time.

- These recorded sessions will remain available on Quercus, so that students who are
absent are still able to access the material, if they cannot see it when it becomes
available.

MEETING WITH DR. KLEEB/VIRTUAL OFFICE HOURS

As we are clearly unable to hold in-person office hours, I am recommending students who
want to consult with me directly do so via Skype. I’ve met with many students this way, and
it is always highly productive and successful. As such, on every other Monday, I will leave my
schedule open for individual meetings with students, from 12-6pm (Toronto time)

While I’m offering a few days of 6-hour open office hours, please do note that I’m happy to
meet with you outside that time block, if necessary. Please simply email me and request a
meeting.

Currently, the dates for full-day (12-6pm) office hours are: May 18, June 1, and June 15. All
students who wish to meet must enter some details and their desired appointment time in a
sign up sheet, which can be found here. Once you have signed up, I will send you my Skype
ID.

Note that there are 3 tabs to the spreadsheet (at the bottom), one sheet for each of the
above dates. Please use these tabs to ensure you book your meeting on the correct day. As
well, hopefully this goes without saying, but do not delete someone else’s booked
appointment, if they have secured a time spot that you want. Please contact me directly in
such a case, and we’ll figure out a way to meet.

Methods of Evaluation

This course engages students’ critical thought and increasing media literacy in a number or
ways and through a rich variety of theoretical lenses. To evaluate this progression, various
evaluated submissions are required in this course.
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Here are the methods of evaluation for MDSA01, as well as the weight of each assignment:

1. Midterm Exam (35% of final mark)

3. Critical Essay Assignment (approximately 1,000 words, 25% of final mark)
4. Final Exam (40% of final mark)

Breakdown of Assignments

1. Midterm Exam (35% of final mark): The midterm will cover all materials from chapters 1-
6 in the text, as well as lecture materials, and materials noted as “Required” in the
Course Schedule, below.

2. Critical Essay Assignment (25% of final mark): Please see the document on Quercus,
“MDSA01 - Critical Essay Assignment - Summer 2020” for a detailed assignment guide
for your essay, with advice and instruction on both content and form. There is an essay
for each type of analysis in the book, so whatever you decide to write about, you have a
model for success. The essay is due June 12, 2020, 11:59pm (submit through Quercus).

a. Plagiarism Review: Turn It In

Normally, students will be required to submit their course essays to Turnitin.com for
a review of textual similarity and detection of possible plagiarism. In doing so,
students will allow their essays to be included as source documents in the
Turnitin.com reference database, where they will be used solely for the purpose of
detecting plagiarism. The terms that apply to the University’s use of the Turnitin.com
service are described on the Turnitin.com website.

Note that Turn It In will be built into the assignment submissions on Quercus.

You do have the right to opt-out of Turn It In. If you choose not to do this, you must:
1. Let me know as soon as possible (via email)
2. Submit a full copy of your notes for the essay
3. Potentially meet with me (via Skype) to discuss your essay

3. Final Exam (40% of final mark) : The Final Exam will be the same general format as the
Midterm essay. It will cover materials from chapters 7-14 in the text, as well as lecture
materials, and materials noted as “Required” in the Course Schedule, below.

WRITING RESOURCES

Advice on Academic Writing:  https://advice.writing.utoronto.ca/general/general-advice/

Handouts and Online Resources on Writing: https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/twc/handouts-

and-online-resources-writing

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“How Not to Plagiarize”: http://advice.writing.utoronto.ca/using-sources/how-not-to-
plagiarize/

Information Regarding Academic Integrity:

https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/aacc/academic-integrity (summarizes)
https://guides.library.utoronto.ca/utscacademicintegrity (offers more detail)

Properly Using and Citing Sources:

https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/twc/using-and-citing-sources

Style and Methods of Citation: Please use only the APA 7th edition citation format for style,
citation, and reference list. A detailed overview of the APA 7 style guide can be found here:
https://owl.excelsior.edu/citation-and-documentation/apa-style/

Advice for Those Writing without a High or Fluent Level of English Language Skills:
https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/eld/writing

UTSC Writing Centre

The University of Toronto has a variety of sources of help for essay writing – entire
departments of people are dedicated to a single goal: helping your writing be the best
it can possibly be! If you have any concerns about the construction of your essay, I
encourage you to reach out the Writing Centre the amount of guidance they give, and
the level of their dedication to students, cannot be overstated. This is a link to their
main page, and specific resources are further highlighted below.

One to One Writing Support: While meeting in person for writing support won’t be
possible this term, the Writing Centre is still crafting ways to connect with students to
help them with their writing needs, including one-on-one online tutoring, which allows
students to meet privately with a writing teacher to discuss their work. h

Accessing Online Tutorials (requires utorid login)

List of Online Resources

English Language Development Centre (ELDC)

The ELDC at UTSC offers constructive and comprehensive assistance to native and
non-native English speakers through tutorials, discussion groups, and activities, like
the Reading and Writing Excellence (RWE) program, RWE has proven to be very
effective for many students in addressing their academic reading and writing needs.
See their website for more information.

List of Online Resources Workshops for Students*

*Please do note that some of these programs are still in the process of adapting
to our current online atmosphere, and may or may not be immediately

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 accessible at the beginning of the term. If you are interested in using services
listed by groups like the ELDC or the Writing Centre, check their websites often
for updates, and occasionally contact staff to see if there are any new
developments that would be useful for you.

ACCESSIBLE LEARNING

Students requiring accommodations due to a disability, health-related issue, or unique

learning style are welcome in this course. Both your Instructor and the University of Toronto
are committed to accessibility. I have worked extensively with Accessibility Services at UTSC,
and I am committed to helping all students achieve their academic goals. All inquiries will
remain strictly confidential. If you require accommodations, or have any accessibility
concerns about the course, the classroom, or course materials, please let me know as soon
as possible and contact Accessibility Services Room AA142 (Arts & Admin Building), or at:
http://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/~ability/.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY (PLAGIARISM)

Academic integrity is essential to the pursuit of learning and scholarship in a university and
to ensuring that a degree from the University of Toronto is a strong signal of each student’s
individual academic achievement. As a result, the University treats cases of cheating,
plagiarism, and academic dishonesty very seriously. As such, we maintain a zero-tolerance
policy in cases of cheating, plagiarism, and academic dishonesty. All violations of the
standards of academic integrity will be reported to the necessary university officials.
Potential offences include, but are not limited to:

In papers and assignments: Using someone else’s ideas or words (via direct quotes,
paraphrases, and summarizations) without appropriate acknowledgement. Submitting your
own work in more than one course without the permission of the Instructor. Making up
sources or facts. Obtaining or providing unauthorized assistance on any assignment,
including copying and/or modifying the work of your peers.

On tests and exams: Using or possessing unauthorized aids. Looking at someone else’s
answers during an exam or test. Misrepresenting your identity.

In academic work: Falsifying institutional documents or grades. Falsifying or altering any

documentation required by the University, including (but not limited to) doctor’s notes.

LATE ASSIGNMENT POLICY

Late assignments with a documented excuse will be accepted with no penalty, up to 10

days following the due date (unless other arrangements are made). Late work without
documentation will be subject to the following penalty: -10% + 1 point per day of lateness.

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 So, if an essay is 5 days late, the penalty would be 10 points (10% of 100 possible points) +
5 points (one point for each day of lateness) = a total deduction of 15 points out of 100. In
this example, the highest possible score on the assignment would be 85/100.

Late essay submissions (without documentation) may not receive the same amount of
commentary provided for assignments submitted on time. No work will be accepted
beyond 10 days late.

COURSE SCHEDULE

Follow links to access sources.

Texts without links will be uploaded as PDFs on Quercus.

Week 1A (May 12 – Tues.) Course Introduction

No Readings

Week 1B (May 14 – Thurs.) Media Literacy, Ch. 1 and Marxist Analysis, Ch. 2

Required Readings:
- Critical Media Studies (CMS), pp. 1-60
-Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, “The Ruling Class and the Ruling Ideas”
-Tiziana Terranova, “Free Labor: Producing Culture for the Digital Economy”

Required Viewing:
-“Noam Chomsky - The 5 Filters of the Mass Media Machine” (by Al Jazeera English,
narrated by Amy Goodman)
- “Hegemony – 10 Minute Philosophy”

Recommended (Optional) Readings:

-Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of
the Mass Media
o (Note: this link should go to the 2002 edition, with an updated introduction from the
authors).
-Alan MacLeod, Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent

Recommended (Optional) Viewings:

-“Manufacturing Consent”, Films for Action (Documentary)
-“No Logo: Brands, Globalization, Resistance” (Documentary, featuring Naomi Klein

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 Week 2A (May 19 – Tues.) Organizational Analysis, Ch. 3

Required Readings:
- CMS, pp. 61-88
- Susan Keith, et al., “Images in Ethics Codes in an Era of Violence and Tragedy”
- Cristoph Raetzsch. “’Real Pictures of Current Events’: The Photographic Legacy of
Journalistic Objectivity”
- Donna Schwartz, “To Tell the Truth: Codes of Objectivity in Photojournalism”

Required Viewing:
- “White Riots vs. Black Protests” (by Brave New Films)

Recommended Readings:
- Sonya M. Alemán, “A Critical Race Counterstory: Chicana/o Subjectivities vs. Journalism
Objectivity”
- Jelle Boumans, “Subsidizing The News? Organizational Press Releases’ Influence on
News Media’s Agenda and Content”
- Matt Carlson, “Journalists as Victims and Perpetrators of Violence” (Chapter 11 in the
book, News of Baltimore: Race, Rage, and the City, pp. 197-213.)
- Matt Carlson, “News Algorithms, Photojournalism and the Assumption of Mechanical
Objectivity in Journalism”
- John Ramón Muñoz-Torres, “Truth and Objectivity in Journalism: Anatomy Of An
Endless Misunderstanding”
- D. Whitney, et al., “News Media Production: Individuals, Organizations, and
Institutions”

Week 2B (May 21 – Thurs.) Pragmatic Analysis, Ch. 4

Required Readings:
- CMS, pp. 89-115
- Henry A. Giroux, “Racism and the Aesthetic of Hyper‐Real Violence: Pulp Fiction and
Other Visual Tragedies”
- Scott R. Stroud, “Pragmatist Media Ethics and the Challenges of Fake News”

Required Viewings:
-Scientific American, “What Is the Bystander Effect?”
-CNBC, “The Debate Behind Video Game Violence”

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Recommended Readings:
- Chris Russill, “Through a Public Darkly: Reconstructing Pragmatist Perspectives in
Communication Theory”
- Henry Jenkins, “The War Between Effects and Meaning: Rethinking the Video Game
Violence Debate” (Online, through Quercus)
- PBS Idea Channel, “Is Buying Call of Duty a Moral Choice? | Idea Channel | PBS Digital
Studios”

Recommended Viewing:
-The Game Theorists, “Game Theory: Do Video Games Cause Violence? It's Complicated”

Week 3A (May 26 – Tues.) Rhetorical Analysis, Ch. 5

Required Readings:
- CMS, pp. 119-143
- Daniel Chandler, “Models of the Sign” (pp. 13- 57) and “Challenging the Literal” (pp.
123-145), in Semiotics: The Basics, 2nd edition
- Douglas Kellner, “Reading Images Critically: Toward a Postmodern Pedagogy”
- Horace Newcomb, “Narrative and Genre”

Required Viewing:
- Jack Shaheen, Reel Bad Arabs, How Hollywood Vilifies a People (2006)

Recommended Readings:
- Barbara Biesecker, “No Time for Mourning: The Rhetorical Production of the
Melancholic Citizen-Subject in the War on Terror”
- Brian L. Ott, “The Visceral Politics of V for Vendetta: On Political Affect in Cinema”
- “You Saw What in ‘Avatar’? Pass Those Glasses!” (by Dave Itzkoff, New York Times)

Recommended Viewing:
- V for Vendetta (2006)

Week 3B (May 28 – Thurs.) Cultural Analysis, Ch. 6

Required Readings:
- CMS, pp. 144-172
- John Fiske, “Culture, Ideology, Interpellation” (Online, via Quercus)
- P. Pannian, “Orient, Occident, and the Constitution of Subjectivity”

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- Kimberly A. Powell, “Framing Islam: An Analysis of U.S. Media Coverage of Terrorism
Since 9/11”
- Silvio Waisbord, “Media and the Reinvention of the Nation”

Required Viewing:
- University Quick Course, “Edward Said and Orientalism: A Simple Explanation”
- Knowledgeable Reaction, “Orientalism: How the West Views the Rest of the World”

Recommended Readings
- Theodore Adorno and Max Horkheimer, “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass
Deception”
- Louis Althusser, “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (Notes Towards an
Investigation)”
- Shahira Fahmy and Daekyung Kim, “Picturing the Iraq War: Constructing the Image of
War in the British and US Press”
- Antonio Gramsci, “(i) History of the Subaltern Classes; (ii) The Concept of “Ideology”;
(iii) Cultural Themes: Ideological Material”
- Sofia Hayati Yusof, et al., “The Framing of International Media on Islam And Terrorism”

Recommended Viewings:
- They Live (1988)
- Slavoj Žižek on They Live (excerpt from The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology)

Assignment:
-Prepare for the midterm exam, which takes place in the next class!

Week 4A (June 2 – Tues.) Midterm Exam

Midterm Exam (Covers content from the first 6 lessons.

Exam will be held during class time)

Week 4B (June 4 – Thurs.) Psychoanalytic Analysis, Ch. 7

Required Reading:
- CMS, pp. 173-203
- Joshua Gunn, “Refitting Fantasy: Psychoanalysis, Subjectivity, and Talking to the Dead”
- Laura Mulvey, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” (Online, via Quercus)
- Gerald Poscheschnik, “Game of Thrones—A Psychoanalytic Interpretation Including
Some Remarks on the Psychosocial Function of Modern TV Series”

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Required Viewing:
- The Media Insider, “Are Women Still Objectified? | Laura Mulvey Male Gaze Theory
Explained!”

Recommended Reading:
- Jean-Louis Baudry and Alan Williams, “Ideological Effects of the Basic Cinematographic
Apparatus'”
- Neil Narine, “Global Trauma and Narrative Cinema”
- Xavier Aldana Reyes, “‘Beyond Psychoanalysis: Post-millennial Horror Film and Affect
Theory” (Online, via Quercus)
- Craig Saper, “A Nervous Theory: The Troubling Gaze of Psychoanalysis in Media
Studies”
- Slavoj Žižek, “Cyberspace, or, How to Traverse the Fantasy in the Age of the Retreat of
the Big Other”

Week 5A (June 9 – Tues.) Feminist Analysis, Ch. 8, Queer Analysis, Ch. 9

Required Reading:
- CMS, pp. 204-256
- Frederik Dhaenens, “The Fantastic Queer: Reading Gay Representations in Torchwood
and True Blood as Articulations of Queer Resistance”
- Chandra Talpade Mohanty, “Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial
Discourses”
- Laine Nooney, “The Uncredited: Work, Women, and the Making of the U.S. Computer
Game Industry”
- Haley E. Solomon and Beth Kurtz-Costes, “Media’s Influence on Perceptions of Trans
Women”

Required Viewing:
- The Mask You Live In (2015), directed by Jennifer Siebel Newsom

Recommended Reading
- Julian Kevon Glover, “Redefining Realness?: On Janet Mock, Laverne Cox, TS Madison,
and the Representation of Transgender Women of Color in Media”
- Kailash Koushik and Abigail Reed, “Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Beauty and the Beast, and
Disney’s Commodification of Feminism: A Political Economic Analysis”
- Alfred L. Martin, Jr., “Scripting Black Gayness: Television Authorship in Black-Cast
Sitcoms”
- Steve Neale, “Masculinity as Spectacle”

Recommended Viewing:
- Kaitlynn Mendes, Representations of Feminism in Media

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 Week 5B (June 11 – Thurs.) Reception Analysis, Ch. 10, Erotic Analysis, Ch. 12

Required Reading:
- CMS, pp. 259-279 and pp. 300-326
- Brian Ott, “(Re)Locating Pleasure in Media Studies: Toward an Erotics of Reading”
- B.L. Ott, “The Pleasures of South Park (an Experiment in Media Erotics)”
- Christine Scodari, “Resistance Re-Examined: Gender, Fan Practices, and Science Fiction
Television”

Recommended Reading:
- Frederik Dhaenens, et al., “Slashing the Fiction of Queer Theory: Slash Fiction, Queer
Reading, and Transgressing the Boundaries of Screen Studies, Representations, and
Audiences”
- Stuart Hall, “Encoding/Decoding”
- Virginia Keft-Kennedy, “Fantasising Masculinity in Buffyverse Slash Fiction: Sexuality,
Violence and the Vampire” (Online, through Quercus)
- Julie Kalil Schutten, “Invoking Practical Magic: New Social Movements, Hidden
Populations, and the Public Screen”

Assignment:
- *Critical Essay Due by midnight, June 12, 2020 – submit online via Quercus*
-Complete Module 9 prior to the next class

Week 6A (June 16 – Tues.) Sociological Analysis, Ch. 11

Required Reading:
- CMS, pp. 280-299
- Peter Dendle, “The Zombie as Barometer of Cultural Anxiety”
- Nicole Birch-Bayley, “Terror in Horror Genres: The Global Media and the Millennial
Zombie”
- Ronald Soetaert, et al., “Video Games as Equipment for Living”
- Jon Stratton, “Zombie Trouble: Zombie Texts, Bare Life and Displaced People”

Required Viewing:
- PBS Idea Channel “Why Do We Love Zombies? | Idea Channel | PBS Digital Studios”

Week 6B (June 18 – Thurs.) Ecological Analysis, Ch.

13, Course Wrap-up

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Required Reading:
- CMS pp. 327-368
- Marshall McLuhan, excerpt from “The Medium is the Message”

The final exam date will be announced by the Registrar, but

the final exam period for F courses is: June 23 – June 27

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