Section 1: MWF 9:15-10:20 am
Section 2: MWF 10:30-11:35 am
Kalmanovitz 311
Professor David Silver
Office / hours: Kalmanovitz 141, MW, 1-2 & by
appointment
Contact: dmsilver [ at ] usfca [ dot ] edu
This course introduces students to the field of media
studies. Beginning with the printing press and ending with social media,
students will examine various media developments and eras and begin to
appreciate the complex interactions between media and larger cultural,
economic, political, and social conditions.
Upon completion of this course, students will:
o Be
able to explain the key developments and social actors of media history;
o Be
able to explain how these developments were and continue to be embedded within key
cultural, economic, political, and social conditions; and
o Be
able to read various media texts critically and creatively.
Course Costs
o All
readings will be emailed to you as PDFs or are available online for free.
o Documentaries
like The Sun Never Sets and Women in Comedy are available for free
on Kanopy and Films on Demand via Gleeson Library’s web site.
o For
class on February 3, you are required to purchase one print version of the San Francisco Chronicle. It will cost
between $1 and $1.50.
o Finally,
you are required, by April 7, to watch a film at a “movie palace” like San
Francisco’s Castro Theater or Oakland’s Grand Lake Theater. General admission
is $12. (Castro matinees are $9; Grand Lake’s cost $6.)
Grading
30% — Midterms (10% x 3)
20% — Exhibits (10% x 2)
20% — Group Exhibit (Trump’s First 100 Days)
30% — Homework, quizzes, and in class assignments
30% — Midterms (10% x 3)
20% — Exhibits (10% x 2)
20% — Group Exhibit (Trump’s First 100 Days)
30% — Homework, quizzes, and in class assignments
Attendance Policy
Missing class, or attending class unprepared, will
significantly affect your final grade. If you do miss class, contact a classmate
to find out what we discussed in class and ask to borrow her or his notes.
Then, do the same with a second classmate. After this, if you still have
questions about missed material, visit me during office hours or email me.
Course Rules
1.
No late work accepted.
2.
No drinking out of non-reusable containers
during class.
Course Calendar
WEEK 1
Mon, 1/23:
Introduction, distribute syllabi.
Wed, 1/25: Read
Ken Auletta, “Outside the Box: Netflix and the Future of Television,” The New
Yorker, February 3, 2014.
Fri, 1/27: Read
Mara Einstein, “Introduction: Why Ads Don’t Look Like Ads,” in Black Ops Advertising (2016), pp. 1-23.
Unit One: Words
WEEK 2
Mon, 1/30: Read Michael
Schudson, “The Revolution of the Penny Press,” in Discovering the News: A Social History of American Newspapers
(1978): pp. 14-31, 196-7.
Wed, 2/1: Watch The Sun Never Sets: A Small Town Newspaper
(2012, 55 mins) Video available on Kanopy via Gleeson Library. Watch selections,
in class, from Stop the Presses (2008;
48 mins).
Fri, 2/3: Read,
front to back, the Thursday, February 2 print edition of the San Francisco Chronicle. Observe
everything. Bring entire paper to class and be prepared to discuss.
WEEK 3
Mon, 2/6: Read
Ellen Gruber Garvey, “Reframing the Bicycle: Magazines and Scorching Women,” in
The Adman in the Parlor: Magazines and
the Gendering of Consumer Culture, 1880s to 1910s (1996): pp. 106-134.
Wed, 2/8: Midterm 1 review.
Fri, 2/10: MIDTERM
1
Unit Two: Sounds
WEEK 4
Mon, 2/13: Read
Edward D. Miller, “David Bowie, Alladin Sane, and America,” in Tomboys, Pretty Boys, and Outspoken Women:
The Media Revolution of 1973 (2011): pp. 83-118.
Wed, 2/15: Exhibit
workshop
Fri, 2/17: POPULAR
MUSIC EXHIBIT (to get ideas flowing, check out 60+ student exhibits from spring 2016 and 70 student projects from fall 2015)
WEEK 5
Mon, 2/20: No
Class: Presidents’ Day Holiday
Wed, 2/22: Read
Susan J. Douglas, “Amateur Operators and American Broadcasting: Shaping the
Future of Radio,” in Joseph J. Corn, ed., Imagining
Tomorrow: History, Technology, and the American Future (1986), pp: 35-57.
Fri, 2/24: Read
Michael Brian Schiffer, “The Radio Craze,” in The Portable Radio in American Life (1991): pp. 48-62.
WEEK 6
Mon, 2/27: Read Susan Smulyan, “Toward National Radio,” in Selling Radio: The Commercialization of American Broadcasting, 1920-1934 (1994): pp. 11-36.
Wed, 3/1: Read Melvin Patrick Ely, “White Men, Black Voices,” in The Adventures of Amos ‘n’ Andy: A Social History of an American
Phenomenon (1991): pp. 1-10.
Fri, 3/3: Guest
lecture: Miranda Morris, KUSF General Manager. In preparation for
Miranda’s visit, take some time to listen to KUSF. Also, watch Basile
Inman's “Sister Lazarus" and Cristina
Pachano-Lauderdale's “Rock N Swap." And then read Kevin Lozano's “Does College Radio Even Matter Anymore?” Pitchfork, February 8, 2017
WEEK 7
Mon, 3/6: To be
determined
Wed, 3/8: Midterm
review
Fri, 3/10: MIDTERM
2
WEEK 8
Spring Break
Unit Three: Images
WEEK 9
Mon, 3/20: Read Steven
Lubar, “Pictures,” in InfoCulture: The
Smithsonian Book of Information Age Inventions (1993), pp. 51-64.
Wed, 3/22: Watch John
Berger’s Ways of Seeing, Part I (YouTube)
Fri, 3/24: Photography workshop
WEEK 10
Mon, 3/27: William
Boddy, “The Beginnings of American Television,” in Anthony Smith, ed., Television: An International History
(1995): pp. 35-61.
Wed, 3/39: Kristen
Hatch, “Selling Soap: Post-war Television Soap Opera and the American
Housewife,” in Janet Thumim, ed., Small
Screens, Big Ideas: Television in the 1950s (2002): pp. 35-49
Fri, 3/31: Susan
J. Douglas, “Sex and the Single Teenager,” in Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media (1994):
pp. 61-81.
WEEK 11
Mon, 4/3: Class-generated
readings on Reality Shows.
Wed, 4/5: Watch Pioneers of Television. / Game Shows (56
mins).
Fri, 4/7: By today’s class, you
are required to have to watched a film at a “movie palace” like San Francisco’s
Castro Theater or Oakland’s Grand Lake Theater. This is required. Also, read
Laurel Hennen Vigil, “Why the Curtain Fell: During the Golden Age of cinema, Oakland and Berkeley boasted dozens of grand, historic movie palaces,” East Bay Express, December 16, 2015.
WEEK 12
Mon, 4/10: Watch Women in Comedy (PBS, 2014: 54 mins).
Wed, 4/12: Read
Andrew Marantz, “Ready for Prime Time: After twenty-five years as a road comic, Leslie Jones becomes a star,” The New
Yorker, January 4, 2016, pp. 22-29; and Amanda Hess, “Asian-American Actors Are Fighting for Visibility. They Will Not Be Ignored,” New York Times, May 25, 2016.
Fri, 4/14: No
class: Easter Holiday
WEEK 13
Mon, 4/17: Guest
lecture: Michael Robertson, professor of Media Studies and Journalism, USF.
Readings to be determined.
Wed, 4/19: Midterm
review
Fri, 4/21: MIDTERM
3
WEEK 14
Mon, 4/24: Guest
lecture: Danny Plotnick, director of Film Studies minor, USF. Readings to be
determined.
Wed, 4/26: Exhibit
workshop
Fri, 4/28: FAVE
FILM EXHIBIT (here’s 62 student exhibits from last year’s class)
WEEK 15
Mon, 5/1: Trump’s
First 100 Days research workshop
Wed, 5/3:
(continued)
Fri, 5/5: (continued)
WEEK 16
Mon, 5/8: Trump
group exhibit workshop
TUESDAY, 5/9:
Pop-up group exhibit (“Trump’s First 100 Days”) in Thacher Gallery in Gleeson
Library (here’s some examples from fall 2014’s #everydaymedia pop-up)
Wed, 5/10: End-of-the-semester
party
There is no final in this class.
