SS 355.

1 and 2 Mass Media and Society Department of Social Science and Cultural Studies Spring 2012 Wednesdays: Sec 1 9:30 - 12:20 am, and Sec 2 2 4:50 pm Room: NH 202 Instructor: Ivn Zatz, Associate Professor Office: 419 DeKalb Hall E-mail: izatzdia@pratt.edu Office Hours: W 8:55 - 9:25 am, 12:25 1:55 and 4:55 5:25 pm and by appointment 3 credits. Elective Course. No prerequisites. Bulletin Description An examination of the psychological impact of the modern mass media. Basic models of communication, persuasion, motivation, and attitude formation are presented and applied to the study of the effects of the media on mental and emotional development and on the formation of social attitudes. The course also examines the social implication of the effects of commercial and political propaganda and the "marketing" of political figures as well as the social consequences of the development of a "post-literate" society. Sections of this course are reserved for undergraduate students. May not be repeated. Course Description The course will examine the theoretical implication of the nexus between mass media and mass society. A brief theoretical introduction will indicate basic tools of semiological and sociological analysis. This will be followed by several weeks in which the historical development of Taylorized mass production is shown to be matched by mass media in the United States, primarily. The final part of the course will analyze postmodern culture and its connection to Postfordism and mass media. The overall consideration throughout the course will be the construction of society with and through media, ranging from the Big Screen of the cinema to the small screen of tv, computers and interactive hand held devices. Teaching Objectives To establish a working vocabulary and a pedagogical method that allows students to understand the connection between media and society in a dialectical and non-causal way To establish a working environment for the development of analytic and critical tools Learning Objectives Local Outcomes Knowledge: The students will gain the precise terminology to express a growing awareness of the social context of media production and consumption Comprehension: The student will connect their experience with mass media and the production of social relations in specific historical periods Application: The students will relate critical analysis to their own assumptions resulting from their experience in a media saturated society

SS 355 - Mass Media and Society Spring 2012 Page 2 Global Outcomes Analysis: The students shall be able to break down visual and textual messages in mass media Synthesis: The students shall be able to group together a set of analytic tools to assess and explain the media mechanisms that foster or hinder the production of the social fabric Evaluation: The students shall be able to support their own assessment of the relation between media and the production of social relations Course Requirements The final grade consists of in equal parts of the following: 1) Regular attendance and promptness. Repeated absences or lateness will result in lower grade. 2) Journal entries for each week of the course. 13-14 in total. These submissions should be one or two, typed and double-spaced pages, and are due the last day that our class is scheduled for the semester. No late submissions will be accepted. You are free during the semester to present as many of these entries as you feel are needed, if you wish to get the instructors feedback on your work. These entries will consist of your own analysis of ALL films and also readings for this class, and your own interpretation of issues presented class discussions, should you deem it appropriate or necessary. Note that: 1) these journals require BOTH the films AND the assigned texts (doing only one will not give you a full grade for that part of the course); 2) the journals also require YOUR analysis, not mere high-school book reporting or repeating what was already discussed. Each requirement counts equally towards the final grade. No late work will be accepted. Additionally, students who demonstrate strong and relevant participation in class may obtain bonus points towards their grade. IMPORTANT: Also note that handing work in your name but done by others is plagiarism and it is punished with a failure in this course and possible expulsion from the school. If you copy a short passage from somebody elses work, it is expected that it will be duly referenced in standard citation form. Consult the Student Handbook for Pratt Institutes Policy on Cheating and Plagiarism. Required Reading and Viewing: Stuart and Elizabeth Ewen, Channels of Desire; Jerzy Kosinski, Being There; selections on reserve (specified below). The books are available at Book Culture (536 W 112th St., bet. Broadway and Amsterdam Aves. in Manhattan) or through a provider of your own choosing. The scheduled films are required viewing. Suggested Additional Reading: Jrgen Habermas, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere; Edward S. Herman and Robert W. McChesney, The Global Media; Walter Lippman, Public Opinion; Marshal McLuhan, The Gutenberg Galaxy, Understanding Media, and The Global Village; Herbert Marcuse, One Dimensional Man; Nathaniel West, Miss Lonelyhearts

SS 355 - Mass Media and Society Spring 2012 Page 3 Schedule of classes 1/18 Introduction and Overview - Mass Media: Social Meanings, Fearful Theories

I Analytic Introduction 1/25 Reading: Barthes, Elements of Semiology (segment in http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/fr/barthes.htm); Hall, Encoding/Decoding in Media Studies: a reader [MSR] and also Media and Cultural Studies [MCS], ed. Durham and Kellner; Mulvey, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema from Visual and Other Pleasures and also in MSR Film: Hitchcock, Rear Window (fragment) Reading: Marx and Engels, The Ruling Class and the Ruling Ideas; Herman and Chomsky, A Propaganda Model in MCS; and Lasarzfeld and Merton Mass Communication, Popular Taste and Organized Social Action in MSR and in Mass Communications, ed. Wilbur Schramm Film: Achbar and Wintonick, Manufacturing Consent (selection)

2/1

II Fordism, Consumerism, and Mass Media (case studies from Germany and the US) 2/8 Reading: Ewen, Prologue and Part 1 3; and McClintock, Soft Soaping Empire in MCS Film: Selection of silent films Reading: Kracauer, The Mass Ornament and Kracauer, The Cult of Distraction from The Mass Ornament and Benjamin, The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction from Illuminations and also in MCS Film: Berkely, On the waterfall (segment); Clair, Ballet Mecanique; Chaplin, Modern Times (segment); Riefenstahl, Triumph of the Will (segment) Reading: Hall et al. The Social Production of News in MSR; Dyer, The Role of the Stereotype in The Matter of Images and also in MSR; and Winship, Handling Sex in MSR Film: Hawks, His Girl Friday Reading: Gramsci, (i) History of the subaltern classes etc in MCS; Hebdige, From Culture to Hegemony/Subculture the Unnatural Break in MCS; Hall, Racist Ideologies and the Media in MSR Film: Valdez, Zoot Suit

2/15

2/22

2/29

SS 355 - Mass Media and Society Spring 2012 Page 4 3/7 Reading: Horkheimer and Adorno, The Culture Industry from Dialectic of Enlightment also in MCS [but the translation from Dialectic is preferable]; Williams Advertising, the Magic System in MSR Film: Redford, Quiz Show SPRING BREAK No class Reading: McLuhan, The Medium is the Massage and also in MSR and CSR; and Ensenzberger, Constituents of a Theory of the Media in MSR Film: Wexler, Medium Cool Reading: Ewen, Part 4 5 Film: Antonioni, Blow Up

3/14 3/21

3/28

III Globalization, Postmodernism/Posthumanism and Media: An Analysis 4/4 Reading: Baudrillard, The Precession of Simulacrum in Simulacra and Simulation and in MSR; Jameson, Postmodernism and Consumer Society in MCS and online; Ann Gray, Behind Closed Doors: Video Recordings in the Home, in MSR Film: Egoyan, Family Viewing Reading: Kosinski, Being There Reading: Poster, Postmodern Virtualities in MCS; Plant, On the Matrix: Cyberfeminist Simulations in MSR Viewing: Selections from the Internet Reading: Virilio, Crepuscular Dawn (II. The Genetic Bomb, and The Accident Weapon and Anthropological Horizons from Epilogue) Viewing: Selections from the Internet Final journals due

4/11 4/18

4/25

5/2