CNTV 345: Health Issues in Entertainment Media

Fall, 2009

CNTV 345: Health Issues in Entertainment Media

Section 17803R

Co-Instructor:Professor Doe Mayer

Mary Pickford Chair of Film and Television Production

School of Cinematic Arts

Phone:(213) 740-7511

E-mail:

Office hours:Mon 11-12; Tues 4-5or by appointment Office location: SCA 411

Co-Instructor:Professor Jean Richardson, PhD

Phone:323-865-0385

E-mail:

Office hours:email to set private appointments

Office location:HSC Topping Tower 3409A

Location:GFS 213

Schedule:Monday 2-5:20

Teaching Assistant:

E-mail:

Course Description:

Cinema, television, and interactive games influence the public’s expectations, beliefs, and knowledge about health and healthcare in both passive and active ways. While health professionals may use these media to influence health behaviors or to disseminate research findings, viewers may also develop their beliefs based on content in media intended purely for entertainment purposes. The course will largely examine material that transmits health information inadvertently because so many health issues provide strong and compelling story lines both nationally and internationally. However we will also view entertainment education material that is more conscious with its health messages and seeks to influence viewers to change opinions and behaviors. We will examine the intersections of media and health from multiple perspectives including public health, media production, critical studies, cultural studies, communications and visual culture studies.

This course focuses on the ways in which entertainment media provide information about health and influence health behaviors.

Purpose and Objectives:

To learn the explicit and implicit values of entertainment media and how they affect our thinking about a wide range of health issues.

2. To develop a broader knowledge, through stimulating examples, of the positive ways media can affect people’s perceptions of health issues and their own efficacy in dealing with them.

3. To develop an international perspective about health issues in entertainment media.

Prerequisites: None

Textbook: There are no specific texts for this class but there will be required readings weekly that you can access online and a hard copy will be reserved in Cinematic Arts Library.

For material marked READER in the syllabus, go to Ares ( click on the Ares Reserve System, and login. Then under “Current Classes” click on the appropriate Course Number (CNTV 345).

If you are unable to access the file this way, you can still check the readings out from the reserve desk at Cinematic Arts Library (ground floor at the Doheny Memorial Library).

Other Resources

Internet Movie Database IMDB

Medical Humanities

The Communication Initiative

Grading:

A letter grading system will be used, based upon accumulation of total points from:

Assignmentspercent

Class participation / attendance10%

Journal20%

Class presentations20%

Paper 120%

Group Project and paper 210%

Paper 320%

Total 100%

Journal

The journal will be your opportunity to reflect each week on the media presented, the readings and the discussion. The journal will be your essay responses to the material addressing questions the material raised for you and what you think about those questions, both before and after the class sessions. For example, write about the messages or themes that the material brought up and how you respond to the presentation of these themes. Make links between the media, readings and discussions and synthesize your thoughts and questions about this material. As the journals progress, make connections to previous material, in other words you could compare the depiction of nurses in the different weekly selections. You will also need to address how the media is constructed in terms of camera, sound, design, depiction of character, editing, pace, and storyline. Although you should begin by summarizing or reporting back on class discussions viewings and readings, that will not be sufficient for a passing grade. This is a chance for you to write about your own thoughts and reflections. Your weekly journal may also include material you have seen outside of class if it is appropriate to your analysis. We expect your thoughts and feelings about these topics to change over the course of the semester and the journal will become a record of those changes. It should be well written and submitted weekly by email to both Professors Mayer and Richardson by midnight on Thursday after the related class. These submissions are an important part of your grade. These will be graded as a pass/no pass. If a submission is not regarded as a serious attempt to respond to the material it will be returned as unacceptable and a resubmission will be required. Journal submissions are required weekly (except Sept. 10) . Your grade will be negatively affected by late submissions. If you are absent from class you are still responsible for that weeks’ journal based on seeing and reading the required material on your own. These should be approximately one double spaced page each. (11-12 point font, 1” margins).

Requirements for Papers 1 and 3:

These papers will provide a critical analysis of health messages contained in a film, television show, or interactive games and other media. You will need to choose a film for the first assignment and either a television show, interactive game or other media for the second. Prior approval of the topic by Professors Mayer and Richardson is required for both assignments. We are attaching a list of some films-- fiction and non-fiction at the end of this syllabus or you may choose yourself with instructor approval. You may not use material shown in class for these assignments.

The paper must list at least seven appropriate references/readings including at least 2 books or journal articles. Readings from class can be referenced but do not count as part of the seven. References such as IMDB do not count. The paper and bibliography for this project should conform to the specifications of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.).

Writing should be well organized and grammatically correct. This should be a 10 page paper although slightly longer is acceptable (of text not including references) - double spaced pages. (11-12 point font, 1” margins). Use subheadings to delineate the components of your paper.

We are interested in your analysis of the health components of the material and how the media you selected presents this information. We encourage you to articulate your point of view with regard to the implications of how the health issue is portrayed. A discussion of the media decisions and media strategies is very important. For example you could do this by examining dialogue, character development, behavior, consequences of actions, and cinema techniques (lighting, location, camera angle,cinematography, movement, music, sound, art design, costume, editing etc.).

For the paper, you should consider the following issues:

How do the components of the media strengthen or diminish the story and the health information? For example, cinematography, sound, editing, production design, and structure.
Briefly summarize the plot.
What are the major and minor themes of the material?
What is the explicit information that is imparted and what are the implicit assumptions or values that the material communicates?
Who is the audience that the producers think they are communicating with?
From the class readings and your knowledge of health information and promotion, do you think the audience will come away with a better understanding of the topics in the film/show/game?
What other issues should have been raised that were ignored – or what should have been omitted?
Will the audience have more misunderstandings after viewing the film/show/game?
What might you have suggested to the film or media maker in terms of portraying better health information?
What is the context for the media – historical or otherwise.

Class presentation:

Students will share their analyses of the topic chosen for their paper with their classmates. Presentations should be 15 minutes long (12 minute presentation and 3 minutes of questions), and include short clips of the work you have chosen to discuss (if appropriate). No power point can be used. Please limit your plot summary to two minutes. You should address the issues in the above list with the other 10 minutes and be sure to include the critique both of the health issues and the media issues.

ASSIGNMENT #2 – Presentation of small group creative exercises.

Each group comes up with an idea about a game, TV show, animated program, or documentary.

Paper to be turned in at presentation.

Participation:

Students are expected to attend all classes (lecture and discussion). To receive full points for participation, students must demonstrate active involvement in the class.

Policies:

Make-up exams/presentations – There are no exams in this class. A change of schedule for presentations can only be obtained by written permission from the faculty one week in advance of the designated time. No exceptions will be made.

Due dates – The paper and presentations will be scheduled at the beginning of the semester by mutual agreement of faculty and students. Each student will sign a presentation sheet that commits him/her to present at the designated time. Failure to present at the scheduled time without written permission of the faculty for change of date will result in zero points being assigned for the presentation. Papers are also due on the day of presentation.

Attendance – Your participation, and therefore the extent and depth of your learning, depend on your regular attendance in this course. Please notify both the instructors ahead of time if you cannot attend class.

Academic dishonesty – Academic dishonesty on exams, quizzes, and assignments is grounds for failure in the course (see USC catalog).

Students with Disabilities – Please see the following web site for information for students with disabilities:

Course Outline:

Aug. 24 Class 1: Introduction – Overview of the Class
What have you learned about health from entertainment media?
Make a list of ten facts or myths that you have learned from the media (to be submitted by email to both instructors by midnight, Thursday Aug. 28)
Dark Victory(1939)
Directed by Edmund Goulding
Produced by David Lewis and Hal Wallis
104 mins.
View in Class
AUG 31 Class 2: Film: Mental illness
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
Directed by Milos Forman
Produced by Michael Douglas, Martin Fink, and Saul Zaentz
Running time: 133 minutes
View in Class
Readings:
Sturken, M. & Cartwright, L. (2003). Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture. (pp. 10-42). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
Karpf, A. (1988). Doctoring the Media: The Reporting of Health and Medicine. (pp 9-31) London, England: Routledge.
Pirkis, J., Blood, R.W., Francis, C., & McCallum, K. (2006). On –Screen portrayals of mental illness : Extent, nature, and impacts . Journal of Health Communication. 11, 523-541.

Sept. 7 Labor day – no class

Sept. 14 Class 3: Substance Abuse
Traffic (2000)
Directed by Stephen Soderburgh
Produced by Laura Bickford, Marshall Herskovitz, Ed Zwick
Running time: 147 minutes
View in Class
Readings:
Dannenbaum, J., Hodge, C., & Mayer, D. (2003). Embedded values questionnaire. In Creative Filmmaking from the Inside Out. (pp.189-192) New York: Simon & Schuster.
Bordwell, D. & Thompson, K. , (1993). Film Art: An Introduction, (pp.41-63) New York: McGraw Hill.
Thompson, KM. (2005). Addicted Media: Substances on screen. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America14, 473-489.
Sept. 21 Class 4: INTERNATIONAL ISSUES SURROUNDING WAR AND HEALTH
Turtles Can Fly(2004) Lakposhtha hâm parvaz mikonand
Directed and written and produced by Bahman Ghobadi
Running time : 98 min
View in Class
Readings:
Beitler, A.L. (2006). Operation Enduring Freedom: The 48th Combat support hospital in Afghanistan. Military Medicine, 171: 189-193.
Papineni, P. (2003). Children of Bad Memories (student essay) The Lancet, 362, 825-826.
McGrath, R., Stover, E. (1991). Injuries from land mines. British Medical Journal, 303, 1492.
Dyer, O. (2003) Hundreds die in northern Iraq from land mines and unexploded munitions. British Medical Journal, 326, 1166.
Lamwaka, B. (2004, September 6) Thepower of storytelling & reading in healing children orphaned or traumatized by war in Northern Uganda. Paper presented at IBBY 29th Congress Cape Town, South Africa.

Sept. 28 Class 5: Television and Racism
Miss Ever’s Boys (1997) HBO
Directed by Joseph Sargeant
Produced by Lawrence Fishburne and Robert Benedetti
Running time: 117 minutes
Readings:
Freimuth,V.S., Quinn, S.C., Thomas, S.B., Cole, G., Zook, E. & Duncan, T . (2001). African Americans’ views on research and the Tuskegee Syphilis study.Social Science & Medicine,52, 797-808.
Jones, J.H. (1981) . Bad Blood: The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment- a tragedy of race and medicine. (pp151-170).New York: The Free Press.
Nurenberg Code and Belmont Report – look up these two listings in Wikipedia.org
Oct. 5 CLASS 6: Paper #1 and class presentation DUE
Oct. 12 Class 7:Television about the Medical Community
House,Grey’s Anatomy, Marcus Welby or Dr. Kildare
View in Class
Guest writer from one of these series
Implications from the Media Professional Point of View
Discussion with film producer about the challenges and options of portraying health information in film and television
Readings:
Brodie, M., Foehr, U., Rideout, V., Baer, N., Miller, C.A., Flournoy, R., Altman, D. (2001) Communicating health information through the entertainment media. Health Affairs. 20, 192-199.
Whittier, D.K., Kennedy, M.G., Lawrence, J.S., Seeley, S., Beck, V. (2005). Embedding Health messages into entertainment television: Effect on gay men’s response to a syphilis outbreak. Journal of Health Communication10, 251-259.
Wilkin, H. A., Valente, T. W., Murphy, S. T., Cody, M. J., Huang, G., Beck, V., Carrasquillo, M., & Slan, L. (in press). The effects of a telenovelas storyline on breast cancer knowledge and behaviors among Hispanic/Latino Audiences. Journal of Health Communication.
Oct. 19 Class 8: Hollywood, Health and Society
Guest Speaker: Sandra de Castro Buffington, Director. This organization works to encourage better health messages in television programming
Sentinel for Health Award-winning television program segments
SOAP OPERAS –
The Bold and the Beautiful – 2001 segments on HIV/AIDS
Telenovela: Amarte Asi - on Diabetes
View in Class
Readings:
Kennedy, M.G., O’Leary ,A., Beck, V., Pollard, K., Simpson, P. (2004). Increases in Calls to the CDC National STD and AIDS Hotline following AIDS related episodes in a soap opera. Journal of Communication, 54, 287-301.
O'Leary, A., Kennedy, M., Pappas-DeLuca, K., Nkete, M., Beck, V., Galavotti, C., (2007). Association between exposure to an HIV story line in The Bold and the Beautiful and HIV-related stigma in Botswana. AIDS Education and Prevention,19, 209-217.
OCT. 26 CLASS 9: REALITY TELEVISION and SUPERNATURAL TV
The Biggest Loser; Intervention : Guest speaker to be announced
Sarah Skibitzke
Readings:
Fernandez, Anne C., Begley Ellen A, Marlatt, G. Alan. Family and Peer Interventions for Adults: Past Approaches and future Directions. Psychology of Addicitive Behaviors. 2006 V. 20 No 2, 207-213.
They Drink, They Drug, and you are There. New York Times Aug 18. 2008.
Nov. 2 Class 10:Animation: A Form for Everyone
Simpsons episode: Homer’s Triple Bypass (1992)
Directed by David Silverman
South Park episode: Proper Condom Use(episode 507) (2001)
View in Class
Readings:
McKee, N., Aghi, M., Carnegie, R., & Shahzadi, N. (2004). Cartoons and comic books for changing social norms. In A. Singhal, M. Cody, E. Rogers and M. Sabido, M. (Eds.), Entertainment-Education and Social Change, (pp 331-348) New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Scanlan, S.J., Feinberg, S.L. (2000). The cartoon society: Using The Simpsons to teach and learn sociology. Teaching Sociology, 28, 127-139.
NOV. 9 Class 11:Animation: Effective Entertainment and Health Combined for Children
Sesame Streetexcerpts
The World According to Sesame Street
Directors; Linda Goldstein Knowlton
Linda Hawkins (2006) 126 mins.
View in Class
Readings:
Cole, C. F., Richman, B. A., & Brown, S.A. (2001). The World of Sesame Street Research. . In S. Fisch, and R., Truglio (Eds.), “G” is for Growing. (pp 147-179). New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum.

NOV. 16 Class 12: Interactive Games:
Health in conventional games
Guest speaker to be announced
Games designed to promote better health behavior:
Trauma Center: Under the Knife, a Nintendo DS.

Yourself! Fitness created as a fitness tool.

Re-mission:Cancer game
Grand theft Auto
Popular entertainment games to be selected
GROUP PRESENTATIONS AND PAPER #2 – Presentation of small group creative exercises.
Each group comes up with an idea about a game, TV show, animated program, or documentary.
Readings:
Padgett, L., Strickland, D., & Coles, C. (2006). Case study: using a virtual reality computer game to teach fire safety skills to children diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome.Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 31, 65-70.
Funk, J.B. (2005). Children’s exposure to violent video games and desensitization to violence. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America. 14, 387-404.
NOV. 23 Class 13: Women’s Health Issues in the Autobiographical Documentary
Sicko
Directed by Michael Moore
Produced by Michael Moore and Meghan O'Hara
Running time: 123 minutes
Readings:
Aufderheide, P. (1997 July-August). Public Intimacy: The development of first-person documentary. Look Smart website: Afterimage.

Anglin, M.K. (1997). Working from the inside out: Implications of breast cancer activism for biomedical policies and practices. Social Science and Medicine 44, 1403-1415.
Sontag, Susan (1988) . Illness as a Metaphor and AIDS and its Metaphors, ( pp132-159) New York: Picador
NOV 30. Class 14: Global Entertainment Education
Episodes from BBC Trust
Soul City: a multimedia intervention to improve health in South Africa
Detective VJ: a serial drama for social change in India
Readings:
Singhal, A. & Rogers, E. (1999). Entertainment –Education: A Communication Strategy for Social Change. (pp1-24) New Jersey: Laurence Erlbaum Associates.

Goldstein, S., Usdin, S., Scheepers E., & Japhet, G. (2005). Communicating HIV and AIDS, what works? A report on the impact evaluation of Soul City's fourth series.Journal of Health Communication. 10 , 465-83.
Paper #3 and final class presentation During finals week
Friday, December 11 2-5 pm