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Professor Herman GrayPhone: 213 274- 2000

Office: 324E

Media, Representation, and the Cultural Politics of Difference

Description

This course examines the role of media as a cultural and social arena which structures and is in turn structured on the basis of differences in social class, race and ethnicity, sexuality and gender. We will study representation as a cultural system where cultural identities, feelings of belonging, and identifications with distinct social position are constructed and organized on the basis of social and cultural difference. Finally we will analyze historical and contemporary case examples of cultural struggles where contests over forms of domination, social marginalization, and inequalities are maintained and challenged in the areas of media and representation.

Requirements and Evaluation

Students are expected to be active participants in this course and thus will be evaluated in part on their contributions to class discussion. Written work will be evaluated on the basis of three (ten page) papers. The papers will be based on source materials and discussion from the course. Each of you will be responsible for reading and keeping up with the assigned materials and class participation both of which will count toward your final grade. Prompts, guidelines, and directions for written assignments will be posted on the course Web page.

Essay 1: 30%

Essay 2: 30%

Essay 3: 30%

Class Participation: 10%

Incompletes and late assignments: Requests for incompletes, delays in meeting assignment deadlines or absences from class will be approved only if the request is due to circumstances beyond your control. The appropriate Dean or Health Services official must document this. If you miss a class, you will still be responsible for the material. Grades for late assignments will be reduced by one letter grade for each day of delay. No exceptions.

Plagiarism and Academic Dishonesty:

The Annenberg School for Communication is committed to upholding the University's Academic Integrity code as detailed in the SCampus Guide. It is the policy of the School of Communication to report all violations of the code. Any serious violation or pattern of violations of the Academic Integrity Code will result in the student's expulsion from the Communication major or minor. We will be vigilant in investigating and responding to academic dishonesty and plagiarism in this class. Students must properly cite sources of all ideas and information that are not entirely their own. Anything more than three words in a row from someone else requires quotation marks and a citation, as do important phrases or concepts invented by someone else. When you paraphrase ideas from someone else, you do not need to use quotation marks but you should still acknowledge the source. When in doubt, consult faculty or teaching assistants.

ADA Compliance Statement

Any student requesting academic accommodations based on a disability is required to register with Disability Services and Programs (DSP) each semester. A letter of verification for approved accommodations can be obtained from DSP. Please be sure the letter is delivered to me (or to TA) as early in the semester as possible. DSP is located in STU 301 and is open 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. The phone number for DSP is (213) 740-0776.

Texts

S. Craig Watkins. Hip Hop Matters (Beacon) 2005

Jeff Chang. Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop (St. Martin) 2005

1. First meeting: Organization and Housekeeping

Culture

2. The Media, Social Structures, and Institutions

George Lipsitz, “Listening to learn and learning to listen: Popular Culture, Cultural Theory and American Studies”. American Quarterly, 42,4 (December 1990).

Jeff Chang “Prelude” Pp. 1-67 in Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop (St. Martin) 2005

S. Craig Watkins “Introduction” Pp. 9-33 in Hip Hop Matters (Beacon) 2005

3. The Culture Industry

Keith Negus, “Culture, Industry, genre: Conditions of Musical Creativity.” In his Music Genres and Corporate Cultures, 14-30 (Routledge) 1999

John Caldwell "The Business of New Media." In The New Media Handbook, edited by Dan Harries. London: BFI Publishing

S. Craig Watkins Part 1: Pop and the Struggle for Hip Hop” Pp. 33- 143 in his Hip-Hop Matters (Beacon Press) 2005

4. Cultural Economies, Meanings, and Politics

George Lipsitz “Introduction” in his Dangerous Cross Roads

Jeff Chang “Loop 2” Pp 89-215 in Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop (St. Martin) 2005

Essay #1: Due

Identity and Representation

5. Identity

Katheryn Woodward “Concepts of Identity and Difference” Pp. 8-48 in her Identity and Difference (Sage 1997)

6. Representation

Stuart Hall “The Work of Representation” Pp. 13-75 in his (Ed.) Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices (Sage 2003)

7. The Other

Stuart Hall “The Spectacle of the Other” Pp. 225-277 in his (Ed.) Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices (Sage 2003)

8. Politics of Representation

Bambi Haggins. “Dave Chappell” 236 in her Laughing Mad (Rutgers University Press) 2007

Robin Kelley, “Introduction” Your Mama’s Disfunktional (Beacon)

9. New Ethnicities, New Identities

Stuart Hall “New Ethnicities” in Houston A. Baker, Manthia Diawara, and Ruth Lindeborg Black British Cultural Studies: A Reader (Chicago) 1996

Jeff Chang “Loop 3” Pp. 215 357 in Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop. (St Martin) 2005

Essay #2: Due

Politics

10. The Cultural Politics of Difference

Stuart Hall “What is this black in Black Popular Culture” pp. 465-476 in D. Morley and K. Chen (eds.) Stuart Hall: Critical Dialogues in Cultural Studies (Routledge) 1996

Cornel West “The cultural politics of difference” pp. 19-39 in Out There: Marginalizations and Contemporary Cultures, (ed) Russell Ferguson et. al (MIT) 1990

11. Cultural Movements

Jeff Chang “Loop 4” PP 357-469 in Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop (St Martin) 2005

Craig Watkins “Chapters 5, 6” Pp 143 -187 in Hip Hop Matters (Beacon) 2005

12. Citizenship and Belonging

L. Berlant: “The Theory of Infantile Citizenship” Pp. 495-508 in G. Eley and Ronald G. Suny (eds.) Becoming National: A Reader (Oxford) 1996

Renato Rosaldo: “Cultural Citizenship, Inequality and Multiculturalism” in W. Flores and R. Bennmayor (eds.) Latino Cultural Citizenship (Beacon) 1997

Josh Kun “Introduction” in his Audiotopia (University of California Press) 2005

13. Diversity, Difference, and Multiculturalism

L S Kim and Gilberto Moises Blasini “The Performance of Multicultural Identity

In US Network Television.” Emergences, 11, 2 (November 2001): 249-269 (ER)

Larry Gross“Out of the Mainstream: Sexual Minorities and the Mass Media’ in (editors) Durham and Kellner. Media and Cultural Studies: Keyworks (Blackwell)

Dillard, Angela D. "Multiculturual Conservativism: What It Is, Why It Matters." The Chronicle of Higher Education, 2 March 2001, B7-10.

14. Performativity and Authenticity

Jose Munoz Pedro Zamora’s real World of Counter Publicity: Performing and Ethics of the Self” Pp. 195-218 in Sasha Torres (Ed.) Living Color: Race and Television in the United States (Duke) 1998

Mahon, Maureen. "Black Like This: Race, Generation and Rock in the Post-Civil Rights

Era." American Ethnologist 27, no. 2 (2002): 283-311.

John Jackson, “Introduction” from his Real Black (Chicago) 2005

Craig Watkins “Chapters 7, 8” Pp 187-207 in Hip Hop Matters (Beacon) 2005

15.Struggles for Representation: Race, New Media, and New Technologies

Brandi Wilkins Catanese “How do I Rent a Negro?”: Racialized Subjectivity and Digital Performance Art” Theater Journal 57 (2005) 699-714

Baily, Cameron. "Virtual Skin: Articulating Race in Cyberspace." In Immersed in Technology: Art in Virtual Environments, edited by Mary Anne Moser and Douglas MacLeod, 29-49. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1996.

Williams, Ben. "Black Street Technology: Detroit Techno and the Information Age." In Technicolor: Race, Technology, and Everyday Life, edited by Alondra Nelson, Thuy Linh N. Tu and Alicia Headlam Himes, 154-76. New York: New York University Press, 2001.

16. Wrap Up

Essay #3: Due