GIS 3991/AGS 4760/AGS 4860
: Partial, Tentative, Weekly ScheduleNotes:
All assignments can be either e-mailed to me (moti.nissani@wayne.edu) on or before the due date or placed on my desk at the beginning of each class. E-mail is better because it allows faster feedback, it allows you to read my comments (my handwriting is horrible), and it saves trees and cuts pollution.
AGS students need to generate a minimum of 25 written pages in this class. So, the longer their weekly written assignments are, the shorter their final paper can be (but it must be at least 5-pages-long).
For GIS 3991 students, the minimum number of pages for the final research paper = 5.
Week 1 (1/10/2000): Personal Information Sheet. Class Roster. Receive: syllabus. Pay treasurer $8 for Coursepack and occasional photocopies. Any particular topic/media related essay that should be included in this class? Internet sites. E-mail.
2. English Comprehension Survey. Goal: Help me choose readings for this class—this is not a test!
Media: Definition and etymology.
Individual presentations: Dig up your memory and tell the class everything you know about Martin Luther King.
Class Reading: Cohen and Solomon.
Small group presentations: Iraq, Nicaragua, greenhouse effect, overpopulation, nuclear weapons, Bill Clinton’s agenda, the Detroit Newspaper strike, Albert Einstein’s political views. The Love Life of President Clinton. The OJ Simpson case. The Case of the Little Cuban Boy.
Thought experiment (in small groups): Conceptual conservatism.
Thought experiment (in small groups): Resource distribution in a small island.
January 24, 2000 (Monday): Last day to withdraw from Wayne classes and receive a full refund. If you withdraw on or before 1/24/2000, this class will not be recorded on your transcript.
Week 2 (1/24): Read: Unit 5: Television (pp. 11-17).
Submit: a. One sentence summary of Curbing the One-Eyed Monster (pp. 15-17). b. Subject of your major research paper.
Review of last week. Class presentations. In small groups, let’s dig into our collective memories (or notes) and review our discussion of MLK, greenhouse effect (=global warming), conceptual conservatism, small island.
Notes: Each group chooses one topic. The chosen presenter for each group must be someone other than last week’s speaker.
Reminder: The aim of college education is not only to answer questions but also to question answers. Skepticism and rationality are decidedly not for everybody. So, if you want only answers, or if you know already all the answers, you are in the wrong place.
A note about interpreting works of fiction: hidden messages. Interpretation of The Wretched Stone.
Taking the three readings together, construct a list, in small groups, of TV’s ills.
Class debate: Should we chuck our televisions?
Johnny Cash (p. 10).
7:40-9:40: Apple Computer Lab:
The internet: The following sites may help your class research projects—look them up and bookmark them:
White Pages: http://www.theultimates.com/white/
Hotmail (visit this site to open an e-mail account, if you don’t have one): http://lc2.law5.hotmail.passport.com/cgi-bin/login
New York Times on the Web: http://www.nytimes.com/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Detroit Free Press: http://vh1380.infi.net/index.htm
Christian Science Monitor: http://www.CSMONITOR.COM/
A List Of Online Newspaper Sites: http://www.wgaeast.org/olnews.htm
Webster Collegiate Dictionary: http://search.com./Single/0,7,0-150275,0200.html
Pacifica Radio: http://www.real.com/destinations/5_0/
NPR Online- National Public Radio: http://www.npr.org/
WSU Library: http://webpac.wayne.edu/webpac-bin/wgbroker?new+-access+top.wsu
FAST Search: http://www.alltheweb.com/
Media Resources: http://bio.tsu.ru/search/html/6500b_n2.htm
Project Censored: http://205.149.0.20/~cheetham/gprced-1.html
As an example of the enormous possibilities here, let’s focus on our first speaker, Stuart Henry. First, try to find out his phone number. Next, try to find something about him. Next, listen to the recent NPR program in which he recently appeared.
A writing workshop: generating and editing rough and final drafts of a one-page paper (minimum) in class on topic: My response to the three TV readings. In writing this paper, follow this outline:
Title (add this last to reflect your thesis)
In one paragraph, summarize the three readings.
Thesis statement: In this essay, I’m going to . . . (e.g., show that the three writers are absolutely right OR explain the way these readings will change my life OR argue that the three writers are communist agitators who should be incarcerated OR show that their argument fails to see that that giving up TV, in our culture, is tantamount to giving up the use of oxygen on Mt. Everest OR . . .)
Note: As a college instructor, I don’t care what your views are—this is not what college education is all about. I do care, however, about your ability to understand, criticize, and assimilate what you have read, saw, and heard, about your open-mindedness and willingness to evaluate new ideas, about your ability to write well, organize the material, and think for yourself, creatively and logically).
A point supporting your thesis
Another point supporting your thesis
Conclusion
When done with your rough draft, show it to me or to a fellow student, then revise it. Submit final draft of this assignment today. If you aren’t done, finish this at home and submit it next week.
Week 3 (1/31):
Submit (if you haven’t done so already): TV essay.
Submit: Rough outline of your major research paper.
Read: Newsmaking Criminology as a Replacement Discourse (pp. 25-39).
Submit: This book chapter is written by a sociologist for fellow sociologists, and thus it is probably the single most difficult reading in this class. Yet, you’ll probably be able to follow the central argument—without a dictionary. So this is your assignment for today:
Submit: In a single, fat, paragraph summarize Henry’s article in simple English.
Note: If the chapter is too hard, just do the best you can—I’m grading nothing at this point, only giving credit for effort and timely completion of assignments.
6-6:40: Review of readings and a discussion.
6:40-9:40: White Collar Crime and the Media. A workshop conducted by Dr. Stuart Henry, sociologist, director of the Interdisciplinary Studies Program, and an international authority on white collar crime.
Week 4 (2/7):
Read: A Millionaire and an Author; Class Conflict is a No-No (pp. 40-44). Summarize both in a single sentence.
Class discussion: Is the workload in this class too light? Too heavy? Any particular topics that should be included? Excluded?
7-9: Responsibility in Journalism. A workshop coordinated by Tim Wardle, an ISP student, a 30-year delivery district supervisor for the Detroit News, and a veteran of the Detroit newspaper strike (4 years and 4 months).
Week 5 (2/14): Read: a: Tobacco and the Corporate Media (pp. 46-48) . b. Postman & Powers: The Commercial (pp. 18-24; from How to Watch TV News).
Submit: a. 6 multiple-choice answers to Tobacco (pp. 49-50). b. The five points in Postman & Powers’ chapter which were most significant to me were:
1 . . . 2 . . . 3 . . . 4 . . . 5 . . .
A critical, in-class viewing of TV "news." Questions to answer and prepare for class discussion before and after: How can we apply Postman & Powers’ analysis to a particular news program? Why do we watch news? How many words in half an hour? How much of it is commercials? What are the unstated messages of the commercials? Who foots the bill? What does the "anchor" do? At the end, what did we learn? Was it a good way to spend 30 min of our lives? Who chose these topics as the "news." Are they really newsworthy? How do the people look? Is this how they really look, e.g., at their breakfast table? Are they talking or performing? Who pays their salaries? If you paid these pipers, would you allow them to criticize you or your interests? Which topics are covered?
Week 6 (2/21): Respond in a single (or more—you can write a whole essay) paragraph to The "Liberal Media" Myth (pp. 51-55).
7:30-9:00: Guest speaker: David F. Nied—an ISP graduate who has just completed a 36-year-long quest for a college degree. Topic: Kollege Kwiz.
Week 7 (2/28): A case study of media bias and superficiality: Media Coverage Of The Greenhouse Effect (pp. 56-64).
Scholarly journals rarely allow outspoken, straight, talk. You are allowed to criticize, but usually in a roundabout way. You have seen many examples of this in your scholarly career, and some even in our own coursepack (books and the internet are different). Anyway, the editor of my paper did allow me to include this highly provocative statement:
Environmental experts can derive some useful information from skimming newspapers but the rest of us can learn more about environmental politics from midday naps than from a lifetime of reading newspapers, watching television, or listening to radio.
What evidence led me to this conclusion?
Do you agree with me? Why or why not? If you do, what are the implications of this to your own life? If you don’t agree with this conclusion, give your reasons.
Week 8 (3/6): 1. Respond to The Wonderful life and Strange Death of Walter Reuther (pp. 65-72) in any way you like. 2. What’s the hidden message of The Country of the Blind (pp. 73-85)? What are your reasons for believing that’s Wells’ hidden agenda?
Week X (3/13): No Class.
Week 9 (3/20): Read: A case study of the media as a positive, and powerful, social force: Pushing The Civil Rights Movement into the National Agenda (pp. 86-94).
Write: Do you agree with Streitmatter that TV "helped propel the people of the United States to take concrete steps toward leveling the racial playing field in this country?"
Submit: Rough draft of your major research paper.
Week 10 (3/27): Computer lab: Unfinished business; Revising your work (bring disks); Internet search; One-on-one discussion of first draft of your paper with class instructor.
Weeks 11 (4/3): Read: Slowing The Momentum For Women’s Rights (95-102). Write: Have things changed recently? Support your answer with examples from the contemporary media.
Week 12 (4/10): Nightline: A Case Study (pp. 103-106).
Nightline Revisited: Viewing the most recent episode
Writing workshop. Class divides into pairs and writes a paper on topic: How much light (if any) does Lee and Solomon’s analysis throw, ten years later, on the Nightline episode we have just watched? Submit first and final draft of paper to class instructor.
Optional individual consultation with class instructor: your academic plans.
Week 13 (4/17): Propaganda in a Democratic Society (107-111).
Class presentations of research projects
Unfinished business.
Week 14 (4/24): Class presentations of research projects
Media in America: An overview
Submit your final research paper.
Teaching evaluations.