COLLEGE OF JOURNALISM AND COMMUNICATIONS

SEMINAR IN RACE, GENDER, CLASS AND MEDIA

MMC6936, Section 5984, Spring 2001 (3 Credits)
Time: Monday 11-E2 (6:15p.m. - 9:10 p.m.)
Place: 1092 Weimer Hall

INSTRUCTOR: Michael Leslie, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Phone:(352) 392-2904
Dept.: (352) 392-0463
Office: 3060 Weimer
E-mail: mleslie@jou.ufl.edu
Fax: (352) 392-2899
Office Hours: MWF 9:30-11:30 a.m.
Other times by appointment only

COURSE DESCRIPTION:
Our mass-mediated perceptions of race, gender and class profoundly affect our aspirations, relationships and behaviors. The purpose of this course is to examine the link between media representations, institutional practices and our experiences of race, gender and class, in both U.S. and global context.

Using political economy, critical and cultural studies approaches, we will examine why certain images of men and women are created and distributed, how these images influence our perceptions and our behaviors, and what we can do to bring about change.
This course will introduce you to various critical and cultural studies approaches to understanding the intersection of a race, gender, class and the media, and enhance your ability to do media criticism.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

You will be required to demonstrate your understanding of Race, Gender, Class and the Media in written reports, oral presentations, class discussions, weekly reports on your reading/listening/viewing, and a course paper. You will be invited to conduct original research for your course paper.

REQUIRED TEXTS:
Paula S. Rothenberg. Race, Class, and Gender in the United States: An Integrated Study, 4^th edition. New York, St. Martins, 1998.
Gail Dines and Jean M. Humez, Eds. Gender, Race and Class in Media. Thousand Oaks, CA, Sage, 1995.
Ferguson, Robert. Representing Race: Ideology, Identity and the Media. New York, Arnold, 1998.

TENTATIVE COURSE SCHEDULE

Week 1: January 8: Introduction to the course, texts and student and instructor roles and obligations. Video: Cultural Criticism and Transformation. Presentation: Cultural Studies Approaches to Gender, Race and Class in the Media (Dines and Humez, Part I

Week 2: January 15: No class- Martin Luther King Junior, Day!

Read: Understanding Racism, Sexism and Class Privilege (Rothenberg, Part III). Many Voices, Many Lives: Some Consequences of Racial, Gender and Class Inequality (Rothenberg, Part V).

Week 3: January 22: Lecture/Discussion: Video: The Way Home.
Ferguson 1: On theories of ideology.

Week 4: January 29: Presentation: The Economics of Race, Class and Gender in the United States (Rothenberg, Part IV); Discussion.
Ferguson 2: Questioning Research

Week 5: February 5: Presentation: The Social Construction of Race, Class, Gender and Sexuality (Rothenberg, Part I). Discussion.
Ferguson 3: Otherness, Eurocentrism and Representation of “Race”

Week 6: February 12: Presentation: Advertising (Dines and Humez, Part II). Video: Slim Hopes. Discussion:
Ferguson 4: Winfrey in Crisis

Week 7: February 19: Presentation: "Us" and "Them": Becoming an American (Rothenberg, Part II). Video: El Norte. Discussion
Ferguson 5: Popular Cinema and Anti-Racism

Week 8: February 26: Presentation: Modes of Sexual Representation I -Romance Novels and Slasher Films (Dines and Humez, Part III). Video: Myths that Maim. Discussion.

Ferguson 6: Tabloids and Broadsheets

Week 9: March 5: Spring Break !

Week 10: March 12 Presentation: Modes of Sexual Representation II - Pornography (Dines and Humez, Part IV). Video: Dream Worlds. Discussion.

Week 11: March 19: Presentation: How it Happened: Race and Gender Issues in U.S. Law (Rothenberg, Part VI). Video: Eyes on the Prize. Discussion.
Ferguson 7: Racism and Normality

Week 12: March 26: Presentation: Creating and Maintaining Hierarchies (Rothenberg, Part VII). Video: The Color of Fear. Discussion
Ferguson 8: Television, current affairs and documentary

Week 13: April 2: Presentation: TV by Day (Dines and Humez, Part V). Video: Selected TV shows.
Ferguson 9: Representations of history: case studies in children’s television

Week 14: April 9: Presentation: TV by Night (Dines and Humez, Part VI). Video: Samples from Prime Time Programming. Discussion.
Ferguson 10: Unpopular popular: Glory, Deep Cover and Geronimo: An American Legend.

Week 15: April 16: Presentation: Music Videos and Rap Music (Dines and Humez, Part VII). Video: TBA. Discussion.
Ferguson 11: International Perspectives

Week 16: April 23: Discussion: Revisioning the Future (Rothenberg, Part VIII) and Afterward on Media Activism, Television Violence, and Resources for Media Activism (Dines and Humez, pp. 545-566). Video: Tough Guise. Discussion
Ferguson 12: Paradigms for the future.

Final course papers, due by 5:00 p.m., Monday, April 30^th.

COURSE STRUCTURE:

This course is organized as a seminar, with student teams assuming a central role in researching, analyzing, discussing and presenting the core ideas. You are expected to read about race, class, gender and media issues beyond the required reading for this class. You should regularly find and read relevant material in scholarly and professional journals as well as popular magazines, newspapers and radio and television programs. Those who are not familiar with the LUIS online database, the World Wide Web, and other on-line research resources available through the University of Florida should participate in one or more of the information resources orientations offered each week at Library West. Your reading should be focused primarily on new writing and research, i.e., material published within the last 5 years.

COURSE ASSIGNMENTS:

This course has the following components:

Weekly Reports: You will prepare a weekly 2-page max report, based on your weekly reading/listening/viewing/ related to the week's topic. A copy of your report is due by midnight Sunday each week, via e-mail. Late submissions will be penalized one letter grade. You will be called upon to discuss your report in class. Each report should contain a complete citation/identification of the work you scrutinized, a concise exposition of the central thesis of the work, and a critical discussion of its content. Collectively, these reports contribute 30 points towards your grade

Topic Briefs: On Monday of the week preceding your presentation (see below), you should submit, via email, a 2-page brief on your proposed presentation, with an annotated bibliography, summarizing your research for your presentation and the scholarly sources you have consulted. If necessary, your topic brief will be returned to you with a recommendation for additional research prior to your presentation. The final version of your topic brief (with supporting materials) is due at the next class session following your presentation. My plan is to publish your topic briefs and bibliographies on a class website. Failure to comply with the above requirements for weekly reports, topic briefs, and oral presentations will result in a one-letter grade penalty.

Presentations: Student teams will be assigned to prepare a written, aural and visual report on one or more topics. These presentations count for 30 percent of your grade (15 percent for the written portion and 15 percent for the oral portion). Both the written and oral portions of your presentation should demonstrate your familiarity with current research and critical writing on your topic. Your presentation should be approximately 40 minutes long but should not exceed 50 minutes. The oral presentation is not a reading of your presentation brief: it is an opportunity for you to share and discuss with the class the results of your research and reflection on your topic. You may bring a guest with you to contribute to your presentation if he/she is familiar with the subject you are assigned to present. You are expected and encouraged to illustrate your presentation with aural and visual materials, including videotapes, maps, overheads, audiotapes, computer images, slides, photographs, etc. Be sure to practice your oral presentation before you come to class so that you are familiar with your materials and can present them within the allotted time. The instructor may terminate, with a grading penalty, presentations that run long, are disorganized, or poorly researched.

Course Paper: There will be a final paper, 20-pages max (including endnotes and bibliography) in which you will have the opportunity to discuss some aspect of race, class, gender and the media. The paper should demonstrate your ability to apply the concepts and ideas you have learned or researched, inside and outside of this class, and should constitute original research. A list of scholarly references and in-text citations are required for all course papers! I recommend that you select a topic in consultation with your instructor, to avoid duplicate papers. The final paper accounts for 25 percent of your grade.

Participation: Students are expected to be present for each class session and to participate verbally. Verbal contributions based on your personal experience or reading, count for 15 percent of your grade in the course. Your regular attendance (or lack of it) will be reflected in your participation grade.

The course assignments thus are weighted as follows:
Participation 20 percent
Presentation 30 percent
Weekly reading/viewing/listening reports: 25 percent
Final Paper 25 percent
TOTAL: 100 percent

Course Grading Scale:
A=90-100 percent
B=80-89
C=70-79
D=60-69
E= less than 60 percent

COURSE POLICIES: Plagiarism or other academic dishonesty will result in automatic failure in this course. Plagiarism is the copying of any words from another writer without citation as a direct quotation; it is also the offering the thoughts of another as one's own. Please refrain from smoking, eating or drinking in the classroom. Generally, no handwritten submissions of any work will be accepted. You are expected to attend classes regularly and to submit your assignments on time. Failure to do so will result in a grading penalty.

RECOMMENDED READING : A basic reading list for this course appears in the back of each of the assigned texts (above). In addition, I recommend the following:

Baker Woods, Gail. Advertising and Marketing to the New Majority.

Biagi, Shirley and Marilyn Kern-Foxworth. Facing Difference: Race, Gender and Mass Media.

Boggle, Donald. Toms, Coon, Mulattoes, Mammies and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films.

Cose, Wills. The Rage of a Privileged Class: Why Are Middle-Class Blacks
Angry? Why Should America Care?

Creedon, Pam L. Women in Mass Communication.

Cripps, Thomas. Slow Fade to Black: The Negro in American Film

Dates, Jannette L and William Barlow, Eds. Split Image: African Americans
in the Mass Media.

Debo, Angie. A History of the Indians in the United States.

Gray, Herman. Watching Race.

Jewell, Sue K. From Mammy to Miss America and Beyond: Cultural Images and the Shaping of U.S Social Policy.

Kern-Foxworth, Marilyn. Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben and Rastus: Blacks in Advertising

Lerner, Michael and Cornel West. Jews and Blacks: Let the Healing Begin.

Martindale, Carolyn. The White Press and Black America.

Means, Russell with Marvin J. Wolf. Where White Men Fear to Tread: The Autobiography of Russell Means.

Montagu, Ashley. Man's Most Dangerous Mvth.

Olson, James C. and Judith E. Olson. Cuban Americans: From Trauma To Triumph.

Perry, Rev. Troy and Thomas Swicegold. Profiles In Gay and Lesbian Courage.

Petit, Arthur G. Images of the Mexican American in Film.

Rose, Tricia. Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America.

Russo, Vito. The Celluloid Closet.

Stavans, Ian. The Hispanic Condition: Reflections on Culture and Ethnicity in America.

Tannen, Deborah. You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation.

Van Dijk, T. Elite Discourse and Racism

Weatherfield, E and Emilia Seubert. Native Americans on Film and Video.

Wei, William. The Asian American Movement.

Zack, Naomi. American Mixed Race: The Culture of Microdiversity.

Zoonen, Liesbet van, Feminist Media Studies.