Homework answers / question archive / Textbook: The Craft of Criticism: Critical Media Studies in Practice, edited by Michael Kackman and Mary Celeste Kearney

Textbook: The Craft of Criticism: Critical Media Studies in Practice, edited by Michael Kackman and Mary Celeste Kearney

Sociology

Share With

Textbook: The Craft of Criticism: Critical Media Studies in Practice, edited by Michael Kackman and Mary Celeste Kearney. Routledge, 2018.

Part 1 Essay

Use at least one of the approaches – authorship, narratology/storytelling, sound/music analysis, genre, acting/performance – and analyze one of the series we have seen this semester. You will have to watch more than the one episode in order to write this paper. Make sure you provide me with a close reading of the series, using the appropriate terminology, proving to me that you understand the key concepts discussed in the reading and in classroom discussions and in the lecture notes. You must refer to and properly cite the reading from our textbook to get a good grade. Make sure you a RQ that you is motivating your essay. At least three full pages of text. Double-spaced, 1 inch margins, 12 pt font.

Part 2 Create a Power point

Make sure to hand in a document (eg, Power Point slide).Make sure your presentation includes an image. Your presentation should focus on five aspects of your paper.

!. Your research question (RQ)

2. Methodology (what analytical approach did you use and how did you use it)

3. Results/findings (what did you argue? what did you find out about the media content you wrote about?)

4. Conclusions (what can you now say about the analytic approach and the content you discussed)

5. What do you suggest as further research?

Alias Grace-season 1, episode 2. Set in colonial Canada (Ontario) before Canada had its independence from England (July 1 1867; though not full sovereignty til 1982). Grace Marks, Irish immigrant, convicted of being involved in the killing of her employer and his housekeeper in 1843. Canadians! It has been said that we are on the verge of a revolution. We are in the midst of one; a bloodless one, I hope, but a revolution to which all those which have been will be counted as mere child’s play. - William Lyon MacKenzie, 1837 Grace tells her story to a doctor, who may help her get out of prison. Information in Alias Grace is conveyed through signification. Nothing can be explicit. Nothing can be denoted. Trust has to occur through connotation. --It is never said that Grace begins menstruating --it is never said that Mary Whitney had a botched abortion --it is never said that Mary Whitney had an affair with the son on their boss George Parkison --the love between Mary and Grace (or Grace’s love for Mary) never says its name, but it is expressed through signs --the veracity of Grace’s narrative recited to Dr. Jordan. --the use of folkloric signification --the apple peel (the name of the man you will marry) ; the palm reading by Jeremiah discussing her journals. Denied scholarly knowledge the laboring classes create their own ways to know (epistemology) based on the interpretation (hermeneutics) of signs from the body. Questions: how would you describe the visual style of the episode? How is Colonial Canada depicted visually? What texts intersect with the episode? Other key terms linked to intertextuality --allusions, homage, reference, genre -parody (intertextual bridge to another text, in order to make fun of it) eg the Daily Show, uses the format of a new show in order to ridicule it. --Critical intertextuality (the Simpson’s attack on the genre of the sitcom and the place of the suburb in middle America, also nuclear power) --Flow (Raymond Williams) scheduling and streaming --Pastiche--playful/artful citation so that new incorporates previously stated, recontextualized --Mythologies (Barthes) deep meanings developed across multiple texts) --The work vs the text: for Barthes the text involves the labor or the reader/user/viewer. The work is the actual object only. The text is completed by the reader, the user, the viewer. Visual style Style refers to the “patterned used of a medium’s techniques” to communicate plot and them and to generate affect. --meaningful patterns of techniques such as lighting design, editing, framing, casting. hair/makeup, set design, art direction. --stylistics --the interpretation of style. More advanced in film studies than in tv/media studies so this essay imports ideas from Bordwell’s work on film art. “The form or style of an individual film is the ensemble of choices intended to realize or the point or purpose of the film” noel carroll Stylistic functions 1. Denote--the communication of narrative, place, character 2. Express--to convey emotion 3. Symbolize--connotations, meanings, implications, ideas 4. Decoration--when set decor is used to provide pleasure through its flourishes 5. Persuade--especially in advertising, to convince, to compel the viewer to desire 6. Hail or interpellate--the Hey You of discourse. The alerting to invite the viewer 7. Differentiate--to stand out, and to call attention to the uniqueness 8. Signify liveness and/or verisimilitude--especially in television, to let the viewer now about the simultaneity of events and/or their truthfulness/accurateness Historicizing style Style is distinctive in each historical period. This is obvious of course. A netflix show produced last year does not look like a network drama from 15 years ago. Analogously an outfit from the 1980s does not look current. --Four factors govern the evolution of style: 1. Economics 2. Technology 3. Industry standards 4. Aesthetics Budget affects style. In the 40s color film was too expensive to use. Black and white began to be used dynamically, featuring light and shadow. In the genre later named film noir. Historicizing the Study of Style --study of style in the 1910s--1920s focused on MONTAGE/editing. The essence of cinema, creating new meanings through juxtaposition of shots/sequences. – DEEP FOCUS. Bazin in the early 50s emphasized how a shot can depict depth and allow the background to communicate to viewers. A way to lend lifelikeness to cinema. --AUTEUR THEORY, from the mid50s by way of Truffaut. Directors invest in a singular style, akin to how a novelists repeats techniques of writing (Margaret Atwood eg) --MISE-EN-SCENE. The patterning of all elements in front of the camera: set/costume designer, actor positioning/movement, lighting. Became related to the Auteur. --SEMIOTICS from the 1970s. Christian Metz. Interpreting the signs of cinema. Historicizing Style Part Two POETICS--from Bordwell/Thompson. Refers to the study of how films are put together and how, in determinate contexts, they elicit particular effects. Film Art first published in 1979. An emphasis upon industrial changes as well as viewers’ responses. TELEVISUALITY--”the new television does not depend upon the reality effect or the fiction effect, but upon the picture effect”--John Caldwell. From the 1980s and MIami Vice, rejecting verisimilitude or denotation (fiction, telling a coherent story) investment in the medium’s ability to decorate, to offer excess. Netflix may be related to this emphasis upon netflix-visuality. Blurring the line between the cinematic and the televisual. Craft Traditions --the rules or the codes that media practitioners accept, modify, or reject as they make media. --eg, the shift from film stock to digital recording was slowed by cinematographic customs. Many directors resisted technological innovation. (use of sound in cinema, use of color film, etc.) --craft traditions have roots in aesthetics. Directors, soundtrack composers, set/costume designer/builders, and other creative personnel all work under assumptions of what looks good. --standards change over time. Today’s closeup is much tighter than the closeups in the 1930s. Why? In part, due to technological changes, but also aesthetic choice. --pace of editing in television. --2x faster now than in the 1950s. Use of steadicams/handhelds Style/Meaning --Style has meaning. Eg film noir’s visual style (its CONVENTIONS) communicates ideas/ideology, gender/performativity, sociopolitics/class. --genres cross media, but are modified to account for medium specificity --series can disrupt dominant styles. Eg. The Sopranos; The Real World; Stranger Things. Create new paradigms --certain programs/films indulge in the creation of pleasure, freeing images from the need to tell the story or work upon an established theme. Three main uses of Marxist critique 1. Analyzing the means of production, the division of labor, and the industrial structure of global/local media. (how is this seen in Alias Grace) 2. Providing an ideological critique of media content re the values inherent in specific programs, films, tweets, updates and so forth 3. The sociocultural role of media in the maintenance and reform of the capitalist economic structure. IMPORTANT--we are focusing on Marx/ism as a system of critique--a way of focusing on social class, capitalist ideology--not as the progenitor or architect of so-called socialist/communist countries. Key Concepts--Materialism materialism--(not craving for objects/money ie material comformts) Materialism refers to a conception of history and the way society organizes itself as a series of interactions that are actual, physica, perceivable. To the philosphical emphasis on materialism, Marx adds “historical” --highlighting the tangible role that history has upon how we interact, organize, and segment. These “material” interactions impact knowledge formations, consciousness. How is Grace formed in history, materially? Key concepts--Base and Superstructure 1. Economic Base 2. (Cultural) Superstructure 3. The dynamic interchanges between base and superstructure The underlying structure of the economy exerts influence--but does not determine-the content of the cultural industry. Likewise changes in the superstructure have an impact upon how the economic base is organized -why would the domestic workers in Alias Grace be drawn to folklore and magic? -why are we drawn to augmented reality? Not so key concept--False consciousness 1. The ruling class is successful in transmitting its ideas that concretize its own power to the degree that 2. The masses believe these ideas to be authenticated, and moreover to be theirs! Not an importation from the ruling elite to them. N.b. the creaton of ideology--and the strategies of accomodation and resistantce that working people deploy--are far more complicated than such a concept can explain. That said, the working classes’ admiration of our current president perhaps gives the concept some credence. An attempt to explan how the masses are complicit in their own oppression. Very Key Concept---Ideology 1. Cultural texts espouse or contain the biases, interest, values of their producers 2. Often the values of dominant social groups. 3. Eg under capitalism, values of individualism, profit competition, and the sanctity of the “market” will be redolent in commercial works of art (ie the hollywood film) 4. Ideologies naturalize the artificial, disguise the irrational as common sense and legitimize an imposed order. Nb just because a program is produced or distribute by a right (or left-leaning) corporation, doesn’t determine its ideological position or positions ideology Refers to a way of thinking about the world that emerges from and reinforces a specific social order --a dominant ideology is a web of beliefs that underpins a system of domination at a specific moment. It works to promote the interests of some people over and against others’ seem neutral or universal. A dominant ideology can make inequities seem natural, inevitable. (vs subordinated ideologies of less powerful groups/subcultures) for ideological formation see p. 16, 17. Content contains ideological positions. But also regulations, patterns of consumption/production, distribution also espouse ideological positions. Historical materialist vs culturalist Historical materialist--how societies are transformed by changes in the economy. The impact of history and an emphasis on the materialist conditions of production/reproduction to determine lived reality. How economic base impacts all aspects of sociality/relationships. Culturalist--emphasizes how economic factors interact with socio-cultural actualities and changes to explain lived realities. In this view culture can therefore impact economic structure. The movement between societal factors is not unidirectional. Idealogical systems are thus not epiphenomena of an underlying economic base. (an epiphenomenon is a secondary effect that arises from a process, but does not impact the originary process) Key concepts---Class conflict 1. Bourgeoisie vs proletariat 2. This contradiction/conflict has to be resolved as it can’t be maintained eternally as the interests of the two main classes (the ruling elites vs the toiling masses) are entirely separate. 3. The media works to shroud this conflict, suggesting harmony where there is discord 4. The media is the arena in which class conflict is staged, and perhaps maintained. The class conflict in Alias Grace is palpable; the ways in which women, in particular, were peripherilazed spatially, denied knowledge about their own bodies, creates women as a social class. Key concept--Alienation 1. The worker is alienated from the product of her labor (think of the assembly line). The product appears to her strange. 2. The media worker, say a prod asst. Or a key grip, has no relationship to the program or film as her labor is seemingly disconnected from the entirety of what is produced 3. The workplace is so maintained by managers that the worker is estranged at the site of production. 4. Artwork, including certain media works, become an expression of this alienation. 5. For Marx, alienation is related to the means of production, but I say it also related to the modes of consumption. The division of labor in the domestic sphere. Key Concept---Hegemony (Gramsci) 1. The domination of a diverse society is accomplished by the cooperation of the non-elite by way of culture 2. An intermeshing of of political, social and cultural forces that unite to coerce the masses into a tentative agreement to abide by the ruling elite’s agenda. 3. Media becomes an unwitting accomplice to hegemonic domination by way of ideology, or conversely attempts a counter-hegemonic position through deliberate subversion Key concept--the culture industry (the Frankfurt School) Culture is subsumed by capitalist modes of production Culture becomes a commodity, an experience to be purchased Reproduction of original changes our experience our experience of the high arts The popular is tainted by capitalist modes and the need to sell Question: can the culture industry create products that are counter-hegemonic, that subvert the capitalist/patriarchical order. Is Alias Grace an example of this? interpellation Media texts interpellate viewers--they address us and position us through specific frames and logics. They call us/name us to concur with the how dominant ideologies are encoded into texts. (from Althusser) ideas that are not are own notions become ours through this process of interpellation. Contigency vs certainty. Media texts influence is itself mediated--we enter into negotiations with texts so that the ideological impact is partial, contested, contradictory. Media texts can be framed then as ‘sites of negotiation” Other key terms related to ideology Epistemology--how do we know what we know, what is the nature of people’s understanding of reality Textuality--how do ideologies operate within media texts. Myth--a powerful story through which a historically specific and socially constructed idea or practice is made to feel like an eternal or quasi-spiritual truth. Myth is a particular register, a high note if you will, of ideology, that elevates certain meanings to numinous status. Frames--a text can establish narrow frames that contain an issue, and trim its edges. A frame can therefore exclude alternative ways of thinking. Frames focus but also curtail other possibilities Peaky Blinders Class politics as entertainment The popular vs the elite Populism vs. elitism AND pluralism Who are gangsters and what do they represent as icon, index, symbol Stereotypes about the working class (the underclass): violent, tribal, instinctual, loyal Fashion/uniforms Season 1, episode 3 The handmaid’s tale darkness/light – the show becomes increasingly dark, interrupted by various sources of light—fire, streetlights, bleak sunlight, moon Costume/color Religion as used by men/as used by women Female spaces/male spaces Use of violence in the show--how violence is a contaminant Speculative….does it provide a critique of the contemporary moment? The overlap, the intersections, between gender and class. Keyterms: patriarchy, sexism, gender. Semiotics—the study of signs in culture Peirce’s three Aspects of the Sign 1. Icon=resemblance (photograph, statue) 2. Index=causal connection (meow, cat) 3. symbol=convention (flags, road sign, words) Question: is roman number II an icon; is arabic number 2 a symbol? Saussure’s theory of the sign Sound-image = signifier (THE WORD AND THE SOUND OF iT--TREE) Concept = signified THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE SIGNIFIER AND THE SIGNIFIED IS ARBITRARY The referent Denotation Connotation Myth SIGNS AND BRANDS Brand names do more than identify a product (denotation), they create connotations -- of elegance, usefulness, excellence, reliabilt Brand names are signifiers that define the corporation. Brands from a Peircean perspective are icons that functions as symbols--meanings is attributed to them even as they resemble the corporation itself. Eg Amazon.com (a long river, a warrior woman, a region of Brazil) MATERIAL CULTURE Objects and artifacts serve as signs and convey a great deal of information. --reading people by what they wear -reading people by their homes and their decor --the waste they produce; the items they retain --the poker face; the expressive face SIGNS REVEAL TRUTH: SIGNS CAN SHROUD THE TRUTH: wigs, elevator shoes, dyed hair, impostors implants, impersonation, and so forth THE FACE AS A SIGN Expressions are subject to semiotic analysis in the quotidian. (the pseudo-science of reading face is known as physiognomy (I read faces to see who has done the reading) (Students read the faces of professors to discern mood) What does the face of the actor/icon Greta Garbo connote and mean? What is her myth? Is it a face or an image? Language and Speech/Langue vs Parole Connotation vs denotation Synchronic vs diachronic Syntagmatic analysis vs paradigmatic analysis,eg an outfit; a menu: Metaphor (a comparison of the unlike) vs metonymy (the substitution of a part for the whole, or the associated for the entirety) Text, context, intertext, paratext, subtext -Text is the program itself. -Context is how the text corresponds (or stands out) from the sociol-cultural mileu from which the text is created. This extra-textual, meaning it is outside the text itself but influences how the text is perceived. -Intertext--the fundamental interreliablity of texts upon each other for the construction of their meaning. sometimes intertextuality is apparent, as when the simpsons refers to Citizen Kane the movie. But intertextuality is always at work as we make sense of a text--no text is an island--its meanings relates to and responds to previous texts and current texts. --subtext--the meanings of the text that are not immediately apparent. An underlying theme that is experienced but is not always completely revealed. Intertextuality The creation of texts that includes -- deliberately or by unintended -- previously existing texts. A way of quoting (and bringing in characters, ideas, narratives) into a program, film, Texts and programs exist in relation to each other not independent of each other. Dialogical theory--Bahktin Words, speech acts is tied to what has been said before and to utterances to be made in the future. The meaning of words is contested, not unified, and in flux. Language is not fixed, nor its meaning. Paratextuality--a form of intertextuality --a paratext is subservient to the text and serves as a reference to and indicator of the actual work itself (in a book this means the cover, the preface, the index, the foreward, the backcover, the use of font/typefaces) --in tv, a paratext includes the title sequences, the closing credits, the “previously on…” sequence, and the “next week on…”sequence. --also DVD bonus features, posters, trailers, fan productions, reviews are all paratextuality. -Entryway paratexts are those we encounter before we encounter the text itself. Eg movie trailers (before a film is finished). It introduces us to the work. Ads for programming that has not yet aired. --In media res paratexts are those we encounter after the text has begun-interviews, reviews, blogs, podcasts, fan productions. Expand the range of possible meanings. Other key terms linked to intertextuality --allusions, homage, reference, genre -parody (intertextual bridge to another text, in order to make fun of it) eg the Daily Show, uses the format of a new show in order to ridicule it. --Critical intertextuality (the Simpson’s attack on the genre of the sitcom and the place of the suburb in middle America, also nuclear power) --Flow (Raymond Williams) scheduling and streaming --Pastiche--playful/artful citation so that new incorporates previously stated, recontextualized --Mythologies (Barthes) deep meanings developed across multiple texts) --The work vs the text: for Barthes the text involves the labor or the reader/user/viewer. The work is the actual object only. The text is completed by the reader, the user, the viewer. Visual style Style refers to the “patterned used of a medium’s techniques” to communicate plot and them and to generate affect. --meaningful patterns of techniques such as lighting design, editing, framing, casting. hair/makeup, set design, art direction. --stylistics --the interpretation of style. More advanced in film studies than in tv/media studies so this essay imports ideas from Bordwell’s work on film art. “The form or style of an individual film is the ensemble of choices intended to realize or the point or purpose of the film” noel carroll Stylistic functions 1. Denote--the communication of narrative, place, character 2. Express--to convey emotion 3. Symbolize--connotations, meanings, implications, ideas 4. Decoration--when set decor is used to provide pleasure through its flourishes 5. Persuade--especially in advertising, to convince, to compel the viewer to desire 6. Hail or interpellate--the Hey You of discourse. The alerting to invite the viewer 7. Differentiate--to stand out, and to call attention to the uniqueness 8. Signify liveness and/or verisimilitude--especially in television, to let the viewer now about the simultaneity of events and/or their truthfulness/accurateness Historicizing style Style is distinctive in each historical period. This is obvious of course. A netflix show produced last year does not look like a network drama from 15 years ago. Analogously an outfit from the 1980s does not look current. --Four factors govern the evolution of style: 1. Economics 2. Technology 3. Industry standards 4. Aesthetics Budget affects style. In the 40s color film was too expensive to use. Black and white began to be used dynamically, featuring light and shadow. In the genre later named film noir. Historicizing the Study of Style --study of style in the 1910s--1920s focused on MONTAGE/editing. The essence of cinema, creating new meanings through juxtaposition of shots/sequences. – DEEP FOCUS. Bazin in the early 50s emphasized how a shot can depict depth and allow the background to communicate to viewers. A way to lend lifelikeness to cinema. --AUTEUR THEORY, from the mid50s by way of Truffaut. Directors invest in a singular style, akin to how a novelists repeats techniques of writing (Margaret Atwood eg) --MISE-EN-SCENE. The patterning of all elements in front of the camera: set/costume designer, actor positioning/movement, lighting. Became related to the Auteur. --SEMIOTICS from the 1970s. Christian Metz. Interpreting the signs of cinema. Historicizing Style Part Two POETICS--from Bordwell/Thompson. Refers to the study of how films are put together and how, in determinate contexts, they elicit particular effects. Film Art first published in 1979. An emphasis upon industrial changes as well as viewers’ responses. TELEVISUALITY--”the new television does not depend upon the reality effect or the fiction effect, but upon the picture effect”--John Caldwell. From the 1980s and MIami Vice, rejecting verisimilitude or denotation (fiction, telling a coherent story) investment in the medium’s ability to decorate, to offer excess. Netflix may be related to this emphasis upon netflix-visuality. Blurring the line between the cinematic and the televisual. Craft Traditions --the rules or the codes that media practitioners accept, modify, or reject as they make media. --eg, the shift from film stock to digital recording was slowed by cinematographic customs. Many directors resisted technological innovation. (use of sound in cinema, use of color film, etc.) --craft traditions have roots in aesthetics. Directors, soundtrack composers, set/costume designer/builders, and other creative personnel all work under assumptions of what looks good. --standards change over time. Today’s closeup is much tighter than the closeups in the 1930s. Why? In part, due to technological changes, but also aesthetic choice. --pace of editing in television. --2x faster now than in the 1950s. Use of steadicams/handhelds Style/Meaning --Style has meaning. Eg film noir’s visual style (its CONVENTIONS) communicates ideas/ideology, gender/performativity, socio-politics/class. --genres cross media, but are modified to account for medium specificity --series can disrupt dominant styles. Eg. The Sopranos; The Real World; Stranger Things. Create new paradigms -certain programs/films indulge in the creation of pleasure, freeing images from the need to tell the story or work upon an established theme. Alias Grace-season 1, episode 2. Set in colonial Canada (Ontario) before Canada had its independence from England (July 1 1867; though not full sovereignty til 1982). Grace Marks, Irish immigrant, convicted of being involved in the killing of her employer and his housekeeper in 1843. Canadians! It has been said that we are on the verge of a revolution. We are in the midst of one; a bloodless one, I hope, but a revolution to which all those which have been will be counted as mere child’s play. - William Lyon MacKenzie, 1837 Grace tells her story to a doctor, who may help her get out of prison. Information in Alias Grace is conveyed through signification. Nothing can be explicit. Nothing can be denoted. Trust has to occur through connotation. --It is never said that Grace begins menstruating --it is never said that Mary Whitney had a botched abortion --it is never said that Mary Whitney had an affair with the son on their boss George Parkison --the love between Mary and Grace (or Grace’s love for Mary) never says its name, but it is expressed through signs --the veracity of Grace’s narrative recited to Dr. Jordan. -the use of folkloric signification --the apple peel (the name of the man you will marry) ; the palm reading by Jeremiah discussing her journals. Denied scholarly knowledge the laboring classes create their own ways to know (epistemology) based on the interpretation (hermeneutics) of signs from the body. Questions: how would you describe the visual style of the episode? How is Colonial Canada depicted visually? What texts intersect with the episode? Midterm--images Assignment—paper recommendations, send to your classmate, cc me. 5 recommendations on how to improve the paper. First say something positive. Sound Audiovisual Contract The audiovisual relationship is not natural but rather a sort of symbolic pact to which the audio-spectator agrees to forget that sound is coming from loudspeakers and picture from the screen. The audio-spectator considers the elements of sound and image to be participating in one the same entity or world. As audience, we “sign” a contract to suspend belief and assume that sound is coming from the screen, from the mouths of characters with moving lips. From Michel Chion Spatial Magnetization— “Mental pan" of the sound source. The spectator will mentally place a voice as coming from off screen left, in tandem with visual indications about the person speaking, even through in an monaural movie theater the sound really emanates from a speaker behind the center of the screen If a character is walking across the screen, the sound of the footsteps seems to follow his image, even though in real space, they continue to issue from the same stationary loudspeaker. Sounds of loudspeakers located somewhere in the room will be perceived as coming from the TV-screen Magnetization happens in spite of the evidence of our own senses. The spectator perceives that a sound source is in space of the image, no matter what the real point of origin of the sound. The acousmatic—a sound without source being visible. (recorded music, radio, use of voiceover) Acousmetre—a character who exists only in sound (the invisible narrator) Acousmatic Zones Offscreen—sound whose source is invisible, whether temporary or not. Diegetic—coming from the visible world of the episode/film. Nondiegetic—sound whose supposed source is not only absent from the image but is also external to the story world. Such as voice over commentary and narration, and of course musical underscoring. Pit Music—Musical underscoring. Term comes from orchestra. Can be empathic or anempathic. Ambient Sound (territory-sound)—Sounds that envelops and inhabits its space, without raising the question of the identification or visual embodiment of its source—bird’s singing, churchbells. Environmental sounds that do not beg for the source, that animate the soundscape and give the sense of expanse. The lack of them will give the sense of enclosure. Rear Window, eg. The airshaft eg. William Anastasi’s piece https://soundcloud.com/anastasi-sound-works/william-anastasiwindow-on-the Empathetic sound - music or sound effects whose mood matches the mood of the action Sound can directly express its participation in the feeling of the scene, by taking on the scene's rhythm, tone and phrasing. Jaws music. Anempathetic sound - usually diegetic music - that seems to exhibit conspicuous indifference to what is going on in the film's plot, creating a strong sense of the tragic. For example, a radio continues to play a happy tune even as the character who first turned it on has died. Anempathetic effects can occur with sound effects - in a very violent scene after the death of a character some sonic process continues like the noise of a machine, the hum of a fan, a shower running as if nothing had happened. (In Antonioni´s The passenger - the electric fan, in Hitchcock's Psycho - the running shower) Visualized Zone Onscreen—sound whose source appears in the image, and belongs to the reality represented with the frame of the image On the Air Sound—Sounds that are transmitted electronically— radio, telephone, records, amplicification, intercoms, answer machines, whose sources are seen. Internal Sound—corresponds to the physical and mental interior of a character. Breathing, heartbeats. A voice that corresponds to the body of a character. Interior monolog. A kind of empathic sound. The I voice (used by Moore, Broomfield, an externalized voice, a documentary filmmaker’s voice) that overwhelms the visual frame, whose source is seen but the voice is recorded at a different time than the filming of the body. Screen Music—the opposite of pit music—the source of the music is either fully framed or indicated by the image. Can be a Car radio or a live musician. Soundtrack can switch between screen and pit music. Music is privileged with the elements of sound within cinema. – capable of instantly communicating with the other elements of the action. Can move from pit to screen, can fill the role of narration, moving again from empathic to anempathic. Helps characters move great distances and long stretches of time. POINT/PLACE of Audition In film, once can become conscious of the pov of the camera. 1.As the place from from which I the spectactor see, from above, from below, a spatial designation. 2. as the pov of a character in the scene. You see the character, you see what the character sees. What about the point or place or audition? What about the position of the microphone? From where in the image or from the wings of the framed iamge is the sound eminating? Can the audience become conscious of the use of the sound recording devices, in the same way that a film scholar can become aware of the camera angles? In what ways are there establishing “shots” for sound? From where do I hear? From what point in the space represented? A spatial sense a subjective sense, which character, at a given moment of the story is hearing what I hear? What can radio—as an acousmatic media, filled with acousmetres, offer the listener? In terms of intimacy, estrangement, proximity, distance, involvement. What can disembodiment offer our actual bodies? The grain of the voice: Stevie Wayne The Fog https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L36d7p5TgEI DJ the warriors https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj8bAd9fQ18 Alison Steele The Nightbird https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LUqqueEy-4 1:54 A Letter to Three Wives https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wu-GpwGIwuQ&t=139s She’s gotta have it –episode about the black dress… How does spike lee use music? Assignment—when is music empathic, anempathic. When is diegetic? When is nondiegetic? On-air? Pitmusic? More generally what is the role of music in telling the story of Nola Darling and the black dress? Popular music studies Difference with musicology itself (textual, formal qualities of the music itself) the study of classical music, or jazz, or western or eastern art music with a focus on aesthetics and historical developments Popular music studies, instead, is a subfield of media studies, with different focus. Eg, the role of music in: Identity /youth culture/ authenticity Subcultural development/subcultural capital The development of music “scenes” Seattle (grunge); Lower East Side/Manhattan,East End/South London (punk); Bronx (rap/hiphop); Kingston, Jamaica (reggae); LaPerla/San Juan (reggaeton); Coventry, England (ska revival) The development of the music video as distinct genre. Unlike musicology (or ethnomusicology), popular music studies examines the following: Industrial studies of music production Regulation and policy of popular music Copyright (sampling) Cultural labor Technology and its uses Audiences and Consumption The use of music as soundtrack in film/tv as part of the cinema as marketing of music Performance and stardom COM 315 – Media Analysis Spring 2021 – Wednesday 10:10 – Online via Zoom and Blackboard Instructor: Professor Edward D. Miller edward.miller@csi.cuny.edu Office hours by appointment DESCRIPTION Theory and writing course introducing students to diverse approaches to media analysis including semiotics, psychoanalysis, aesthetics, intertextuality, authorship studies, and discourse analysis. Students explore different genres of media with a focus on programming available on Netflix, Hulu, FX, HBO, or Amazon. • • • • • • • • • • • LEARNING GOALS Understand the histories and theories of selected analytical methodologies. Acquire knowledge on the different media and genres of media texts. Examine various media texts using a variety of analytical methods. To make connections between media analysis, social change, and cultural identity. TEXTS The Craft of Criticism: Critical Media Studies in Practice, edited by Michael Kackman and Mary Celeste Kearney. Routledge, 2018. Referred to as TCOC in the syllabus Additional course readings may be distributed as handouts or posted on Blackboard throughout the semester REQUIREMENTS Attendance and regular participation required at all class meetings, screenings, and related events. All papers must be handed in on time. Reading completed before each session. I don’t give quizzes. However, I will call on students to explain concepts described in the reading. Be prepared by keeping up with the syllabus. First paper: a close reading of one of the programs viewed in class using one of three approaches: semiotics, psychoanalytic, Marxism/ideological critique. At least two pages. Midterm: define and use terms. Analyze image. In class. Final paper: an in depth analysis of one of the programs viewed in class, using at least two of the approaches. At least five pages. Can be done in groups. 1 • • • • • • • • Presentation: a summary of your research findings in front of your classmates. POLICIES Attendance will be monitored throughout the semester. Any absences beyond one must be accompanied by a note from a physician or will result in a lowered participation grade. Late arrival to class will be counted as an absence. Do not expect to get an A if you miss more than one session. No late papers will be accepted except in the case of a valid excuse (such as an illness verified by a doctor’s note). No texting during class. Unauthorized use of devices will lower the student’s attendance/participation grade. If you are using your phone to take photos or take notes let me know. Plagiarism, cheating, and any other form of academic dishonesty will not be tolerated and may result in failure or other sanctions. For more information, please see the CUNY Policy on Academic Integrity: https://www2.cuny.edu/about/administration/offices/legalaffairs/policies-procedures/academic-integrity-policy/ Respectfulness: Diversity of all kinds is respected at all times. Mindfulness of who is also in the room is crucial. Let’s respect each other’s identities and challenge ourselves so that we learn from each other’s perspective. This is especially important in our current political climate. If you want, let me know the pronouns you use. Response to media shown in class: Discussion comments must be on topic and informed. As the course is focused on analysis of form and content, it is imperative that you take the time to consider your remarks and to apply the reading to the course material. Some of the images used in class may be considered controversial--rather than reject the material outright, contextualize it and analyze it. Please let me know if you have religious objections related to any of the media. Communication: I respond to emails Monday through Friday. The email subject line must include the course number and your full name. Use your school email address. If you email me, make sure the message is professional and refers only to the course. 2 • • • • • EVALUATION Participation/attendance 10% Midterm: 30% First Essay: 20% (Due Week 5) Final presentation: 10 % Final paper 30% (Due December 19) SCHEDULE OF SESSIONS Week 1/ Introduction. 3 February. Syllabus, expectations discussion of contemporary media Viewing: The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu) Week 2. Style and Semiotics. 10 February. Reading: Jeremy Butler, “Visual Style” in TCOC Jonathan Gray, “Intertexts and Paratexts” in TCOC Barthes, “The Face of Garbo” Viewing: Alias Grace (Netflix) Week 3. Ideology. 17 February. Reading: Ron Becker, “Ideology” in TCOC Karl Marx, excerpt on Commodity Fetishism from Das Kapital Vol. One Screening: Peaky Blinders (Netflix) Week 4. Psychoanalytic Analysis. February 24. Todd McGowan, “Psychoanalytic Criticism” in TCOC Freud, excerpts from Beyond the Pleasure Principle on “Fort-Da” Viewing: Mindhunter (Netflix) Week 5.Representation. March 3 Reading: Mary Beltran, “Representation” in TCOC Viewing: 3 Are You the One (queer season; MTV); Pose (FX) DUE Essay 1 Week 6.Discourse Analysis. Midterm Review. March 10 Reading: Rosalind Gill, “Discourse” in TCOC Foucault, “Las Minanas” and “Discursive Formations” (excerpts) Viewing: Paintings, photography, video art Week 7: Midterm. March 17. Week 8. Sports Media/Gender. March 24. Reading: Kristi Tedway, “The Performance of Blackness and Femininity in Postfeminist Times: Visualising Serena Williams Within the Context of Corporate Globalisation” in New Sporting Femininities Edward D. Miller, Billie Jean King: The Tomboy vs. the Nerd Jock” in Pretty Boys, Tomboys, and Outspoken Women Viewing: Tara Mateik, “Putting the Balls Away” No Class March 31. Spring Break Week 9. Genre/Acting. April 7. Reading: Cynthia Baron, “Acting and Performance” in TCOC Amanda Ann Klein, “Genre” in TCOC Viewing: Hannah Gadsby, Nanette (Netflix) Week 10. Authorship/Narrative. April 14. Reading: Cynthia Chris, “Authorship and Auteurism” in TCOC Jason Mitchell, “Narrative” in TCOC Viewing: Spike Lee, She’s Gotta Have It (film/tv program) Week 11. Popular Music/Sound. April 21. Reading: Norma Coates, “Popular Music” in TCOC 4 Jacob Smith, “Sound” in TCOC Viewing: Music Videos by Janelle Monáe, Missy Elliot, Michael Jackson Week 12. Video Games. April 28. Reading: Matthew Thomas Payne & Nina B. Huntemann, “Games and Gaming” in TCOC Viewing: Years and Years (HBO) Week 13. Software/Digital Humanities. 5 May. Reading: Eric Freedman, “Software” in TCOC Miriam Posner, “Digital Humanities” in TCOC DUE: Gallery Response Paper Week 14. Presentations. 12 May. December 19. Final Papers Due. Tuesday 5pm by email attachment in pdf format. Note on the Final: You may choose to work in groups. The final is six pages when written by one person. It is 10 pages when written by two students, and 12 pages when written by three students. MLA style. 5 Mindhunter: Serial killer as native informant (as in Silence of the Lambs, with Clarice Starling and Hannibal Lechter (intertextuality) The three FBI agents as elements of a single psyche— 1. Unconscious--Holden 2. Ego--Bill 3. Superego—Wendy Or, of an ersatz family, with Holden as the Child, struggling in Oedipal Fashion against Bill, to gain the approval of Wendy. The theme of shoe as symbol/fetish Sexuality as a result of trauma. Troubled relationships between Holden and Debbie (he doesn’t like it when she role plays, it disturbs his sense of masculinity) Between Bill and his wife and their son Wendy is without relationship, she seeks a connection with a stray cat she feeds. The different ways they respond to the symbol/serial character Jerry Brudos (a real person). Note: Wendy only interacts with Brudos through tape recordings, and by advising Bill and Holden Paratextual element use of Large Italicized Red font to describe setting Underlying notion: trauma fuels the disturbed psyche into criminality Tenets of Representation -ideology -hegemony -post-structuralism -semiotics -grand narratives / deconstruction -identity politics -response to stereotypes Amazon.com: Season 8, episode 7 Are You the One Hulu Pose Season 2, episode 4 Tenets of Representation part two and Pose—the representation of transgender women in popular television. Paradigmatic shift. (What does Candy mean that “she is seen”? and why does this have such value for her? --Othering --Intersectionality /multiple axes of identity -cultural studies --polysemy --Orientalism --Xenophobia --the “gaze” --hybridity --gender performativity --genre criticism Representation part three Representation in American government Representations are not reflective of the viewer per se. They are defining, the viewer/user gains identity through modes of representation/s/he is not only looking for herself/himself in media. We become ourselves through, with, and against systems of representation --our responses, our investments, our identifications/disidentifications. Representation is immersive not distancing; criticality is a learned skill not an innate one. Images for class: Las Meninas Triple Self-portrait Norman Rockwell, Self-portrait with wife and models https://www.artnet.com/auctions/ artists/helmut-newton/self-portraitwith-wife-and-models