TEL 420 Electronic media criticism

Spring 2010

Bulletin description

• Examination of each of several critical theories and approaches to the criticism of telecommunications program content. Practical experience in evaluating critical writing and in the writing of critical pieces. Prereq: Telecom major status or consent of instructor.

Three main foci

• Construction of narratives– Telling stories in electronic media

• Production of media content (texts)– What goes into film, television, videogame

production• Social critique of media texts– Analysis of the quality, morality, ideology of media

content

Why?

• This course will help you as a producer and/or as a consumer of popular culture– Electronic texts are all around us– We tend to take them at face value• We have ‘overlearned’ the language of electronic

representation

– Even so, they affect us in important ways• I’m not an alarmist, but we should recognize that

electronic content has effects we don’t recognize as well as those that we do

How?

• First we’ll look at the components that make up narratives and how we experience them in film, television and videogame texts– Stories– Characters– Settings– Plots– Action– Myth

• Then we’ll take a quick look at how the texts are produced– Cinematography– Sound– Mise-en-scene– Editing– Shots/scenes/episodes– Lighting

• Finally, we’ll review some of the social implications of the narratives/texts commonly found in film, on television, and in video games– Class– Race– Gender– Morality– Sexuality

How will we tackle these tasks?

• Readings– The readings are moderate in amount and mostly quite

readable• Some of this stuff can be absolutely impenetrable• I needed to find content you could understand without prior

classwork in this area but that was not at a grade-school level

• I tried to mix theory with application• You’ll get more out of the class if you start reading film, tv

and videogame criticism in the popular media• I provide some recommended readings and point to some

good sources for additional information

Evaluation (Grading)

• Take-home and in-class assignments (30%)– Assignments will usually require you to apply what

you have learned in class and in your readings to television, film or videogame content. They will often be distributed via e-mail and collected in class, or will provide practice for an in-class evaluation of video content• For example, I may ask you to watch the presentation

of Arabs in 24 one week and apply the readings to what you see

Classroom participation (10%)

• Attendance and verbal in-class contribution will contribute to this portion of your point total

• An in-class presentation (10%)– Each of you will present to the class your

interpretation of how a week’s topic applies to some electronic text• More on that later, but you should know that you will

need to propose your topic to me and get feedback prior to your presentation

• A midterm examination (10% of grade)– Made up of vocabulary terms, short answers to

questions and one or two essays. Based on your understanding of and ability to apply concepts, vocabulary, and basic theory about our topics

• The semester examination (20% of grade)– A comprehensive examination emphasizing the

content from the post-midterm readings and that you can apply the semester’s theoretical content to specific examples of electronic narrative• I’ll show examples at the time of the test and you will

be expected to be able to identify how our semester content applies to the clips

• The final project (20% of course grade)– Each of you will pick a topic you want to explore

more deeply than the once-over in class allows. You’ll get the okay to go forward with your topic and will keep me updated on how you are progressing, getting your basic outline okayed, etc. during the semester. You will provide a paper on your topic and will share the knowledge you have gained (in greatly abbreviated form) in an in-class presentation at the end of the semester.

Out-of-class assignments

• In order to be on the same page, I’ll be requiring you to watch some films, television shows, documentaries and perhaps watch some folks playing video games. This will require some out of class time but is necessary to see that we can have intelligent discussions of various texts. I’ll make the content available to you so that you won’t be required to catch a single showing of something—which might be a problem if you have to be at work at a given time, etc. Much of the content will be available online.

Grades

• In general, if you do the work, you’ll do fine as far as grades are concerned. If you are doing the readings, coming to class, etc. and aren’t getting the ideas, please see me during office hours or set up a meeting.

So, to get started:

• Narratives are, generally speaking, stories.– There’s a whole area of study around narratives

and some of the folks who specialize in that area would not want such a simplistic definition, but it will serve us okay in this class.

Narrative

• What are the important features of narrative?– Time• What happens in narratives is ordered in time• Though there may be flashbacks, flashforwards, parallel

activity occurring simultaneously, etc. the basic structure of narrative is of linear time with a series of events occurring

– Characters• Narratives usually center on some person or persons

doing things or having things happen to them

Narrative

• Important features of narrative– Setting• The actions take place somewhere

– Plot• The actions that are included and their causal relations

– Theme• Some overarching general idea usually is reflected in

the narrative

Why focus on narrative?

• Narratives are extremely common– The great majority of texts you are exposed to

through electronic media present narrative content– People tend to construct their communications in

narrative form• What did you do last night?

– A list?– A story?

– Narratives are more interesting and satisfying than other forms of presentation

Narrative effects

• Even though most narratives are constructed for enjoyment/amusement, they have been demonstrated to be persuasive and educational.– People tell stories as a way of arguing their point– Stories are memorable and therefore are brought to

mind when we need to make decisions, evaluate alternatives, etc.

– People don’t recognize narratives as acts of persuasion and so often do not critically analyze them the way they do arguments, etc.

Narratives in electronic media

• The great majority of fictional content is narrative in nature– Think about the structure of primetime fiction, film

fiction, etc.– Videogames?

• Much of, if not the majority of, non-fiction is narrative in nature, as well– ‘Reality TV’– News ‘stories’– Commercial ‘mini-narratives’

Artistry

• Much of the artistry of electronic media is in the construction of compelling and entertaining narratives– Scriptwriting– Direction– Acting– Cinematography– Sound design– Special effects– Etc.

So let’s take a first look:

• The Internet Archive has lots of video, especially old movies, TV and cartoons

• http://www.archive.org/index.php