[home | back to courses]

“Generally speaking, the study of rhetoric is the study of the force or power of discourse—of the ways in which  texts affect the beliefs, attitudes, values, perceptual orientations, and behaviors of their consumers.” Leah Vande Berg, Lawrence A. Wenner and Bruce E. Gronbeck, Critical Approaches to Television (1998, p. 103)

 “Whatever is popular is by definition liked by many people—which is reason for some to argue that it’s good . . . and for others that it’s bad (it’s liked by so many of the wrong sort of people so I shouldn’t be seen to like it).  But a case for the importance of examining popular culture may be based on its persistence:  Specific popular culture texts may not last long, but popular culture itself is extraordinarily durable and tells us a great deal about the culture that sustains it.” Gary Thompson, Rhetoric Through Media (1997, p. 353)

  “Culture is the vast set of artifacts that nurture and influence the development and growth of people. . . . It is the socially generated symbolic strategies for manifesting artifacts as ‘real’ objects, actions, and events with ranges of meaning.  I wish to stress that a given person is usually influenced by, or is a part of, more than one culture.”  Barry Brummett, Rhetorical Dimensions of Popular Culture (1991, p.xix)

 “Culture is the constant process of producing meaning of and from our social experience, and such meanings necessarily produce a social identity for the people involved. . . . Within the production and circulation of these meanings lies pleasure.” John Fiske, Reading the Popular (1989, p. 1)

Syllabus

Course Description: We are surrounded by images, texts and sounds of popular culture: Radios, CDs, tapes, televisions, VCRs and DVDs, movie theaters, Internet, all bring messages for us to consume.  Some contain explicit arguments (“Buy a car from D & E Dodge!”) or implicit ones (Sexual passion disappears after you get married).  This course explores concepts, theories and critical methods that help us examine popular culture and become insightful critics and consumers of popular culture.  Your practices as communicators (producers and consumers) should be guided by the theories that have emerged from our systematic study of communication:  Theory informs practice!

            This class moves quickly.  Some of the text will be discussed in class.  However, you are responsible for all the readings as assigned.  Readings and lecture material are fair game for quizzes.  Please come in with questions from the reading:  What does it mean?  How does it apply?  How do we do it?  What does it look like?  These are all good questions and will help make the class meaningful for you. 

Course Objectives: After completing this course the successful student will: 

1.      demonstrate knowledge of core concepts (master vocabulary);

2.      demonstrate ability to apply course concepts,

3.      demonstrate ability to carry out secondary research,

4.      demonstrate ability to write effectively using formal academic style

 Course Policies: You are expected to attend every class period.  However, since life happens, you are allowed two absences without automatic penalty as a personal day.  Use it wisely if at all.   

 No make-up quizzes or assignments will be given unless there are extreme circumstances and such circumstances are handled responsibly by the student.  Any plagiarism will result in failure for that assignment and additional work by the student on all future assignments to prove that the work is the student’s own.

 Honor Code:  “It shall be the responsibility of every faculty member, student, administrator and staff member of the university community to uphold and maintain the academic standards and integrity of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington” (1997-1998 Student Handbook and Code of Student Life p. 91).  All student work and conduct must be in accordance with the academic honor code and other codes informing the university community. 

 Text:  Required:  Sonia Maasik and Jack Solomon (2000).  Signs of Life In the USA (4^th ed.).  Boston: Bedford/St. Martin.

Assignments and Grading: There are 375 points available for the course  The assignments are as follows: 

 I will be using a modified plus/minus system: 

 A word to the wise: Read the book on time and always be asking yourself how this applies to your understanding and practice of popular culture and communication. 

“The trick is to learn how to execute semiotic analysis and then to go further—to say something significant about human communication as a result of one’s careful attention to coding.”

Malcolm O. Sillars & Bruce E. Gronbeck, Communication Criticism: Rhetoric,

Social Codes, Cultural Studies.

“[Good critics] draw upon existing theories of rhetoric, which essentially are classification schemes, to being their analysis, then push their knowledge further through their creative application of theory and their own inferences drawn from careful study of messages (Black, 1965, p. 9).”  

Mark Stoner & Sally Perkins, Making Sense of Messages

A Critical Apprenticeship in Rhetorical Criticism.

Assignment Descriptions

I offer these assignments all at once not to cause overload but so that you can manage your time.  I realize that this may not be the only course you are taking and want you to be able to take the lead in owning your education and managing your coursework.  If you have questions about any of these assignments be sure to ask them.  Really, go ahead and ask.

Quizzes:  Quizzes are designed to see that you’ve read the text with comprehension and paid attention in class—including peer presentations.  The quizzes will be mostly true/false and multiple-choice.

Leading Class Sessions:  Your group will be charged with leading one class session.  You must incorporate at least four of the readings that you found most insightful to assign as homework.  Not every student must read all four essays but each student must read at least two essays.  You will need to design discussion questions, quiz questions, activities, media, etc. to use during the day you are leading the class.  You can make some use of media provided it is well thought out and well integrated into your plan.  Your group should plan to meet with me at least once to discuss what you are planning to do.  We can also plan to email the entire class on how to best prepare for your sessions beyond doing the reading.  You can draft that email as part of your planning paper.  See detailed assignment description.

Planning Paper for Class Session:  About a week before you lead the class sessions, your group will hand in a detailed planning paper for the sessions.  This paper will include a narrative overview of what you hope to accomplish, (Objectives), discussion questions you plan to ask, quiz questions for me to incorporate into the next quiz, activities and copies of materials for such activities (for instance a handout or game pieces, etc.).  Hard copy printout of PowerPoint slides (six slides per page) if you are using it.  See detailed assignment description.

Final Paper: The final paper will incorporate some of the course concepts we encounter into an insightful critique of a current or historical artifact of popular culture.  That artifact might be a broad shift in popular culture (the emergence of “new country”) or a very specific artifact such as the final episode of Seinfeld.  The paper should make an argument: There should be a claim and support for that claim.  That support should come from secondary research as well as concepts from the course.    The body of the paper should be 7-10 pages in length and integrate no less than 10 sources.  It must adhere to either APA style.  We will talk more about this paper as we go, but be sure to ask questions as well!  You may elect to carry out the term project in two-person teams.  The requirements for this are elevated slightly: the body of the paper should be 8-10 pages and integrate 12-15 sources minimum.

Presentation of Final Paper: The last week of class and final exam period will be devoted to formal presentation of the final papers.  You will want to be able to talk fluently about your paper and provide a 4-5 minute speech based on your research.  This speech should demonstrate the skills you developed in COM 110.  You should incorporate visual/audio aids where appropriate.  Teams should balance the presentation between both partners.

Class Participation: Participation is a factor of two things: Did you attend class?  Was the class better in some respects due to your membership?  In the answer to these two questions lies my assessment of your participation that will help determine plus/minus issues in grading.  Poor participation can negatively impact your grade.  Exceptional participation can improve your grade.
 

Schedule of Sessions

NOTE:  ALWAYS read the introduction to each major section as part of the readings in addition to those identified by the peer presentation groups—they will be on the quizzes 

 “Ultimately, I have argued that popular culture is what we make from the commodities and commodified practices made available by the culture industries”  John Storey: Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: An Introduction (3^rd ed.).

[top | home]