New Media Environments
Honors Core IV / Spring 2008
Tentative Syllabus
Instructor: Terry Wright

The following is a tentative syllabus for the course. It is subject to change. You should attend class regularly to keep abreast of current reading and writing assignments.

The texts for the course are: Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman, No Sense of Place by Joshua Meyrowitz, and Convergence Culture by Henry Jenkins. Other readings will be in the form of hand-outs (marked as HO).

F 1-10
Course Introduction

M 1-14
Film: The Ad and the Ego

W 1-16
T he Printed Word vs. The Visual Image
Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death , pp. 30-63

F 1-18
Postman, pp. 64-80

M 1-21
Martin Luther King Holiday

W 1-23
Postman, pp. 83-98

F 1-25
Postman, pp. 99-113

M 1-28
Postman and Paglia, "She Wants Her TV! He Wants His Book!" (HO)

W 1-30
Media and Violence
Bok, “Agression, the Impact of Media Violence” (HO)
Sachs and Washburn, “Tough Talk on Entertainment” (HO)

F 2-1
Film: The Simpson's Censorship Episode

M 2-4
Film Montage: Images of Violence in Popular Film

W 2-6
Film: Dream Deceivers

F 2-8
Film: Dream Deceivers

M 2-11
Media Theory
McLuhan, “The Medium is the Message” (HO)
Gabler, “Now Playing: Real Life, the Movie” (HO)

W 2-13
Bolter and Grusin, “Networks of Remediation” (HO)

F 2-15
Media and Society
Williams, “The Technology and the Society” (HO)

M 2-18
Meyrowitz, No Sense of Place , pp. 13-34

w 2-20
Meyrowitz, pp. 93-125

F 2-22
Meyrowitz, pp. 160-183

M 2-25
Meyrowitz, pp. 307-329

W 2-27
”Why Americans Hate the Media,” Fallows (HO)

F 2-29
Media and Literature
Bolter, “The Computer as New Writing Space” (HO)
Bolter, “Interactive Fiction” (HO)

M 3-3
Poems by RACTER
Guzeldere and Franchi, “Dialogues with Colorful Personalities of Early AI” (HO)

W 3-5
Gaming
Turkle, Video Games and Computer Holding Power (HO)

F 3-7
Convergence Culture
Jenkins, “Spoiling Survivor,” pp. 25-58

M 3-10
Jenkins, “Buying into American Idol,” pp. 59-92

W 3-12
Jenkins, “Searching for the Origami Unicorn,” pp. 93-130

F 3-14
Jenkins, “Quentin Tarantino's Star Wars?” pp. 131-168

M 3-17
Jenkins, “Why Heather Can Write,” pp. 169-205

W 3-19
Jenkins, “Photoshop for Democracy,” pp. 206-239

F 3-21
Jenkins, “Conclusion,” pp. 240-260

M 3-24 to F 3-28
SPRING BREAK

M 3-31
Media and Gender
Dibbell, “A Rape in Cyberspace” (HO)

W 4-2
Stone, “In Novel Conditions: The Cross Dressing Psychiatrist” (HO)

F 4-4
Surveillance, Security, and Privacy
Agre, “Surveillance and Capture: Two Models of Privacy” (HO)

M 4-7
Kember, “Surveillance, Technology, and Crime” (HO)
Gill, “Terror On-Line” (HO)

W 4-9
Cybersex
Graham, “The Panic Button” (HO)
Rheingold, “Teledildonics” (HO)

F 4-11
Cyberpunk
Elmer-Dewitt, “Cyberpunk” (HO)
Leary, “The Cyberpunk: The Individual as Reality Pilot” (HO)
Leary, “Evolution of Countercultures” (HO)
Film Short: “Tetsuo: The Iron Man”

M 4-14
Film Montage: Images of Media in Popular Film

W 4-16
Media and Current Events
Readings TBA

F 4-18
Readings TBA

M 4-21
Readings TBA

W 4-23
Readings TBA

F 4-25
Study Day

M 4-25 to F 5-2
Final Examinations