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Bon Voyage

As many of you will be blogging late into the night to meet the noon deadline for final projects, I thought it only fair to do a little blogging of my own. Since most of you referenced being new to blogging, let alone, Twitter, I realize the nearly daily blog assignments (even though it was less than 500 words a day, #justsaying, but I digress) may have left you drained during this already exhaustingly hot summer. For that I thank you for hanging in there these five weeks. I looked forward to reading your efforts a few days weekly, though grading brings its own tedious elements to an otherwise enjoyable profession. Have no fear, though, I’m not burned out before examining your final projects. Based on the Twitter chatter and my Gmail inbox, this last assignment seems to have frazzled more than a few of you. From the samples shared with me so far I can see you’re putting quality thought and attention to the projects, especially the pop culture and multimedia components (but don’t skimp on the critical theory portion, hint hint).

Since we never had a face-to-face session to familiarize the group with the Pop Academy Wordpress tools, I can’t stress enough how proud I am of the skills you’ve demonstrated (and in some cases mastered) in this regard. Since I will soon have to recycle and archive the posts for the fall sections of COMM 326, I highly recommend exporting your blog content to a personal blog so that you can include in your portfolio. Our recent graduates have been hired by lucrative organizations based on their social media usage, especially blogging and Twitter. I’m not kidding, ask around to your fellow commnerds. I tweeted directions on how to export earlier but I’ll include them here, too. In your dashboard go to Tools–>Export, then click on the Download Export File button. It will give you an XML file to import into your personal blog. Of course I suggest Wordpress but if you have a personal blog on another site it should work there, too. I’ll keep this site as is for a month but come Aug. 1 I’ll be archiving all existing content. In that time you may want to practice importing/exporting your Pop Academy blog to make sure it works for you. You really do want to showcase the solid work you’ve created here.

Please let me know if you object to me sharing your work from this semester as examples to future COMM 326 students. Feel free to comment your own farewell thoughts and suggestions here, or you can post comments anonymously to the Blackboard discussion forum. I do appreciate your feedback in helping me improve the course. As for moving forward with social media, keep blogging and tweeting as you see fit. I realize it’s not for everyone, but many of you seem to have hit a rhythm that suits you, so stick with it. If you do stay on Twitter, I ask kindly for you to unfollow the @popacademy account by Aug. 1 since a new set of Pop Academy recruits gets to step into your shoes. Feel free to follow my @daniellestern account, but be warned I might follow you back.

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Article Review 5 Prep

For your final article review please examine the postmodern approach of Jeffrey Sconce (2007) in his analysis of Paris Hilton. While you should look closely at his practice of postmodern theory, other theories and concepts we’ve discussed on the blog are surely at play, so feel free to include those in your posts. Due at noon, Tuesday, June 22.

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Blog Assignment 10: Postmodernism

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Article Review 4 Prep

The essay by Adilifu Nama (2009) does a fantastic job summarizing Black representation in the science fiction film genre. Using the concepts from our critical race theory readings, as well as other theories we’ve discussed thus far that you think apply, review Nama’s analysis based on the assignment directions. Due at noon, Thursday, June 17.

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Blog Assignment 9: Critical Race Theory continued

Color Adjustment is a great documentary by Marlon Riggs on the history of Black television representation (The full video of it has been removed from YouTube). Riggs’ film coincides nicely with the reading from Herman Gray. For this blog we’ll focus on the three “discursive practices” of contemporary television representations of Blackness that Gray (p. 294) provides: assimilationist, pluralist and multiculturalist. In your blog posts, briefly define and describe these practices in one paragraph. While this reading focuses on representation of Black culture, I’d like for you all to focus on representation in popular culture of an ethnicity/race outside of the Black/White dichotomy (however, we can continue that discussion on Twitter). In the remaining paragraphs select a text (TV, film, video game, etc.) you have not discussed yet and contextualize it within one of these discursive practices for its portrayal of a minority culture. Due Wednesday, June 16 at noon.

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Blog Assignment 8: Critical Race Theory

Please excuse the sound of my puppy chewing on his bone in the background of this audio clip of critical race theory discussing today’s readings. Ah, the joys of working from home.

On your blogs, pick a current hot-button issue of race in popular culture from one of the suggestions below and examine its reaction and interpretation of  audiences/fans/citizens. I suggest turning to social media like Facebook, Twitter and blogging culture. To be clear, rather than looking at the construction of a raced narrative or stereotype, or even a transgressive portrayal, I want you to look on the other side of the cultural equation–reception. Building from hooks’ encouragement to use pop culture to disrupt hierarchy, we need to examine how people are actually using and interpreting race in pop culture. For example, what reactions have you noticed to the culture wars of immigration and ethnicity studies going on in Arizona? How have Americans responded to the overwhelming underrepresentation of minority leadership in Fortune 500 companies? On a less political note, what about the controversial Oprah Winfrey biography that Kitty Kelley wrote? Or the continued tabloid sensations of rich white celebrity women adopting minority and/or international children? Using critical race theory explain the public response to one of these issues.

Due Tuesday, June 15, at noon.

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The Mirror Stage: Structuralism/Blog 4 Addendum

After reading the recent blog posts I wanted to take an opportunity to clarify the concept of Lacan’s mirror stage. I realize it’s difficult enough to grasp critical theory in a face-to-face setting, let alone do a lot of “figuring it out for yourself” in an online setting. Briefly, then, let’s recall that critical theory is grounded in questioning power structures. In turn, structuralism analyzes patterns and meanings inherent in language systems. Because communication studies is specifically concerned with human communication we have to interrogate how we define human. For our purposes here in structuralism, to be human is to use shared language that only has meaning arbitrarily–because we make it so. From your blogs you seem to grasp this enough via your descriptions of Barthes and myths. However, we need to extend this to identity to understand Lacan’s contribution.

I am no expert in pyschoanalytic theory, but since communication studies borrows from so many disciplines we have to recognize the importance of Freudian critical theory, from which Lacan extends his arguments about identity. He describes the mirror stage as human’s identification with ourselves. We see our image in a mirror and strive to connect to what we recognize as a detached notion of ourself. Surely it’s more complicated than we can describe here, but I hope you can see Lacan’s importance to critical theory in popular culture studies. So much of what we consume and produce is concerned with the image. As audience members, musicphiles, sports fans and so on, we can get caught up in celebrity images. We want to see ourselves and imagine our own bodies on stage, screen or green. Again, it’s more complicated then that, but it’s a start. For more, this link might be helfpul.

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Article Review 3 Prep

Since I’ve been reading your writing all term, it’s only fair you look at a sample of my own pop culture critique. For your third article review, you’ll be reading an essay on the Real World where I examine the construction and consumption of femininity on the long-running MTV reality series. You’ll notice that we didn’t have a designated article review for the post/structuralism readings. Since I use post-structuralist and feminist theories (along with other critical theories in the rhetorical and media studies literature), I hope this article provides an example of how to combine different approaches of critical theory. Please do not hold back in your analysis. I won’t take points off if you disagree with my analysis. In fact, I encourage productive dialogue on the subject. Due Monday, June 14, at noon.

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Blog Assignment 7: Feminism Pt. 2

The readings from Geraghty and Ang analyze “women’s texts” of soap operas and romance novels. Geraghty (1991) mentions soaps’ division of public/private spheres and male/female spaces and privileging of women’s emotional intelligence. These ideas are grounded in Dyer’s (1981) theory of utopianism. Ang (1988) critiques Radway’s (1984) arguments of romance readers’ temporary “therapeutic” escape from the otherwise patriarchal, hegemonic novels. Ang uses this opportunity to problematize traditional feminist reception research.

For this blog assignment, first read both articles carefully to make sure you understand their respective contributions to feminism as an important part of critical theory. In one paragraph, provide what you think are the key contributions of both authors. Second, to help us understand the relevancy of feminist approaches to so-called “women’s texts,” you will apply the authors’ arguments regarding soap operas and romance novels to a current popular genre that I believe most of you will have more familiarity with: the infamous romcom.

Select a popular romantic comedy of the past year or two and in a few paragraphs please discuss how these ideas play out in the film. Discuss the utopian, therapeutic nature of the characters and plot, the portrayal of ideological perfect love, and so on. You are welcome to select a film that challenges these assumptions, but be clear in your arguments whichever route you go. (Due at noon, Thursday, June 10.)

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Blog Assignment 6: Feminism Pt. 1