U.S. Mass Media and Image Culture: The Stakes of Gender, Ethnicity and Ethics

American Studies sophomores, Spring 2012-2013

Instructor: Dana Mihăilescu

dmihailes@yahoo.com

This course means to familiarize students with how U.S. mass media (press, radio, television, digital media, etc.) have used ethnic and gender images throughout time. The course explores the various ways in which U.S. mass media have strategically constructed ethnic and gender images or have attempted to create alternative ethical spaces to correct some mishaps of representations by delving into the specifics of different temporal / cultural periods and types of media. The course finally aims to foster students’ ability to identify strategies of manipulation and ethical reconfiguration of ethnic and gender images and to develop their critical thinking on issues of image representation in mass media.

1. Introduction.

2. Key Moments in U.S. Media Development

[Party Press Era; Mass Press Era (Penny Press); Modern Journalism (Summary Lead, Inverted Pyramid; Yellow Journalism; Story-telling Journalism, Information Model Journalism; Muckraking); New Journalism; Post-2000 Embedded Reporting; Film; Radio Programs; Television Formats; Digital Media]

3. Cornerstones of Media Development throughout Time and Specifics  of Various Mass Media Types (written press, radio, television, digital media)

Lippman, William. Excerpts from Public Opinion (1922) [see course-pack]

McLuhan, Marshall. “The Medium is the Message” (1964). Media Studies. A Reader. Eds. Paul Marris and Sue Thornham. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1997. 30-34.

Hall, Stuart. “Encoding, decoding.” The Cultural Studies Reader. Ed. Simon During. London: Routledge, 1994. 90-103.

Roberts, Donald F. and Ulla G. Foehr. “Trends in Media Use.” The Future of Children 18.1 (Spring 2008): 11-37.

4. Visuality and Ethics in Mass Media: The Role of Images as Norm Setters, Functional and Conjectural Knowledge Methodologies

Foss, Sonja K. “A Rhetorical Schema for the Evaluation of Visual Imagery.” Communication Studies 45 (Fall-Winter 1994): 213-224.

Kuhn, Annette. “Photography and Cultural Memory: A Methodological Explanation.” Visual Studies 22.3 (December 2007): 283-292.

Barnet, Sylvan and Hugo Bedau. “Visual Rhetoric: Images as Arguments.” Current Issues and Enduring Questions. A Guide to Critical Thinking and Argument, with Readings. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008. 141-161. 165-173.

5. Mass Media and Women’s Images throughout Time: Turn-of-the-Century to 1960s Configurations (Woman as Domestic Provider and Consumer)

Ppt. on turn-of-the-century women’s images in U.S. mainstream and minority magazines

Case studies:

Alice Barber Stephens’ The American Woman Series -- 6 photos in the 1897 issues of Ladies’ Home Journal [mainstream configurations of women’s image] in C. Kitch 21, 23, 25, 27, 30, 33

Moses, Adolph. “The Position of Woman in America.” American Jewess1.1 (1895): 15-21. [minority configurations of women’s images]

6. Mass Media and Women’s Images throughout Time: Turn-of-the Century to 1960s Configurations (Woman as Domestic Provider and Consumer, cont.)

Ppt. on 1890’s True Domestic Woman and 1900s Gibson, Fisher, Christy Girls as all American girl-pals [Gibson Girl, Fisher Girl, Christy Girl, Flapper]

Harding Davis, Richard and Charles Dana Gibson. “The Origin of a Type of the American Girl.” The Quarterly Illustrator 3:9 (January-March 1895): 3-8.

Images of 1910s Phillips’ sexually dangerous schemer 65, 66; Wartime patriotic images – woman as Militant Victory or Protecting Angel 108, 109; 1920’s Flapper – Held’s party girl 124-125, 1930’s Family Woman–New Mother Figure 134]

Kitch, Carolyn. “The Modern American Family.” The Girl on the Magazine Cover. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2001. 136-159.

Videos: Living Pages (1935). archive.org (http://www.archive.org/details/LivingPa1935 ); A Date With Your Family. Prod. Simmel-Meservey. 1950. archive.org; Brighter Day In Your Kitchen. 1955. archive.org; Boys Beware. Prod. Sid Davis. 1961. http://archive.org/details/BoysBewarecolorizedVersion; Consuming Women (Women as Consumers). Prod. Handy (Jam) Organization. 1967. archive.org (http://www.archive.org/details/Consumin1967).

7. Mass Media and Women’s Images throughout Time: Post-1960s Configurations (Women as Slim Objects vs. Women as Agents of Change)

Graydon, Shari. “How the Media Keeps Us Hung Up on Body Image.” Herizons (Summer 2008): 17-19.

Bessenoff, Gayle R. “Can the Media Affect Us? Social Comparison, Self-Discrepancy, and the Thin Ideal.” Psychology of Women Quarterly 30 (2006): 239-251.

Cohen, Randy. “Should Photos Come with Warning Labels?.” New York Times 20 October 2009. http://ethicist.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/should-photos-come-with-warning-labels/

Videos: Killing Us Softly – Advertising and the Image of Women (2001) (http://www.archive.org/details/KillingUsSoftly-AdvertisingAndTheImageOfWomen), Girls and the Media (2009) (http://www.archive.org/details/dom-25433-girlsandthemedia)

Project 1: compare the presentation of women’s images in a U.S. press article with the presentation of women’s image in a similar Romanian press article

8. Quiz – Critical analysis of one media gender image and / or text via functional methodology (Sonja Fuss) or conjectural knowledge methodology (Annette Kuhn)

9. New Mass Media, Ethics and Women’s Images: The Stakes of Women’s Blogs and Digital Posting

Leow, Rachel. “Reflections on Feminism, Blogging, and the Historical Profession.” Journal of Women’s History 22.4 (Winter 2010): 235-243.

Ho, Jennifer. “Being Held Accountable: On the Necessity of Intersectionality.” Journal of Women’s History 22.4 (Winter 2010): 190-196.

Friedman, May. “On Mommyblogging: Notes to a Future Feminist Historian.” Journal of Women’s History 22.4 (Winter 2010): 197-208.

Project 2: compare the issues of interest in one or several U.S. blogs with those tackled in Romanian blogs dedicated to bettering the condition of women (type of discourse, setbacks, advantages, etc.). U.S. blogs to consider: Jennifer Ho’s Mixed Race America (started in 2007) (http://www.mixedraceamerica.blogspot.com) and Tammi’s http://www.whattamisaid.blogspot.com; Romanian blog to consider: Iana Matei’s blog on human trafficking, http://ianathebook.com/category/iana-matei/

[Optional final project: devise a possible blog you could launch as a group to address a social issue which is transnational / transatlantic in scope.]

10. U.S. Mass Media and Racial / Ethnic / Immigrant Images. General Overview (African Americans)

Kellstedt, Paul M. “Eras of Media Coverage of Race.” The Mass Media and the Dynamics of American Racial Attitudes. Cambridge: Cambridge U. P., 2003. 13-54.

Harold, Christine and Kevin Michael DeLuca. “Behold the Corpse: Violent Images and the Case of Emmett Till.” Rhetoric and Public Affairs 8.2 (Summer 2005): 263-286.

Case studies: Episode from Amos and Andy, the Cosby Show; DMX video “What’s my name?”

11. U.S. Mass Media and Ethnic / Immigrant Images. Case Studies: Jewish Americans

Antler, Joyce. “Roseanne and The Nanny: The Jewish Mother as Postmodern Spectacle.” You Never Call! You Never Write! A History of the Jewish Mother. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. 169-192.

Episodes from Roseanne and The Nanny

Optional Collective project: Critical analysis of media-related ethnic images and / or texts from a journal issue via creation of poster

Project 3: analyze a U.S. press article / radio program / TV series episode / short movie / documentary by offering a close reading of its immigrant / ethnic images as stereotypical instance

12. Reporting Tragedies in the U.S. Mass Media and Beyond: Photo Use In the Throes of Politics and Ethics (Vietnam - 9/11)

Ann E. Kaplan. “Vicarious Trauma and ‘Empty’ Empathy.” Trauma Culture. The Politics of Terror and Loss in Media and Literature. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2005.

Miller, Nancy K. “The Girl in the Photograph: The Visual Legacies of War.” Picturing Atrocity. Photography in Crisis. Eds. Geoffrey Batchen, Milk Gidley, Nancy K. Miller and Jay Posser. London: Reaktion Books, 2012. 147-154.

Video: Beneath the Veil. Women in Islam

13. Reporting Tragedies in the U.S. Mass Media and Beyond: In the Throes of Politics and Ethics (9/11)

Junod, Tom. “The Falling Man.” Esquire 11 September 2003.

Hirsch, Marianne. “The Day Time Stopped.” The Chronicle of Higher Education 48.20 (2002).

Lynn, Spiegel. “Entertainment Wars: Television Culture after 9/11.” American Quarterly 56.2 (June 2004): 235-270.

Video: West Wing 9/11 episode

Project 4: analyze a U.S. press article/short documentary discussing a tragic moment in U.S. history by offering a close reading of the ethical implications or mishaps that transpire from it.

Project 5: draw up interviews with your family members / people of various generations, asking them about the impact of television or radio or digital media on their life, and the level of American media influence they have felt exposed to. Based upon this, draw up a comparative assessment paper on how various generations and / or various people have been influenced by various media and to what degree U.S. content has been part of that. Ideally, you could concentrate on the impact of gender and ethnic images that have influenced them.

Optional Project 6: analyze a year’s or several years’ issues from a U.S. paper / magazine to determine the nature of shifts in gender / ethnic / racial image representations in point of visual imagery and textual content.

Requirements and grade assessment:

Students are expected to constantly take part in class discussions and to read the texts on a weekly basis. They are to present / analyze one text on the reading list, take one quiz and write one 3-4 page project essay, by choosing one of the six possible project themes above (MLA citation style, 12 Times New Roman, double spacing). The essay should represent a close reading of an article / blog / radio program / TV episode / documentary, highlighting the manner in which it uses gender / ethnicity / ethics. Plagiarism will be penalized by failure on the assignment and course.

Grade breakdown:

Presentation +class participation: 1/3 of final grade

Quiz: 1/3 of final grade

Written paper: 1/3 of final grade