Comm 140 Home Page

The objectives of Comm 140, Media Criticism, are for the student to become familiar with the

Required Textbooks and Videos

Textbooks

The following two required textbooks can be purchased through Friday Center Books & Gifts either online or by printing out a book order form.

Videos

Students are required to watch the following four films, which can be rented at local video stores. If you live in a remote area with no local video rental store, you can purchase the videos from Amazon.com. If you live near Chapel Hill, the films are also available in the Nonprint/Audio-Visual Collection at the UNC-Chapel Hill Undergraduate Library. They may also be available at other university libraries.

Electronic Reserve (E-reserve) Articles

You will also be required to read a selection of articles available (at no cost) through electronic reserve on UNC-Chapel Hill's library Web site. See Library Services and E-reserves for details.

Course Requirements

Guidelines for discussion forum participation and submitting your work

It is essential that you read these guidelines at the outset, and adhere to them throughout the course. They will help us avoid confusion during your experience with this online course.

A Brief Roadmap of This Course

Here is what you need to know about the flow of this course. First, we will be running through the individual elements that make up the "system" of a moving-image text, such as a film or a television show. A moving-image text is like an automobile--there are individual parts (carburetor, starter, and so on) and subsystems (exhaust system, electrical system, and so on) that all function in relation to each other and with each other.

This is also the case with a moving-image text. Elements are separated, broken down, given names, and explained. This was first done in relation to film, so we will focus exclusively on film in the first part of the course. Later in the course, we'll spend a couple of weeks talking about how television texts work, and during the last week we'll talk about Internet and digital texts.

It is essential that you understand the following: The first part of the course explains how individual media texts work, and the second part of the course is based on that material. You need to master the first part of this course before you can tackle the second part, which is about making connections between what's going on within, outside, and around media texts--that is, how the media texts function in the real world for individuals and groups. These functions depend on the individual styles and contents of a text--that which allows audiences to forge and feel connections to certain texts in the first place.

The first part of the course gives you the critical tools you need to understand how media texts elicit responses from viewers and how viewers impart meaning to them. We will use the Bordwell and Thompson textbook for this part of the course, and we'll view several films so that you can see how these components work together in practice. Each film has its idiosyncrasies in the way the elements and subsystems work together. Viewing the films is essential because the films introduce you to a range of very different kinds of texts--systems that are as different as the systems (to stick with the automobile analogy) of a BMW, a Dodge Charger, a Jeep Wrangler, an eighteen wheeler, and a solar-powered go cart. This is not to say one type is better than another, but that all have different purposes and are created with different goals and principles in mind.

We then move from looking at narrative texts to other modes of media textuality--the documentary and experimental modes. We move from American texts to alternative models of narrative that have developed in other cultures in response to Hollywood's storytelling conventions in film.

Finally, we will look at groups of texts based on their aesthetic characteristics and the responses audiences are expected to have to them. The grouping of texts into production/marketing or consumption/reception is the primary way in which the media industries organize themselves in the United States.

Your question sets and discussion questions will help you assimilate and understand the technical concepts in the readings assigned for the first part of the course. Your first paper is designed to show that you have mastered these ideas and can apply them in discussing one or more texts of your own choice. You will also discuss each film with your classmates on the discussion forum.

The second part of this course focuses on how media texts function in our culture and in our society. We look at the different goals and principles of different kinds of texts, the media industries that produce them, and why they produce what they do. We will use mainly the Grossberg textbook in this part of the course and focus on television as an example of how a medium other than film functions.

We will also focus on how real viewers make meaning from and respond to different sorts of media texts. We will consider the differences in the ways people relate to media in the United States from the ways people relate to media in other places. We'll also discuss the differences in past, contemporary, and even future American media consumers.

Many of the explanations of media text functions are highly controversial. On the discussion forums each week, you will give examples and counterexamples and see if you agree with your classmates' ideas. Then, working together as a group, you will see if you can modify the examples to make them more representative of your own experience with the media. Your second paper requires you to work with these ideas about how media texts function in culture and society.

Honor Code

As a student at UNC-Chapel Hill, you are bound by the University's Honor Code. An especially serious Honor Code violation is plagiarism. Remember to follow all university guidelines about plagiarism inherent in the Honor Code. Written assignments that include text or ideas taken directly from class lectures, readings, Web sites, or any other source, without attribution, may be open to the charge of plagiarism. Please cite your sources. Any text that you did not write and any ideas that are not your own must be appropriately, formally cited. "Self-plagiarism" is also unacceptable--to receive credit for this course, papers must be written for this course only, and not have been written or submitted for any other class. To submit something written for another course is also an infringement. For more information, see the UNC Writing Center's handout on plagiarism.

Course Mechanics

Blackboard

Some of your class components (discussion forums, exams, and announcements) are accessed through a software package called Blackboard, and you will need to login to Blackboard using a unique identifier known as your UNC Onyen (Only Name You'll Ever Need) and Onyen password.

There is a link to the Blackboard site in the gray navigation bar at the top of every page in this course. Click on that link, and then use your Onyen to login to Blackboard. Click on the "Comm 140" link, and you will see navigation buttons on the left side of the screen labeled Announcements, Discussion Forum, and so on.

If you experience problems accessing Blackboard, this is what you should do:

If you do not already have a UNC Onyen, go to the Onyen Web site and follow the instructions for creating an Onyen.
If you have an Onyen but have forgotten it (or the password), go to the Onyen Web site.
If you have your Onyen but can't log in to Blackboard, contact Janice Durham at the Friday Center.
If you can log in to Blackboard but can't find this course listed, contact Janice Durham at the Friday Center.
If you can't locate an exam or discussion forum in Blackboard, contact the Instructional Designer.
If you have other technical problems while using Blackboard, contact Blackboard Help (use the Help button in Blackboard, or call 919-962-HELP).

Library Services and Resources (including e-reserves)

Students enrolled in Carolina Courses Online have access to the UNC Library System. Visit Distance Education Library Services to access a wide array of online services and resources including e-reserves, online databases, online journals, online books, and live help with research and library access.

Most online resources require you to log in with your Onyen and password. If you have any trouble finding the resource that you need or logging in to a resource, you can contact the library through the contact information at Distance Education Library Services. You can chat live about your problem, or send an e-mail to request assistance.

Using E-mail

All communication from your instructor will go to your UNC Onyen e-mail address (the one that appears when you post to the discussion forum). Off-campus users can access their UNC e-mail account using Webmail. You can have your Onyen e-mail forwarded to a different e-mail address by clicking “Forward email” on the Onyen Web site.

If you use a filter on your e-mail account, you are responsible for ensuring that it does not prevent you from receiving messages from me, the course listserv, or Friday Center staff. Hotmail users should be aware that Hotmail will block messages sent from within Blackboard because Blackboard uses "blind carbon copy" to protect privacy. We recommend that you use your UNC Onyen e-mail account rather than Hotmail for this course.

Submitting Assignments

It is extremely important for you to save copies of any work you send to me via e-mail. If I don't receive your work, you must have a duplicate copy, indicating the date sent, to prove that you submitted the assignment on time. It is your responsibility to maintain copies of your sent e-mails, as there is no way to guarantee that any e-mail message will be delivered.

Please check your e-mail software to see how it manages sent and saved messages. Some software automatically deletes messages one month after they have been sent; others only save messages if they are filed in folders; others save messages received but not those sent. You may need to send yourself a copy of your e-mailed assignment at the same time you send it to me, or you may need to print a copy of the e-mail message and any attachments to keep in your paper files. No matter how your system works, make sure you know how to save a copy of all work that you submit to me and that you save the copy for several months beyond the end of the course.

Special Reminders

If you do not submit all assignments as instructed within a reasonable time relative to their deadlines, then you will receive a failing grade in this course. Remember that all late assignments and discussion posts are downgraded.
The course materials are designed to be completed in sequence and gradually, over the course of the semester. You must not assume that you will be able to do all of them out of order or in one big clump—submitting them, for example, in the last couple of weeks—and have much chance of earning a passing grade.
Students must participate continually throughout the semester, and are solely responsible for the deadlines of all assignments and discussion forums.
If you have questions for me, please communicate them to me via e-mail only. I do not accept student phone calls except in special circumstances when I have agreed in advance to accept a call, or in cases of legitimate personal emergencies.
All support for this course—computer problems, issues related to course registration, dropping a course, and so on—is handled through the Friday Center. This course is administered by Friday Center staff, not by UNC's Department of Communication Studies. Please do not misdirect questions to Communication Studies; only Friday Center staff are specially trained in the details of Carolina Courses Online.
Remember that only your instructor has all of the information and qualifications to reply to queries about your grades, performance in class, course content, and so on.
If for any reason you decide to drop this course, it is your responsibility to do so before the published deadline. You will find complete deadline information on the Friday Center's Web site in the Carolina Courses Online section under Schedules and Calendars.

Comm 140: Media Criticism