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TuTh 5-7:50pm Sequoyah 148 |
E-mail: tgillesp@weber.ucsd.edu Office hours: M 3-5pm, Th 2-4pm (Seq 108) |
Course Synopsis
The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the major debates surrounding the role of media in the lives and development of children. Popular claims about the effects of media on children will be investigated and deepened, with a communication perspective that gives weight to the complex interplay between media texts and audiences, between lived experience and symbolic representation. Reading will be combined with viewing of various child-oriented media materials -- to ground our discussion in the particular media that surrounds children today. Some questions we will consider: How has the "child" become such a powerful symbolic icon in contemporary cultural discourse? How has the very notion of "childhood" changed historically? How is the interaction between child and media related to the contexts of the family, the dynamics of school, the agendas and organization of entertainment industries, the shifting dynamics of media technologies, and the regulatory efforts of government and parents? How can we successfully study children and their media consumption to trace these complex contours?
Course Requirements
The most important assignment is to complete all of the reading assigned; comprehension of the arguments is crucial to your success in this course. At the third class meeting a briefmedia journal exercise will be due, where students are asked to pay particular attention to how "the child" is circulated in the media they encounter around them. But the majority of the course grade will be based on an in-class midterm in the sixth class meeting, and a paper due at the scheduled exam period. The midterm will cover the basic concepts introduced in the first half of the course; the final paper, 7 - 8 pages, will require students to draw from the materials of the course an argument about the complex relationship of children and media. Further explanation for these assignments will be provided in class. Attendance will also be a factor in grading.
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Attendance: 10% Midterm: 30% |
Media journal: 20% Final Paper: 40% |
Most of your work will be graded by the TA, Chad Harris, who will also be helping out with the course. If you have questions for him, he can be reached by e-mail at charris@weber.ucsd.edu.
Books (available at Groundworks Books)
Ellen Seiter, Sold Separately: Children and parents in consumer culture (1993)There is also a required course reader, which will be sold at the end of the first two classes.
Viviana Zelizer, Pricing the Priceless Child: The changing social value of children (1985)
Course Schedule
August 3 -- Introduction: Imagining the child
I. THE CHILD IN HISTORY How has the very definition of childhood changed over the last century? How do the historical understandings of what the child is and what they represent still haunt modern media? Why does our understanding of the child's experience with media need to include the socio-historical context?
II. TRANSITIONS IN CHILDHOOD: GENDER AND AGE Children are in the process of experiencing biological as well as cultural development. How does media play a part in that development? How are the various representations of the world found in children's media relevant tools for children? How do they speak to children in particular developmental moments by highlighting and exploring particular salient issues and concernsÉ and why?
III. CHILDHOOD ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRIES How are entertainment industries structured? How does that structure shape and explain the products they produce? When their product is particularly targeted towards children, what kinds of assumptions are built into the texts that emerge? Has the rapid expansion of massive corporations and their intense colonization of children's material culture had an impact on American childhood?
IV. REGULATING CHILDREN'S MEDIA How does our culture express its concern over children's media? Who's responsibility is it to regulate it, and with what criteria? Can our understanding of children's media and their experience with it point to new and more relevant concerns? How has the icon of the child been used in discussions about the Internet and new media? How are children actually engaging this new digital realm?