Okay, below is the working version of the syllabus for next semester. The course is far more about theory than history despite the fact that both words appear in the title. The course is supposed to function as an introduction to media studies with a specific focus on New/Emerging Media. The way this syllabus is crudely structured right now there are five sections, four ways to think about media, and the fifth, the “new” emerging paradigm for thinking about media. In many cases I have not fully decided upon particular texts, that is I just know that said day will be dedicated to those concepts. Right now I am most unsure which text to use in Week Eleven, for introduction/general theory on how media produces/reproduces self.
So as before, I am open to/welcome suggestions, and will return said input if you post a link to any syllabus design you are currently working on to which I might be able to offer suggestions.
- Media as Representation
- Week One
- Introduction
- Week Two
- Plato/Saussure
- Week Three
- Ong/McLuhan
- Week Four
- Remediation
- Media as Technology
- Week Five
- Eisenstein, Printing Press
- Week Six
- Benjamin/Nichols
- Week Seven
- Language of New Media-Manovich
- Media and the Public
- Week Eight
- Marx
- Week Nine
- Habermas
- Week Ten
- Shirky
- Media and Self
- Week Eleven
- Foucault?
- Week Twelve
- Nakamura/Race
- Week Thirteen
- danah boyd
- Media as Network
- Week Fourteen
- Linked-Barabasi
- Week Fifteen
- The Exploit
- Week Sixteen
- Zittrain
What about Foucault’s *Technologies of the Self* for that spot in week eleven? I found it useful in a seminar last year about media because it disrupts notions of media/technology as technological objects and introduces the modification and management of the body as a technological act.
It also has a connection to the biopolitical which could serve useful as a point of return when discussing Nakamura, The Exploit, and even boyd in some ways.