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Mission Statement: Our mission is to serve as a leading center of Christian thought and action providing an excellent education from a biblical perspective and global context in pivotal professions to equip Christian

leaders to change the world.

COURSE SYLLABUS Version 02 dated January 1, 2011

SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION & THE ARTS

COMU 200 - CAMPUS

SURVEY OF COMMUNICATION & POPULAR CULTURE

SPRING SEMESTER 2011

TUESDAYS 10:30 – 11:55 AM, SCREENING ROOM A COMMUNICATION & THE ARTS BUILDING

PLUS ONE ADDITIONAL WEEKLY ONLINE STREAMED LECTURE CLASS YOU CAN VIEW ACCORDING TO YOUR OWN SCHEDULE

INSTRUCTOR INFORMATION

Instructor: Harry Sova, Ph.D.

Phone: 757.352.4202

Fax: 757.352.4279

E-mail: [email protected]

Skype: sovaguy

Office Hours: Monday 9:00 – 11:45 AM and via email or Skype

All students are required to read and have a thorough understanding of the

syllabus. You will need to acknowledge same at your instructor’s request. Any questions or concerns need to be addressed to the instructor.

mailto:[email protected]

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COURSE DESCRIPTION Historical development of news, information, entertainment, popular culture and the arts, with emerging trends in society, theater and mediated communication

RATIONALE/COURSE OVERVIEW

All forms of communication media are built upon earlier technologies, business models, and cultural norms. Communication, whether by point-to-point, mass distribution, or interactive means, have, since earliest times changed, adapted, rejected, and embraced notions of how best to communicate a

target message to a target audience through the three distinct channels of service: news, information and entertainment.

There is an unprecedented transition currently taking place which impacts the very nature of mediated

communication and your future.

On the status quo side are traditional main stream

media (MSM), symbolized by concentrated power held in corporate media conglomerates with the necessary financial and contractual resources to build and operate their systems while capably thwarting emerging independent voices. These traditional media have successfully served the world for over

500 years.

On the other side of the issue are independent producers of mediated content, enabled and encouraged by new technologies and taking advantage of a communication structure that places the consumer in the pivotal role of selecting content.

These prosumers (consumers that create and use media content) are passionate in their quest to achieve direct on-demand interaction with their publics, without regard to the rigid structures of traditional media.

To more fully understand this important transition which is already impacting your world, we will

embrace a liberal arts approach in examining the developmental roots of mass communication / popular culture and, thereby strengthen our abilities to separate real emerging media trends from mere popular culture fads.

A BIBLICAL BASIS OF STUDY

Quality research is a process of refined planning, thorough investigation, diligent stewardship and

humility to admit mistakes when results demonstrate other than expected directions.

Integrating the material of the discipline of human

communication and the substance of Christian faith is a matter of incarnationalizing our lives as faculty, and students. The study of human communication is not one thing and our faith another. As divinity subsumed humanity and humanity became divine in and through Jesus Christ, our faith must subsume our studies and our studies are made faith-full.

Here are some scriptures that reflect the renewed mind to which the Word of God calls us:

Prov 24: 3,4 - Any enterprise is built by wise

planning, becomes strong through common sense and profits wonderfully by keeping abreast of the

facts.

Prov 19:2 - It is dangerous and sinful to rush into the unknown.

Prov 27:12 - A sensible man watches for problems ahead and prepares to meet them.

Prov 16:9 - We should make plans, counting on God to direct us.

Prov 10:17 - Anyone willing to be corrected is on the pathway to life.

Prov 28:13 - A man who refuses to admit his

mistakes can never be successful.

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PREREQUISITES None.

COURSE OUTCOMES 1. Students will explore the integration of biblically based content and the development of their worldview as it pertains to and implicates their professional Journalistic skills, practices and leadership within their communities.

2. Students will explore the emerging theory, skills and practices of journalism as it pertains to all areas of media and society, with a full comprehension of the

changing forces that influence journalistic media standards and practices. 3. Students will explore the interactive nature of the Internet as it pertains to professional journalistic

practices and the journalism media industry, particularly as it intersects with the impact on local and global media communications and community.

WHAT’S NEW FOR SPRING, 2011 1. Elimination of presentations pertaining to current mass communication, replaced by workshops and presentations on becoming a successful producer of content.

2. Reduced paper projects, discussion forums and tests.

3. Increased emphasis tying together historical events with contemporary media development. 4. Increased discussion of SurfingTheNet (new media technologies and emerging trends in popular culture)

that you can apply. 5. Increased Net readings for breaking news events and trends that affect producing news, information, and entertainment.

THE COMU 200 DESIGN

Whatever you do in life, from hobbies to careers, volunteerism to getting together with friends, politicking, sports, retail sales, or church activities, the ability to clearly create and deliver mediated content to a target audience is a critical skill needed for the 21st century.

Mass Communication has not just merged with Interactive Communication (IC), but rather represents a new way of producing news, information and entertainment content for a multi-cultural global marketplace.

New for Spring semester, 2011 is a four stage workshop (spread out over the semester) on attracting, engaging, and interacting with a Target Audience (TA) to bring that demographic individual from mere interest to a loyal fan-base status. We will see how that TA was reached historically, and now within contemporary emerging

technologies and popular culture events in order to separate mere fads of the day from solid trends. Whatever calling has been, or will be, placed on your life, interactive communication will be at the center of your

activities: --Selling goods and services --Public relations --Motivating people to attend an event --Improving education --Producing news, information, entertainment --Getting out the vote

--Managing an organization or company --Encouraging a TA to “get involved” --Alerting the public to an important event --Improving people’s lives --Documenting experiences

Welcome to COMU 200 !

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COURSE MATERIALS

Required Materials:

No Text

Computer / notebook / netbook / tablet with multi-media playback

capability

Broadband connection for online streaming lecture content, and Net connectivity

Blackboard, our home-base for online lectures, Gradebook, and media content

Any word processing software capable of producing either .doc or .docx formatted output

Recommended Resources:

Links to additional aural, visual and textual content will be made available

COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND ASSIGNMENTS

A. Textbook readings

No textbook for this course. In its place there will be a variety of readings from the Net.

B. Discussion boards

Assessment information will be posted for each discussion forum as well as the deadline for participation.

C. Assignment: Virals Project

You have seen the lecture, and experienced some of the best viral examples from the world marketplace. Now it’s your turn to develop a potential viral production.

Create your project in one of three forms: audio, video, or graphic. Audio: submit as mp3 project of <4:00 minutes

Video: submitted to YouTube; follow their guidelines for video prep Graphic: submit as .jpg, .gif, or .png, minimum of 90 ppi, and minimum of 6 inches per side Parodies are preferred, but your project could take a serious look at a given topic. Topics / projects that go beyond cultural and/or university practices will be rejected. If in doubt, describe

your viral project in an email and send it to [email protected] Accepted projects will be made available for course participants to view / listen. Assessment will be on the basis of originality and creativity, rather than your level of technical skills or access to hardware / software. All projects will have a Creative Commons license

attached. More details to be posted at time of assignment.

D. Note Sheets

What's important in exploring the historical origins of media technologies and society / culture? The answer is: not everything you hear, read, view or experience. Most historical presentations contain a one-page notes sheet for you to record your thoughts and ideas for some of the more important items within the presentation. This is but one way to understand the significant developments of the times as well as provide a ready study guide in preparation for tests.

mailto:[email protected]

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E. IC PROJECT PAPERS

We are now in the era of interactive communication (IC), fully customizable, portable, on demand from anywhere on the planet, collaborative, participatory and asynchronous. IC is central to any organization, business, or personal operations, and therefore critical to your future success for whatever calling is placed upon your life.

The primary question of many people is how do I become a producer of news, information, or entertainment in this much mediated world of 2011. I believe there are four stages to move someone from any culture on the planet from mere interest to a loyal follower of products and services:

1) Promote Presence

2) Target Your Audience

3) Interact with Your Fan-base

4) Explore New Opportunities

This semester we shall have in-class workshops to work our way through each stage, view current Net successes and failures, and apply these lessons to your possible present or future career.

F. Exams/Tests

There are four tests in this course. Tests will be administered on Blackboard, and will be available for multiple attempts over a two-day time period. Format is multiple-choice. Everything covered in presentations, readings, and assigned resources is fair game. The focus is

on understanding (not memorizing), the manner by which we have achieved today’s media content, popular culture, and the sense to decipher differences between passing fad and emerging significant trends.

G. FERPA

This course strongly adheres to the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act:

FERPA gives parents certain rights with respect to their children's education records. These rights transfer to the student when he or she reaches the age of 18 or attends a school beyond the high school level. 1 See link for additional information:

1) http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html

http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html

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EVALUATION AND GRADING

A. Project Weights

Discussion Boards (4) ......................................... 20 %

Virals Project ....................................................... 8 %

IC Projects (4) ................................................... 36 %

Tests (4) ........................................................... 36 %

B. Scale used for grading:

In fairness to all:

There is no extra-credit option available

Submitted papers / projects received beyond the 11:55 PM deadline will result in a half-grade drop

during the first 24 hours, and one half-grade drop for each additional 24 hour period.

Papers / projects not submitted in the proper format will be docked a half-grade – Please note the

acceptable formats for each project.

Grade

Percentage

A 93–100

A- 90-92

B+ 87-89

B 83-86

B- 80-82

C+ 77-79

C 73-76

C- 70-72

D+ 67-69

D 63-66

D- 60-62

F 0-59

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A newspaper should be the maximum of

information, and the minimum of

comment.

Richard Cobden

The world’s a

theatre, the earth a stage, Which

God and nature do with actors

fill.

John Heywood

If everybody is

thinking alike, then somebody

isn’t thinking.

George S. Patton Jr.

Semester Schedule Please note that due to circumstances beyond my control, course content is subject to change.

If we are forced to change our schedule, keep in mind that change means deleting, course content!

1776-1840 –The necessity for news, information, and

entertainment in a new nation --European roots, American creativity --Rise of the media entrepreneur --How to sway public opinion --Advances in transportation aid print media --Hornbooks, portraits, social status --Combining ideas for new entertainment forms --The pros and cons of attending the theater --For I have seen the elephant!

New to Media and Culture: Traveling theater groups, tapestries, panorama, distribution, peepshows, thumb disc, Chromatrope, graham crackers, kaleidoscope, news-letters, tartar sauce, post rider, woodcuts, strawberries, battledores,

horn books, primers, bell clocks with automata, Baker's Chocolate, Chappe's Optical Telegraph, Ben Franklin's Odometer, Phenakistiscope, turnpikes, melodrama, Erie Canal, dinner theatre, A-1 Steak Sauce, Niblo’s Pleasure Gardens, apple cider, home entertainment, lithography, diorama, cornstarch, public education, ice cream, camera Lucida, photographic negatives, road shows, lollipops

Connection: The need for information generated significant income for printers, publishers and distribution systems. Those that acquired such information achieved special social status in the Colonies. What elements of mediated communication provide that same peer status in American culture today?

From Mass Media to Interactive Communication

In this presentation we shall explore the rich development of mass communication: books, magazines, motion pictures, newspapers, radio, recordings, television, and Web 1.0 / 2.0 within its traditional theoretical framework of 1 --> M communication.

We continue on by examining the new world of interactive communication:

--The consumer as gatekeeper

--The media server / db --Only "bits and bytes" --Targeted messaging --Embedded advertising --Blinking and Bzzzzz Marketing (PR) --The producer and mashing the product --The Viral We end with a purported view of mediated communication for the next ten years and its specific impact upon your future.

Explore: Regent’s NEW version 9.1 Blackboard – things have changed!

Confirm: your understanding of syllabus – details to follow

Discussion Forum 01 – Available Thursday – Sunday

Set Up: IC Project Teams

Read/View For Next Week: Net articles and video clips – Available Friday

IC – Stage One: Promoting a Presence

There are, I believe, four separate stages in transforming an individual from no contact to a loyal follower of your organization or business.

This week we will explore the process of attracting attention to your Net presence (website, app, blog, etc.) through promotion, blogging, and other strategies.

This is the starting point to catch the world’s attention to your bodacious Net project: --What are ways you can make yourself known --How do you attract attention --What makes your project interesting

A series of tasks will be assigned for this first stage effort.

Assign: IC—Stage One

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A book is a garden, an

orchard, a store house, a party, a company by the

way, a counselor, a

multitude of counselors.

Henry Ward Beecher

The wireless

telegraph is not difficult to

understand. The

ordinary telegraph is like a very long cat. You pull the tail in New York,

and it meows in Los Angeles. The

wireless is the same, only

without the cat.

Albert Einstein

Every crowd has a

silver lining.

PT Barnum

1841 - 1865

--From Innovation to Application = Profits --The need for copyright controls --The public demands visual news --Humbugs and popular culture --Photography comes to America --The Melodrama meets the Afterpiece --What Hath God Wrought? --Embedded reporters and problems of ethics --Using music as propaganda --War boosts media technologies --From opinion to news --Rise of the newspaper editor

New to Media and Culture: Barrel and pipe organs, advertising agencies, sewing machine, reaper, stereographs, cranberries, lithographic broadsides, adhesive postage stamps, cartoons, humbugs, news consortiums, Carte de Visité, Daguerreotypes, evaporated milk, railroads, marshmallows, penny press, telegraph, show business, paper from wood pulp, censorship, Pony

Express, whatsit wagons, reality journalism, Pullman sleeping cars, personal propaganda, potato chips, boys knickers, baking powder, sketch woodcuts, sourdough bread, baseball, reporters, confectionary shops, tintypes, coast to coast telegrams, large format copiers, ginger ale

Connection: PT Barnum understood the American public and culture better than anyone before him, and used that knowledge, those strategies, to bring happy paying crowds into his emporium. How would Barnum debut new media content / technologies today? Name one current product or service that might be Barnum inspired.

Wartime creates demand and resources necessary for new means of communication. Thus, out of the horrific nature of conflict come new media technologies for news, information and entertainment. What new media technologies have emerged from conflicts in the past decade?

1866-1875

--The importance of color imagery --New entertainment venues for old media --Targeting audiences by gender --Using the ―lowest common denominator‖ --Photography as a scientific tool --Two shows nightly on every navigable river --Invention: perspiration vs. inspiration

New to Media and Culture: Chilled iron plow, hot dogs, Rebus puzzles, transcontinental railroad, editorial cartoons, cream cheese, cable cars, Christmas cards, musicals, vaudeville, halftones, elevated railways, showboats,

blimps, waffles, ITU, traveling museums, refrigerated railroad cars, carpet sweeper, dried milk, temperance movement, margarine, Brooklyn Bridge, agricultural steam engines, Cadbury chocolate

Connection: There are historic moments when a communication medium has a very different and unintended application in society. The camera used in scientific endeavors was one such instance. Why was the scientist the first target of photographic equipment sales before the consumer market? Who takes priority today in new communication debuts?

DUE: IC—Stage One (by 11:55 PM, Sunday, Jan 23, 2011)


Virals

--100 million simultaneous downloads 24/7 --Definition, functions and formats --How it all began --1/3 Advertising --1/3 Public Relations

--1/3 Whatever --Guidelines for creating virals --How to avoid a disaster --Creating your own --The role of parody in copyright law

--Covers content weeks 01 through 04 --Available on Blackboard Thursday - Friday

TEST 01 –– Covers content from weeks 01-04; available on Blackboard Thursday-Friday

The goal of marketers interested in creating successful viral marketing programs is to identify individuals with high Social Networking Potential (SNP) and create viral messages that appeal to this segment of the population and have a high probability of being passed along.

"Viral marketing." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_marketing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_marketing

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Opinion is that exercise of the human

will which helps

us to make a

decision without

information.

John Erskine

To invent, you need a good

imagination and a pile of junk.

Thomas Edison

Imagination rules

the world.

Napoleon Bonaparte

1876-1890

--Centennial: everything good about America --If you were wealthy, Come to the Fair! --A first: women's pavilion --Technology for 5+ story buildings --Mouth trumpets across Berlin --The spike in the patent office --Seeing by electricity --Realism vs. sewer drama --Down the Ohio --Voices of the city --Promoting electricity through fear --Two newspapers; two very different POVs --When inventions have no future --Full color, die cuts, and fold-overs --Patent medicine as show business --From the cue ball to the camera --The doll finally talks --Public Relations on a pedestal --Motion studies for motion pictures

New to Media and Culture: Dynamo, typed envelopes, telephone, realism, puzzle

cards, Lady Liberty’s Arm, Galvanic music, Photophone, stock ticker, electric light, facsimile, practical typewriters, Graphophone, Corliss steam engine, duplexing, steel monorail, Harmonic telegraph, Zoopraxiniscope, electric pens, safety elevators, phonograph, auto harpsichords, bananas, talking dolls, cement houses, AC, mechanicals, vaudeville, trade cards, patent medicine, Edison effect, pulp novels, ice cream sundae, Orient Express, women smoking in public, dictation machines, fold-overs, musical sewing machines, bicycles built for two, electric arc street lighting, Moxie, Eiffel Tower, hourglass waists, communication through the ether, photographic rifle, Hollerith cards, cable radio, motion studies, celluloid film, corsets, Statue of Liberty, women reporters, roller coaster, electric chair, pizza

Connection: Our vision for new media applications is often times shaped by the culture, society, family and friends that constitute our lives. Why were so many inventors convinced of the merits of the Harmonic Telegraph? What are the red herrings of today’s media world?

1891-1895

--A sneeze and kiss electrify audiences --Why children wanted to be Newsies --Vulnerability of communication in war time --Firsts at the Columbian Exposition --Networking: one way to launch a business --Weather forecasting leads to communication --Some saw as a trust, others a monopoly --When a patent is not worth the money

New to Media and Culture: Kinetoscope parlors, fortune cookies, recording pirates, safety bicycle, Cream of Wheat, flannel

swimming suits, Salisbury steak, Coherer, flat disc, ice cream cones, Photo Plays, bottle caps, exploring rod, the Theatre Trust, Newsies, Cracker Jack, telephone etiquette, film studio, picture plays, Fig Newton, wax cylinders, Little Egypt, Ferris wheel, Ellis Island opens for immigration, ice cream sodas

Connection: Marconi ignored the naysayers (father, priest, village wise men, Italian Navy) and went ahead and perfected wireless telegraphy. Can you name a successful contemporary media figure that also has ignored those who say "it can't or won't happen?"


IC – Stage Two: Targeting Your Audience

By now you have attracted a world-wide audience to your Net project (website, blog, app), from age 4 to 104. Not all of these visitors are interested in your content, nor has the desire or the means to relate to your business.

This week we shall look at defining our Target Audience (TA), and the Target Message we want to send to that targeted demographic.

A series of tasks will be assigned for the stage two effort.

Assign: IC—Stage Two


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When a dog bites a man that is not news, but when a man

bites a dog, that is news.

Charles Anderson

Dana

Good communication is

as stimulating as

black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after.

Anne Morrow

Lindbergh

Twenty years from now you will be more

disappointed by the things you

didn’t do than by the ones you did.

So, throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor.

Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore.

Dream.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens

1896-1900

--Adding color to sell newspapers --Personal dislike sets US media development --1900 life expectancy: men-age 48, women-age 51 --Fierce competition within media --Rented, never sold --Mass communication remembers the Maine --All eyes are on Paris and new technologies --Story telling at the Penny Arcade --Everybody is doing it! --Circulation wars --Predicting the world of 2000

New to Media and Culture: Sunday newspapers, Mareorama, cotton candy, teenage boy telephone operators on roller skates, Klondike gold rush, news paper sections for sports,

business and society, furniture that talks, arcades, switchboards, circulation wars, tuned antennas, yellow journalism, leasing, color cartoons, subways, Tootsie Roll, child labor laws, thousand island dressing, dial telephone, Vitascope, chop suey, escalators, tinted film, voting machines, aspirin, the gold standard, auto shows, jelly beans, Pepsi, hamburgers

Connection: Marconi's determination to lease equipment was pivotal to the US Navy's decision to purchase wireless from the Germans. What elements of personality, advertising, marketing and cultural norms were present in that decision? Can you name any product or service today that is only leased or rented rather than sold?

Popular Culture: Fads, Follies, Delusions: Part A --Defined, developed, and applied --Gaining momentum: Who/What determines?

--What constitutes success or failure --Some interesting examples of both


DUE: IC—Stage Two (by 11:55 PM, Sunday, Feb 22, 2011)

1901-1905 --Across the Atlantic --Housewives really liked these salesmen --Trying to ignore the kid and his dog --Fist fights: was it 1900 or 1901? --Vaudeville and the boarding house reach --Film showed it as it really was --Ladies Home Journal --It was the Fair of Firsts and the world responded --This cowboy sent them out screaming --A public relations coup --Touring by Hale --Simplicity in marketing to consumers --This was the Olympics?

New to Media and Culture: Cash registers, baby incubators, sliced bread, editing, Gibson Girl, automobile rentals, feature-length movies, traffic jams, peanut butter, banana splits, Nickelodeons, Marconigrams, candy floss, public wireless, Buster Brown, close-ups, hot dogs, concrete stadium, the Vaudeville boarding house, fast foods, CQD, submarine sandwiches, automats

Connection: The Great Train Robbery was a phenomenal success due to many innovations in film making. What must filmmakers do today to also be known for innovative cinema? Can you think of a Bronco Billy moment in a recent movie you've seen?

TEST 02 –– Covers content from weeks 05-08; available on Blackboard Wednesday-Thursday

due to upcoming spring break

A trend is something that becomes popular within mainstream society over a relatively long period of time (more than a few years). It is the direction of a sequence of events that has some momentum and durability. The number of people involved in a trend and its duration will determine whether it's a "fad", a "craze", or a macro trend.

A fad is a practice or interest followed for a time with exaggerated zeal.

A craze is a product, idea, cultural movement, or model that gains popularity among a small section of the populace then quickly migrates to the mainstream. Crazes are characterized by their lightning fast adoption and swift departure from public awareness. Crazes and fads are also characterized by their unusually high interest and sales figures relative to the time they are active in the marketplace, as compared with other similar products, ideas, cultural movements or models.

"Fads and trends." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fads

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fads

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We must

accept finite disappointment,

but we must never lose

infinite hope.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

I don’t care what you say about me, as long as

you say something about me, and as long as you spell my

name right.

George M. Cohan

Creativity is

allowing yourself to make

mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.

Scott Adams

1906-1910 --NYC becomes ―the‖ city for communication --The race for domination: networking --The President loved the movies --San Francisco shakes things up --Cohan got one word wrong --The Diode, the Triode and Armstrong --It was the act everyone came to experience --Crackpots and geniuses: picking the winners --The shot [not] heard around the world

New to Media and Culture: The Palace, ethnic comedy, Audion, Ziegfeld Follies, global patents, wireless radio, New Year's Eve ball drops in Times Square, fear of new technologies,

divinity fudge, government regulation, spinster boats, trolley outings, Panama Canal, Mother's Day, motor coach tours, Diode, Alternator, Boy Scouts of America, Model T Ford

Connection: It was the two crack-pots from General Electric and Westinghouse who created, then applied their inventive talents in an historic Christmas Eve broadcast. Their success, in no small part, was due to how people viewed these two men.

Already seen as "crazy inventors," they had nothing to lose in new ideas for media. Today, who fits those same parameters?

1911-1915 --Chaplin and Pickford and Griffith --Arrogance, not communication, sinks ship --The dinosaur is alive! --Pushing the envelope... --Boys books: anything on wireless --You had to be bobbed to do the foxtrot --Incompatible systems --Hollywood needs a manager --Little Nemo generates pajama sales

New to Media and Culture: Talent raids, animation, full color news papers, Amundson at South Pole, motion picture road shows,

Dixie cups, camera view panels, Oreos, ethnic newspapers, Crisco, producer, fan magazines, SOS, movie stars, suffragettes, electric automobiles, Cracker Jack prizes, ASCAP, Universal Picture Studios, the foxtrot, corporate income taxes, Chevrolet, stop signs, hush puppies, Brillo pads, Christmas window displays

Connection: The radio operators aboard the Titanic were blinded by the promises of technology, displaying a brazen disregard for the public they were hired to serve. Is there a contemporary entity that also displays little concern for what the public thinks, wants or needs?

DUE: Virals Project (by 11:55 PM, Sunday, Mar 13, 2011) --If video, upload to YouTube (with NO reference to university, class, or yourself), then upload the URL to Blackboard. --if audio or graphic, upload to Blackboard


IC – Stage Three: Interact with Your Fan-Base In mass communication you could distribute your media content / message / product / services and go home.

Interactive Communication audiences are ready to interact with you 24/7 from anywhere on the planet. It is no longer enough to have a website, blog, or app

(Indeed, some believe we are moving toward the end of websites in the upcoming Semantic Web).

This week we shall examine multiple ways of interacting with that all-important TA, refining your project and your role as producer.

A series of tasks will be assigned for the stage three effort.

Assign: IC—Stage Three


Spring Break at Regent University (Feb 28 - Mar 6)

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Opinion is that exercise of the human

will which helps us to make a

decision

without information.

John Erskine

Musical

comedies aren’t written, they

are rewritten.

Stephen Sondheim

[Creating a film is like] trying to grill a steak by

having a

succession of people coming

into the room and breathing

on it.

Douglas Adams

Popular Culture: Fads, Follies, Delusions: Part B

--More of the wacky, wonderful aspects of global popular culture as defined by mass media, server-based websites, and streaming channels.

--Commercials, parodies, newsworthy events, significant milestones and other things that have shaped your life and culture.

1916-1920

--The Germans were right: the date was wrong --What happens when corporations ignore new media --Everyone loses when creative vs unions --FDR breaks the deadlock and a new medium is

born --A hobbyist in a room over the garage has an idea --The cartoon as a major weapon of propaganda --Patent holding for the duration --When one medium tries to kill off another --Film from the front --Disaster: unable to adapt to new media --RCA just could not see the opportunity

New to Media and Culture: Air mail stamps, trench transmitters, miniature golf, patent holding companies, radio broadcasting, Moon Pies, movie palaces, feedback circuit, alternator, Christian themed films, war time propaganda, Sunday drives, amateur radio, fortune cookies

Connection: The British and American governments used all available channels of mass media / communication to propagandize the war effort against Germany. How do contemporary governments urge, control and exhort their populations today to "rally for the cause?"


DUE: IC—Stage Three (by 11:55 PM, Sunday, Mar 27, 2011)

1921 - 1925 --Issues in development of new technologies --Why morals left the movies --Accepting limitations in new media --Symbiotic relationship: recordings and radio --Getting around the advertising ban --One way of becoming healthy --Talking movies? --Paradox: Baker and Brinkley --Vaudeville for the entire family

New to Media and Culture: Iconoscope, Miss America, Eskimo Pie, movie trailers,

Shadow graphs, shared frequencies, prismatic rings, Wonder Bread, crossword puzzles, medical quacks, mechanical television, silent movie stars, live action cartoons, silent night, toll broadcasting, radio receivers, Popsicles, Time--the news weekly magazine, radio stamps, pineapple upside-down cake, White Castle hamburgers

Connection: Vaughn DeLeath understood the value of self-promotion. Her recordings gave her recognition value for the new medium of radio. What contemporary entertainers have used one or more media to boost their "star value" among their publics?


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Chaplin is no businessman. All he knows is that

he can’t take anything less.

Samuel Goldwyn

Doing business without

advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing, but

nobody else does.

Stuart Henderson

You can take all the sincerity in

Hollywood, place

it in the navel of a flea and still have room for three caraway seeds and a

producer’s heart.

Fred Allen

1926-1930 --You ain't seen nothing yet --Trusting the public to behave --Sound: a case study in fear of new media --Vaudeville escapes to the movies and radio --Building sensational circulation --Silent film: the art form

New to Media and Culture: NBC Red-Orange-Purple-Blue-Brown, tabloids, bobbed hair, radio advertising, the IT Girl, Persian palaces, light brush, Halitosis, Kool-Aid, talkies, news reels, bubble gum, jazz journalism, Birdseye frozen foods, atmospherics, Ocean Spray,

raccoon coats, Vitaphone, cadet corps, glass curtain, Hostess Twinkies, Academy Awards, liquid fueled rockets, singing commercials, Gerber baby food

Connection: Sound came to film. Those that dismissed the idea were soon out of jobs in the entertainment industry. Those, however, that worked to understand the changes and how they might take advantage of the transition, prospered. How would you advise current MSMs to transition to interactive media?

1931-1935

--Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? --Song icons of the Depression --RIP Vaudeville; hello burlesque --Building an audience with free content --What happens when a medium dies --Why we accept crude media technologies with joy

and patience --The advantage of being on the cutting edge

New to Media and Culture: Radio ethnic comedy, kids shows, Bisquick, fireside chats, dust storms, electronic television, flagpole

sitting, NRA, all talking-dancing-singing movies, electric refrigerators, modern propaganda, the iron lung, radio soap operas, dish nights, WPA murals, Social Security, Fritos, Technicolor, the propaganda documentary, Empire State Building, Radio City Music Hall, breadlines, CCC, Hawaiian Punch

Connection: It has been said that Joseph Goebbels’s statement is the basis for all modern-day advertising in the world. Why is this five-word sentence such a powerful idea? How might this apply to your advertising campaign?


1936-1940

--More hope than work --Propaganda at work: Wonderful Berlin --The incredible 1936 Olympics --German and English electronic TV debuts --Why TV standards became a battle royal --How film planned to kill off television --Burma Shave along the road --Aliens land in Grover Mills, NJ

New to Media and Culture: Kix cereal, Electronic TV broadcasts, Image Dissector Tube, Sarnoff-FCC war, NY Worlds Fair, Krispy

Kreme doughnuts, fake news, Iconoscope, Futurama, Hindenburg, theatrical advertising, children's radio serials, Spam, children's movie serials, Life magazine (again), instant coffee, dirigible flights from Germany to US and Argentina, Dagwood sandwiches

Connection: What goes around, comes around. That saying certainly applied to RCA and the FCC. Why did Sarnoff not see the future consequences of his actions?

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Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the

places you can, at all the times you can, to all

the people you can, as long as ever you can.

John Wesley

Thank God every

morning when you get up that

you have something to do that day which must be done,

whether you like it or not.

Being forced to

work, and forced

to do your best, will breed in you

temperance and self-control, diligence and

strength of will, cheerfulness and content, and a hundred virtues

which the idle never know.

Charles Kingsley

1941-1945 --Changes in news, information, and entertainment --How short-wave affected everyone but the US --Cashing in on remembering "Pearl Harbor" --The push for media on the home and war front --Mobilizing Allied propaganda efforts --Preparing public for Nazi invasion of NYC --Adding color for impact --Pushing color TV while FCC is busy with war --TBA, when competitors become friends --How to boost ratings quickly

New to Media and Culture: OWI, shortwave propaganda, war bond drives, M&Ms, banned amateurs-weather-visitors-sfx, theatrical radio plays, newsreels, Male Call, Axis Sally, Lord Haw Haw, Tokyo Rose, Berlin Charlie, Cherrios, public service announcements, ration books, color television, radio special broadcasts, Newsprint shortage, excess corporate profits, Kilroy

(who was here, there and everywhere), Hollywood war musicals, in-flight television programs, "pay as you go" income taxes, ABC cards, scrap drives, children's gas masks, V-Mail, Bobby-Soxers, theatrical television programs

Connection: Shortwave radio broadcasts developed into a powerful propaganda medium during wartime. What was the significant appeal of Axis Sally, Lord Haw Haw, Tokyo Rose, and Berlin Charlie to their targeted audiences? Why were these radio propaganda shows never successful with American audiences?

Returning GI's named the "television set" as their top consumer priority (refrigerator was 2nd, new house was 3rd and new car 4th) upon arrival in the States. What might today's GI wish as their top media item upon return to the States, and why?

World War Two was a ―defining moment‖ for Americans in numerous ways, including maturation of mass communication media: books, magazines, motion pictures, newspapers, radio, recordings, and the important public debut of television. In order to provide sufficient time for playback of significant audio and video content, this four-part presentation can be viewed online only through Blackboard.


IC – Stage Four: Explore Opportunities

You have promoted your Net presence to the world, determined your TA and TM, built an interactive relationship with your fan-base, and now, it’s time to explore the opportunities before you for new projects, extensions of current content, and the continuing re-invention of your role as producer of news, information, and entertainment.

This week we shall explore the many new avenues of your organization within IC, both current projects and possibilities based upon the ever-changing nature of media technologies and popular culture.

A series of tasks will be assigned for the stage four effort.

It is my earnest hope - indeed the hope of all mankind - that from this solemn occasion a better world shall emerge out of the blood and carnage of the past, a world founded upon faith and understanding, a world dedicated to the dignity of man and the fulfillment of his most cherished wish for freedom, tolerance and justice.

General Douglas Macarthur, Supreme Allied Commander of South-West Pacific

http://www.angelfire.com/la/raeder/Unitedstates.html

http://www.angelfire.com/la/raeder/Unitedstates.html

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When it comes to the future, there

are three kinds of people: those

who let it happen, those who make it happen, and

those who

wonder what happened.

John M. Richardson

I never said all actors are cattle;

what I said was

all actors should be treated like

cattle.

Alfred Hitchcock

Popular Culture: Fads, Follies, Delusions: Part C

--More of the wacky, wonderful aspects of global popular culture as defined by mass media, server-based websites, and streaming channels.

--Commercials, parodies, newsworthy events, significant milestones and other things that have shaped your life and culture.

DUE: IC Project Stage Four (by 11:55 PM, Sunday, Apr 24, 2011)

The Future

--Thinking ahead: What 1900 Paris Expo fair-goers predicted for the world of 2000

--1940 NY Worlds fair Futurama looks ahead at the American city of the year 1960

--Emerging Trends from unusual cultures --What transfers in the global cultural marketplace --A 1983 vision of life in the future world of 2013 --A 2006 vision of life in the future world of 2015

--Mass Media: what will books, magazines, motion pictures, newspapers, radio, television and the web look like in 2010, 2015 or 2020

--2012: the year of Web 3.0, the Semantic Web --Your future in Interactive Communication

New to Media and Culture: Everything!


A Producer initiates, coordinates, supervises and controls, either on his own authority, or subject to the authority of an employer, all aspects of the motion-picture and/or television production process, including creative, financial, technological and administrative. A Producer is involved throughout all phases of production from inception to completion, including coordination, supervision and control of all other talents and crafts, subject to the provisions of their collective bargaining agreements and personal service contracts.

"What does a Producer do?‖ Producers Guild of America-- Frequently Asked Questions. http://www.producersguild.org/about/frequently-asked-questions

Popular culture (commonly abbreviated as pop culture) is the prevailing group of ideas, perspectives, and attitudes that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture. Heavily influenced by mass media (at least from the early 20th century onward) and perpetuated by that culture's vernacular language, this collection of ideas permeates the everyday lives of the society.

"Popular culture." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_culture

Without promotion something terrible happens, nothing! P.T. Barnum, http://www.evancarmichael.com/Famous-Entrepreneurs/1024/PT-Barnum-Quotes.html

http://www.producersguild.org/about/frequently-asked-questions

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_culture

http://www.evancarmichael.com/Famous-Entrepreneurs/1024/PT-Barnum-Quotes.html

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COMMUNICATION WIKI

A quick macro-view of the current forms of mediated communication, all IMHO, of course. (Wiki means ―quick‖ in Hawaiian)

Mass Communication (1450 to date)

One-to-Many (1M) theoretical framework

Media owner is the gatekeeper

Creative works protected through copyright and Digital Rights Management (DRM) processes

Content distributed to controlled / retail outlet

No feedback system

Examples: the channels of mass media—books, magazines, motion pictures, newspapers, radio, recordings, television, and Web 1.0

Server-Based Communication (1990 to date)

One-to-One (11) theoretical framework

Website owner is the gatekeeper

Creative works protected through copyright and Digital Rights Management (DRM) processes

Content distributed through controlled web pages

Limited feedback system

Examples: Internet-based web pages with pre-prepared mass media content clickable to view limited subsections (the typical website). Remember, just because you use a mouse does not constitute an interactive experience.

Interactive Communication (2005 to date)

Many-to-Many (MM) theoretical framework

Consumer is the gatekeeper

Creative works presented as having open or crowd-sourced origins in conjunction with Creative Commons guidelines

There is no distribution in IC

Vibrant feedback system that encourages collaborative content

Works within trusted social-network relationships

Examples: Web 2.0 sites that engages the Prosumer (one who both consumes and creates content), through a trust-relationship with the content Producer encouraging participation, mashups, and conversations. Web 3.0 (the Semantic Web) is fast approaching, which will increase technological transparency, and autochthonous focus within the communication process. .

COMU 200 MILESTONES

Week:

01 Confirm: your understanding of syllabus – details to follow


Read/View For Next Week: Net articles and video clips –

Available Friday

02 Assign: IC—Stage One

03 DUE: IC—Stage One (by 11:55 PM, Sunday, Jan 23, 2011)


Available Friday

04 TEST 01 –– Covers content from weeks 01-04; available on

Blackboard Thursday-Friday

05 Read/View For Next Week: Net articles and video clips –

Available Friday

06 Assign: IC—Stage Two


Available Friday

07 Discussion Forum 02 – Available Thursday – Sunday

DUE: IC—Stage Two (by 11:55 PM, Sunday, Feb 22, 2011)


Blackboard Wednesday-Thursday due to upcoming spring break

Spring Break: February 28 – March 06

09 DUE: Virals Project (by 11:55 PM, Sunday, Mar 13, 2011)


Available Friday

10 Assign: IC—Stage Three


Available Friday


DUE: IC—Stage Three (by 11:55 PM, Sunday, Mar 27, 2011)



13 Read/View For Next Week: Net articles and video clips –

Available Friday


15 DUE: IC Project Stage Four (by 11:55 PM, Sunday, Apr 24, 2011)



Due dates for all projects always includes this proviso: ―uploaded to Blackboard before 11:55 PM.‖

Eastern Standard Time (EST) or -05:00 Greenwich Mean / Meridian Time (GMT)

Eastern Daylight Saving Time (EDT) or -06:00 Greenwich Mean / Meridian Time (GMT)

By a 2005 Act of Congress, United States Daylight Saving Time is as of 2007: Second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November

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UNIVERSITY POLICIES AND RESOURCES

Please review the following links for important information on University policies:

Academic Calendar/Registrar Information

Bookstore

Honor/Plagiarism Policy

Regent Library

Student Services (includes links to student handbook, disability services,

University calendar, University Writing Center, etc.)

Technical Support – University Helpdesk

Grading Policies (incompletes, extensions, IPs, etc.) --Access the Regent University catalog for updated information

--Check with your advisor

Student Course Evaluations

University policy requires that all students submit a formal student

evaluation of teaching form at the end of the academic term. This mandatory requirement must be completed before students will be able to

access their final course grade.

Disability Statement – the student is responsible for contacting the assistant

director of Student Services at 757.352.4486 to request accommodations, provide necessary documentation, and make arrangement with each

instructor. The following website is designed to help our disabled students learn of their rights and responsib8ilties with regard to disability services.

The site also has resources for faculty to become better informed of their responsibilities toward the disable students in their classes.

www.regent.edu/admin/stusrv/student_life/disabilities.cfm

Last Updated: 1/5/2011 – This is COMU 200 syllabus version 02 of January 1, 2011

At times, due to unforeseen circumstances, course content may be subject to change. Please check with

your professor to insure you have the most recently updated Syllabus for this course.

Regent University

1000 Regent University Drive, Virginia Beach, VA, 23464

Phone (888) 718-1222

© 2011 Regent University, All Rights Reserved.

http://www.regent.edu/admin/registrar/academiccalendar.cfm

http://www.cbamatthews.com/regent/

http://www.regent.edu/acad/schedu/pdfs/honor_code.pdf

http://www.regent.edu/lib/

http://www.regent.edu/admin/stusrv/

http://www.regent.edu/it/helpdesk

http://www.regent.edu/admin/stusrv/student_life/disabilities.cfm

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