Course Syllabus

#Selfies, Mass Communication, & Culture: Fall 2015

COMM-M 460 : Culture and Mass Communication

Indiana University Northwest

Dr. Evelyn Bottando

Hawthorn Hall 228 219-980-6538

e-mail: bottando@iun.edu

In participation with the Selfie Researchers Network, this course aims to educate students about concepts in the study of Mass Communication & Culture through deeper analysis of the Selfie as a cultural object and phenomenon. From law to activism to politics, selfies  teach us much about our world and the way we communicate. While more often than not an object of scorn, selfies represent the shifting ways media have become a part of our everyday lives.

The Indiana University Northwest course bulletin offers the following description for this course:

“This course is a critical overview of the relationship between mass media and American culture. Course content will explore what it means (politically, economically, culturally, and morally) to live in a culture in which a major portion of information comes to the citizen through multiple channels of mass communication.”

Selfies will be used as a main topic to better understand issues about media and culture that have been raised since we began to think and write with media. The course begins with a main thesis to organize our study: 

The #Selfie is

a cultural object needing further study because it

exposes what would otherwise not be exposed

in [a networked digital] public. 

Texts: It’s complicated: The social lives of networked teens by danah boyd

http://www.danah.org/books/ItsComplicated.pdf

Special Issue of the International Journal of Communication dedicated to the topic of Selfies

http://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/issue/view/11 

Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out: Kids Living and Learning with New Media (The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning)

https://mitpress.mit.edu/sites/default/files/titles/free_download/9780262013369_Hanging_Out.pdf

Seeing Ourselves Through Technology: How We Use Selfies, Blogs and Wearable Devices to See and Shape Ourselves

http://www.palgraveconnect.com/pc/doifinder/10.1057/9781137476661

Additional readings will be coming from other open access or available-online sources.

Definitions and Questions

For the purposes of this course, “selfie” will be defined as any photograph “an individual (or a group) takes of themselves, regardless of whether that photo is privately held (or is thought to be privately held), transferred to others, or is displayed via social networks like Facebook and Instagram.” (Via the Introduction for  “Studying Selfies: A Critical Approach” http://www.selfieresearchers.com/)

Learning Outcomes of this Class:

By the end of this course, students should feel comfortable conversing about selfies, mass communication, and culture in the following ways:

• Selfie as discourse: Examples: What is the history (or histories) of the selfie? How do these histories map to contemporary media and scholarly discourses regarding self-representation, autobiography, photography, amateurism, branding, and/or celebrity?
• Selfie as evidence: Examples: What are the epistemological ramifications of the selfie? How do selfies function as evidence that one attended an event, feels intimate with a partner, was battered in a parking lot, is willing to be ‘authentic’ with fans, or claims particular   standing in a social or political community? One uploaded, how do selfies become evidence of a different sort, subject to possibilities like ‘revenge porn’, data mining, or state surveillance?
• Selfies and the "mass" in "mass communication": Examples: What do selfies as a current cultural object help us understand about previous conceptions of media such as models surrounding mass media and its impact on communication
• Selfie as affect: Examples: What feelings do selfies elicit for those who produce, view, and/or circulate them? What are we to make of controversial genres like infant selfies, soldier selfies, selfies with homeless people, or selfies at funerals? How do these discourses about controversial selfies map to larger conversations about “audience numbness” and “empathy deficit” in media?
• Selfie as ethics: Examples: Who practices “empowering” selfie generation? Who does not? Who cannot? How do these questions map to larger issues of class, race, gender, sexuality, religion and geography? What responsibilities do those who circulate selfies of others have toward the original creator of the photo? What is the relationship between selfies and other forms of documentary photography, with regard to ethics?
• Selfie as performance/presentation of self: While this aspect might be considered self-evident. We must pay attention to the tension between spontaneity and staging in the way that selfies serve as a performance and presentation of self in global and social media contexts. Also – when does the selfie as genre become a standard and format for staging authenticity in marketing and social activist campaigns across cultures? To what effect and what purpose?

Assignments

Online Discussion Forums: 15% of grade

In-class Discussion Leading: 15% of grade

Quizzes: 20% of grade

Class Project or Research Paper (includes all materials prepared in the project's development): 50%

100% Total

Course Timeline

MODULE 1: Introduction to Media, Mass, and Self: Culture, Mass Communication, and Identities

DATES: August 24, 26, 31, and September 2nd

MODULE 2: Celebrity and Branding: The Economy of the Selfie and the Economies of Media

DATES: September 7, 9, 14, and 16

MODULE 3: Selfie Activism: At the Intersection of Race, Class, and Gender

DATES: September 14, 16, 21, and 23

MODULE 5: Selfies and the "Others" 

DATES: September 28, 30, October 5, & 7

MODULE 5: Special Philanthropy Week discussion and activity: The “#Unselfie:” Philanthropic Responses

Additional topic: Sexuality, Dating, and the Selfie

DATES: October 12 & 14

MODULE 6: Dataveillance, BIometrics & Facial Recognition

DATES: October 19, 21, 26, and 28

MODULE 7: Investigating “Appropriate” Selfies: The politics of Selfie etiquette

DATES: November 2, 4, 9, and 11

MODULE 8: PROJECT DEVELOPMENT 

DATES: November 16 & 18 (Class held online on this date)

Week Of November 23rd (Break)

MODULE 9: PROJECT DEVELOPMENT

DATES: November 30 & December 2

CLASS SHOWCASE/Open House: December 7th & 9th

 

Necessary caveat: 

Contents of course/syllabus may adjust due to needs of the course, weather, and other reasonable needs.