SOC 328
Media Events Fall 2015
Division II Writing Skills
Cross-listed AMST 328
This is not the current course catalog

Class Details

Today, live broadcasts of historic events draw together wide audiences, creating modern rituals that invite participation and foster a sense of membership in society. Media events, as Daniel Dayan and Elihu Katz argue, include “contests” such as political campaigns and sporting events, “charismatic missions” such as the moon landing, and “rites of passage” such as state funerals and national memorial services. This course will examine media events as a modern form of ritual. Preliminary readings will include theoretical treatments of ritual by thinkers such as Émile Durkheim, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Mary Douglas, and Victor Turner as well as more recent adaptations of these theories for the age of mass media. We will then examine several case studies, reading scholarly interpretations of media events while also delving into media representations firsthand by viewing news coverage, analyzing magazine and newspaper articles, examining photographs, and–for more recent events–exploring the role of social media. How do modern media events compare with the forms of ritual described in classic theoretical texts? Are they merely “spectacles” or “pseudo-events” that serve political and/or corporate interests, or are they sources of genuine solidarity and wellsprings for civic participation? What role do political comedy and satire play in shaping and framing media events? Has the rise of social media transformed our experience of these events? Have catastrophic events such as natural disasters and terrorist attacks–which we can increasingly “witness” in real time through various media sources–become a new kind of media event? We will focus primarily on the U.S., but will also work to draw comparisons. Throughout the semester, each student will develop a significant project on an event of his or her choosing.
The Class: Format: seminar
Limit: 19
Expected: 19
Class#: 1420
Grading: yes pass/fail option, yes fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation: active participation, 3-4 short memos, a 15-page paper that will go through draft and revision stage, and a final class presentation
Prerequisites: none
Enrollment Preferences: Anthropology and Sociology majors
Distributions: Division II Writing Skills
Notes: This course is cross-listed and the prefixes carry the following divisional credit:
AMST 328 Division II SOC 328 Division II

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