Historical Survey of Media Genres

There are two books available for purchase at the I-JMD Bookstore: 1) George Rodman, Mass Media in a Changing World, Fourth Edition. (2) John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath You do not need to have this particular edition of The Grapes of Wrath; any edition will do, because all that matters is reading the novel. Any and all supplemental material that might be in this or any other edition are of no value to you whatsoever, and would probably be harmful.

Lectures: Once we get past the opening section of the textbook, each chapter follows the same format, consisting of an opening case study, a brief history of the subject, understanding the topic today, and controversies. As a general rule the lectures will over the brief history of the subject (you do not need to know dates, but you should understand the order of key events), and discuss the current controversies.

Instead of going over the understanding the topic today sections, which are fairly self- explanatory, I will be supplementing each chapter with additional concepts either related to that particular topic or providing a more general understanding of media and society. Assignments: By the end of the semester your final grade for this course will be assignments: Critical Essays: Two essays, each 5 pages long and worth 250 points, for a total of 500 points. E-mails with specifics for each essay will be sent out. You must submit hard copies of both essays.

The Grapes of Wrath Analog Paper. You will compare the movie version to the novel and choose between them in terms of their potential impacts on society. Term Paper. You will come up with a case study that reflects at least one, if not more, of the chapters in the textbook and which is not an analog paper like the first essay. You will have to clear the topic with me via a prospectus that you email to me and I reserve the right to . Examinations: Two objective exams consisting of multiple choice and fill-in-the-blank, nd sometimes matching questions.

Most of the questions will come from the assigned readings, but a significant portion (20-30%) will come from the class lectures. All of the fill in the blanks will come from the key terms that appear in your textbook. The Talking Points and Key Terms at the end of each chapter will constitute your study guide for material from the textbook. You will be given a sample quiz early in the semester to give you a sense for what sort of questions you can expect on the exams. Each exam will be curved (when grades on posted on egradebook they will include that curve). Worth 250 points each for a total of 500 points.

Student Responsibilities 1. You are expected to complete readings and writing assignments by their respective due dates, so pay attention to the course calendar. 2. You are also expected to turn in assignments that reflect college level critical thinking and your ability to construct compelling arguments in support of your position. Your writing does not need to be scholarly, but it must be professional. Be sure to proofread and/ or spell check your assignments because if there are numerous mistakes they will count against your grade. . 3. You are expected and required to do your own work.

Please see the relevant section in this syllabus regarding the dire penalty for plagiarism in this course. 4. The bottom line here is that you are responsible for your own lives, which now includes this course. I will do what I can to help, but if you do not fulfill your part of the bargain, the angels will weep for you. Individuals who have a documented disability which might affect their ability to perform in this class are encouraged to contact I-JMD’s Disability Services & Resources office, 258 Kirby Student Center (218-726-6130) at the start of the semester to discuss ossible accommodations.

Attendance Policy: I do not take attendance in my courses. However, students are expected to attend classes regularly because a significant portion of what will be covered on the exams comes from the class lectures. are considered late. Work turned in after class on the day assigned are docked one- half letter grade. After the due date your assignments lose one letter grade per day until they are down to half-credit.

By “half-credit” I mean you would get half the points your would have received from turning the work in on time, and not that you utomatically receive half-credit Just for turning in a late assignment (in other words, it has to be a good faith effort). Be aware that I am only teaching on Tuesdays and Thursday this semester, and that a paper is late until I have a copy of it and that you are required to submit a hard copy of each of paper. If you email me the paper then it stops being late at the point you send it to me; however, if you fail to submit a hard copy then you do not get any comments and you lose the option of rewriting your paper.

Late work will no longer be accepted after week four of the following semester. Rewrite Policy: You may rewrite your essays to improve your grade provided that (A) You turned the original paper in on time and (B) You turn in the original graded essay along with the rewrite, because I need to see my original comments. Rewrites are due within two weeks after the essay has been returned to you. Rewrites turn in after that point are subject to the course late policy as detailed above. Grade improvements on rewrites are limited to 20% (essentially two graes), meaning that your original paper/essay has to be a good faith effort.

I am always willing to comment on rough drafts and outlines. I strongly urge you to do brief outlines (i. e. , a thesis and main points) that you can email to me in order to get my feedback before you start writing the actual essay to make sure that you are on the right track. Examination Make-Up Policy: If you are going to miss an exam then I need to know about this well in advance of the fact, so that we can try to make arrangements for you to take the exams before the scheduled periods. Without adequate advance warning, you will not be allowed to make-up a missed exam.

Make-Up exams taken after the scheduled exam will consist of short answer identifications. Grading Policy: The graded assignments in this course will come out to a total of 1000 points possible, so in the end you will need 900 points for an A, 800 points for a B, etc. , following the standard scale: 90. 0-100. 0 = A; 80. 0-89. 9 = a; 70. 0-79. 9 = C; 60. 0-69. 9 = D; and 00. 0-59. 9 = F (Pluses and minuses will be assigned for final grades as appropriate). The reason students end up with less than a “B” in one of my classes is because they do not do the work and/or consistently submit it late.

Food and Drink in the Classroom: The I-JMD policy is “NO FOOD or Open Container Beverages” to keep classrooms clean and sanitary. So beverage containers with covers or caps are permissible. Plagiarism: Academic dishonesty is taken seriously by the University. Cheating on assignments or examinations, plagiarizing, or any other act which violates the rights of another student in academic work or that involves misrepresentation of your own academic dishonesty, a report is filed with the I-JMD student academic integrity officer and is considered a violation of the Student Conduct Code.

The I-JMD Student Academic Integrity Policy can be found at http://www. d. umn. edu/vcaa/ StudentAcademiclntegrity. html. The policy outlines what is considered prohibited conduct. Course Calendar: Each chapter in the textbook consists of four parts. Additionally, you have a novel to read and we will be screening the movie version of The Grapes of Wrath in class. In terms of reading for this course, each class will basically cover three things, starting off with two sections of the text book and a set of three chapters from the novel, and then after Spring Break usually doing three sections from the textbook each day.