Ateneo Com100

Final (Re)Marks

2008-10-15T06:41:00.000-07:00

It's been a fantastic semester. I must say that it has been exhilarating meeting and communicating with your class--what might be one of the most promising comm batches in recent years. (Pressure, pressure!) I hope that you remain critical, hospitable, Other-centered and media-literate, taking to heart the true meaning of an Ateneo Comm major. Remember, that you are living, breathing representations (the WHO of representation!) of your school, your course, your nation, and as such, it's your duty to represent fully, fairly, ethically, extending reach and hopefully promoting understanding as well. With the knowledge, skills, and ethics of media literacy imparted to you in Com100 and Com101, it's imperative to use this power "for good rather than ill" (Silverstone 1999), critiquing the ills of global and local media and at the same time appreciating the good that they do for home, community, the globe, and its 'others'. We're counting on you! :)

Below are the remarkable performances in the final papers that deserve special mention:
B+/A
Mike Dee
Aimee Rigor
Jem Rosario

A
Kasey Albano
Bianca Arcega
Andrew Ilagan
Jam Marfil
Kate Tan

And the Com100 MVP, with a final mark of 98.67, is... Kate Tan!

Congratulations to all for a great sem!

Com100 Final Paper

2008-09-23T06:51:00.000-07:00

HERE for download is the brief for the Com100 final paper.

Please contact our beadle Chyna Lo for copies of the six papers!

Schedule a consultation with me if you have any questions or concerns. And for those students who haven't visited me yet, it would be good to chat before the semester ends. See you Thursday for the final lecture!

Save Media Studies, Save the World!

2008-09-15T22:35:00.000-07:00

Please disseminate (and dialogue) to your friends! :)

Sign up for Com 106: Media and Society [Media and Morality]! (Schedule Wednesdays 930-1230NN)

Traditional discussion of media ethics is usually confined with legal case studies, codes of ethics, and stiff admonitions of sex and violence in the media. This course then is not about these little ethics but about morality—that is, the consequences of media consumption and production to the very meaning of our humanity. Media & Morality asserts that our everyday choices with the media—from poking, friending, and flaming online to taking photos of tourist destinations to watching foreign-language films—reflect how we see, hear, and touch distant others and how we ultimately regard ourselves.

Some of the questions we ask include: How social are social networking sites? Are Facebook users narcissistic poseurs or can they also be self-aware beings-with-others? What is emo-journalism and how can it contribute to identifying with distant others? How well did The Guidon report on the Ateneo suicides? In using the words “suicide incident” over “tragedy”, what moral claim did they make about the living and the dead? When is a joke only a joke? What can we learn about Teri Hatcher’s and Malu Fernandez’s “jokes” about OFWs and their fiery aftermath? What charity ads encourage donation—those that invoke happy thoughts or those that invoke shame and guilt?

As a brand new elective, M&M is ideal for pop culture aficionados and aspiring media producers. It encourages creative work, as students will participate in a) designing humanitarian campaigns and presenting them to advertising professionals, b) pitching other-oriented documentary and telenovela story concepts to GMA executives, and c) organizing a media studies conference headlined by a Cambridge professor. This course is taught by Jonathan C. Ong, creator of the MediaTalk@admu series, former advertising and broadcasting executive, and firm believer that the media is at the heart of our moral future.

Mediapolis

2008-09-11T08:05:00.000-07:00

Hey, guys!

I'd like to invite you to check out this website: MEDIAPOLIS. It's a media literacy website started by my former student, Tin Aquino. And given Com-Honors... er, Com100D prides itself in being critical, responsible, and active media audiences, I bet you have much to contribute to the debate.

Join the community and start posting!

All About the Tracks

2008-09-04T04:49:00.000-07:00

Hi, everyone! I just want to make this announcement in my attempt to try and resolve any confusion that you may have over this whole track dilemma. I also hope that you can use this space as your sounding board. Feel free to post questions, comments, dilemmas, problems, etc. Remember: Internet as power, Internet as VOICE! :)

MYTH: Students should stick to one track forever and ever.
TRUTH: You are not getting married. This is an open relationship between you and your track. You are free to have dalliances outside your main declared track.
BOTTOM LINE: The Department *requires* students to declare a track and *encourages* them to take classes from one particular track in order to have a "natural progression" across your four years. For the many students who have approached me fearing that they are unsure about the "commitment" that you are about to make, I want to make it clear that you are NOT required to take ALL classes from one track.

MYTH: All sophomores are restricted to take the basic courses of their tracks for the second semester.
TRUTH: All sophomores are encouraged to take the basic courses of the tracks that they declare. These should provide the foundational knowledge of the chosen discipline after all. But students are not required to take both basic courses. You have to approach one of the faculty advisers to arrange for the courses that you want to take.
BOTTOM LINE: Students are empowered to make choices. Tracks exist to *guide* Comm students and not to restrict them from exploring the diverse, multi-disciplinary, and fundamentally *complementary* courses of our rich and colorful discipline. I truly believe that that the beauty of our discipline is in the diversity of the approaches, orientations, traditions, skills, knowledge sources, and trajectories in it. I personally find that it is through seeing the linkages across tracks and its specific courses can one see the breadth AND depth of what Communication is all about.

MY ADVICE: College life is all about discovering yourself, finding out one's talents and limits, strengths and weaknesses, dreams and fears. In geeky academic terms, it's about identity construction, self-fashioning, the self as a symbolic project. Explore, imagine, make mistakes, learn! Be open to the various ideas to be presented to you and at the same time be critical of them. Treat each reading or text or theorist or teacher not as sacred but as something or someone who opens up a way of seeing, a way of seeing that reveals but at the same time conceals. In deciding your track, you take a brave--and scary--step to knowing YOU even more, as it is a task of self-representation. It is an expression, an imaging, of who you are. But representations, as we have said, are not always complete, and are always changing! Even if you pick a track now, you "own" your college story by the many other course choices that YOU are empowered to pick over the next years. Take responsibility of these choices! And be playful about them as well!

And so, to paraphrase Albus Dumbledore, more than the tracks defining you, it is in our actual and specific actions that you make that determine who you are! And to paraphrase Roger Silverstone, it is the duty of everyone implicated in the media--Media Studies, Journ, Ad and PR, Prod, and any hybrid thereof--to create an ethical space for the Other!

Lecture 7: Identity Politics and Resistance

2008-08-26T03:35:00.000-07:00

HERE are the lecture slides for Identity Politics and Resistance.

Please prepare well and hard for our bonus game on Thursday and our oral quiz next week! Start rereading your lecture slides, readings and notes!

TrackTrips Sign-ups!

2008-08-19T03:28:00.000-07:00

Please click HERE to sign up!

TrackTrip 1: World Press Photo Exhibit, SM North The Block, 22 August, Friday. Meet in Ateneo 2PM. 16 slots.

TrackTrip 2: GMA Network, EDSA corner Timog, 10 September, Wednesday. Meet in Ateneo 1PM. 10 slots. (With my Media and Globalization students)

TrackTrip 3: Summit Media, Pioneer, date/time TBA (maybe Sept 2 or 4, but maybe during sem break due to scheduling difficulties). 15 slots.

I hope to get confirmation about Summit within the week. Let's see how it goes. See you soon!

Lecture 6: Representations of the Other

2008-08-19T03:18:00.000-07:00

HERE are the lecture slides available for download. Filename is Reps of the Other 08.

Some questions for discussion:
1) Where do you see Othering today?
2) How do you think should suffering others be represented in the news? Should journalists maintain the objectivity norm, or is it acceptable for them to display emotion, just as Anderson Cooper's ecstatic news reporting of Hurricane Katrina?
3) Do you believe in the compassion fatigue thesis? Or is it really media fatigue?
4) According to Silverstone, what is proper distance? And why should we represent the Other as "both close and far"?

Quiz 2: Time Magazine article

2008-08-14T02:46:00.000-07:00

Your objective: Analyze how the article constructs race/ethnicity. While this article may sound like a straightforward business news article that is all about statistics, products, and profits, upon closer reading, there is an underlying discourse about race and ethnicity, with meanings of progress, modernity, hygiene, lawfulness, etc, etc, etc inscribed in the report.

Guide questions: What meanings are attributed to Chinese-ness and American-ness? What words/phrases indicate constructs of "us" and "them"? How does the article position the reader? What emotions are invoked? How does the article agree or disagree with broader discourses about race in society? How useful are the concepts of othering, proper distance, and Orientalism in critiquing the article?

Output: (I have changed my mind) Please submit by Wednesday, Aug 20, 12nn, a 1- to 2-page typewritten essay that presents a discourse analysis of the article. Drop this paper in my pigeonhole, 3rd Floor of Social Sciences building. This counts as a 15-point quiz.

Bear in mind that there are no right or wrong answers to this exercise. There is more than one way to interpret a media text, after all. What I will look for are strong (or weak) arguments and mark you from there. I will examine how nuanced and in-depth you discuss the article, your attention to detail when you present evidence from the text (back up your argument with statements cited from the text), AND how well you integrate your analysis with concepts that we discussed in class. Remember: argument, argument, argument.

Post here or email me if you have any questions about the exercise.

TrackTrips@Com100

2008-08-06T07:07:00.000-07:00

COMING SOON.

Three trips. Choose among a TV network, a lifestyle publication, and an exhibit of the world's best photographs.

Watch this space.

Dialogue with the Dead?

2008-08-06T07:04:00.000-07:00

Weigh in on this representation of the Other. What did you think of the news report?

Link to Guidon article on suicide HERE. Take note that one can also post comments to the article in the Guidon page.

Final Com100 Schedules

2008-07-29T07:02:00.000-07:00

Please take note of your new schedules and, for some groups, new reading assignments.

----

July 31: no classes

Aug 5: Representations of the Other Lecture
+ reading presentations
Jeula and Jech (Van Zoonen; Nike and Anti-Racism)
Michael and Jose (MacDonald; Exploring Media Discourse)

Aug 7: no classes

Aug 12: Representations of the Other Seminar
+ reading presentations
Bianca and Pat (Hall; Exhibiting Masculinities)
Jhurize and Jopy (Hall; Spectacle of the Other)

Aug 14: Representations of the Other Seminar 2
+ WRITTEN QUIZ
+ reading presentations
Jayce and Patricia (Ong; Children Watching Children)
Kasey and Paioe (Chouliaraki; Spectatorship of Suffering)

Aug 19: no classes

Aug 21: Identity Politics and Resistance Lecture

Aug 26: Identity Politics and Resistance Seminar
+ brainstorm for creative projects
+ reading presentations
Jellie and Toni (Mitra; Marginal Voices)
Aika and Melo (Madianou; Mediating the Nation)

Aug 28: Mr and Ms Com100

Sep 2: Oral Quiz

Sep 4: Oral Quiz

Sep 9: Media and Morality Lecture
+ creative projects proposals due

Sep 11: Media and Morality Seminar
Anna Lou and Katherine (Silverstone; The Other)
Bea and Chyna (Silverstone; Proper Distance and the Internet)

Sep 18: Paper Writing Exercise (Jason)
WRITTEN QUIZ!!!

Oct 2: Creative Projects Presentations

Oct 7: Creative Projects Presentations

Oct 9: Conclusion
+ reading presentation
Claire, Robyn, Nina (Silverstone; Why Study the Media? Conclusion)

-----

Key Readings:
1. INTRO TO MEDIA: Silverstone. Why Study the Media? Chapter 3.
2. INTRO TO COMM: Peters. Dialogue and Dissemination. Speaking into the Air.
3. NATURE AND PROCESS OF THEORIZING: none. consult notes.
4. REPRESENTATIONS: Hall. Representation. Chapter 1.
5. REPRESENTATIONS OF THE OTHER: Hall. Representation. 'The Spectacle of the Other.'
6. IDENTITY POLITICS AND RESISTANCE: Mitra. Marginal Voices in Cyberspace.
7. MEDIA AND MORALITY:
* Cabanes. Agency and Responsibility: On the Question of Being Human in a Mediated World.
* Ong. Children Watching Children: How Filipino Kids Represent and Receive News Images of Distant Suffering.
* Ong. The Cosmopolitan Continuum. Locating Cosmopolitanism in Media and Cultural Studies.

Lecture 5: Representations

2008-07-29T06:03:00.000-07:00

HERE are the lecture slides for Representations.

Because we don't have class on Thursday, I think that we should use this space to clarify certain concepts, ask questions, and cite examples of representations of nation/race/gender/sexuality in the media.

Feel free to answer the guide questions below.
1. Give an example of a recent tv show/movie/advert/etc and how it constructs stories about nation/race/gender/sexuality. How does your chosen media text enable and/or disable, empower and/or oppress?
2. What assumptions do we have about what it means to be a Filipino? How "must" a Filipino act, according to discourses in the media and in everyday life? How do these assumptions become naturalized or taken for granted?
3. In class, I cited the show Ugly Betty as a show that has 'progressive' representations in the sense that it makes available different narratives about nation/race/gender/sexuality. Rather than rely on existing stereotypes, Ugly Betty, I argue, puts forth alternative ideas about what it means to be American, male or female, homosexual, transsexual, etc. and is therefore more inclusive and democratic in its representations. Do you have a media text that you admire for its challenging representations?
4. In class, I also cited the film 300 for its negative representations of non-Western people as being villainous/hideous/barbaric/exotic/homosexual/etc. What media text do you find has restrictive and simplistic representations of nation/race/gender/sexuality?

Tracktalks 3 & 4: Advertising & Public Relations / Production

2008-07-28T05:14:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay.

HERE are the slides for Ad and PR. And HERE are the slides for Production.

Feel free to discuss. I will also require you to submit a typewritten review of the TrackTalks series that answer any or all of the following questions:
1. What track/s were you interested in before the TrackTalks?
2. What track/s, or specific classes, are you planning to take in the coming semesters?
3. What new information or insights, if any, did you learn from the speakers?
4. What burning question about Comm life and career life was NOT addressed?
5. Do you have any suggestions for future TrackTalks@Com100?

Submissions are due by Friday, August 1 in my pigeonhole at the Department of Communication. Non-submission will be a minus in your participation mark.

I will see you all in class tomorrow! I'll do a lecture on Representations.

Quiz 1 Hall of Fame

2008-07-16T08:25:00.001-07:00

For top performers, please post your answers here. Kindly indicate which question you answered.

TrackTalk2: Journalism

2008-07-10T08:18:00.000-07:00

HERE are the slides from today.

Feel free to discuss! Happy weekend.

TrackTalk1: Media and Film Studies

2008-07-08T06:29:00.000-07:00

HERE are the slides from today. Wala lang, I just wanted to share coz kinareer ko the slides.

I hope you enjoyed today's forum. Feel free to ask any questions here about the track (or even questions to particular speakers that I can forward to them). If you also have any suggestions about how to conduct future TrackTalks, go ahead, I'd love to hear them. I must apologize that we ran out of time for Q&A today. Time flies when you're having fun! :)

Thanks again for being such a winner class! See you Thursday for TrackTalk Journalism.

Lecture 4: The Philippine Media Landscape

2008-07-01T08:48:00.000-07:00

HERE are the lecture slides for download. Lecture and discussion to be continued on Thursday.

Feel free to get the discussion going. I'd love to hear about your own observations about the media landscape (trends, hits, misses, issues) as well as your reflections about the ratings game.

Study for your quiz on Thursday, okay? :) Come prepared with a 1/2 sheet of pad paper.

Lecture 3: Nature and Process of Theorizing

2008-06-24T03:58:00.000-07:00

I was really pleased with your participation in today's class. It's always so nice when a guest lecturer has a grand time with students! And, of course, from your end, it demonstrates your hospitality, which we have alluded to as the most important virtue in the media.

Some points for discussion to prepare you for Thursday's seminar:
1) How do we differentiate positivism and critical theory? What are their different tenets? How do they understand reality? Or specifically: cultures, identities, individuals?
2) Try to apply both frameworks in studying the same media phenomenon. For example, what are the differences in questions and methods that the two perspectives have when studying children's use of home computers? (You may use other cases)
3) What is reflexivity? And what is its contribution to media and communications research?

See you all on Thursday! Prepare for (a lively!) discussion of ideas covered in Lectures 1, 2, and 3!

Announcements + HW

2008-06-19T06:39:00.000-07:00

Hi! I really enjoyed the recitation and feedback of the class in our session today. I hope that we get to see as much excitement and critical thinking (!) right here in our blog. As homework, I require you to post in either the Lecture 1 or Lecture 2 posts (or in both, if you wish). You're free to answer the discussion questions or bring in your own insights and examples and experiences to discuss some of the issues that we have raised. I've been really really pleased with our class so far. Keep up the excellent dialogue!

We have a guest speaker on Tuesday, Leloy Claudio, who will be taking his master's in the University of Melbourne. Let's be in our best and most dialogic behavior! :) Happy weekend.

Lecture 2: Introduction to Communication

2008-06-19T06:33:00.000-07:00

Hi, everyone. HERE are the slides for download.

And here are our discussion questions. But of course, you can comment on anything about the lecture and the many, many ideas raised today. Feel free to ask questions (not to me, specifically, but to your classmates) as well.
1) Discuss one specific media phenomenon of your choice using the different models of communication.
2) Why or how do you privilege dialogue over dissemination? Transmission over ritual?
3) What is YOUR dream for perfect communication?

Lecture 1: Introduction to Media

2008-06-17T06:34:00.000-07:00

The slides are available for download HERE.

I'd like to know your comments, questions, reactions from today's lecture. Here are some possible discussion questions for you to ponder:
1) What are the grand claims being made about the media today, in adverts, by marketers, by politicians, by teens, etc.? How can we be more critical about them?
2) What happens when love and affection are mediated? What is your take on the mediation of emotions?
3) What kinds of stories in the media made you think twice about a common assumption that you have about the world, others, yourself? How did that particular story succeed in making you put yourself in another person's shoes?

See you all on Thursday.

Getting to Know You

2008-06-09T05:30:00.000-07:00

It seems most fitting for a class about media and communications to first have the predictable yet indispensable exercise of self-presentation in a mediated environment. Obviously the manner of communication in cyberspace is starkly different from face-to-face interaction, with the loss of many symbolic cues--from body language to the rise and fall of voice pitch. But much are added as well--from the adoption of avatars to the narrative closure afforded by one's writing of a beginning, middle, and end. And in both types of communication, the challenge is to make a good first impression. What is frustrating--and exciting--of course is that we simply don't know just how our audience will react, respond, remember, reply. And, with the affordances of technology, also: comment, forward, poke, reject, block, digg, flame, spam.

However this site, and this class, is a site of hospitality. It is a site of learning and exchange. It aims to be a space premised not simply on reason and/or emotion, but on responsibility, Roger Silverstone's (2006) lofty requirement for a mediaspace. This homepage is home.

I am happy to welcome you to the website of Com100 Communication Seminar Section D. I wish that you treat this online space not simply as a supplement to our offline lectures but as a meaningful resource for learning, an active and vibrant space for discussion, and a shared experience with your fellow classmates and lecturer.

Kindly reply to this post and introduce yourself below so that we can get our discussions going. Aside from your name, of course, I'd especially like to know why you picked your course. Additionally, you have the option of answering any, or all, of the following questions:
1) name a favorite tv show or movie or book and state why it makes your list.
2) how much time do you spend on the media in a typical day? do you consider yourself a heavy, medium, light user? a fan/addict/junkie of a particular technology or program or artist? why? how?
3) how do other people respond when you tell them that you're a Comm major? any memorable stories?

Switching to a different medium, please bring a 5x7" index card with 2x2" ID photo on June 17, Tuesday. Please include: name, birth date, and contact information (cell phone and email address).

June 17, Tuesday is the first classroom lecture. Please be prepared with the Silverstone reading.

Syllabus: Com100 Communication Seminar

2008-06-09T05:21:00.000-07:00

COM 100 Syllabus: Communication Seminar
Lecturer: Jonathan C. Ong
1 Semester 2008-2009
Department of Communication
Ateneo de Manila University

I. Course Description
This course is an introduction to doing media and communication studies in Ateneo de Manila. It provides foundational frameworks to understanding media and communications, such as theories of media power, representation, and mediation. At the same time, the series of TrackTalks aims to link theory and practice by bringing recent Ateneo Communication graduates to discuss their work experiences in light of their undergraduate major. Crucially, the course invites students to reflect on the centrality of media and communications in everyday life and its consequences for culture, politics, and, fundamentally, ethics.

II. General Objectives
This course aims to:
• introduce foundational theories and concets from the field of media and communication studies
• underscore the political, social, cultural, and moral relevance in understanding the media’s role in today’s world
• provide academic/career mentoring for students through the TrackTalk series
• train students in critical, dialectical thinking

III. Methodology
Media and communications is an academic discipline that requires much reading—reading from textbooks and academic journals as well as “reading” from media such as film, television, and music. The quintessential Ateneo Communication student is someone who is able to link “theoretical knowledge” gathered from books and “practical knowledge” acquired from exposure to media artifacts. It is the student’s responsibility to keep up with the varied reading materials.
The course consists of lectures, lecturettes, TrackTalk seminars, discussions, online discussions, film viewings, research work, and creative work.

IV. Topic Outline
1. Week 1 (June 10, 12): Course Overview
• Introduces course aims, methods, and requirements

2. Week 2 (June 17): Introduction to Media
• Provides an overview of the field of media and communications research
• Key reading:
a. Silverstone, R. (1999). Why Study the Media? London: Sage. (Chapter 3)

3. Week 2 (June 19): Introduction to Communication
• Presents different paradigms in how communication has been historically viewed in philosophy, psychology, engineering, etc.
• Contrasts dissemination and dialogic models of communication as well as ritual and transmission models
• Key readings:
a. Thompson, J. (1995). Media and Modernity. Cambridge: CUP.
b. Peters, J.D. (1999). Speaking into the Air. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

4. Week 3 (June 24, 26): Nature and Process of Theorizing
• June 24 Guest Lecturer: Lisandro Claudio
• Exposes students to epistemology and invites them to reflect on the assumptions behind media scholars’—and their own—arguments
• Key reading:
a. Jansen, S.C. (2002). ‘Scholarly writing is an unnatural act’. In Critical Communication Theory: Power, Media, Gender, and Technology. USA: Rowman and Littlefield.

5. Week 4 (July 1, 3): The Philippine and Global Media Landscapes
• Discusses issues of ownership, access, availability, media literacy in both Philippine and global contexts
• Highlights historical trends and changes in the industry

6. Week 5 (July 8): TrackTalk 1: Media and Film Studies
• Invited Speakers: Lisandro Claudio, Abby Yao, Kristina Aquino, Kamyl Pilar

7. Week 5 (July 10): TrackTalk 2: Journalism
• Invited Speakers: Angeli Guidaya, Katrina Yap, Ayee Macaraig

8. Week 6 (July 15): Seminar Discussion
• Critically reflects on insights and issues raised by the first two TrackTalks

9. Week 6 (July 17): TrackTalk 3: Advertising and Public Relations
• Invited Speakers: Therese Mangosing, Donnah Alcoseba, Trixie Reyna

10. Week 7 (July 22): TrackTalk 4: Production
• Invited Speakers: Justine Javier, Bea Ledesma, Rey Ilagan

11. Week 7 (July 24): Seminar Discussion
• Critically reflects on insights and issues raised by the first two TrackTalks

12. Week 8 (July 29, 31): Representations
• Underscores the relevance of the study of words and images in light of issues of inclusion/exclusion and media ethics
• Presents quantitative and qualitative approaches to textual analysis, including news framing, semiotics, and discourse analysis
• Key reading:
a. Hall, S. (ed.) (1997). Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. London: Open UP. (Chapter 1)

13. Week 9 (Aug 5, 7): Representations of the Other
• Develops a critique of the processes of Other-ing present in popular media representations
• Introduces the concepts of Orientalism, compassion fatigue, media fatigue, and proper distance
• Key reading:
a. Silverstone, R. (2006). Media and Morality: On the Rise of the Mediapolis. London: Polity. (Chapter 3)

14. Week 10 (Aug 12, 14): Political Economy
• Guest Lecturer: Jason Cabanes, MA, Ateneo de Manila
• Explores how the paradigm of the political economy of communications contributes to a critical understanding of inequalities in ownership, access, and literacy in today’s (new) media environment
• Key readings:
a. Williams, K. (2003). “The Censorship of Money: Theories of Media Ownership and Control.” Understanding Media Theory. London: Arnold.

15. Week 11 (Aug 19, 21): Culture Industry
• Explores the contribution of the Frankfurt School in the analysis of how power is exercised through the processes of media production and consumption
• Introduces the concept of ideology
• Key readings:
a. Strinati, D. (2004). An Introduction to Theories of Popular Culture. London: Routledge. (Chapter 2)

16. Week 12 (Aug 26, 28): Student Presentations
• Students examine issues pertaining to representation and media power, linking theory with practice

17. Week 13 (Sept 2, 4): Identity Politics and Resistance
• Discusses issues of self-representation and culture jamming: Can the Other speak in a global media environment? And when the Other does speak, who listens?
• Key reading:
a. Mitra, A. (2001). “Marginal Voices in Cyberspace.” New Media & Society, 3(1).

18. Week 14 (Sept 9): Digital Youth
• Reflects on the mediation of contemporary youth culture and its consequences for identity and learning
• Key reading:
a. Stern, S. (2008). ‘Producing Sites, Exploring Identities: Youth Online Authorship.’ In Buckingham, D. (ed.) Youth, Identity, and Digital Media. Boston: MIT Press.

19. Week 14 (Sept 11), Week 15 (Sept 16, 18): Media and Morality
• The last series of concluding lectures underscores the moral role of all participants in the global media: owners, producers, actors, and audiences
• Introduces the concepts of mediapolis, responsibility, cosmopolitanism, and risk society
• Key readings:
a. Cabanes, J. (2007). ‘Agency & Responsibility: On the Question of Being Human in a Mediated World. A paper presented at MediaTalk@admu: News and the Other. ADMU.
b. Corpus Ong, J. (in press). ‘Where is the Cosmopolitan? Locating Cosmopolitanism in Media and Cultural Studies’. Media, Culture & Society.

20. Week 16 (Sept 23, 25), Week 17 (Sept 30): TBA
• The Lecturer is in London at this time. Activity to be announced.

21. Week 17 (Oct 2): Creative Projects Presentation

22. Week 18 (Oct 7): Conclusion
• Presents a summary of the course and provides suggestions as to its application in everyday life
• Key readings:
a. Silverstone, R. (1999). Why Study the Media? London: Sage. (Chapters 15-16)
b Orgad, S. (2007). “The Internet as a Moral Space: The Legacy of Roger Silverstone.” In New Media & Society, 9 (1).

V. Course Requirements
1) Creative project – 20%
2) Quizzes – 20%
3) Student presentations – 20%
3) Final paper – 20%
4) Participation – 20%

1 – The creative project (documentary, fiction film, ad campaign, webisodes, website, “media event”, debate, etc) is an attempt to challenge students to become effective and responsible media producers. The objective of the creative project is to provoke further debate in a specific issue (or issues) discussed in class. This is to be accomplished by groups of not more than five (5) students. Examples of creative projects may be: 1) a watchdog blog on Philippine advertising using concepts of representation and Other-ing, 2) a documentary exploring issues in Philippine cinema, 3) a satire of theories on media power 4) a reality TV program that tries to find the “ultimate cosmopolitan,” etc.

2 – There will be at least four quizzes throughout the term. Quizzes are essay-based. Students will choose to answer one question out of three to five.

3 - Students have short presentations on additional readings every week. They are expected to cull the main argument from the essay, highlight its strengths and weaknesses, and relate the essay to the course topic and to their everyday life. They will be judged in terms of both content and creativity. Further, there are student presentations that expound on key issues discussed in class.

4 – The final paper is a take-home essay reflecting on issues about media and morality. Essay topics will be revealed in class in September.

5 – Participation takes into account classroom discussions and online discussions. Students are expected to display critical thinking, wide reading, and the ability to link concepts from the various lectures and even from their other classes.

VI. Biographical Notes
Jonathan Corpus Ong is a PhD Candidate in Sociology at the University of Cambridge. He is one of only 100 students in his batch with the prestigious Bill Gates Scholarship. He has an MSc in Politics and Communication (with Distinction) from the London School of Economics and a BA in Communication (summa cum laude) from the Ateneo de Manila University. His industry experience includes becoming the youngest manager at GMA Network, media planning at McCann-Erickson Phils., and working as a research assistant at the BBC. His research interests are on media and morality, media and migration, and mediated public participation.