Visual Messages and the Media Spring 2018 Wednesday 11:30 AM AVC Lecturer: Tae-Sik Kim Office Hour: Tue 1:00 – 2:00 PM & Wed 1:30 – 3:00 PM Contact Information: beinkid@mail.muni.cz Office Number: 5. 50 Ø Course Objectives This course examines the cultural meanings of visual messages on various media. Grounded in the understanding of various theories from semiotics and cultural studies, this course looks closely at media practices delivering visual messages firmly based on certain sociocultural contexts. This course also cover wider issues related to visual messages and our everyday lives. By reading a variety of research articles assigned in the course and participating in class discussions, students learn to develop their own research projects focusing on visual communication and cultural understandings. · Comprehend the cultural meanings of visual messages · Understand the role of the media in distributing visual messages · Review and analyze a variety of research articles on visual communication. · Find important themes and methods of semiotics · Lead insightful discussions. Ø Syllabus Week 1. Introduction to the course Week 2. Semiotics Theories: Saussure, Peirce, Barthes, and more Week 3. Semiotics and Culture: Geertz and Bourdieu (Response Paper on Week 2, 3 Readings Due: 6. 3. 2018) Wek 4. Visual Media as Public Communication Week 5. Essay Writing (Due: 25. 3. 2018) Week 6. Visual Representation Week 7. Research Plan Due (No Class) Week 8. Commercialized Visual Images (Response Paper on Week 4, 6, 8 Readings Due: 10. 4. 2018) Week 9. Visual Ethnography (Methods for Your Final Project) Week 10. Digital Photography - Interpersonal Media Week 11. Images of Spaces: Cities as Visual Media (Response Paper on Week 10, 11 Readings Due: 1. 5. 2018) Week 12. On Ethics Week 13. Student Conference Ø Literatures Reading Articles: See, below. Ø Teaching Methods The format of the course is a combination of brief lectures and controlled discussions of various assigned readings. All students are expected to read all articles assigned and to develop appropriate discussion questions. Each student is a discussion leader for an assigned week. Students submit a research paper (topic of student’s choice in consultation with instructor; minimum 14 pages). Ø Assessment Methods v Attendance: 3 unexcused absences during a semester shall be denied academic credit v Response Papers (100 x 3 = 300) ü Essay on related topics with 2 discussion questions. ü Submit only 4 response papers ü Due dates are indicated above ü No Late Paper Accepted v Essay in Week 5 (150) ü Choose one theory from week 2 and 3 readings ü Analyze a visual case by using the selected theory v One Discussion Leader (150) · Summarize articles, Find some related cases, and Develop critical discussion questions · Warning: If you miss this assignment, you will automatically fail this course. v Final Paper + Presentation (400): Due- Monday 12. June 2017 (Late Paper – Subtract 5% for each day after the due date) Total: 1000 A: 900-1000 B: 800-899 C: 700-799 D: 600-699 E: 500-599 F: -499 Ø Study Materials All materials, with the exception of book chapters available in the library and articles available online, will be provided in PDF format. Week 2. Semiotics Theories: Saussure, Peirce, Barthes, and more Barthes, R. (1972). Mythologies. New York: Hill and Wang. Chapter, Myth Today. Eco, U. (1979). A Theory of semiotics. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Chapter 0. Introduction Week 3. Semiotics and Culture: Geertz and Bourdieu Geertz, C. (1973). The interpretation of culture. New York: Basic Books. Chapter 1 Swartz, D. (1998). Culture and power: The sociology of Pierre Bourdieu. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Chapter 4. Week 4. Visual Media as Public Communication Eberhardinger, M. J. (2012) "A Semiotic Analysis of Iconicity in Japanese Manner Posters." Kim, T-S. (2015) Defining the Occupy Movement: Visual Analysis of Facebook Profile Images Posted by Local Occupy Movement Group, Visual Communication Quarterly, 22(3), 174-186 Week 6. Visual Representation Hall, S. (1997). Representation and the Media. Lecture. Ben‐Porath, E. N., & Shaker, L. K. (2010). News images, race, and attribution in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Journal of Communication, 60(3), 466-490. Week 8. Commercialized Visual Images Bianchi, C. (2011). Semiotic approaches to advertising texts and strategies: Narrative, passion, marketing. Semiotica, 2011(183), 243-271. Kara-Jane Lombard (2013) From Subways to Product Labels: The Commercial Incorporation of Hip Hop Graffiti, Visual Communication Quarterly, 20:2, 91-103 Week 9. Visual Ethnography (Methods for Your Final Project) Susan Keith (2014) Back to the 1990s? Comparing the Discourses of 20th- and 21st-Century Digital Image Ethics Debates, Visual Communication Quarterly, 21:2, 61-7 CHAPTER 1 and 2 Week 10. Digitized Visual Media Machin, D. (2004). Building the world’s visual language: the increasing global importance of image banks in corporate media. Visual Communication, 3(3), 316-336. Van House, N. A. (2011). Personal photography, digital technologies and the uses of the visual. Visual Studies, 26(2), 125-134. Week 11. Images of Spaces: Cities as Visual Media Kim, T. S. (2011). Three faces of Chinese modernity: Nationalism, globalization, and science. Social Semiotics, 21, 683-697. Greenberg, Miriam. "Branding Cities A Social History of the Urban Lifestyle Magazine." Urban affairs review 36.2 (2000): 228-263. Week 12. On Ethics Susan Keith (2014) Back to the 1990s? Comparing the Discourses of 20th- and 21st-Century Digital Image Ethics Debates, Visual Communication Quarterly, 21:2, 61-7 Awan, I. (2016). Islamophobia on Social Media: A Qualitative Analysis of the Facebook's Walls of Hate. International Journal of Cyber Criminology, 10(1), 1.