University of Arizona
School of Geography and Development
GEOG 205– Places in the Media
Fall 2010
Instructor: Paul Robbins
Office: 453E Harvill
Office Hours: TBD
E-mail: robbins@email.arizona.edu
Course Website: d2l.arizona.edu
Class Location: TBD
Course Description
Videos like Grand Theft Auto, or movies such as Slumdog Millionaire, bring places like Liberty City, Florida, or
Mumbai, India, to our computers, cell phones and living room couches, creating contact that might not
otherwise exist. But this contact is based upon media representations rather than physical interaction, and
information which is available through “the media,” is not an objective representation of reality. Rather media
are technologies through which meanings are constructed and transferred. Historical processes and placespecific factors both frame how media is produced and consumed, making it necessary to study media, not as
an isolated text, but as a process linked to other complex social factors.
In this class, students will be asked to evaluate how particular places are represented in various mediums such
as television and narrative film, music videos, newspaper stories, blogs, and advertisements. The main
purpose of this course will be to guide students toward developing more critical frames for interpreting
information from various media sources. These are skills that will not only enable students to engage more
critically with mediated materials in future courses, but will also influence how they understand their own
milieu, especially as globalization continues to link peoples and places to one another in new, ever more
complex ways, and as people continue to be exposed to new representations of places in their everyday lives.
Textbooks & Required materials
 Dittmer, Jason. 2010. Popular Culture, Geopolitics, and Identity. Roman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
ISBN: 0742556344. *Required (herein called JD)
 Hall, Stuart. 1997. Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. 2nd Edition. Sage
Publications. ISBN: 9780761954323. *Required (herein called SH)
 1 package of 3x5 index cards (available in the university book store)
 Because of the on-line requirements for this class, it is highly recommended that all students have
access to a home computer and the Internet.
Learning Objectives
 Help students to develop more critical frames for interpreting information from various media sources.
 Help students to develop valuable learning, studying and thinking skills through learner-centered
techniques.
 Enable students to understand and recognize the 5 widely recognized components of media literacy.
 Enable students to engage more critically with mediated materials in future courses.
 Encourage students to apply these skills to understand their own milieu, as they are exposed to new
representations of places in their everyday lives.
D2L
Students are responsible for obtaining the required textbook(s). All other class materials, course
announcements and grades will be made available through the course D2L website. Students are responsible
for checking D2L and for completing and/or posting all assignments before the due date.
Evaluation
 Plagiarism Exercise – 15 points
 Class Attendance – 12 points
 In Class Participation – 20 points
 Weekly Assignments – 13 points
 Discussion Group Participation—26 points
 Reading Quizzes – 50 points
 “Exam” questions –14 points
 Four Exams – 150 points (the lowest score automatically dropped)
o Module 1 Exam – 50 points
o Module 2 Exam – 50 points
o Module 3 Exam – 50 points
o Module 4 Exam – 50 points
 Final Project – 100 points, to be broken down as follows
o Draft 1 – 20 points
o Response to draft 1 – 5 points
o Draft 2 – 20 points
o Final Paper – 50 points
o Response to Final Paper – 5 points
Total 400 points
The following grading scheme applies:
320-400 points (A), 240-319 points (B), 160-239 points (C), 80-159 points (D), and below 80 points (E).
Honors Students
Honors students have the additional assignment of creating a class e-zine. Students may divide up the
workload, with smaller groups taking on different tasks (earning up to 45 points for completion of that task), or
students may opt to work as a single group on every step. If option two is selected, the grading scheme is as
follows:
 Rubric – 15 points
 Entries Selection – 15 points
 E-zine publication – 15 points
 Final Product – 5 points (entire group is responsible for the end product)
Honors students will determine together which approach to take and will meet with the instructor to at the
start of module II to explain their choice.
For honors students: the following grading scheme applies:
360-450 points (A), 270-359 points (B), 180-269 points (C), 90 – 179 points (D), and below 90 points (E).
Self Scoring
All grades will be posted to the grade book in D2L. Students are responsible for keeping track of their own
grades on D2L and, as necessary, requesting clarification or correction of posted grades. Because assignments
are scored using a point system, to calculate their grade for the course, students can simply add all points
earned.
Assignments
Based on new principles of Learner Centered Education, this class is designed so that students will complete
activities and build skills on their own time in order to make space in the classroom for critical engagement
with the materials and to provide time for students to reflect, discuss, debate and defend their ideas after they
have had time to formulate them. Students will be working with checklists in D2L and will have to move
through activities and exercises in order. This course structure requires students to be committed to working
independently on assignments in advance of attending class. The effectiveness of this course is largely
dependent on the full participation of all class members. Therefore, reading and doing the assignments is not
enough—active engagement with Internet exercises and participation with your colleagues is essential for
ensuring an optimal learning environment.
Students will spend approximately 50 minutes each week engaged in on-line activities, 50 minutes listening to
an on-line lecture and 50 minutes attending a discussion section. Reading, viewing media and additional
homework assignments will add between 45 and 60 minutes of time each week. Students will be graded
based upon their exams, quizzes, assignments, final project, and attendance and participation in discussion
section.
On-Line Activities
On Saturday morning at the start of each week, students will be provided an assignment checklist on D2L. The
checklist will include reading assignments, interactive lab exercises, media materials and an on-line lecture to
view/listen/read, and a discussion exercise. The order of the assignments will vary each week. It is the
students’ responsibility to follow the order and to complete the checklist on time each week so that they are
prepared for higher-level discussions when they engage in group discussion work.
Each checklist will start with a required viewing of some kind of media. Students will next be asked to answer
a series of critical questions, generally fewer than 5, about how place is represented in that media segment,
whose interests are served by that representation and how that representation is related to contemporary
discourses about race, gender, politics, etc. Students will not be graded for answering correctly. Rather they
will receive points for completion of the questions. Furthermore, using tools available in D2L, students will not
be able to progress to other activities without first completing this step. Next students will be required to read
from the text. They will then be directed to again answer a short list of questions. These will be content based
and drawn mostly from the text’s question bank to ensure that students read the material. Quizzes will be
offered on-line and randomly drawn from a bank of questions. Students will be able to take the “quiz” multiple
times with the highest score recorded. A small number of questions on the module exams will come from
these quizzes so it is in the student’s interest to take each quiz several times and to use quizzes as basic study
guides. Once completing the quiz, students may move onto to the next assignment which may require
applying the concepts from the reading to the media, amending their previous answers, answering more
questions or engaging in an interactive “game.” Other on-line activities may include viewing some additional
media, visiting websites, reading/listening to on line lectures, posting to a discussion board and replying to
discussion board posts.
Each week, students will be required to write an “exam” question that tests student comprehension of course
content using higher-order thinking skills. Two of these questions will be selected by the instructor to include
in the module exam question bank. Selection criteria includes 1)how pertinent the question is to that week's
course material, 2)appropriate application of higher order thinking, 3) clarity of the question and answers
and, 4) mastery of course concepts.
On Line Lectures
Components each week will include an on-line lecture. These lectures may take the form of a podcast or a
lecture over PowerPoint. Because of the opportunities afforded by an on-line learning environment, the
lecture component will comprise 50-minutes of material each week but may be broken up with other on-line
activities. For example, students may be asked to move between the lecture and websites or an interactive
game in order to get hands-on-experience in the midst of the lecture. Or after reading the text, students may
watch a 20-minute lecture which clarifies some major points and provides specific media examples before
moving onto an additional exercise and then to the remaining 30-minutes of lecture material. The idea is to
use the Internet environment to link key concepts from the text and media directly to lecture content as
students work through the material.
On-Line Discussion Boards
Contemporary research into teaching and learning reveals that, despite your personal feelings about it, group
interaction does facilitate learning. Because this class incorporates “deeper” level theoretical concepts—
concepts that may become clearer through dialogue and participation—it is important to foster various forms
of class interaction. This will be partly accomplish this through small group discussions boards. These groups
have been created using the “group” function under D2L. Each of you has been randomly assigned to a group
of 4 to 5 members. This group is to serve as your online peer discussion group.
The benefits should be two-fold. The discussion group helps me to assess your mastery of class materials.
The discussion group also serves as an on-line support group. Your discussion group members are required to
provide feedback on various assignments. You are also expected to be critical but supportive of one another.
You are not limited to the discussion threads created by your instructor and may open new threads to address
topics pertinent to your group. The assigned posts must meet the style requirements of an academic paper.
The style of the discussions, however may be informal. But remember that it is difficult to assess emotions and
intent without additional clues from facial expressions and body language. Emoticons are not prohibited, but
their use should be limited. Also, use capital letters, punctuation, and proper spelling and grammar to
facilitate conversation.
You will be graded on your contributions to your discussion group. You will automatically receive a point for
posting the required assignments to the board. If you choose to work ahead, you should still check in several
times a week with your discussion group in order to read member posts, comments and questions. You are
required to answer questions in a timely manner…this means early enough in the week and/or day to give your
colleagues sufficient time to respond. I will check into the discussion boards regularly and may, on occasion,
contribute messages and information.
During my end-of-the week review, I will determine the level of your participation for that week. That gives
you the entire week to respond to posts and to maintain discussion threads before I assign a grade. Do not
wait until Friday, however. This penalizes your discussion group members and hampers the conversation.
If you are having trouble with a discussion member not posting frequently enough or leaving questions for you
near the end-of-the-week deadline, making it difficult to respond, let me know sooner rather than later. I do
have access to data on the frequency and duration of your visits to the discussion boards and waiting until the
last minute will mean not earning additional points.
You may earn an additional point each week for posts and responses to your discussion group that:




demonstrate synthesis or evaluation
include references to course material
include references to other sources
apply principles covered in the class material, particularly the textbook
Synthesis means taking separate ideas and combining them to come up with a new idea, or establishing new
relationships between ideas. It also means being able to come up with original, integrative ideas. Evaluation
means being able to use the stated criteria (in this case, concepts from the book and guidelines in the
instructions) to appraise, assess and critique material.
It is important to keep a running dialogue with the other members of your discussion group. That means, at
times, simply agreeing with their posts, basically paraphrasing course material, or prompting with simple
questions. This is fine and generally necessary for keeping up an on-line conversation. This, however, will not
earn you extra points nor do these posts take the place of substantive comments (see above).
All materials submitted to the group must be done so as word documents (with the file extensions .doc or .docx)
or as a pdf. This will facilitate group members, and myself as necessary, being able to open the material and to
post comments using track changes.
Honors Students
Honors students will be grouped into their own on-line discussion group(s). Honors students will be required
to complete and post all of the same discussion assignments as their peers, however the criteria for their posts
will be more stringent and honors students will be expected to provide more detailed and analytic feedback to
their on-line discussion board members.
Additionally, 2/3rds of the way through the semester, honors students will be responsible for creating a rubric
for evaluating student entries for the class e-zine. They will then use the rubric to determine which writing
examples to post and will create the e-zine using on-line tools. Honors students will work closely with the
instructor and may meet in separately scheduled meetings to discuss progress.
In Class Discussion Sections
Students must attend one 50-minute discussion section each week. To determine the time and date of your
discussion section, refer to your course schedule on student link at http://uaccess.arizona.edu/. This
discussion section will be led by a graduate teaching assistant or the instructor.
For the final assignment each week, students will be asked to answer some critical, open-ended questions or
to complete an assignment about the material they have covered. That assignment will form the basis of the
discussion at the discussion section that week. The TA will facilitate the discussion and clarify concepts with
which students are unclear, but it is up to students to reflect upon, discuss and debate ideas and concepts.
Because the success of the discussion section depends upon students being prepared, students must complete
all of the week’s assignments before attending class. Assignments will vary each week, based on the particular
content of that week, but writing will factor heavily into these exercises.
It is the students’ responsibility to complete all of the week’s activities prior to attending discussion section.
Do not wait until the day before to complete the work. The instructor and teaching assistants can track student
activity on D2L (time logged in and out, assignments opened, work completed, etc.). Any student asking for an
exemption or to be given more time to complete an assignment, who has waited until the day before
discussion section to begin the work, will be denied that request.
Attendance will be taken and students will be awarded a point for each day attended with an assignment
handed in. Students may miss two discussion sections without penalty. At the end of each discussion section,
students will be asked to turn in a 3x5 note card listing the muddiest concept from the week’s materials. The
instructor and teaching assistants will use these muddiest concept cards to assess student learning and to
make adaptations to the next week’s course content.
The E-Zine
During the final module, students will be asked to submit between 1 and 2 entries to be included in the class ezine. This on-line magazine will serve as a guide for future students taking the class and will include examples
of exemplary course work and writings. Honors students taking the class will develop, in consultation with the
instructor and/or Teaching Assistant, a rubric for evaluating entries. The rubric will be made available to
students before they are to turn in their entries. The honors students, with approval of their instructor and/or
Teaching Assistant, will use the rubric to select items to include on the site. Honors students will further be
responsible for designing and posting all materials using on-line tools identified by the instructor. The e-zine
will be made available to future students taking GEOG 205: Places in the Media. Students who do not wish to
be identified in the e-zine must turn in selections using their name but may request that an appropriate
pseudonym be used.
Late Assignments
All requests for make-up assignments must be submitted in advance and be accompanied by a Dean’s excuse.
Exercises that must be completed and drop boxes for material that must be uploaded to D2L will be set to
automatically close so students will not be able to complete them after the due date. It is the student’s
responsibility to submit assignments early in order to provide time for technical or other problems. Your
discussion section leader should be notified of problems with D2L, however bear in mind that the instructor
and teaching assistants are not computer engineers. All technical problems need to be addressed by the
appropriate resources on campus.
Assignments are not accepted via e-mail.
It is recommended that students set aside “class time” two days a week, as if attending a physical lecture, and
to use this time to complete course work.
Finally, It is your responsibility to make sure you are producing documents that can be opened on other
computers. For this class, all assignments uploaded to D2L must be in “.doc” format. Any papers not in this
format will be considered late.
Exams
Four exams will be given, one at the completion of each of the four modules. All exams will be administered
through D2L. Exams will be timed and students can only access the exam once. Each exam is worth 50 points.
However the lowest exam grade will be automatically dropped at the end of the semester. Because all exams
will be available for a period of 48 hours on D2L and because one exam is dropped, there will be no make-up
exams unless a Dean’s excuse is provided.
The exams will cover all readings, assignments, posted materials and discussion section topics for that module.
All exams will consist of multiple choice, true/false, short answer and essay questions. Multiple choice,
true/false and short answer questions will be drawn randomly from a question bank. Some of these questions
will come from the weekly reading quizzes so it is in your best interest to use the weekly quizzes as a study aid.
Most of the short answer, and all of the essay questions, will ask students to apply, analyze and evaluate
information from the course. At least one question will be generated from topics raised in your discussion
section. For example, students may be asked to watch a video clip and to use theories, concepts and
vocabulary from the module to discuss how, in that clip, identity is being represented through place.
Final Project
The final project will have three components. Each component will be submitted as a draft that will be
critiqued by peers and be graded and commented upon by the discussion section leader. The components will
then be merged into a final paper, which must address comments and critiques from the drafts.
First, the student will select a particular television show, video, video game, news story or other media piece
(which must be approved by the instructor). The student will execute independent research on the history
and contemporary social context of the place represented in the media selection. That material will be drafted
into a 500 word research paper. This paper will be formatted according to Chicago Manual of Style and must
include an additional reference page with citations. Any paper not submitted in this style will be considered
late.
For the second component, the student must use vocabulary and theoretical frameworks learned in class to
analyze the selected medium—providing specific examples for each concept—to write a 500 word
(approximately 2 pages double spaced) summary of how place is portrayed. Students are required to make
formatting changes noted on the returned draft of component one and to include a separate reference page
citing appropriate course materials used to analyze the media.
Students will be required to post their paper and a link to their chosen media piece to their 3-person, on-line
discussion group. Discussion group members must then read each others’ projects and upload to D2L written
responses of between 150 and 250 words (about ½ page single spaced) per piece. These responses are formal
papers and should be edited for content, grammar and punctuation before posting.
For the final component of this project, students will merge material from papers one and two and add a
response to the ways in which the media representation matches and mismatches with the history and/or
contemporary social contexts of that place. Students will be graded on 1) appropriate use and application of
vocabulary and theories, 2)selection of an appropriate media piece to analyze, 3) incorporation of critical
responses from the instructor and other students, 4) grammar, punctuation, spelling, and 4) essay structure
and flow of concepts. Like component one, students will post their final paper to their discussion group and
provide a 500-word response to the other members of their group. This response should include how the
student imagined that place prior to reading the final project and how the final project has made them rethink
that imaginary geography.
Course Content
Information in the syllabus regarding scheduling and course assignments is subject to change with reasonable
advanced notice, as deemed appropriate by the instructor. All changes will be announced in the discussion
section and on D2L.
Week
1
□
□
Due
Checklist 1
Plagiarism
assignment
SH: “From Language to Semiotics” pgs. 36-40
JD: “Popular Culture: Theories, Methods and
Intertextuality” pgs. (TBD)
□
Checklist 2
3
SH: “Discourse, Power and the Subject” pgs. 41-52
JD: “Popular Culture: Between Propaganda and
Entertainment” pgs. (TBD)
□
Checklist 3
4
SH: “Where is the Subject?” pgs. 54-70
JD: “Popular Culture: Between Propaganda and
Entertainment” pgs. (TBD)
□
Checklist 4
2
Topic
Theories of
Representation
Readings
SH: “Representation, Meaning and Language” pgs. 15-28
JD: “Popular Culture: Theories, Methods and
Intertextuality” pgs. (TBD)
MODULE EXAM 1
SH: “The Poetics and Politics of Exhibiting Other Cultures”
pgs. (TBD)
□
□
JD: “Geopolitics: Histories, Discourses and Mediation” pgs.
(TBD)
□
Checklist 5
Final Project
Paper 1:
Media
Selection
Checklist 6
7
SH: “The Spectacle of the Other” pgs. (TBD)
□
Checklist 7
8
JD: “Representation of Place and the British Empire” pgs.
(TBD)
□
Checklist 8
5
6
Representing
the Other
MODULE EXAM 2
9
SH: “Representing the Social: France and Frenchness in
Post-War Humanist Photography” pgs. (TBD)
□
Checklist 9
10
JD: “Narration of Nation in the Post-WWII United States”
pgs. (TBD)
□
□
11
SH: “Genre and Gender: The Case of Soap Opera” pgs. 337367
□
□
Checklist 10
Final Project
Paper 2:
Theoretical
Framework
Checklist 11
Response to
Paper 2
12
SH: “Exhibiting Masculinity” pgs. 291-337
□
Politics of
Identity
13
Affect,
Subjectivity &
Resistance
JD: “Affect, Embodiment and Military Video Games” pgs.
(TBD)
Checklist 12
MODULE EXAM 3
□ Checklist 13
JD: “Hegemony, Subaltern Identities, and New Media” pgs.
(TBD)
□
Checklist 14
15
JD: “The Active Audience and Evangelical Geopolitics” pgs.
(TBD)
□
□
Checklist 15
Final Project
16
JD: “Identity, Subjectivity, and Going Forward” pgs. (TBD)
□
□
14
Checklist 16
Response to
Final Project
MODULE EXAM 4
*Academic Success*
For most students, this course presents challenges in terms of the self-guided nature of the class, the writing
requirements, exams, assignments and high expectations for critical thinking. In order to succeed academically,
students need to actively participate in all activities, take notes on the reading, attend discussion sections
regularly and be prepared to think critically about a wide array of issues. Students who do not follow this
advice will most likely be disappointed with their performance.
If you are experiencing personal issues that may be affecting your performance in the class or if you are having
difficulty understanding course material, please contact your discussion section leader as soon as possible so
we can work with you to remedy the situation. *Key—if you are experiencing problems (personal or class
related) and it is affecting your class performance, make contact sooner rather than later.
Academic Integrity
Plagiarism information and examples of citations can be found at the University of Arizona
Library homepage: http://www.library.arizona.edu/help/tutorials/plagiarism/index.html
One of the introductory assignments for this class is a plagiarism exercise that explains and reinforces the
importance of academic honesty and the avoidance of plagiarism. Students who do not turn the Plagiarism
assignment within 2 days of the introduction of the assignment will be administratively dropped from the
class.
All university rules regarding academic integrity and honesty apply in this course. Course materials handed in
are expected to be original and your own work. The University of Arizona’s Code of Academic Integrity and the
Student Code of Conduct can be found at: http://dos.web.arizona.edu/uapolicies/
Behavioral Expectations
Cell phones are prohibited in the discussion section. Students who wish to talk or text on their phone should
leave the classroom. Students expecting an important phone call should notify the discussion section leader in
advance and sit near the door of the classroom.
No intolerant or threatening behavior, toward the instructor, graduate teaching assistant, guest, or other
students, will be tolerated in this class and the following University of Arizona policies will be enforced to deal
with such behavior: http://policy.web.arizona.edu/~policy/threatening.pdf
Writing Assistance
The Writing Center is a free resource for UA Undergraduate and Graduate students. At the Writing Center, a
trained peer consultant will work individually with you on anything that you are writing (in or out of class), at
any point in the writing process from brainstorming to editing. Appointments are recommended, but are not
required.
The writing center also provides helpful resources on line. For more information or to make an appointment,
visit their website at http://english.web.arizona.edu/index_site.php?id=287 or stop by the Bear Down
Gym 102. The Writing Center can also be reached at (520) 621-3182.
Students with Disabilities
If you anticipate the need for accommodations in taking this course, you need to register with the Disability
Resource Center (DRC) and request that the DRC send the instructor a notification of your registration and a
summary of your specific need so we may accommodate you in whatever manner necessary. If you have any
questions regarding any aspects of this policy or concerns, please contact your instructor or discussion section
leader.
Course Policies
 Please respect other students’ opinions and critiques. The best way to understand and further
strengthen your position is to critically analyze and interpret divergent opinions.
 There is no tolerance for insensitive or discriminatory comments with respect to race, color, religion,
sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, or gender identity. Students who
violate this policy will be immediately dealt with. Two violations will result in your being unenrolled
from the class.
 At times, materials in this class may seem offensive. No matter how disturbing or offensive, the
bottom line is critical thinkers should be able to think about and discuss all sorts of events, actions, and
behaviors. In addition, inherent to critical thinking is the ability to evaluate facts and opinions
effectively.
 Treat e-mail with the instructor and graduate teaching assistant as a formal means of communication.
This means that you should compose your e-mail in a professional manner and avoid constant
bombardment of e-mails to the professor or graduate teaching assistant. Please be aware that it may
be up to 48 hours before you receive a response.
Content Policy
 Information in the syllabus and course content document regarding scheduling and course
assignments is subject to change with reasonable advanced notice, as deemed appropriate by the
instructor.