Saturday, August 23, 2008

Special MAG2.0 Day: August 27

Please take note that Wednesday, August 27 is a special MAG2.0 day. Our class will be held at Social Sciences Building Conference Rooms 1 and 2. We will begin exactly 130PM. Howie Severino is a known stickler for time, and his lecture is for ONE hour only (130-230PM). On the second hour, I'll be doing a lecture on compassion fatigue. Don and Guia will also present for 12-15minutes on the readings. MAKE SURE you read 'Children Watching Children' written by moi. I'll get offended if you don't. :) On the third hour, we will have two guests do a talk on doing graduate studies abroad. In the spirit of media and GLOBALIZATION, of course. :)

As you can see, we have a jam-packed day ahead of us. Please come prepared. And early. I cannot stress this enough.

I also require you to submit to me a typewritten description of your ideas for the creative project. Indicate what you wish to do and what concepts you'll be using in a paragraph or two. AND you are also required to submit, on a separate sheet, your research question/s for the topic that you have selected for your final paper. Creative project and final paper groups are required to meet with me for consultation between Tuesday and Friday this week.

See you Wednesday!

Friday, August 15, 2008

Reading: Children Watching Children

Hi. We're moving up our Lecture on Catastrophe and Celebrity to Wednesday, August 20. As we're meeting Howie the following week, it would be effective if we discuss issues related to journalism and media ethics.

For our class on Wednesday, the required reading is my own study "Children Watching Children: How Filipino Kids Represent and Receive News Images of Suffering". Please download this HERE (Filename: CWC for JCM submission24Mar.pdf). I would appreciate it if you come to class prepared with the article.

We also have two special guests coming over to talk about graduate studies abroad. This talk will be reserved for the last 45minutes of class.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Lecture 7: Nation and Migration

HERE are the lecture slides for download. Unfortunately, I had to cut some of the stalker photos because they make the file too large.

We didn't have time to discuss and reflect on concepts of nation and diaspora. I hope that we use this space to think through some of the questions below:
1) How do Yao's, Cabanes' and Lorenzana's papers talk to one another? How are they similar or different? What are their theoretical, methodological and ethical strengths and weaknesses? What are their central arguments about migration, identity, and the media?
2) What is the analytical value of Madianou's theory of mediation?
3) How does the media (“global, local, regional, mass, personalized…”) contribute to the survival or death of the nation?
4) Who do we consider diaspora? What about non-Tagalogs and their representation in Philippine media… people from Northern France in French media?
5) How might the media enable dialogue between dominant and marginal groups? What policies should we push for?
6) How do individuals strategically assert their identities in everyday life? When do we play up certain identities over others?

Next week, August 13, we'll have the following five groups present their audience studies:
1) Julia and Savan
2) Mikey, Candice and Meggie
3) Paolo and Portia
4) Margie and Jowee
5) James and Bam

Remember, the objective here is to see how certain individuals or groups make use of the media to reflect on their identity (you can focus on nation, race, gender or sexuality, or their intersections). You can also focus on identity in relation to issues of difference or otherness (us and them, compassion fatigue, etc.) Use the studies of Yao, Cabanes and Lorenzana as template as well as those of Madianou, Gillespie, Miller, Kim, Ang, Liebes and Katz, etc. (Consult audience studies lecture slides)

August 20th we'll have a lecture on Identity Politics and Resistance. And August 27th will be Howie Severino's guesting, where we will discuss ethical issues in journalism and television production.

Again, please email me to schedule consultations for your projects. Remember, I'll be away for two crucial weeks in September and will likely be hard-to-reach via email.

Mass Media in Malaysia Lecture

This is just to remind you that the Department of Communication is co-sponsoring, along with ACAS, a lecture by Professor Kokkeong on Media in Malaysia: The Peculiar Case of Mainstream Media versus Alternative Media on Tuesday, 12 August 2008 at 1:30-3:00 pm. This will be held in Conference Rooms 1 & 2 of the old Social Sciences Building.

Please email or text me if you are interested. Slots are limited!

A +2 in the final mark will be given to student/s who ask/s a critical question during the lecture. A +3 in the quizzes will be given to student/s who write/s a one-page assessment of Kokkeong's study identifying its strengths and weaknesses in terms of rationale, theory, methodology, findings, conclusion, ethics, etc.

This is a very good exercise, as much of MAG2.0 is about enabling students to be more reflective and reflexive about essays, readings, and case studies that you encounter in your different classes.

Here's an example of a review of an empirical study. Here, Mirca Madianou critiques my PhD proposal which aims to examine how Filipinos in different contexts relate with distant others in the media.