Schedule

Session 1: Introduction

  • Skim the following:
    • Williams, “Media” (B)
    • Williams, “Mediation” (B)
    • Mitchell and Hansen, “Introduction,” Critical Terms for Media Studies (A)
    • Guillory, “Genesis of the Media Concept” (B)
    • Lennon, “New Stationary States” (B)
    • Lennon, “Machine Translation” (B)
    • Lennon, “The Digital Humanities and National Security” (B)
  • Using this Doodle poll, choose one session for your position paper.
  • Using this Doodle poll, choose one session for your response paper.

Session 2: Dress rehearsal

  • Read (or reread) Mitchell and Hansen, “Introduction,” Critical Terms for Media Studies (A)
  • Read (or reread) Guillory, “Genesis of the Media Concept” (B)
  • Choose another chapter in Mitchell and Hansen, Critical Terms for Media Studies (A)
  • Write a 750-word commentary on Guillory, Mitchell and Hansen, and the A-level readings for this session by Innis (below) and post it on the wiki blog (← this link works only if you are already logged in) by no later than 12 hours before our meeting
  • Drawing on this blog post, prepare five minutes’ worth of remarks to be delivered during our meeting
  • A: Innis, Bias of Communication: Introductions; Preface; “Industrialism and Cultural Values”; “A Critical Review”; “Adult Education and Universities”
  • C: Watson, “Introduction: The Innisian Puzzle”
  • C: Watson, “A Telegram to Australia”
  • C: Watson, “At the Edge of the Precipice”
  • C: Stamps, “Innis’s Formative Years”

Session 3: Innis

  • A: Innis, Bias of Communication: “Minerva’s Owl”; “The Bias of Communication”; “A Plea for Time”; “The Problem of Space”
  • B: Anderson, “Introduction”
  • B: Anderson, “Cultural Roots”
  • B: Pocock, “Some Europes in Their History”
  • B: Abu-Lughod, “Preface”
  • B: Abu-Lughod, “Emergence from Old Empires”
  • B: Kristeva, “Women’s Time”
  • B: Spivak, “French Feminism in an International Frame”
  • B: Apter, “‘Women’s Time’ in Theory”
  • C: Innis, The Idea File of Harold Innis
  • C: Watson, “Innis and the Classicists”
  • C: Watson, “Time, Space and the Oral Tradition”
  • C: Watson, “Epilogue”
  • C: Stamps, “Innis: Communications and the Negative Dialogue”

Session 4: McLuhan

  • A: McLuhan, The Gutenberg Galaxy
  • B: Anderson, “The Origins of National Consciousness”
  • B: Anderson, “Old Languages, New Models”
  • B: Mitchell, “The Machinery of Truth”
  • B: Abu-Lughod, “Restructuring the Thirteenth-Century World System”
  • C: Willmott, McLuhan, or Modernism in Reverse
  • C: Stamps, “McLuhan’s Early Years and Philosophical Framework”
  • C: Stamps, “From Visual Society to No Point of View”

Session 5: Ong

  • A: Ong, Orality and Literacy
  • B readings for sessions on Innis and McLuhan
  • C readings for sessions on Innis and McLuhan
  • Investigate D readings, as well

Session 6: Eisenstein

  • A: Eisenstein, The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe
  • B readings for sessions on Innis and McLuhan
  • C readings for sessions on Innis and McLuhan
  • Investigate D readings, as well

Session 7: Kittler

  • A: Kittler, Gramophone, Film, Typewriter
  • C: Godzich, “Friedrich Kittler”
  • C: Khayyat, “The Humility of Thought: An Interview with Friedrich A. Kittler”
  • Investigate D readings, as well

Session 8: Flusser

  • A: Flusser, Post-History
  • A: Flusser, Does Writing Have a Future?
  • C: Finger et al., Vilém Flusser: An Introduction
  • C: van Meer, “Text, Image, Flusser”
  • C: Roth, “Visual Consciousness: The Impact of New Media on Literate Culture”
  • Investigate D readings, as well (Funkhouser; Lennon, “Screening a Digital Visual Poetics”)

Session 9: Innis, redux

  • Read or reread all C readings relating to Innis
  • Read at least one of the relevant B readings
  • In consultation with other editors of your assigned note on Innis, augment and supplement that note with information from C and B readings
  • In consultation with other editors of your assigned note on Innis, prepare three slides and five to ten minutes’ worth of commentary to present in class
  • Bring laptop to session
  • Assignments for rewriting and polishing notes on Innis
  • Writing time during remainder of session?

Session 10: McLuhan et al., redux

  • Finish rewriting and polishing notes on Innis
  • Read or reread all C readings relating to McLuhan, Ong, and Eisenstein
  • Read at least one of the relevant B readings
  • In consultation with other editors of your assigned notes on McLuhan, Ong, and Eisenstein, augment and supplement each note with information from C and B readings
  • In consultation with other editors of your assigned notes on McLuhan, Ong, and Eisenstein, prepare three slides and five to ten minutes’ worth of commentary to present in class
  • Bring laptop to session
  • Assignments for rewriting and polishing notes on McLuhan
  • Assignments for rewriting and polishing notes on Ong and Eisenstein
  • Writing time during remainder of session?

Session 11: Kittler and Flusser, redux

  • Finish rewriting and polishing notes on McLuhan, Ong, and Eisenstein
  • Read or reread all C readings relating to Kittler and Flusser
  • Read at least one of the relevant B readings
  • In consultation with other editors of your assigned notes on Kittler and Flusser, augment and supplement each note with information from C and B readings
  • In consultation with other editors of your assigned notes on Kittler and Flusser, prepare three slides and five to ten minutes’ worth of commentary to present in class
  • Bring laptop to session
  • Assignments for rewriting and polishing notes on Kittler and Flusser
  • Writing time during remainder of session?

Session 12: Additional research

  • Finish rewriting and polishing notes on Kittler and Flusser
  • Using Zotero or (if you prefer) another bibliographic reference manager, compile an annoted bibliography (100 words per annotation) of fifteen additional sources, using any combination of the following strategies:
    • Follow citation trails in C readings;
    • Incorporate up to five D readings;
    • Do additional research
  • Post a link to this annotated bibliography in a post on the wiki blog
  • Bring laptop to session
  • Assignments for composition of segments of Working paper
  • Writing time during remainder of session?

Session 13: Working paper, I

  • Complete drafts of segments of Working paper, incorporating some of the additional research performed for session 12
  • Bring laptop to session
  • Read segments of working paper aloud
  • Discussion
  • Assignments for revision of segments of working paper
  • Editing time during remainder of session?

Session 14: Working paper, II

  • Finish revision of segments of working paper
  • I will transpose the segments to our sites.psu.edu site
  • Bring laptop to session
  • Viewing and discussion
  • Assignments for abstracts to begin each section
  • Discussion of commenting
  • Discussion of Anthologize plugin
  • Writing time during remainder of session?

Session 15: Working paper, III

  • Finish and add incorporate abstracts to begin each section
  • Begin commenting on segments and paragraphs of working paper
  • Viewing and discussion
  • Adjourn for refreshment?

Coda

Finish commenting on segments and paragraphs of working paper by midnight on the final day of final exam week. I will compile versions of the working paper in various file formats using the Anthologize plugin. (You are welcome to do the same.)