CM 180 Fall 2021 Syllabus PDF

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CM 180 Fall 2021 Syllabus for the 2021 semester....

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CM 180: Understanding Media Fall 2021 – Tu/Th 11:00 am – 12:15 pm CGS 129 Instructor: Dr. Michelle Amazeen she/her/hers 404d Alden Hall 704 Commonwealth Ave. Office Hours: Tu 2:15 – 3:15 pm Th 1:30 – 3:00 pm Office Phone: 617-353-1020 E-mail: [email protected] Course Description and Objectives: How should we understand media? This course will trace the development, survey the literature, and explore the impact of media—whether traditional, interactive, social, or mobile—examining conceptual, theoretical, and practical aspects of today’s global media environment. The course will also review the factors that have shaped the nature of contemporary media, including their content, uses, functions, and audiences. Understanding Media will provide you with a broad understanding of the social and psychological impact of mediated communication and empower you to think originally and critically about how media technologies evolve, function, advance, and shape society, industry, and professional practices. It will make dynamic connections between theoretical frameworks, everyday life, and industry practices in a manner that engages undergraduate students in Advertising, Media Science, and Public Relations. You will leave the course informed of the significance of using strategic approaches to constructing, disseminating, and evaluating media initiatives and media messages. By the end of the course you will: 1. Understand mediated communication theories in terms of their concepts, principles, and assumptions. 2. Comprehend how media industries emerged, function, and evolve, as well as shape society, commerce, and professional practices. 3. Understand factors that have shaped the nature of contemporary media, including their content, uses, functions, and audiences. 4. Cultivate strategies for applying mediated communication theories to address efforts at strategic communication, including advertising, public relations, media campaigns, and marketing communication. 1

5. Employ mediated communication theories as a means to create, disseminate, and evaluate media initiatives and media messages. 6. Refine your media literacy skills so that you can better identify the source and credibility of digital material. Required materials: 1. A customized e-book is available from the BU Bookstore. See the "Buy Books" link on the Student Link to purchase. 2. Access to the course Blackboard site via a pc, laptop, or mobile device is mandatory as additional readings and video materials will be posted there as will quizzes and exams. If you do not have one of your own (or if yours is in need of repair), the COM IT Help Center offers daily loaners that you may borrow for class. You will need to visit them in COM 205 before class to pick one up. You are responsible for reading, viewing, and completing the assigned material PRIOR to the class for which it is assigned (see course schedule at end of syllabus). 3. A facemask (correctly covering your mouth and nose) is mandatory. Teaching Philosophy: I believe that learning is a lifelong process and that we can all learn something from one another. As the instructor, I bring certain knowledge, perspectives, and experiences to our learning environment. Equally important in this class are the perceptions and experiences of each of you. Although this course is a large lecture format, I will encourage your participation in the discussion of concepts and issues (as much as is possible, some of which will take place on Blackboard’s Discussion Board) in order to address a diversity of interests and perspectives. Please come to class having read the day’s materials so you are prepared to discuss. My goal is to transform you from a memorizer into a thinker. The quizzes and examinations are designed to test your knowledge. I will ask you to put your knowledge to use by transferring it to another situation – such as applying it to a project. The final project in this class is designed to have you reflect on what you have learned so you can compare and contrast competing theoretical perspectives on an issue of your choice involving strategic communication, including advertising, public relations, and marketing communication. By the end of the semester, you should be able to display a degree of expertise in evaluating mediated communication theories as a means to construct, disseminate, and evaluate media initiatives and media messages. Rather than a passive information recipient, in this class you will be an active learner. Course Performance Assessments: Unit quizzes (best 3 scores across 4 quizzes) Exams (3 of equal weight) Final Project Research participation

20% 60% 15% 5%

Course grades will be based upon the standard scale set by the BU Office of the University Registrar. See http://www.bu.edu/reg/academics/grades-gpa/ for more information. 2

A AB+

= 93-100% = 90-92 = 87-89

B BC+

= 83-86 = 80-82 = 77-79

C CD+

= 73-76 = 70-72 = 66-69

D DF

= 63-65 = 60-62 = 0-59

Assignments: Final Project: Working in groups, the final project entails the explanation and application of two communication theories covered in class to a company, organization, or issue in the news. Groups will write a paper explaining the situation and resolving the problem or potential problem. More details on this assignment will be posted to Blackboard and discussed in class. Research Participation: The College of Communication is committed to involving undergraduate and graduate students in scholarly research so that they may understand the importance of generating new knowledge at Boston University as a major research institution. Students in this class are expected to complete a total of 1.5 research credit(s), worth 5% of your course grade. The completion of 1 research credit is equivalent to participating in a ~60-minute study, ½ research credit is equivalent to participating in a ~30-minute study, and ¼ research credit is equivalent to participating in a ~15-minute study. The kinds of research activities available to students include, but are not limited to, the following:  Focus groups  Surveys  Interviews  Experiments  Research lectures

To create a participant account or login to an existing account, please visit the COM SONA site: https://bucom.sona-systems.com. Information about the times and dates of specific studies and the number of credits that will be awarded for participating in each study will all be available through this site and via email from the SONA Administrator. The SONA website will also allow you to select the course to which you would like the credit(s) for that study applied. It is your responsibility to regularly check the SONA website to keep track of the completion of your research credits and the deadlines and dates of the research studies. Unexcused no-shows to lab-based studies will result in a penalty of full credit of the study. Any student adding this course later than Monday, September 20th should contact the SONA Admin. Any questions or concerns regarding SONA should also be directed to the SONA Admin at [email protected]. Assignment Submissions/Late work: In the business world, timeliness is essential. Missing a deadline jeopardizes the account/job/client relationship. Late assignments/quizzes/exams will not receive credit. You must notify me at the beginning of the semester if you are a member of a BU athletic or ROTC program that might interfere with class meetings. All student-athletes should be provided with a sheet from Student-Athlete Support Services regarding absences 3

throughout the semester. These sheets should be handed in to me as soon as possible to avoid potential conflicts and so arrangements can be made to provide for missed work. You will be required to submit assignments in advance of any conflicts. Failure to do so will result in a zero on any missed assignments. Quizzes/Exams: All assessments will be in multiple-choice format. There will be 4 x 10-question quizzes throughout the semester to be completed in 10 minutes. Of the 4 quizzes, I will exclude your lowest grade when calculating your semester grade. Please note that the lowest quiz score will still appear on Blackboard. However, it will be omitted from your weighted grade calculation. Exams (two mid-terms and a final) will consist of 50 multiple-choice questions. Students will have the entire class period for exams. Exams will be non-cumulative. Both types of assessments may draw upon material covered in class lectures or the assigned readings/videos. NO makeup quizzes/exams will be given unless you miss class due to extenuating circumstances such as a death in the family, BU athletics, ROTC obligation, or documented illness. If you need to miss a quiz/exam for one of these reasons, you must provide me with written documentation signed by a doctor or appropriate school representative or other official notification of the circumstance. Attendance: Attendance is critical for succeeding in this course. A significant amount of material will be covered every week. You are responsible for all the information presented in class whether you are present or not. Per COM policy, lectures will not be recorded nor will slides be posted to Blackboard. I encourage you to follow the buddy-system – find a friend in class who you would be willing to provide copies of your class notes to if s/he is absent on condition that s/he will do the same for you if you miss class. Should you fall ill (whether Covid, influenza, pneumonia, etc.) or have other unavoidable extenuating circumstances, I will work with you on getting caught up. Class Policies and Procedures: These general guidelines should help you achieve a successful semester in this class: 

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At your discretion, please alert me to anything related to preferred pronouns, preferred name or nickname, or any extenuating circumstances or trigger warnings (personal, medical, etc.) that might affect your classroom experience. I want to make sure you have the most positive experience in the classroom as possible. Given that we may come across potentially controversial material in the media, respect and tolerance toward the perspectives of others is essential. During the semester, we may occasionally encounter material that some students may find objectionably disturbing. Please do make me aware if you find material troublesome or offensive. If you feel the need to remove yourself from our discussion, you may leave the room without academic penalty. However, you will still be responsible for any material you miss. Please make arrangements to get notes from a classmate or see me privately. Your BU email account is your email address for all official email communications from the University. You are expected to check your BU email account on a frequent and consistent basis in order to stay current with university-related communications. Any email from me about this course will only be sent to your official BU email address. 4

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When sending emails to me, please always write in the subject line, as follows: CM180 – topic of email. With 300 students in this course, it helps me a great deal when opening and filing the many emails I receive. For more points on proper email etiquette, see this post. Blackboard will be used for announcements related to our course and frequently for distribution of additional reading/viewing material. Please be sure to check it before coming to class. Plan ahead to anticipate technical or equipment issues. Do not wait until the last minute to upload your final project. Plan your bathroom breaks before or after class. We only meet for 75 minutes twice a week, so we have a lot of information to cover. If you are not in class, you may miss a critical piece of information. In the unlikely event that I am late to class, please remain in the room for 20 minutes. If I have not shown up after 20 minutes, you are free to leave. While I recognize students’ need for educational and emergency-related technology devices such as laptops, tablets, mobile phones, etc., using them unethically or recreationally during class time is never appropriate. Research shows that when used for non-classroom purposes, digital devices interfere with classroom learning – of the user and those around him/her/them (see p.5: http://en.calameo.com/read/000091789af53ca4e647f). As your instructor, I pledge to not take phone calls during class and will also refrain from personal texting, use of social media, and web surfing during class. Please show me the same courtesy. Any student displaying unprofessional behavior (texting, web-browsing, checking social media accounts, sleeping, etc.) during class will be asked to leave. Please silence all sounds from your devices during class. In this class and often in life (particularly in media!), you are judged by how you write. While I am available and appreciate verbal communication with you (in person or over the phone), this class will entail a great deal of back-and-forth written communication. Please do your best to take the time to write properly, professionally, and clearly for each and every aspect of this class – assignments, discussion notes, projects, emails, etc. Use formal and proper grammar and punctuation, even in emails. Make sure your name is on everything. REREAD everything before sending, posting, etc. Spelling and grammatical errors will reflect negatively on your work as a whole. Where to get help: o General course procedures or specific content questions – me! ([email protected]) o Review of lectures or discussion of projects – TAs (see Blackboard) o Secondary research questions – me or Prof. Laura Jenemann, Communication, Media, & Film Librarian ([email protected]) o Blackboard, computer, or Internet questions – IT Help Center (https://www.bu.edu/tech/about/help-center/ ) o Questions about writing – in general, for assignments, reports, etc. – COM Writing Center (https://www.bu.edu/com/for-current-students/the-com-writingcenter/ ) o Tutoring Assistance – Educational Resource Center (https://www.bu.edu/erc/peertutoring/) o Student support services: https://www.bu.edu/com/resources/currentstudents/student-support/ 5

o COM Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: https://www.bu.edu/com/aboutcom/diversity-equity-inclusion/ o BU Newbury Center for First-Generation Students: http://bu.edu/newbury-center o BU Dean of Students office: https://www.bu.edu/dos/; Any student who is experiencing food or housing insecurity and believes this may affect their performance in the course is urged to contact the Dean of Students for support. In addition, please notify me about this if you are comfortable in doing so. This will enable me to provide additional resources that may be useful. Academic Integrity: All BU students are bound by the Academic Conduct Code. Please review to ensure you are acting responsibly and ethically in regard to your academics. Policies at Boston University promote academic honesty and integrity and prohibit plagiarism and academic cheating. Essential to intellectual growth is the development of independent thought and a respect for the thoughts of others. The prohibition against plagiarism and cheating is intended to foster this independence and respect. Plagiarism is the unacknowledged use of another person's labor, another person's ideas, another person's words, or another person's assistance. Normally, all work done for courses – papers, examinations, homework exercises, oral presentations – is expected to be the individual effort of the student presenting the work. Any assistance must be reported to the instructor. If the work has entailed consulting other resources – journals, books, or other media – these resources must be cited. Students may visit the following sites for more details about plagiarism and how to avoid it: https://www.bu.edu/academics/policies/academic-conduct-code/ and http://www.poynter.org/2014/is-it-original-an-editors-guide-to-identifying-plagiarism/269273/. Failure to cite borrowed material constitutes plagiarism. Undocumented use of materials from the World Wide Web is plagiarism. Academic cheating is, typically, the breaking of the general rules of academic work or the specific rules of the individual courses. It includes falsifying data; submitting, without the instructor's approval, work in one course which was done for another; helping others to plagiarize or cheat from one's own or another's work; or actually doing the work of another person. Plagiarism is a form of cheating. Submitting class materials for which you do not own the copyright to “study aid” sites such as Course Hero is a form of cheating. Students must assume that all graded assignments, quizzes, tests, and reports are to be completed individually unless otherwise noted in writing on the assignment handout. Similarly, students are expected to adhere to all regulations pertaining to examination conduct. These regulations are designed to ensure that the work submitted by the student on examinations is an honest representation of that student’s effort and that it does not involve unauthorized collaboration, unauthorized use of notes during the exam, or unauthorized access to prior information about the examination. I reserve the right to refer any cases of suspected academic misconduct to the Assistant or Associate Dean and/or the Academic Conduct Committee. I also reserve the right to assign a grade of "F" for the course in cases of confirmed violation. Sexual Misconduct: Boston University is committed to fostering a safe, productive learning environment. Title IX and our school policy prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, which regards sexual misconduct – including harassment, domestic and dating violence, sexual assault, 6

and stalking. We understand that sexual violence can undermine students’ academic success and we encourage students who have experienced some form of sexual misconduct to talk to someone about their experience, so they can get the support they need. Confidential support and academic advocacy resources can be found with the Center for Sexual Assault Response & Prevention (SARP) at http://www.bu.edu/safety/sexual-misconduct/. Equal Opportunity: BU has strict guidelines on classroom behavior and practices when it comes to treatment of students and guests on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, mental or physical disability, genetic information, military service, national origin, or due to marital, parental, or veteran status. Discrimination for any of these reasons is prohibited. Please refer to the Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Policy for more details. Disability Services: Boston University provides reasonable accommodations to eligible individuals with disabilities in conformance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Requests for disability accommodations must be made in a timely fashion to the Office for Disability Services, 19 Deerfield Street, Boston, MA 02215; 617-353-3658. Students seeking accommodations must submit appropriate medical documentation and comply with the policies and procedures of Disability Services. More details on BU’s disability services can be found here: https://www.bu.edu/academics/policies/disability-accommodation/ Recording statement: Classroom proceedings for this course may be recorded for purposes including, but not limited to, student illness, religious holidays, disability accommodations, or student course review. Students will be notified when classes are being recorded. Recording devices are prohibited from use in the classroom except with the instructor’s explicit permission.

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Proposed Schedule: While we’ll make every effort to adhere to the following schedule, please recognize that modifications may be made as needed. Be sure to check Blackboard BEFORE each class so you can access any additional readings required for class. Date WEEK 1 Th 9/2

Reading/Assignments Due

Discussion Topics

MAKING SENSE OF MEDIA READ: Syllabus

Course Overview