Week 9

Week 9
(Oct. 25)

This week, we look at the movies, not only from a pop culture perspective, but from the larger context of the role of the mass media in society in terms of how Hollywood supports, projects, protects, defends, shapes and contorts what and how we think.

If we think of American “icons,” figures like John Wayne or Marilyn Monroe come easily to mind. If we think of villains, who do you think of? Think of the “feminine ideal” (Doris Day? Barbarella?) or “the perfect man” (Edward the Vampire? Pierce Brosnan? Homer Simpson?) or “cute kids” (Lisa Simpson? The “Home Alone” kid? Annie?), and specific people and images leap into your consciousness. These are symbols that portray ideals—real or not . . . accurate or not . . . . even desirable or not—that pop culture has taught us to cherish and hold as icons.

This week, we’ll consider how Hollywood plays that role in the American (and global) psyche. The deeper consideration of this week’s readings, beyond the historical and social framework provided by Folkerts, concerns ethical concerns of how Hollywood controls us and our perceptions—and how Hollywood is itself controlled by social pressures.

That’s why I also want you to think ahead about a movie that you’d like to analyze for its impact on U.S. (and global) culture. We’ll talk more about this next week, for a project that will be due sometime around Thanksgiving. This whole class is about the mass media’s role in our lives. So think about a film that affects how audiences “see” and understand their world in important ways (e.g., in wartime, about important social or political issues, etc.) and that also includes some element of the press or other mass media (for example, Citizen Kane, arguably the greatest film of all time, is about a newspaper tycoon who is crushed by political ambition). I’ll have a list of possible films for you to consider, but I’d like your ideas about important movies that changed the way audiences understood the world.

• Read Folkerts: Ch. 5 “The Movies”
• “Hollywood and Free Expression,” by Ted Pease (A chapter from a book on Hollywood, ethics and entertainment)
• “Remembering Hollywood’s Hays Code, 40 Years On,” by Bob Mondello (National Public Radio. Read the article and listen to the radio clip)
• For Fun: Here’s some more “convergence”—When the news does interviews, is it “news” or advertising or, as Jon Stewart suggests, “prostitution”? The Daily Show and “SynerJoe” This is mostly just fun, but what IS the “marketplace of ideas” these days?
• Blogtalk: Weekly comment on the readings, the WORD, or events about the mass media or the press.
• Quiz
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A GREAT movie. Peter Finch in the greatest on-air meltdown ever, in Network.