GISDepartment of Global and Interdisciplinary Studies

This course aims at helping students historicize and contextualize the socio-political and economic influences that media technology has had on our everyday lives and how that influence manifested itself in media representations. The study of media technology as material culture through its production, dissemination and uses has become more urgent as new forms of media are created faster than ever. In this course, students will analyze how media technology has developed throughout history and will further examine the pros and cons, social embracement and anxieties associated with each technology and their representations. Students will apply what they learn about the development of media technology and how it has been represented from a historical and socio-economic perspective and reflect it in their research projects.

By the end of the course, students will be able to,
•understand the history of media technology and its institutional development through their research projects
•learn theories regarding the development of media technology and learn how the technological development of media and its institutions has informed human perception, anxieties, body, gender and politics throughout history
•improve critical thinking ability about how the historical development of media technology has changed the institutional landscape as we know it and demonstrate that understanding by constructing strong arguments during class discussions

Will be able to gain “DP 1”, “DP 2”, “DP 3”, and “DP 4”.

英語 / English

The course will cover the historical development of media technology through required readings and watching relevant media examples. The class will be centered on student discussions related to the required readings and topics and the instructor will guide the discussions accordingly.

Comments/feedback for assignments (tests and reports, etc.) are given during office hours.

あり / Yes

なし / No

授業形態/methods of teaching：対面/face to face

※各回の授業形態は予定です。教員の指示に従ってください。

1[オンライン/online]：Introduction

Overview of media technology

2[対面/face to face]：Print culture

Printing press, nationalism, and communities

3[対面/face to face]：Photography

First photography, stereoscopic images, and historical understandings

4[対面/face to face]：Film

Invention of cinema, sound technology and aura

5[対面/face to face]：Film

Animation technology

6[対面/face to face]：Telephone

Telegraph wire, telephone and fear of connection

7[対面/face to face]：Radio

War and radio, commercialization and fan culture

8[対面/face to face]：Review & research project

Review & research project

9[対面/face to face]：Television

Postwar development, shifting concepts of time & space

10[対面/face to face]：Computers

Mediated technologies and fear

11[対面/face to face]：Video games

Reconfiguring spaciality and senses

12[対面/face to face]：Internet

Communities, democracy and networks

13[対面/face to face]：Digital divide

Wealth and technology, internet and human rights

14[対面/face to face]：Final research project & wrap-up

Final research project & wrap-up

Preparatory study and review time for this class are 2 hours each.
Students must read required readings before class. Each class will have about 30-80 pages of reading per class.

No text book required.

Anthony R. Fellow “Before the American experience”
Benedict Anderson “Imagined communities”
Shelton A. Gunaratne “Paper, printing and the printing press”
"A brief history of photography"
Walter Benjamin "The history of photography"
Laura Schiavo “From phantom image to perfect vision”
Geoffrey Batchen “Seeing and saying”
Wheeler W. Dixon & Gwendolyn Foster “The invention of the movies”
Charles O’Brien “Sound’s impact on film style”
Chris Pallant “Disney innovation”
Bendazzi Giannalberto “Silent pioneers in animation”
Paul Starr “The first wire, “New connections: Telephone, cable and
wireless”
Schantz "Telephonic film"
Dean Juniper “The First World War and radio development”
Randall Patnode " What these people need is a radio"
Charlene Simmons “Dear radio broadcaster”
Mitchell Stephens "History of television"
John P. Robinson and Steven Martin “Of Time and Television”
Michael Curtin "Organizing difference on global TV"
Morrison & Krugman “A look at Mass and computer mediated technologies”
Dinello “Machines out of control”
Leonard Herman "Early home video game systems"
Eugenie Shinkle "Video games, emotion and the six senses"
William Galston “Does the Internet strengthen community?”
Don Tapscott "The net generation and democracy"
Natalie Fenton “The internet and social networking”
Gene Marks "If I were a poor black kid"
Toure "On Gene Marks 'If I were a poor black kid'"
Joanna Goode "Mind the gap"
Kevin O'Brian " Top 1% of Mobile Users Use Half of World’s Wireless Bandwidth"
Vinton G. Cerf " Internet Access Is Not a Human Right"

Class participation (10%)
Class readings summaries/presentation (or equivalent evaluation)(20%)
Speaking up during class discussions (20%)
Midterm research project (20%)
Final research project (30%)

None.

Students are not allowed to use computers, tablets or smartphones in this class. They must bring hard copies of the required readings to class.

The content of this syllabus may be subject to change.

None.