College of Communication College of Communication The University of Texas at Austin School of Journalism School of Journalism

Mass Media and Minorities

J340C1 (07505), LAS374 10W (36250),

MAS374 22W (40795), WGS 340 21W (48755)

University of Texas Honor Code

The core values of The University of Texas at Austin are learning, discovery, freedom, leadership, individual opportunity, and responsibility. Each member of the university is expected to uphold these values through integrity, honesty, trust, fairness, and respect toward peers and community.

Documented Disability Statement

The University of Texas at Austin provides upon request appropriate academic accommodations for qualified students with disabilities. For more information, contact Services for Students with Disabilities at

471-6259 (voice) or 232-2937 (video phone).

Dr. Mercedes Lynn de Uriarte Office: CMA 5.150 471-1979

merlyn@mail.utexas.edu Office hours: Wednesdays 2:00 -3:30

Fall 2009 MWF 10 – 11am CMA 5.136 or by appointment afternoons

Course Description:

Note: No laptop use permitted in class

Note: E-mail protocol below

Note: Course requires complete Roget’s Thesaurus for in-class use; hardback copies available at ½ Price Books for about $7.

E-mail exchanges are no substitute for personal interaction during office hours. If you have not visited office hours over the course of the semester, please do not ask for a letter of reference. I will not know you well enough to write one. When you send an e-mail, please allow at least 24 hours for response during the week. If I am able to respond sooner, I will. I do not assure e-mail responses on the weekends.

This writing component course is designed to provide students a comprehensive historical and sociological overview of media treatment of minorities, including constructions of racial and ethnic identity and, gender within those groups as well as class issues and leaders who contextualize the minority experience. Topics about women focus on minorities. Course examines media behavior as part of systemic construction of reality.

The chronological focus is WWII to the present. As the ethnographical component, course requires learning to see and to analyze one’s immediate environment and to analyze its press coverage.

Course Goals: Students should be able to demonstrate grasp of course material and to make use of that material in oral and written discussion of social issues as they relate to the minority experience and as they appear in the press and entertainment media. Students should be able to make use of concepts introduced and discussed in class in oral and written work. Student should be able to demonstrate critical thinking skills through thoughtful analysis of material and in class discussions about the same.

Course Evaluation: Grades are based on a point system.

Written Assignments: Two-section mid-term will require definition explicit and in paraphrase of terms and a three page essay discussing course content making use of those terms (40 ); 3-page film analysis (25 ); Final exam research paper (100) Participation, including attendance (35).

As a writing component course writing skills affect grade. Three original written works are assigned to fulfill the writing component requirement: a 3-page conceptual essay mid-term plus definition of terms; a 3-page film analysis of an assigned film and a final research paper of no less than 10 pages. All papers must include reference to course material by citing appropriate sources and quoting comprehensively from reading assignments. Course material should provide at least 2/3 of the sources drawn upon for all written course work. All quotes must be relevant to the material being discussed and must be further elucidated by student. No “drop in” quotes. Quotes must be contextualized.

Film critique may not simply describe film plot or story; it must analyze the meaning or subtext of the film and make reference to its relevance to course material. See attached addendum for details of specific course assignments for more complete instructions.

Loss of one grade point for late papers. Students are required to gather the demographics of the University of Texas and to collect a clip file of all Daily Texan news stories about UT minority issues during the fall semester 09/03 through 12/03. Note: No fiestas, food, frivolity or sports coverage to be included. No news briefs. Clips of UT minority stories will be handed in with your final paper. Content will be evaluated using Hutchin’s standards, Kenner’s analysis and against the role of journalism in a democracy.

We will discuss coverage throughout the semester, so students must stay current. Every week a count of all UT news stories must be made on two index cards and one turned in, as well as a count of all those dealing with UT minorities. Students will work toward completion of final exam throughout the semester. Learning opportunities are provided in visual and written materials, but as a writing component course, grades reflect student ability to demonstrate in written work comprehensive, contextual grasp of course material. Unless otherwise indicated, visuals will be viewed on Fridays. Some films must be seen by syllabus review date outside class time in the Instructional Media Center (IMC), UGL or at home.

Note: As time allows and when reading assignments are complete as demonstrated in class discussion, all films will be seen in class. If not they must be seen at the Media Instructional Center, 5th floor, College of Communication on your own time within the assigned week.. Take notes for class discussion and written assignment reference. A film that you plan to analyze should be seen twice for best results.

Required Books: (also on reserve)

A Free and Responsible Press by The Commission for Freedom of the Press

Diversity Disconnects: From Classroom to Newsroom (online)

The Possessive Investment in Whiteness by George Lipsitz

Racism, Sexism and the Media (selections) by Wilson, Gutierrez and Chao

Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Lowen

Syllabus:J340C Mass Media and Minorities

(Subject to change as news or events require)

Note: Reading Assignments are due for discussion on day noted as assignment.

Week I 08/26 Introduction: Course Overview: Goals and Expectations

Written assignment expectations

Reading assignment expectations

Review writing requirements addendum

Oral participation expectations

Critical thinking: definition

08/28 Final exam instructions: preliminaries

Lies My Teacher Told Me, Chapter 1 (handout)

Bring copy of Daily Texan 08/14/09 “Faculty Imparity…”

(link provided)

Week II 08/31 Ethical foundation of post-WWII press

Reading Assignment:

A Free and Responsible Press

09/02 Reading Assignment:

A Free and Responsible Press

09/04 Reading Assignment:

National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders Report

Chapter 15 “The News Media and the Disorders” (Handout)

Documentary: McNeil-Lehrer Report: 1992 LA Riots

Week III 09/07 Social Construction of Reality: Reading Hierarchies of Power

Labor Day

“Is Google Making Us Stoopid?” (link provided)

Download, Print out, Bring to class:

University of Texas demographics:

For UT faculty (rank, gender, race/ethnicity)

For UT faculty (ditto, College of Communication Journalism)

For UT students (gender, race/ethnicity)

For UT students (ditto, college of Communication, Journalism)

Download, Print out, Bring to class:

ASNE census 2009: newsroom demographics

Diversity Disconnects graphs (Google or link provided at

http://journalism.utexas.edu/facstaff//deuriarte/

09/09 Reading Numbers

Bring printouts to class for discussion

Reading Assignment:

Diversity Disconnects, chapters 3 and 4

09/11 Reading Assignment

Diversity Disconnects, chapter 5

Final exam instructions, handout

Week IV 09/14 Social Construction of Reality: Retaining Hierarchies of Power

Reading Assignments:

The Possessive Investment in Whiteness, Introduction, Chapter 1

09/16 The Possessive Investment in Whiteness. Chapter 2

09/18 The Possessive Investment in Whiteness, Chapter 2

Week V 09/21 Social Construction of Reality: Retaining Hierarchies of Power

Navigating the Daily Architecture

Written Assignment and Class Discussion

3-page analysis of UT demographics:

The Possessive Investment in Whiteness, Chapter 5

09/23 Lies My Teacher Told Me, Chapter 7

09/25 Documentary: A Living Wage

Documentary: Is Wal-Mart Good for America? (IMC)

Week VI 09/28 Economic Construction of the “Other”

09/30 Documentary: Moyers: LA Labor

10/2 Documentary: Is Wal-Mart Good for America?

Week VII 10/05 Media Construction of the “Other”

10/07 Racism, Sexism and the Media, Part II

10/09 Documentary: Color Adjustment

Distribution of mid-term take home exam due 10/16

Week VIII 10/12 Censorship by Omission in Construction of the “Other”

dia de la raza (Why?)

Reading Assignments:

Racism, Sexism and the Media, Chapter 5

10/14 Lies My Teacher Told Me, Chapter 2

Week IX 10/19 Censorship by Omission in Media Construction of Image

Reading Assignments:

Racism, Sexism and the Media, Chapter 8

10/21 Censoring Salt of the Earth (handouts)

Week X 10/26 Social Construction Through Education

Reading Assignments:

“Still Separate, Still Unequal” (link provided)

Jonathan Kozol, Harper’s Magazine, 2005

10/28 Film: Lone Star

10/30 Film: Lone Star

Week XI 11/02 Social Construction of Image

Reading Assignments:

Journalism Across Cultures, Chapter 11 (handout)

11/04 Film: Double Happiness

11/06 Film: Double Happiness

3-page analysis of film subtext due 11/09

Week XII 11/09 Censorship by Omission: Hidden History

Reading Assignments:

Lies My Teacher Told Me, Chapter 6

11/11 Film: The Great Debaters

11/13 Film: The Great Debaters

Week XII 11/16 Beyond the Social Construction of Image

Journalism Across Cultures, Chapter 7 (handout)

11/18 Documentary: Naturally Native

11/20 Documentary: Naturally Native

Week XIII 11/23 Censorship by Omission: Hidden History

Reading Assignments:

Lies My Teacher Told Me, Chapter 3

Thanksgiving

Week IVX 11/30 Final Thoughts and Wrap-up

Reading Assignments:

Lies My Teacher Told Me, Chapter, 8

12/02 Documentary: The Spy Factory

Note: Final research paper due in J office on date and time assigned by registrar, which will be announced later in the semester

Mass Media & Minorities Syllabus Addendum:

Writing Guidelines

Mercedes Lynn de Uriarte

This writing component course is designed to provide students a comprehensive historical and sociological overview of media treatment of minorities, including constructions of racial and ethnic identity and, gender within those groups as well as class issues and leaders who contextualize the minority experience. Topics about women focus on minorities.

The chronological focus is WWII to the present. As the ethnographical component, course requires learning to see and to analyze one’s immediate environment and to analyze its press coverage. Students are required to gather the demographics of the University of Texas and to collect a clip file of all Daily Texan news stories during the current semester about minorities at UT. These materials will be needed for the final exam. We will discuss coverage throughout the semester, so students must stay current.

Learning opportunities are provided in visual and written materials, but as a writing component course, grades reflect student ability to demonstrate in written work comprehensive, contextual grasp of course material. Writing skills determine 50% of the grade score.

Some films must be seen by syllabus review date outside class time in the Instructional Media Center, UGL or at home.

As a writing component course writing skills affect grade. Three original written works are assigned to fulfill the writing component requirement: a 3-page conceptual essay and term definition query mid-term; a 3-page film analysis of an assigned film and a final research paper of no less than 10 pages demonstrating original student work to be handed on the assigned exam day.

Specifics:

All papers must include reference to course material by citing appropriate sources and quoting comprehensively from reading assignments. Course material should provide at least 2/3 of the sources drawn upon for all written work. All quotes must be relevant to the material being discussed and must be further elucidated by student. No “drop in” quotes.

Film critique may not simply describe film plot or story; it must analyze the meaning or film subtext and make reference to its relevance to course material. See details of specific course assignments for more complete instructions.

Course Expectations:

Students are expected to stay abreast of reading assignments. Pace of course lectures however may vary to accommodate student need, course focus and emerging relevant events. Students are expected to demonstrate critical thinking skills.

Students cannot earn an A in class without providing regular oral contributions to class discussion. Both in oral class participation and in written assignments students are expected to become conversant with concepts of media’s relationship to power, equity, social justice and economic determinates as they relate to representation of and participation by minorities in press and mass media. Relevant articles provided over the course of the semester must be kept in clip file for use in assignments as reference and context when warranted and as useful in class discussion.

Learning Goals:

Note: Students with a C or lower on any assignment should consider going to Writing Center for help on subsequent writing assignments.

Participation is measured by contributions to class discussions reflecting timely completion of work and relevance to topic under discussion. Students are expected to come to class with assigned text and prepared to specifically discuss the material assigned for that day so that they can respond when called upon. Note: A’s are impossible and B’s difficult to earn without participation.

Written Assignments: Specific steps in preparation.

As a writing component course, students are required to demonstrate polished writing skills, including minimum use of passive voice, especially the overuse of “is,” “are,” “was,” “were,” “have,” “has” and gerunds (verbs ending in “ing”). All those that students cannot eliminate must be circled in red prior to handing in paper.

In written assignments, students are required to eliminate repeated words by drawing on strongly varied vocabulary with the use of a thesaurus as needed. They are also required to eliminate unnecessary wordiness or “clutter.” Failure to do so reflects in the grade.

Note: Prior to turning in a paper, using computer software students must submit it to spelling, grammar and readability check. Score for readability must appear in upper right hand corner of first page. For additional help, students may make use of the following:

•Undergraduate Writing Center, for assistance on all aspects of writing

• Noodlebib, Web-based software for creating MLA and APA-formatted bibliographies

For information about academic integrity at the University of Texas at Austin, please see the UT Austin Dean of Students Web site. 

Paper Content and Presentation

Submit papers in 12 point 1.5 spaced.

1) All papers must include reference to assigned materials by citing appropriate sources and further explicating these sections in your own words. Two-third of citations used in final paper must be drawn from a variety of assigned material drawing broadly from each work as relevant. Do not depend on just one source.

2) No more than one website or on-line source may be cited in any paper, with the exception of those required on syllabus as data reference sites.

General Writing Guidelines:

This is a writing component course which means that your writing skills will be considered as a major part of the evaluation for grades. As required in writing component courses, all papers are extensively edited and handed back with margin notes for improvement. Subsequent papers should show evidence of having addressed these flaws. All papers should use 1.5 line spacing.

Papers are expected to demonstrate:

1) Comprehensive grasp of course material to date.

2) Strong writing skills including correct grammar usage and spelling, rich vocabulary.

3) Minimal use of passive voice and gerund verbs as noted above.

4) Varied vocabulary that avoids repetition of words (this will require use of bound, not a

Computer, thesaurus. ½ Price Books is a good inexpensive source for this)

5) Tight editing, elimination of unnecessary words or “clutter”

6) Clear expository style that demonstrates organized content.

7) Each paragraph should express a fresh thought or provide new information.

8) Transitions between paragraphs to assure clarity

9) Critical thinking skills that present points lucidly and support points made

10) correct attribution and citations

11) Elimination of run-on sentences. Sentences should be strong enough to stand alone.

12) Run rough draft through computer edit and readability check; hand in rough showing this step and write readability score on each version.

Note: Papers without these steps will be returned without a grade.

Papers must use material from course. Regardless of the quality of a paper, the grade will reflect any failure to do so. Thus reading the texts assignments and taking lecture notes are key to grades. All papers should be first edited through software spelling and grammar check. Then both a rough draft and polished version of all papers should be handed in showing these edits. Also rough drafts should show edits and corrections made using Championship Writing or Elements of Style or The Brief Penguin Handbook (the most complete) as guides. Bibliography should indicate which of these was used as reference. Papers will not be accepted without these steps. Note: Before handing in any written assignment circle in red all passive verbs you have been unable to eliminate. Papers without this step will not be accepted. Remember that excessive use of passive verbs that can be eliminated will lower your grade.

Note: The purpose of an assignment, exam or final paper is to allow students to demonstrate a competent grasp of course material in polished writing. Students are expected to make use of new knowledge by citing appropriate sources drawn primarily from course material, (primarily texts and assigned handouts unless otherwise instructed) applying key concepts and discussing the ideas in student’s own words.

Mid-Term: 3-page Conceptual Essay and Term Definitions: Students will trace and discuss a concept presented in course material across several assigned readings. This paper will receive two grades, the average of which will become the final mid-term grade. One grade will rate demonstration of grasp of course material; the other will rate writing skill. .

3-Page Film Analysis: Assigned entertainment film (not documentary) from class viewing must analyze subtext which should also critique portrayal of identity and representation issues drawing on course material to support observations. Do not retell plot. Examine subtext, symbols and icons; refer to readings. Make use of lecture notes taken during class discussions of films. This assignment requires viewing film more than once. Critical thinking skills and analysis will determine a significant grade score on this paper.

Note: As time allows and when reading assignments are complete as demonstrated in class discussion, all films will be seen in class.

Final 10-Page Research Paper (plus bibliography): Students will be required to analyze press clips from the Daily Texan collected from the first day of the semester to November 31st using course concepts and ethic standards, and citing assigned reading that supports critical analysis of them. Paper must be written approved academic style, including footnotes and bibliography. Content must be original work and supported by drawing significantly on and comprehensively referencing course materials. To do this students must avoid just dropping in a quote or two, but must use the quote in ways that illustrate understanding in context and by expanding upon it in their own words. Writing skills will determine 50% of the grade score.

Description of an A paper:

(1) Follows directions and completes all aspects of the assignment.

(2) Uses more than the minimum number of sources required.

(3) Is well-written and well-organized, making it easy for reader to follow, comprehend.

(4) Does an in-depth analysis of the data or information provided.

(From material provided by the Writing Center at UCLA)

A student who accomplishes the first three things on the list receives a B. A and B papers have effective to strong introductions and conclusions. The C paper lacks development of ideas and support (strong arguments backed by citations).

Any student who fails to accomplish the third requirement receives a C or below, depending on the quality of the other requirements. A C paper accomplishes the above requirements but may be lacking in development or support; the writing style is basic or primary; there may be grammatical errors or misspellings and some syntactic problems (but not serious enough to cause confusion.).

Participation :

Students cannot earn an A in class without providing regular oral contributions to class discussion. Students are expected to become conversant with concepts of media’s relationship to power, equity, social justice and economic determinates as they relate to representation of and participation by minorities in press and mass media. Oral participation must relate to the reading or viewing assignment. For high participation scores, students should add insight, observation or perspective or draw attention to important information provided by the author. Because one cannot participate if absent, class attendance affects the grade.

Religious Holy Days

By UT Austin policy, you must notify me of your pending absence at least fourteen days prior to the date of observance of a religious holy day. If you must miss a class, an examination, a work assignment, or a project in order to observe a religious holy day, I will give you an opportunity to complete the missed work within a reasonable time after the absence.

Behavior Concerns Advice Line (BCAL)

If you are worried about someone who is acting differently, you may use the Behavior Concerns Advice Line to discuss by phone your concerns about another individual’s behavior. This service is provided through a partnership among the Office of the Dean of Students, the Counseling and Mental Health Center (CMHC), the Employee Assistance Program (EAP), and The University of Texas Police Department (UTPD). Call 512-232-5050 or visit http://www.utexas.edu/safety/bcal.

Emergency Evacuation Policy

Occupants of buildings on the UT Austin campus are required to evacuate and assemble outside when a fire alarm is activated or an announcement is made. Please be aware of the following policies regarding evacuation:

Do not re-enter a building unless you’re given instructions by the Austin Fire Department, the UT Austin Police Department, or the Fire Prevention Services office