Literature, Film and Popular Culture: April 2015

Saturday, April 25, 2015

Week Fifteen: Final Evaluation Conferences

"The End" by Paul Robertson

This week we are meeting for individual conferences to discuss your final grade and review your blogs for the semester. You should have already signed up for a conference which will be held during our regular class time. If you have not received an appointment or if you have forgotten your appointment time please contact me by email and get one. Last week in class we discussed the criteria that students will use for their evaluation process. I look forward to meeting with each of you to discuss what happened in the class for you this semester.

Writing Assignment: For this week please finish all your blog posts and comment on another student's blog.

Monday, April 20, 2015

Final Discussion

This class session will attempt to sum up some of this semester's themes and approaches to studies in media, literature and popular culture. There is no specific homework other than to finish your blog posts and to comment on someone elses blog. In class we will discuss, do the online course evaluations, and wrap up. Final evaluation appointments will be next week. We will review the criteria for the final evaluation during this week's class.

Monday, April 13, 2015

Media and Fan Culture: Case Study My LIttle Pony

This week we will consider the nature of fan culture and the segmentation of cultural experience into overlapping communities. We will look at a recent documentary about Bronies and the suggested readings for this week include some My Little Pony work in comics as well as a comics parody of brony fan culture. Consult the course resources.

Among the questions we will consider is the nature of "hating" and social networks and the position of the artist in relation to fan communities. Also to be discussed are the relationships between such popular franchises and the role played by remixers and internet memes in establishing and nurturing the fan culture.

Highly recommended is to watch My Little Pony Friendship is Magic, Season 5, Episode 1 & 2 an interesting two part story called the Cutie Map. You can watch it here.

A must see is this My Little Pony parody about Income Equality by Adam McKay.

Writing Assignment: Write a blog post and discuss a fan community that you belong to. Describe this fan community, it preoccupations and interests, its obsessions. What are the values and narratives shared by this community? What are the central cultural works that serve as binders and reference points for this community?

My Little Pony fan art by Trudifish

Saturday, April 4, 2015

Week Twelve: Youtube and Popular Culture

Georden Whitman writes the following introduction to this week's class on Youtube:

So due to the size of Youtube, and how largely its grown, and the countless famous videos that have been made, we will be focusing on a specific portion of Youtube. The portion we will be discussing has spawned over the last few years, and has been relative to pop culture, especially between animation, and gaming.

Over the last 7 years people on Youtube, have begun a strange journey, and almost walked into what is now a viable career path. Originally youtube seemed to be established for posting fun hilarious videos that were meant for skits and a laugh or two, but eventually they evolved into channels with daily content, a lot like television but free. This week we are talking about how those channels and individuals on Youtube established careers, and how Youtube has changed the rules and affected some of those people.

Some things to watch that have relevancy to this conversation:

Rocket Jump / Freddy Wong : https://www.youtube.com/user/freddiew

Julian Smith : https://www.youtube.com/user/juliansmith87

Markiplier : https://www.youtube.com/user/markiplierGAME

Bee and Puppycat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNs9shgQ2rI

Pew Die Pie : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fm112ERjB_o
            Game Grumps: https://www.youtube.com/user/GameGrumps
            Bravest Warriors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpDOscUDQ_0
            Oney NG: https://www.youtube.com/user/OneyNG
            Machinima: https://www.youtube.com/user/machinima

Smosh: https://www.youtube.com/user/smosh

College Humor: https://www.youtube.com/user/collegehumor

HeyAshWatchaPlayinHAWP: https://www.youtube.com/user/HAWPOfficial

Mondo Media: https://www.youtube.com/user/MondoMedia

FilmCow: https://www.youtube.com/user/SecretAgentBob

Jenna Marbles: https://www.youtube.com/user/JennaMarbles