Course syllabus

MEDIA 713       Media, Sound & Music 

 

(Semester 2, 2018, City Campus, 30 points)

 

This seminar-style course concentrates on the relationships between media, sound and music from a broad range of perspectives and approaches in the performing arts, humanities and social sciences. Students present and discuss their close reading of scholarly articles/chapters (and associated listening/viewing) about some of the significant issues and arguments in this interdisciplinary field. Topics include: Noise/Music; Listening and Feeling; Technologies and Material Cultures; Recorded Voices and Music; Music and Moving Images; Musicians and Audiences; Political Economy of Music; Identities and Politics. We will listen to, watch and talk about sounds with examples from around the world past and present. The convener introduces the topic each week and facilitates discussion. Each student makes a 10-minute presentation on one article/chapter in the required reading from the semester with questions and/or discussion points. Each student also pursues a relevant research project of their choice through various stages – informal discussion in class, a 1000-word research proposal, a 10-minute classroom presentation, and a 6000-word final research paper. Canvas is the online interface for the course and should be checked regularly for announcements and posts.

 

Class time:             Friday 12 – 3 pm

Location:                 206-314 (Arts 1, Room 314)

Convenor:                Associate Professor Nabeel Zuberi

 Office Hour:             Wednesdays 12-2 pm, or email for appointment                                                        

                                   Room 536, Social Sciences Building (formerly Human Sciences)

                                    E-mail: n.zuberi@auckland.ac.nz

                                    Tel: 923 7722

 

Reading:                   All required reading is available on Canvas via Talis and Files

                                   

Assessment:          Classroom presentation on article/chapter (10 mins; 10 points)

                                    Research proposal (1000 words; 20 points)

                                    Classroom presentation on research project (10 mins; 10 points)

                                    Research paper (6000 words; 60 points)

                                   

                                    All postgraduate assignments undergo a process of both internal                                              and external assessment

 

 Classroom presentation on one chapter/article from the syllabus

(10 minutes; 10 points)

This assessment is designed to develop your close reading and critical reviewing skills, to engage with the main issues in one of the weekly assigned articles/chapters, and to pose questions of the scholarly writing in order to facilitate classroom discussion. We will discuss and practice these skills in week 1. Students will sign up for a presentation in Week 1. The criteria for this assessment include: demonstrating detailed engagement with the reading material; describing its intervention in the field of study; formulating good discussion questions that think through the consequences, implications and applications of the argument, and reframe some of the problems of the text; speaking with clarity and organisation for the duration of the presentation. All students are expected to have read and annotated the readings in preparation for class each week in order to contribute to discussion.

 

Research proposal             

(1000 words; 20 points; due by 8 am on 10 September)

This is a well-developed proposal of a research project of your choice. Guidelines for the research proposal are available on Canvas in Files. The project must have a clear analytical purpose, and not be purely descriptive. At the graduate level you should be concerned with epistemological questions i.e. reflect on the production of knowledge about your research topic. Why is the topic significant or worthwhile? What is your approach to the topic? What question(s) are you posing in your research project? What are your research materials and methods? How do you situate your project in relationship to other research on the topic? How do you intend to structure your research paper? The proposal will be assessed on its clarity, lucidity and focus in relation to these questions and criteria. Think carefully about the scope and achievability of the project in one semester.

 

Presentation of research project             

(10 minutes in class on 5 October or 12 October; 10 points)

You will present your research project in class. The criteria for assessment of this oral presentation include: ability to express your research and argument within the time; clear description of the subject matter; clear perspective/angle on the subject matter; control over subject matter throughout the presentation; appropriate use of any supporting media materials; and ability to maintain class attention with eye contact and clear speech, even if reading.

 

Research paper                              

(6,000 words; 60 points; due 26 October)

This is the completed research paper on the sound-music-media topic of your choice that is marked and graded according to the following criteria: a clear thesis statement; an analytical perspective i.e. articulation of your own critical voice; engagement with relevant debates in public culture and scholarship; clear explanation of your research objects/materials and research methods; quality of prose/writing; scholarly rigour in referencing and citation of research materials.

 

Referencing

You must reference the sources from which you have taken ideas, arguments and/or quotations, according to the MLA style. Please consult the 2009 MLA Guide at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/. You must cite relevant page numbers, full titles and publication details when you refer to other people’s work. All directly quoted writing must be placed in quotation marks. You must include in-text referencing and a list of Works Cited. You may also use footnotes.

Avoiding plagiarism

You need to indicate clearly and fully the use of other people’s ideas, facts, research or any other information. Anything that is the work of another student, a lecturer, a published author, on the Internet, or in a print publication, must be referenced. Plagiarism is regarded by the University of Auckland as a serious form of cheating and will result in a fail grade and the assignment being withheld. All students in this course are required to submit their research proposals, final papers and reading response sample to turnitin.com, which reveals both direct and paraphrased use of published material. All cases of plagiarism are brought before the School’s Disciplinary Committee, and a record of the student’s academic misconduct is kept on file in the Department until one year after the student graduates. Other Disciplinary Areas and Faculties can request this documentation. The most serious cases can result in discipline at the Faculty level, and suspension or expulsion from the University and/or a fine. The University of Auckland’s approach to plagiarism can be found at http://www.auckland.ac.nz/uoa/honesty/.

 

Presentation of coursework

The research proposal and research essay must be typed, double-spaced, with one-inch margins and numbered pages. They may include relevant images. Please give a word count at the end of the document. Failure to present your coursework appropriately will incur mark penalties.

 

Submission of coursework

The research proposal and research paper must be submitted only as Word or PDF files on Canvas. Keep back up copies of your assignments. All late assignments will be penalised one point per day.

 

COURSE SCHEDULE

 

Week 1           (20 July)                     Introductions, course design, the field of study

Thibeault, Matthew. “Sound Studies and Music Education.” The Journal of Aesthetic Education 51.1 (2017): 69-83. 

Powers, Devon. “Popular Music Studies.” The International Encyclopedia of Communication Theory and Philosophy. Eds. Klaus Bruhn Jensen, Robert T. Craig, Jefferson D. Pooley and Eric W. Rothenbuhler. Oxford: Wiley, 2016. doi:10.1002/9781118766804.wbiect149 [6 pages].

                                   

Week 2           (27 July)                     Noise / Music

Johnson, Bruce. “From John Farnham to Lordi: The Noise of Music.” Altitude 8 (2007)

            https://thealtitudejournal.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/1_johnson_final_completeep.pdf

Thompson, Marie. “What Noise Has Been.” Beyond Unwanted Sound: Noise, Affect and Aesthetic Moralism. New York: Bloomsbury, 2017. 17-40

 

Week 3           (3 August)                 Listening and Feeling

Hesmondhalgh, David. “Feeling and Flourishing.” Why Music Matters. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell, 2013. 11-56.

Thompson, Marie and Biddle, Ian. “Introduction: Somewhere Between the Signifying and the Sublime.” Sound, Music, Affect: Theorizing Sonic Experience. Eds. Marie Thompson and Ian Biddle. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013. 1-24.

           

Week 4           (10 August)               Technologies and Material Cultures

Deo, Aditi, and Duggal, Vebhuti. “Radios, Ringtones, and Memory Cards or, How the Mobile Phone became our Favourite Music Playback Device.” South Asian Popular Culture 15.1 (2017): 41-56.

Devine, Kyle. “Decomposed: A Political Ecology of Music.” Popular Music 34.3 (2015): 367-389.

 

Week 5           (17 August)               Recorded Voices and Music

Tiainen, Milla. “Revisiting the Voice in Media and as Medium.” European Journal of Media Studies 2.2 (2013): 383-406.

Strachan, Robert. “Digital Aesthetics: Cyber Genres, Auto-Tune and Digital Perfectionism.” Sonic Technologies: Popular Music, Digital Culture and the Creative Process. New York: Bloomsbury, 2017. 133-163.

 

Week 6           (24 August)               Music and Moving Images

Scott, Ellen C. “Black Movement Impolitic: Soundies, Regulation, and Black Pleasure.” African American Review 49.3 (2016): 205-226.

Straw, Will. “The Videoclip and its Contexts.” Volume!: The French Journal of Popular Music Studies 14.2 (2018): 1-6.

Hyland, Nicola. “Beyoncé’s Response (eh?): Feeling the Ihi of Spontaneous Haka Performance in Aotearoa/New Zealand.” TDR/The Drama Review 59.1 (2015): 67-82.

 

Mid-semester break

Research proposal due by 8 am on Monday 10 September 

Week 7           (14 September)        Musicians and Audiences

Balance, Christine Bacareza. “The Serious Work of Karaoke.” Tropical Renditions: Making Musical Scenes in Filipino America. Durham: Duke University Press, 2016. 56-86.

Baym, Nancy. “Introduction: The Intimate Work of Connection.” Playing to the Crowd: Musicians, Audiences, and the Intimate Work of Connection. New York: New York University Press, 2018. 1-28.

           

Week 8           (21 September)        Political Economy of Music           

Hesmondhalgh, David and Meier, Leslie M. “What the Digitalisation of Music tells us about Capitalism, Culture and the Power of the Information Technology Sector.” Information, Communication & Society 21.11 (2018): 1555-1570.

Fleischer, Rasmus. "If the Song has No Price, is it Still a Commodity?: Rethinking the Commodification of Digital Music.” Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research 9.2 (2017): 146-162.

 

Week 9           (28 September)               Identities and Politics

Born, Georgina. “Music and the Materialization of Identities.” Journal of Material Culture 16.4 (2011): 376-388.

Kheshti, Roshanak. “On the Threshold of the Political: The Sonic Performativity of Rooftop Chanting in Iran.” Radical History Review 121 (2015): 51-70.

 

Week 10         (5 October)               Class Presentations of Research Projects        

 

Week 11         (12 October)             Class Presentations of Research Projects

           

Week 12         (19 October)             Workshop for Research Paper Drafts     

 

Research paper due by 11:59 pm on Friday 26 October