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 CTCS 482 Transmedia Entertainment Units: 4.0 Fall—Monday—10:00 – 13:50 Location: SCA 216 Instructor: Kiki Benzon Office: SCI 101c Office Hours: Wednesdays, 14:00 – 15:00 or by appointment Contact Info: k.benzon@gmail.com T.A.: Erendira Espinoza-Taboada Office: SCA 221 Office Hours: Thursdays, 5:15pm – 6:15pm Contact Info: ecespino@usc.edu USC School of Cinematic Arts Critical Studies Division Course Description This course investigates the historical, theoretical, and aesthetic dimensions of transmedia entertainment. Drawing from theories of multimodality and narratology, we will reflect on the formal complexity and narrative expansion potentiated by both digital and non-digital multimodal works. In thinking about how media forms converge to generate what Henry Jenkins calls “spreadable” and “drillable” storyworlds, we will examine contemporary transmedia products—from Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings to Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead—as networked expressions across film, television, literature, games, the web, and other domains of representation and participation. Students will work analytically and creatively to build a critical understanding of transmedia entertainment—as both what it has been, and what it might become. Learning Objectives - understand theories of multimodality and mixed-media representation - analyze transmedia work in storytelling, journalism, advertising, education, activism, and art - consider the historical and aesthetic precedents for contemporary work in transmedia - examine the technological, design, and marketing strategies involved in creating successful transmedia works - critically assess the cultural forces governing the entertainment industry--and the nature and function of “entertainment” itself--from a variety of theoretical perspectives - work with team members to create a transmedia enterprise - discuss the creative, technical, and commercial components of transmedia entertainment with leading innovators in the industry 1 Required Readings and Supplementary Materials Jenkins, Henry, Sam Ford and Joshua Green. Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture. New York: New York University Press, 2014. Ryan, Marie-Laure, and Jan-Noel Thon, eds. Storyworlds Across Media: Towards A Media-Conscious Narratology. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2014. All additional readings will be provided through the course website or emailed to students as PDFs. Description and Assessment of Assignments Each student will deliver a 30-minute presentation (20%) on a transmedia project or franchise that relates to the day’s assigned readings. As well as outlining the project’s history and structure--its evolution, cross-platform dynamics, stakeholders, etc.--the presenter should analyze the project in terms its aesthetic, technological, social, and/or other forms of cultural impact. Sign up for these presentations will occur in the first week of class. The essay (25%) will require students to write a critical analysis of some aspect of transmedia entertainment as it relates to contemporary culture. Given the limitations on essay length (2500-3000 words), the thesis should be sharply focused: advance a critical claim and support it through an analysis of one or two transmedia products. Potential topics will be provided, but a student may write on her or his own topic, so long as it is cleared with the instructor at least a week in advance of the due date. The team project (35%) constitutes the major deliverable for the course, and will require a good deal of creative and collaborative energy. You will be assigned to a group of peers, with whom you will imagine, plot, theorize, design, document, and pitch a transmedia project based on an existing narrative entertainment property. You will map out extensions of this property across multiple platforms towards narrative expansion and the enrichment of a coherent story world. At term’s end, you will present your project to a panel of industry specialists, and submit a bible that describes each narrative extension, reflects the aesthetic and technological contours of the project, and outlines methods for revenue generation, marketing, and dissemination. Participation (20%) constitutes an important part of the course, and it will be assessed in a number of ways. Part of the participation mark will be based on five entries posted by students to the course website by 17:00 on the day before class; these posts should include a brief commentary (a few paragraphs long) and a set of salient questions related to the week's reading assignment. The five posts will be worth 2% each (10% total). The other 10% of the participation mark will be based on the student’s level of engagement with ideas and themes in the course, as demonstrated by thoughtful and constructive contributions to class discussion and questions posed to presenters and guest speakers. Students can also participate by responding to peer entries on the course website, bringing to our attention course-related events or resources, or anything else that will enrich our understanding of transmedia entertainment. 2 Grading and Assignments Assignment Points % of Grade Essay 25 25% Presentation 20 20% Team Project 35 35% Participation 20 20% TOTAL 100 100% Assignment Submission Policy Written assignments should be submitted on time and in electronic form (PDF). Team project bibles can be submitted as hard copies during Exams Week. Contributions to the course forum should be submitted to the course website by 17:00 on the day before class (i.e. Sundays). Additional Policies Essays submitted after the due date will be penalized half a letter grade per day late to a maximum of four days, at which point the essay will receive a zero. Attendance is mandatory; if you need to miss class for medical reasons, please provide the instructor or T.A. with a doctor's note. Classes missed without documentation will result in a 2% deduction from your participation marks. Arriving late to and departing early from class is considered an absence. Laptops and tablets (but not phones) may be used during class, but only for note-taking or course-related web searches. Course Schedule: A Weekly Breakdown Please note: SAM = Storyworlds Across Media; SM = Spreadable Media. WEEK 1: AUGUST 24 Introduction to Multimodality, Transmedia, and the Course Guest Speaker Jeff Watson is an artist, designer, and Assistant Professor of Interactive Media and Games at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. His work investigates how game design, pervasive computing, and social media can enable new forms of storytelling, participation, and learning. He is a Director at the Situation Lab, a design research laboratory cross-sited at USC and OCAD University, and is an associate faculty member at the USC Game Innovation Lab. He maintains a blog at remotedevice.net. 3 WEEK 2: AUGUST 31 The Institute Required Readings Hull, Jeff. “Jeff Hull on the Games of Nonchalance.” http://remotedevice.net/interviews/jeff-hull-on-the-games-of-nonchalance-a-guerrilla
-street-war-against-banality-and-routine/ ---. “Trap Doors and Hatches All Around.” http://remotedevice.net/interviews/trap-doors-jeff-hull/ Guest Speaker Spencer McCall is a director, editor, and producer, known for The Institute (2013), Rodeos Are Special (2009) and Arora (2014). The Institute is a documentary film that reconstructs the story of the “Jejune Institute,” an alternate reality game set in San Francisco, through interviews with the participants and creators. The game, produced in 2008, enrolled more than 10,000 players who, responding to eccentric flyers plastered all over the city, started the game by receiving their “induction” at the fake headquarters of the Institute, located in an office building in San Francisco’s financial district. Notes Screening: The Institute (2013) WEEK 3: SEPTEMBER 7 Labour Day – No Class WEEK 4: SEPTEMBER 14 Historical Context and Contemporary Transmedia Storytelling Required Readings Adorno, Theodore, and Max Horkheimer. “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception.” Dialectic of Enlightenment: Philosophical Fragments. Edmund Jephcott (trans.). Stanford: Stanford UP, 2002. 95-139. Fiske, John. “Commodities and Culture.” Understanding Popular Culture. Oxon: Routledge, 1991. 23-47. Harvey, Colin. “A Taxonomy of Transmedia Storytelling.” SAM. 278-294. Jenkins, Henry. “Searching for the Origami Unicorn: The Matrix and Transmedia Storytelling.” Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York UP, 2006. 93-130. ---. “Transmedia Storytelling 101.” http://henryjenkins.org/2007/03/transmedia_storytelling_101.html Suggested Readings Freeman, Matthew. “Up, Up and Across: Superman, the Second World War and the Historical Development of Transmedia Storytelling.” Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television. 35.2 (2015): 215-239. Jenkins, Henry. “The Reign of Mothership” The Past, Present and Future of Transmedia.” Denise Mann (ed.). Wired TV: Laboring Over an Interactive Future. Rutgers UP, 2014. 244-269. Klinger, Barbara. “Pre-cult: Casablanca, radio adaptation, and transmedia in the 1940s.” New Review of Film and Television Studies. 13.1 (2015): 45-62. Guest Speaker Geoffrey Long (www.geoffreylong.com) is a storyteller, scholar, designer and 4 consultant exploring transmedia experiences and the future of media. Having previously been the lead Narrative Producer for Microsoft Studios, in a think tank under Microsoft's Chief Experience Officer and its Chief Software Architect, a researcher and Communications Director for the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab, a magazine editor and an award-winning short film producer, Geoffrey now serves as the Creative Director and a Research Fellow for the University of Southern California's Annenberg Innovation Lab. At the AIL Geoffrey explores storytelling with virtual reality, augmented reality, wearables and the Internet of Things, and consults for such clients as BET, Cisco, HBO, FOX, IBM, the Los Angeles Times, Warner Bros. and the City of Los Angeles. Geoffrey holds a bachelor's degree in English and philosophy from Kenyon College and a master's degree in Comparative Media Studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and is currently a doctoral student in the Media Arts & Practice program at the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts. WEEK 5: SEPTEMBER 21 Multimodality and Polymorphic Fictions Required Readings Dena, Christy. “Beyond Multimedia, Narrative and Game: The Contributions of Multimodality and Polymorphic Fictions.” New Perspectives on Narrative and Multimodality. Ruth Page (ed.). London: Routledge, 2009. 181-201. Kress, Gunther and Theo van Leewen. “Introduction.” Multimodal Discourse. London: Bloomsbury, 2001. 1-23. Ryan, Marie-Laure. “Narration in Various Media.” Peter Hühn et al (eds.). The Living Handbbook of Narratology. Hamburg: Hamburg University, 2013. http://www.lhn.uni-hamburg.de/article/narration-various-media Suggested Readings Page, Ruth. “Introduction.” New Perspectives on Narrative and Multimodality. Ruth Page (ed.). London: Routledge, 2009. 1-13. Walsh, Richard. “The Narrative Imagination across Media.” Modern Fiction Studies. 52.4 (2006): 855-868. Presentations 1. House of Leaves (Danielewski) 2. Dear Esther & TOC (Tomasula) Notes Students will meet in their teams for the first time and start to brainstorm/plan. Teams should choose their franchise by Friday, September 25, and notify me via email. WEEK 6: SEPTEMBER 28 Narrative Across Media Required Readings Gardner, Jared. “Film + Comics: A Romance in the Age of Media Convergence.” SAM. 193-210. Ryan, Marie-Laure. “Storyworlds Across Media: Introduction” & “Story/Worlds/Media: Tuning the Instruments of a Media Conscious Narratology.” SAM. 1-24; 25-49. 5 Wolf, Mark. “Transmedial Growth and Adaptation.” Building Imaginary Worlds. London: Routledge, 2013. 245-267. Suggested Readings Thon, Jan-Noel. “Subjectivity Across Media: On Transmedial Strategies of Subjective Representation in Contemporary Feature Films, Graphic Novels and Computer Games.” SAM. 67-102. Voigts, Eckart and Pascal Nicklas. “Introduction: Adaptation, Transmedia Storytelling and Participatory Culture.” Adaptation. 6.2 (2013): 139–142. Presentations 1. The Lord of the Rings 2. Batman Guest Speaker Jay Bushman is an award-winning writer, content strategist, and producer of digital media and transmedia entertainment, with a track record of excellence working with the largest brands and studios to the smallest indie creators. Jay has worked as a consultant, creative lead, content strategist and copywriter for large companies like Google, HBO, Disney, Paramount Studios, and Lucasfilm, and agencies such as CampfireNYC and Ignition Interactive. An innovator and leader in the transmedia community, he pushes the boundaries of independent next-generation entertainment. One publication even named him “The Epic Poet of Twitter.” Jay was the Transmedia Producer and a writer for the groundbreaking multiplatform web series The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. An innovative video and social media modernization of “Pride & Prejudice,” the show brought transmedia storytelling to a mass audience and became the first YouTube distributed series to win a Primetime Emmy Award – for Outstanding Achievement in Original Interactive Content. While continuing to produce groundbreaking new media content, Jay is also the Chief Creative Officer and a Founder of The Horizon Factory, an app-authoring, distribution and monetization platform for creative producers. WEEK 7: OCTOBER 5 The Business of Transmedia Entertainment Required Readings Jenkins, Henry, et al. “The Value of Media Engagement.” SM. 113-152. Johnson, Derek. “An Industrial Way of Life,” “Imagining the Franchise: Structures, Social Relations, and Cultural Work (first part).” Media Franchises: Creative Licensing and Collaboration in the Creative Industries. New York: New York University Press, 2013. 1-26; 27-34. Scolari, Carlos Alberto. “Transmedia Storytelling: Implicit Consumers, Narrative Worlds, and Branding in Contemporary Media Production.” International Journal of Communication 3 (2009): 586-606. ---. “Lostology: Transmedia storytelling and expansion/compression strategies.”Semiotica. 195 (2013): 45-68. Suggested Clark, Brian. “Transmedia Business Models,” Confessions of an Aca-Fan. Nov. 7, 2011. 6 Readings http://henryjenkins.org/2011/11installment_1_transmedia_ busin.html. Gray, Jonathan. “From Spoilers to Spin-Offs: A Theory of Paratexts.” Show Sold Separately: Promos, Spoilers, and Other Media Paratexts. New York: NYU Press, 2010. 23-46. Wyatt, Justin. “Critical Redefinition: The Concept of High Concept.” High Concept: Movies and Marketing in Hollywood. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1994. 1-22. Presentations 1. Star Wars 2. Red Bull Stratos, BMW’s The Hire & Intel/Toshiba’s Inside Guest Speaker Henry Jenkins is the Provost’s Professor of Communication, Journalism, and Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California. He arrived at USC in Fall 2009 after spending the past decade as the Director of the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program and the Peter de Florez Professor of Humanities. He is the author and/or editor of twelve books on various aspects of media and popular culture, including Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture, Hop on Pop: The Politics and Pleasures of Popular Culture and From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games. His newest books include Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide and Fans, Bloggers and Gamers: Exploring Participatory Culture. He recently co-authored a book on“spreadable media” with Sam Ford and Joshua Green. He has written for Technology Review, Computer Games, Salon, and The Huffington Post. See more at: http://henryjenkins.org. WEEK 8: OCTOBER 12 Making Transmedia Required Readings Bernardo, Nuno. “Building Your Storyworld.” Transmedia 2.0. London: beActive Books, 2014. 45-54. ---. “Development of a Transmedia Bible.” A Producer’s Guide to Transmedia. London: beActive Books, 2011. 21-31. Phillips, Andrea. “Storytelling” (excerpt), “Structure.” A Creator’s Guide to Transmedia Storytelling. New York: McGraw Hill, 2012. 41-54; 103-159. Jenkins, Henry, et al. “Designing for Spreadability.” SM. 195-228. Suggested Readings Vary, Adam B. “5 Things You Should Know About the Curious New Marketing Campaign for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire’.” Buzzfeed, 2013. http://www.buzzfeed.com/adambvary/things-you-should-know-about-hunger-ga
mes-marketing-campaign#.migXG5KzyV Presentations 1. The Hunger Games 2. Pandemic and Sherlock Holmes & the Internet of Things Guest Speaker Andrea Phillips is an American transmedia game designer and writer. She has been active in the genres of transmedia storytelling and alternate reality games (ARGs), in a variety of roles, since 2001. She has written for, designed, or substantially participated in the creation of Perplex City, the BAFTA-nominated Routes (a project of Channel 7 4), and The 2012 Experience, a marketing campaign for the film 2012. Phillips came to the genre in 2001, when she co-moderated the Cloudmakers mailing list, which served players of "The Beast," the ARG which revolved around the release of the movie A.I. Artificial Intelligence. Phillips in 2012 published A Creator's Guide to Transmedia Storytelling as a guide for current and aspiring modern storytellers. WEEK 9: OCTOBER 19 Engagement, Interactivity, and Fandom Required Readings Barthes, Roland. “The Death of the Author.” Image-Music-Text. Stephen Heath (trans.). London: Fontana, 1977. 142-148. Jenkins, Henry. “Quentin Tarantino’s Star Wars? Grassroots Creativity Meets the Media Industry.” Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York UP, 2006. 135-173. Jenkins, Henry, et al. “What Constitutes Meaningful Participation?” SM.153-194. Leavenworth, Maria Lindgren. “Transmedia Narration and Fan Fiction: The Storyworld of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” SAM. 315-331. Suggested Readings Jenkins, Henry, et al. “Courting Supporters for Independent Media.” SM. Sokolova, Natalia. “Co-opting Transmedia Consumers: User Content as Entertainment or ‘Free Labour’? The Cases of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Metro 2033.” Europe-Asia Studies. 64:8 (2012): 1565-1583. Rettberg, Scott. “All Together Now: Collective Knowledge, Collective Narratives, and Architectures of Participation.” Digital Arts and Culture Conference, 2005. Rose, Frank. “The Hive Mind and the Mystery Box.” The Art of Immersion. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2011. 137-160. Presentations 1. Harry Potter 2. Star Trek Guest Speaker Flint Dille has been described as a transmediologist, world builder, argonaut, gameifyer, narrative alchemist, and sometimes simply writer and game designer. He is currently creative lead on Google’s “Ingress” geo-mobile alternate reality game, authoring Social Storm for DARPA, and world building at DreamWorks Animation, as well as co-writing Primacy, the third installment of the “Autocracy” graphic novel trilogy from IDW. He has designed games with Gary Gygax and written movies for Steven Spielberg. Dille directed the interactive movie Terror T.R.A.X., which became a television pilot for Fox, as well as Dragonstrike, one of the first hybrid film projects. Frank Miller immortalized Dille as Dillios, the narrator in 300. Deemed by the Writer’s Guild of America to be the Most Published Game Writer in the World, Dille has twice won Game Script of the Year (Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, with JZP, and Dead to Rights), and he has worked on crown jewel franchises, including James Bond, Mission: Impossible, Tiny Toons, Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu; Dille has penned novelizations for properties such as Superman, Dungeons & Dragons, Teen Titans, andScooby-Doo. WEEK 10: OCTOBER 26 Games, ARGS, and Play 8 Required Readings de Certeau, Michel. “Spatial Stories.” The Practice of Everyday Life. Steven Rendall (trans.). Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1984. 115-130. Hayles, N. Katherine, Patrick Jagoda, and Patrick LeMieux. “Speculation: Financial Games and Derivative Worlding in a Transmedia Era.” Critical Inquiry. 2014: 221-236. McGonigal, Jane. “This is Not a Game: Immersive Aesthetics and Collective Play.” Digital Arts and Culture Conference, 2003. ---. “Why I Love Bees: A Case Study in Collective Intelligence Gaming." The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning. Katie Salen (ed.). The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2008. 199–228. Suggested Readings Punday, Daniel. “Involvement, Interruption, and Inevitability: Melancholy as an Aesthetic Principle in Game Narratives.” SubStance. 33.3 (2004) 80-107. Presentations 1. I Love Bees & Year Zero 2. The Walking Dead & Game of Thrones Guest Speaker Elan Lee is a professional technologist and storyteller. His pioneering work in entertainment has spanned everything from multiple startups raising millions of dollars to creating the Alternate Reality Game genre. Elan started his career at the Microsoft Games Studio where he was a Lead Designer on the original Xbox. He next co-founded 42 Entertainment (the company behind I Love Bees, Nine Inch Nails: Year Zero, and The Dark Knight). Elan was also the Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Fourth Wall Studios, and the Chief Design Officer at Xbox Entertainment Studios. Elan most recently co-created “Exploding Kittens,” the most funded game on Kickstarter, and the most backed crowd funded project in history. Elan has spoken all over the world on the future of gaming and storytelling. He has won a Primetime Emmy for the series Dirty Work, and an IndieCade Trailblazer Award for a distinguished career in interactive entertainment. He has been featured in WIRED Magazine, The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, and the Wall Street Journal. He has also won awards for Best Web Game of the Year, Best Advertising Campaign of the Year, and Best Idea of the Year. WEEK 11: NOVEMBER 2 Seriality, Complexity, and Television 2.0 Required Readings Clarke, M.J. “Lost and Mastermind Narration.” Transmedia Television: New Trends in Network Serial Production. London: Bloomsbury, 2013. 137-163. Lavery, David. “Lost and Long-Term Television Narrative” Third Person: Authoring and Exploring Vast Narratives. Pat Harrington and Noah Wardrip-Fruin (eds.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2009. 313- Mittell, Jason “All in the Game: The Wire, Serial Storytelling, and Procedural Logic.” Pat Harrigan and Noah Wardrip-Fruin (eds.), Third Person: Authoring and Exploring Vast Narratives. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2009. 429-438. ---. “Strategies of Storytelling on Transmedia Television.” SAM. 253-277. 9 Suggested Readings Evans, Elizabeth James. “Transmedia Texts: Defining Transmedia Storytelling.” Transmedia Television: Audiences, New Media and Daily Life. London: Routledge, 2011. 19-39. Rose, Frank. “Television: The Game.” The Art of Immersion. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2011. 161-187. Presentations 1. Heroes 2. Lost Guest Speaker Jan Libby first jumped into the world of CrossPlatform storytelling with the popular indie Alternate Reality Game, Sammeeeees. The following year she was a Writer and Interaction Designer for LG15 Studios (on the Webby winning hit Lonelygirl15). Jan went on to develop the sci-fi interactive television project "36nine" with Kiefer Sutherland's East Side Entertainment and partner on Book 3 of Eldritch Errors with Brian Clark & GMD. Jan continues to balance her innovative work as a CrossPlatform Writer/Producer for media companies and brands with her ground-breaking indie projects. FOX, Wieden + Kennedy, Discovery, Levi's, ABCFamily, East Side Entertainment, Ford and 20th Century Fox are just some of her clients. Her more recent work includes a social story for Ryan Murphy's Scream Queens, a multimedia story for Kevin Williamson's "The Following" (seasons 1 & 2), an immersive play for "Experiment America" at Boston's ICA and a social/story map for FOX's "Sleepy Hollow". Jan's company, Storeees, is constantly experimenting with storytelling via new and old platforms. It is Storeees' goal to give the audience the feeling they've stepped into a fiction. Notes Essay due WEEK 12: NOVEMBER 9 World Building Across Media Required Readings Borges, Jorge Luis. “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius.” Collected Fictions. (1946) Andrew Hurley (trans.). New York, Penguin Books, 1999. Goodman, Nelson. “Words, Works, Worlds.” Erkenntnis. 9. (1975): 57-73. Klastrup, Lisbeth, and Susana Tosca. “Transmedial Worlds – Rethinking Cyberworld Design.” Proceedings of the 2004 International Conference on Cyberworlds. Washington: IEEE Computer Society, 2004. 409-416. ---. “Game of Thrones: Transmedia Worlds, Fandom, and Social Gaming.” SAM. 295-314. Wolf, Mark J. P. “Introduction.” Building Imaginary Worlds: The Theory and History of Subcreation. London: Routledge, 2013. 1-15. Suggested Readings Herman, David. “Narrative Ways of Worldmaking.” Narratology in the Age of Cross-Disciplinary Narrative Research. Sandra Heinen and Roy Sommer, Eds. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2009. 71-87. Presentations 1. Dr. Who 2. Marvel & DC Comics 10 Guest Speaker Alex McDowell is one of the most innovative and influential designers working in narrative media today, with the impact of his ideas extending far beyond his background in cinema. McDowell advocates for an immersive design process that acknowledges the key role of world building in visual storytelling. Since moving to Los Angeles from London in 1986, McDowell has designed for directors as diverse as Terry Gilliam, Tim Burton, David Fincher, Zack Snyder and Steven Spielberg. Currently McDowell is production designer for Man of Steel with director Zack Snyder, produced by Chris Nolan. He recently completed In Time, directed by Andrew Niccol. With many awards for his film design work, McDowell was named a Royal Designer by the UK’s Royal Society of Arts in 2006. McDowell, who currently serves on the AMPAS SciTech Council, recently joined the faculty of the School of Cinematic Arts, where he will teach across several of the SCA divisions focusing on the role of world-building in the cinematic process. McDowell is co-founder and creative director of 5D | The Future of Immersive Design, a global series of distributed events and an education space for an expanding community of thought leaders across narrative media. WEEK 13: NOVEMBER 16 Transmedia in Education and Institutions Required Readings Jenkins, Henry. “Transmedia Education: The 7 Principles Revisited.” Confessions of an Aca-Fan. http://henryjenkins.org/2010/06/transmedia_education_the_7_pri.html Fleming, Laura. “Expanding Learning Opportunities with Transmedia Practices: Inanimate Alice as an Exemplar.” The National Association for Media Literacy Education’s Journal of Media Literacy Education. 5.2 (2013): 370-377. Suggested Readings Teske, Paul and Theresa Horstman. “Transmedia in the Classroom: Breaking the Fourth Wall.” Conference: Proceeding of the 16th International Academic MindTrek Conference. 2014. Warren, S., Wakefield, J.S., and Mills, L. “Learning and Teaching as Communicative Actions: Transmedia Storytelling.” Laura Wankel and Patrick Blessinger (eds.). Increasing Student Engagement and Retention using Multimedia Technologies: Video Annotation, Multimedia Applications, Videoconferencing and Transmedia Storytelling. Emerald Group Publishing, 2013. 67-94. Presentations 1. Inanimate Alice & The Amanda Project 2. Reality Ends Here & Quest to Learn Guest Speaker Erin Reilly is known for bridging industry and academia and oversees all aspects of USC’s Annenberg Innovation Lab programming, product design and mentoring students. Her research focuses on new media literacies, transmedia play and learning, audience engagement and the future of media and entertainment. Before coming to USC, Erin was Research Director for Project New Media Literacies at MIT. Some of her publications include T is for Transmedia: Learning through Transmedia Play, Shall We PLAY?, PLAY! (Participatory learning and you), and Designing with Teachers. She is a member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, the Vice President board 11 member of NAMLE (National Association for Media Literacy Educators) and serves on advisory boards, such as Disney Junior. WEEK 14: NOVEMBER 23 Activism, Documentary & Journalism Required Readings Brough, Melissa and Sangita Shresthova. “Fandom meets activism: Rethinking civic and political participation.” Transformative Works and Culture. 10. (2012): http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/303/265 Jenkins, Henry. “Contextualizing #Kony2012: Invisible Children, Spreadable Media, and Transmedia Activism.” http://henryjenkins.org/2012/03/contextualizing_kony2012_invis.html#sthash.
uVWwocaW.dpuf Suggested Readings Cheong, Pauline Hope and Jie Gong. “Cyber vigilantism, transmedia collective intelligence, and civic participation.” Chinese Journal of Communication. 3.4 (2010): 471–487. Presentations 1. America 2049 & World Without Oil 2. Highrise/Out My Window/The One Millionth Tower & Voz Mob Guest Speaker TBC Notes Teams work on projects. WEEK 15: NOVEMBER 30 Team presentations Statement on Academic Conduct and Support Systems Academic Conduct Plagiarism – presenting someone else’s ideas as your own, either verbatim or recast in your own words – is a serious academic offense with serious consequences. Please familiarize yourself with the discussion of plagiarism in SCampus in Section 11, Behavior Violating University Standards https://scampus.usc.edu/1100-behavior-violating-university-standards-and-appropriate-sanctions. Other forms of academic dishonesty are equally unacceptable. See additional information in SCampus and university policies on scientific misconduct, http://policy.usc.edu/scientific-misconduct. Discrimination, sexual assault, and harassment are not tolerated by the university. You are encouraged to report any incidents to the Office of Equity and Diversity http://equity.usc.edu or to the Department of Public Safety http://capsnet.usc.edu/department/department-public- safety/online-forms/contact-us. This is important for the safety of the whole USC community. Another member of the university community – such as a friend, classmate, advisor, or faculty member – can help initiate the report, or can initiate the report on behalf of another person. The Center for Women and Men 12 http://www.usc.edu/student-affairs/cwm/ provides 24/7 confidential support, and the sexual assault resource center webpage http://sarc.usc.edu describes reporting options and other resources. Support Systems A number of USC’s schools provide support for students who need help with scholarly writing. Check with your advisor or program staff to find out more. Students whose primary language is not English should check with the American Language Institute http://dornsife.usc.edu/ali, which sponsors courses and workshops specifically for international graduate students. The Office of Disability Services and Programs http://sait.usc.edu/academicsupport/centerprograms/dsp/home_index.html provides certification for students with disabilities and helps arrange the relevant accommodations. If an officially declared emergency makes travel to campus infeasible, USC Emergency Information http://emergency.usc.edu will provide safety and other updates, including ways in which instruction will be continued by means of blackboard, teleconferencing, and other technology. Course Exam, Project and Paper Retention Policy It is the responsibility of all students in Critical Studies courses to retrieve all papers, projects, assignments and/or exams within one academic year of completion of a course. These records may be essential in resolving grade disputes and incompletes as well as assist in verifying that course requirements have been met. The Critical Studies Division will dispose of all records from the previous academic year in May of the current academic year. No exceptions. Please be in contact with your TAs about collecting these documents while you are taking the course. 13