Carroll Hall, Rm 11                   	         			
Office: 219 Carroll
Professor Harry Amana                           			Office Hours:    
harryamana@unc.edu			        	                MW: 9:30-11/1:15-2/3:30-4
URL: http://www.unc.edu/~haman						TThr: by appointment

Exam Questions

Catalog description:
MINORITIES AND COMMUNICATION JOMC 111 - 3 credits, spring. An examination of racial stereotypes and minority portrayals in U.S. culture and communication. Emphasis is on the portrayal of Native-Americans, African-Americans, Hispanics and Asian-Americans in the mass media.

Required Textbooks:

Suggested Reserve Textbooks:
* Latin Looks: Images of Latinas and Latinos in the U.S. Media, Clara E. Rodriguez
* Orientals: Asian Americans in Popular Culture, Robert G. Lee
* Split Image: African Americans in the Mass Media, Jannette L. Dates & William Barlow
* The White Man's Indian, Robert F. Berkhofer, Jr.

Course Objective:
The course is designed to introduce students to some of the complexities of the relationships between race, culture, popular culture and mass media. Students will also be introduced to some basic tools and techniques for evaluating, analyzing and understanding these relationships as they are communicated through mass media.

Course Structure:
The class is made up of classroom lectures and discussions on the required and reserve readings, Internet listserv communication, periodic handouts and films, and three exams. Students are responsible for examining all materials assigned on the syllabus. Even though all materials assigned may not be specifically covered or discussed in class, the instructor assumes that students will have read all materials and that they understand all of the materials, unless they ask questions during class or on the listserv.

Internet Communication:
All students will be registered on the JOMC 111 listserv in order to augment classroom activities. Students also should visit the instructor's Web site and explore some of the links on the "Minority & Black Press Sites" . In particular, students should regularly monitor the News Watch Web site at newswatch.sfsu.edu, which analyzes media coverage of minorities. For advice on how to evaluate the credibility of Web sites and to distinguish between propaganda, go to: http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/research/webeval.html.

Examinations (95 percent):

Graduate students are required to write a research paper of 15-20 pages and may also be asked to conduct a 15- to 20-minute class session on their research findings. The paper must examine some mass medium for the way it has portrayed a U.S. minority during some specific period of time or history. This must include an examination of primary materials such as newspapers, magazines, films or advertisements. Proposed topics for this assignment must be submitted by Oct. 17. Completed papers are due no later than Dec. 5.

Writing Standards:
JOMC standards for accuracy, spelling, grammar and punctuation will apply. For research papers, consult Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, by Kate Turabian. Reviews, Critiques or Research Papers with significant spelling, grammar or punctuation errors will not receive a grade above C-, regardless of the quality of the analysis or ideas presented in the paper.

Attendance (5 percent):

Grading

        A = 95 or above      B+= 89-91        C+= 79-81      D+= 69-71
        A-= 92-94            B = 85-88        C = 75-78      D = 65-68
                             B-= 82-84        C-= 72-74      D-= 62-64

Honor Code:
Students are reminded that a failure to do all of their own research and writing would be a violation of the University Honor Code and could result in disciplinary action by the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. For comprehensive information on the Honor Code, go to the UNC-CH Student Judicial System web site at www.unc.edu/depts/honor.

Plagiarism
To learn how to avoid plagiarism, students should go to the university's Honor System Plagiarism site at: http://honor.unc.edu/students/plagiarism.html, or to The Writing Center's Plagiarism site at: http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/plagiarism.html.

Students may also go to the "Avoiding Plagiarism" site at the University of California-Davis at: http://sja.ucdavis.edu/avoid.htm .

Topics/Readings/Dates

---

Introduction to the course
Understanding DuBois' concept of "double consciousness"
Aug. 31; Sept. 5
Readings