Media+and+Violence+-+Course+Sandbox

Media and Violence is tentatively slated as an upper-level half-credit elective for the IT/Film and Media Academy in the Springfield High School of Science and Technology to be designed in 2011. The Intro to Media and Society course would serve as a prerequisite.

The primary standards would be from ELA, predominantly from Strands 26 (//obtain information by using a variety of media and evaluate...the information obtained//) and 27 (//Explain how techniques used in electronic media modify traditional forms of discourse for different aesthetic and rhetorical purposes//). There would also be connections to media design and creation strands (ELA 28), Literature strands (ELA 15), and standards from IT, Health, and History/Social Science.

The primary objective of the course would be to provide students with an insight into how the representation of violence in society affects their generational outlook and their sense of identity, and to encourage students to consider healthier ways in which they can engage with or transform their society in their increasingly intertwined roles as media consumers and producers.

Though sequence is to be determined, planned units might include:
 * Gangs and Urban Environments in the Media
 * Case Study: Images and buzzwords: Springfield youth in local News (The Republican, Masslive, News40)
 * Celebrating Gangsta Life: From Rap to the Sopranos
 * Representations of War and Conflict in Mass Media
 * Case Studies: Images of 9/11, Afghanistan;
 * Case Study: "Army of One": promoting the internalization of war
 * Violence in Cultural Conversation: Social Youth Engagement and the Internet
 * Case Studies: YouTube and Break.com
 * Case Study: Texting & Cyberbullying: the power of anonymity and distance
 * The Male Media Gaze: Gender Role Reinforcement And Violence as "Male Behavior"
 * Case Study: Mysogeny in Popular Music (Chris Brown and Rihanna)
 * Case Study: GI Joe & "boys' toys"
 * Video Game Violence: Exploring Cause and Effect of violence as enacted entertainment
 * Case study: Grant Theft Auto

The course would primarily be taught through analysis of primary sources, including rap videos and song lyrics, advertisements, local and national news programming, and video game texts. Supplemental materials would include videos from the Media Education Foundation, as well as topical articles from journals and news sources,