[constantly updated]
I aim to be a well-rounded educator of media as social phenomena with some of my core interests (e.g. journalism, digital cultures) up front, which resulted in a quite interesting array of courses.
Courses on Social Implications of the Media
Media and Democracy (COMM 110 at PSH)
About:
This course seeks to introduce students to the role that media plays in shaping how our democracy works. We explore how media is used to foster civic awareness and engagement, as well as its problems such as amplifying misinformation and empowering tribalized bigotry. We will begin by exploring the concept of democracy itself, followed by various mechanisms of how media works, and how we are embedded in the process as active users. We will also consider the role of government and its relationship to the media in forming “informed publics.”
Through this course, students will be encouraged to develop a critical view of the media entities and our own media use in relation to our democracy. The critical view is not cynicism; it is the recognition of details in how meanings are constructed through various communication processes including our own biases, ultimately moving forward to solve social issues based on rational public discussion. Ideally, this will be a gateway course, and students will develop the views and topics further in advanced courses in communication, political science, marketing, psychology, science policy, etc.
The approach:
The first half deals with key concepts and theories, ranging from what democracy is in the first place, to the public sphere concept, to understanding the social role of new media technologies. The second half is organized around specific topics, emphasizing how the different stakes held by diverse groups involved. Yes, lots of sensitive timely topics are dealt with, may it be racial justice, pandemic misinformation or even networked terrorism. Having two halves compliment each other has proven to be quite effective.
In this vein, the assignments consist of six essay-type quizzes that get progressively more open-ended, one topic-briefing group presentation and an issue essay as the final product. It is about recognizing and embracing the complexity of navigating a consensus in modern democracies… that’s the hope at least. Of course intensive in-class discussions drawing from everyone’s own media and life experiences are mandatory.
Syllabus:
sample syllabus from Fall semester, 2022: COMM110_F22.
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Sample week:
sample weekly presentation slide set from Fall 2022. The topic is “new(ish) media.”
Misc:
I consider this course as one of my flagship showcases, in terms of integrating various theories and real-life engagement, putting media phenomenon in the center of how we can make our own society more functional. Also, every semester is a tightrope walk, due to the immediacy of the topics in this ever-polarized and misinformedness-prone world.
Media Technology in History Seminar (COMMS 519 at PSH)
About:
This course is not a media history lesson, but a lively discussion on how to make sense of the histories of varying scopes and scales; and how to do historical studies (aka “historiography”). We explore whole civilizations based on communication modalities, while also discussing the historical evolution of Wikipedia. How did technology, cultural norms, societal institutions and other conditions give rise to different communication modes? How did some communication modes become more dominant, and how did they in return affect the social system and culture? How can we draw larger patterns from those historical developments that will serve as comparative templates? Students will explore various communication historiographies, engage in topics such as historical formation of public memory through communication, historical basis of mediated identities, media as historical agents for social change, as well as how to apply comparative historical approaches for communication issues.
The approach:
Being a graduate level seminar course, we explore these issues through extensive class discussions, based on which each student will conduct a final historical research culminating in an academic or creative product. Students are expected to do significant reading, writing and discussion leading in this course.
Syllabus:
Link to sample syllabus from Spring 2021.
Misc:
Graduate (mainly targeted toward Communication MA students) seminar, focusing on macro theories organized around key media technology modalities (e.g. writing, visuals, electronic communication, etc) in the first half and specific topic issues in the second half. Most of the historical approaches culminate to discuss modern media phenomena.
Global Communication and Culture Seminar (COMMS 560 at PSH)
About:
This seminar explores the transnational and global characteristics of communication within a broad political, economic, technological and cultural context. How are media systems and content shaped by social systems of the countries and their cross-influences? How does communication affect the formation of social identities within and across national borders? What are the dominant trends in global media flows? How do transnational media flows affect social progress in societies in different contexts, both positively and negatively? How can we build a constructive balance between the global and the local by harnessing the power of communication? Above all, how can we address those questions through critical and systematic analyses, to open pathways for constructive ideas?
The approach:
Being a seminar course, we explore these issues through extensive class discussions, based on which each student will build a final academic or creative product.
Syllabus:
Link to a sample syllabus from Fall 2022.
Misc: This is another graduate-level seminar, and a good companion course to the media tech history seminar. It deals primarily with space/place rather than time; highly recommended to take both. Also, this seminar heavily benefits from my own international cultural work experiences as well as the ones from many international students in the class.
Media Law and Ethics (COMM 458 at PSH)
About:
This is an overview the role of the mass media in American society, regarding the rights and responsibilities of practicing professionals in media fields including journalism, PR and creative media work. This course covers both law and ethics topics in close inter-connected manner. Students examine current legal issues in mass media with the goal of preparing them to be lawful members of the profession, while also recognizing the need to exercise reasoned ethical principles for further responsibility towards the subjects, the field and the larger society. Legal topics include access to information, defamation, privacy, intellectual property, among others; Ethical topics include fair use, transparency, conflicts of interest, invasion of privacy, and the ethics of persuasion and entertainment.
The approach:
After some groundwork, every week deals with a pressing topic in the field such as copyright, defamation, new technology aspects, etc. Each Friday, a debate session on a timely issue takes place where students are randomly assigned to advocate a pro or con position. The two teams will use legal and ethical evidences to “win” the argument. In the final 10 minutes, a debriefing takes place: everyone is freed from the teams and can finish their thoughts on their personal positions.
As usual for a legal studies course, students write case briefs on a regular basis and finish by writing a full essay on a legal/ethical media work dilemma of their own interest.
Syllabus:
sample syllabus from Spring 2023.
Sample week:
sample weekly presentation slideset: intellectual property week.
Misc:
I claim a fair amount of pride in making this course a mandatory one for the Communication major. After all, this is a curriculum that would benefit students the most just right before they graduate and enter the media workforce. Lots of efforts are made to stay current with the media-related issues on hand, ranging from industry disputes to upcoming disruptive technology to new developments in regulation policies.
Courses on Digital Cultures
Digital Games and Interactive Media (COMM 190 at PSH)
About:
This course introduces and overviews digital games and the interactive media industry in four larger themes: the culture of games, gaming principles, industry information, and social aspects. Key topics include the historical development of games, genre conventions, gamer communities, psychology of rewarded involvement, current business models, legal/ethical issues, representation, gamification, and other social applications.
Although this course does not include workshop training in actual game production, crucial aspects of the game design process will be explored. Students will be encouraged to bring in their own experiences and preferences in electronic games of all kinds, to explore how games function as a part of our media culture. At the end of the semester, students will develop and present their own project proposals, which can be for actual games or services that utilize gaming elements.
The approach:
It is a quite extensive introduction to how to understand games as a media phenomenon. Every last day of the week, there is a play-and-discuss session when students play a (mostly classic) game and critically dissect their core elements. The final product of this class is a gaming development pitch, where students work individually or in a group to present and write a proposal for a new game or gamification project, with key concepts, market research and sometimes visuals, script and even demos.
Syllabus:
sample syllabus from Spring 2023.
Sample week:
sample weekly presentation, on the topic of interface designs.
Misc:
Unsurprisingly, the “gaming Friday” play-and-discuss session is a student favorite. Gaming development pitches yield some quite pleasantly surprising output when students are willing to put in their own lived experiences, ranging from cultural background to genre twists to disabilities.
Digital Cultures (COMM 234 at PSH)
About:
This course examines various digital media technologies, exploring our uses of those technologies and the challenges they have created on both personal and societal levels over time. it combines theory and practice to help students develop a rich understanding of the constantly evolving US digital culture.
Specifically, we examine the impact of communication technologies on how we consume, share, resist, and participate in digital culture, as a change, enhancement, and conflict with what was there before. The general theme of the course is analyzing contemporary cases to understand the significance of new ICTs in shaping our identities, behaviors, language, imaginations, and society. Students will actively produce and critically reflect on digital media and the culture they have created.
The approach:
Creative assignments include managing one’s own informative serial publication (e.g. newsletter), a visual expression of a topic, etc. The final product is a proposal for a digital product or service that will solve some of the issues in our current digital culture. I made sure that this course covers lots of bases, from digital media histories to economy theories to imaginations of popular culture.
Syllabus:
sample syllabus from Fall 2022.
Sample week:
sample weekly presentation, on the topic of online public sphere.
Misc:
Cross-listed course between the communication major and information science major. Should be cross-listed even more (such as: History, Sociology, American Studies, and others) at least this version of mine.
Courses on Doing Good Journalism
Perspectives in American Journalism (COMM 168 at PSH)
About:
This course is designed to give students a broad overview of American journalism, its past, present and future; its values, traditions and practices in context. This course will appeal to students with varying backgrounds who have an interest in professions involving communication of news. How and why news is gathered, presented, and marketed in specific ways; how those ways are influenced by changes in social norms, technology and industrial concerns; and how to rebuild trust in news through journalistic quality.
The first segment of the course focus on the historic development of the American “press” from the Colonial period to the present. The legal and constitutional framework under which the news media operate in the United States are also examined. The second segment will look at a news organization’s obligations to its community, and a journalist’s duty to uphold core values. The third segment will explore how those practices and values have been enhanced, challenged and thus transformed by the current social, economic and technological media landscape.
The approach:
Introductory journalism theory course, with a strong emphasis on the social contexts of why such perspectives and values came to be. The final product is a proposal for an investigative journalism piece, where the student has to persuade the instructor, who plays the role of the editor-in-chief, to greenlight the project.
Syllabus:
sample syllabus link from 2019.
Sample week:
sample weekly presentation on the topic of civic/citizen journalism.
Misc:
Works especially well if taken simultaneously with a journalistic writing class.
Advanced Topics in Journalism (COMM 407 at PSH)
About:
This course examines a number of current issues and topics surrounding American journalism. Among the topics that will be covered are the state of the news industry, the traditional and changing ethical guidelines and best practices, the blurring of lines between news and entertainment, and the news media’s unique role in forming public discourses. The topics will be most directly related to the practice of American journalism and news industries of old and new.
In this course, we will discuss the readings and real-world examples of newer news experiments afforded by evolved media technologies. Our goal will be to understand the mechanism of how news is produced, circulated and read today, along with its professional values and social roles. Based upon this, students will become able to build constructive ideas for further innovation of news.
The approach:
Basically a more advanced, special topic focused version of the journalism values and issues course. In my case, I tended to focus on new storytelling methods such as data, activism, AR/VR, etc.
Syllabus:
sample syllabus.
Sample week:
sample presentation on the topic of data journalism.
Writing for News (COMM 260W at PSH)
About:
This course introduces students to the basics of news reporting and writing. Through a combination of lecture, discussion, and writing assignments, students learn how to write news stories that are accurate, fair, clear, and concise.
The early part of the course will deal with revising and polishing understanding of journalism, with a focus on news writing and reporting. It will cover a wide array of topics such as the tools, ethics, legal considerations, the role of journalism and journalists in the local and global community they operate in. Once the basics are done, the basic reporting and news writing assignments will start. These assignments shall include constructing news stories from fact sheets, press releases, speeches, and interviews conducted within the class.
The approach:
Writing-intensive, with in-class deadline practices. Different types of AP-style reporting are to be written, with information collection through interviews, surveys and other methods. At the end of semester, every student will also put together a portfolio website with the work.
Syllabus:
sample syllabus.
Courses on Media Studies
Nature of Media (COMM 251 at PSH)
About:
This course is an examination of the theory, history, practice, and meaning of media. Within the framework of various media theories, students examine how various technological forms of media are used for communication. This course is designed to make you aware of the media in which you participate so that you can begin to consciously analyze the messages we are receiving and sending. Because this course is also the foundation for a study in Communications, you will begin to study and understand the role of industry employees as they participate in the creation of media messages, and be introduced to the history and theoretical background needed to begin your media studies.
We will explore how messages are encoded, transmitted and decoded in various media forms, to build a critical view on how to understand and utilize media. Critical to all of this is discerning how technology, market, laws and culture impacts the media practices, how the media in return contributes to them, and what roles you can play within it. Through this course, students will be encouraged to develop a critical view towards the media. The critical view does not refer to simply opposing or rejecting media as manipulative or otherwise evil; it is about recognizing the details in the dynamics and mechanisms of how meanings are constructed through the media process, embracing the downsides and strengths, and then ultimately discussing ways to utilize them for a greater good, while also having fun.
As such, you will be exposed to many different concepts and theories on how to understand media phenomena. You will be expected to become familiar with them, and utilize them to present your own analysis on how we use media, and how we can use media even better.
The approach:
Being the first in-depth media theory course for the communication major, this course requires a wide survey of how the media has been explained as a culture, industry, and social mechanism in general. Quizzes and presentations are the backbone, but also critical self assessment reports on media life.
Syllabus:
Link to syllabus.
Communication Research Methods Seminar (COMMS 503 at PSH)
About:
A graduate seminar that overviews key elements and spectrum of research methods applied for explaining various communication phenomena. It is designed to train students to critically select and implement rigorous methods for their own topics of interest in communication, as original research or as theoretical foundations for a creative project.
Starting with the common core of scholarly research such as key philosophies, basic planning, structure and ethics, the course will introduce various qualitative, quantitative, mixed and even generative approaches used in communication research today.
The approach: Every session consists of a 1-hour lecture on a given methodology and 2-hours of seminar discussion critically discussing research papers utilizing said methodology. Over the semester, students produce 3 research designs (quantitative, qualitative, and mixed) and 1 full research proposal.
Syllabus:
sample syllabus from Spring 2023.
Sample week:
sample weekly presentation in the lecture part: network analysis.
Misc:
The breadth of the methodologies introduced is the strength of this course. From classics such as surveys, content analysis and interviews, we go all the way to network analysis and agent-based modeling as well. It is less about in-depth digging into each methodology, but to provide a literacy on how to know which research questions benefit from which kinds of methodologies.
Introduction to Mass Communication (J210 at UW-Madison)
About:
How the mass media are organized and how they function in modern society; their technological basis, economic and political foundations, and social implications.
The approach:
The core communication major introductory course. Large lecture, with small-group lab sessions focusing on issue presentations. I was part of the TA team, coordinating the contents of the main lecture and being in charge of several lab sessions.
Others
The Future of Journalism (UW-Whitewater) / guest lecture
About:
A guest lecture on the future of journalism, focusing on data journalism, participatory paradigms and the general outlook of the workplace in general.
Context of Korean Comics (UW-Madison) / guest lecture
About:
A guest lecture on Korean comics (“Manhwa”), focusing on its cultural contexts and social functions that manifest in the contents.
The Language of Comics (Chungkang College of Cultural Industries) / non-English
About:
A course on dissecting the visual language of comics, ranging from the power of cartoonized abstraction to the power of sequential placements, and how every visual element can represent specific meanings.
Understanding Comics (Inha University)
About:
A course laying out the sociocultural contexts and roles of comics as a popular culture in many countries. Historical, industrial and aesthetical elements are discussed.