Back at school!

Well my break is over and I am back at school waiting for my first class to begin...it looks like it will be in a lecture hall. Update later!

Update: First of all, the photo at left is students waiting for the next class period to begin.

My class, Media 180, consists of two 50 minute lectures a week, and one 50 minute class discussion.  This is the first class I've had in a lecture hall in a very long time (I think the last was an Economics 101 class at Pace about a million years ago.)

The syllabus looks really interesting. It says the course "offers a deeper interpretation of the mass media than is typical in public discussion. We'll review the history and technology of selected mass media but pay particular attention to the cultural values the mass media support in contemporary life."

I'm looking forward to looking at media from an analytical approach. I usually deconstruct as I consume television, film, commercials, Web sites and I hope this class will be add a new dimension to that process.  I was able to get the textbook today, too, and I have to say the college bookstore was really efficient and much better than Shakespeare & Co. across the street.

The professor pointed out that people often refer to The Media as a big, bad entity. You know, "It's The Media's fault that [fill in the blank]" Something which, by the way, I hate, partly because I am a cog in the big media machine myself but mainly because I don't see The Media as one entity having one agenda. I see, for example, a difference between FOX News and CNN, or, say, my own CBS News radio and Pacifica.

I'll ask myself the same question after a few weeks of this class and see how my point of view has changed.

Next week, our case study is -- MADONNA! I will refrain from telling the class we had the same ballet teacher.