To be successful in this class, you will need to attend and participate in class discussions and activities. Come to class prepared to participate by having technology where you can research or share social media memes or posts to contribute to class discussions.
Group Project: Medium Teams (85 pts. — 11%)
In teams of four or five, you will take responsibility for one medium — books and print, newspapers and magazines, music and radio, movies, television, electronic games, or the internet and social media — and teach the rest of the class what it changed about human behavior.
Each team produces three things.
The Milestone Timeline: eight to ten turning points in the life of that medium, each with one sentence on what changed because of it, with sources. Not a list of dates — a list of consequences.
The Decoder Application: the six analytical moves run on two artifacts from that medium, the second of which your team disagrees about.
The Claim: one argument about what this medium changed in human behavior, stated in a sentence, defended with evidence from the first two, and paired with the strongest objection to it and your answer to that objection. Your claim must be built on one of the course concepts — cultivation, agenda setting, echo chambers, technological determinism, spiral of silence, framing, or another approved theory.
In-class working sessions, 15 points each. I will give you class time to meet with your group. I may tell you in advance. I may not tell you in advance. I might have a short lecture and let you use the remaining class time. At each session every member also submits one line naming what they personally worked on.
The presentation, 55 points. Twelve minutes in Week 13. The assignment is to teach, not to report: the class should leave able to name three milestones, one Decoder finding, and your claim. Two questions from the floor are required, and your team answers them.
WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS (200 pts. - 27%)
Over the course of the semester there are several written essays where you will write 1-4 pages on different topics we discuss in class like media literacy, the field of communication, media usage, a movie analysis, a final "What I Know Now" paper and media bias. College-level writing is expected including appropriate spelling, punctuation, grammar and citations in the APA style where required.
SCREEN/MEDIA LOG (30pts - 4%)
This assignment requires that you monitor and track your screen/media time for at least four days (but a whole week would give you the best insight on your own media consumption). You will be given a chart to fill out about how many minutes each day you engage with all aspects of media consumption and screen time.
SCREEN/MEDIA LOG ANALYSIS PAPER (50 pts. - 7%)
After spending several days tracking your media usage, you will write an analysis paper on your experience. You will have several self-analysis questions to guide you through the process. The paper will need to be between 500-750 words.
Group Presentation: Media & Society Topic (85 pts. - 11% )
In small groups, you will research and present on a major topic from our course — such as media literacy, echo chambers, virtue signaling, media bias, technological determinism, identity politics, freedom of speech, or another approved theme. Your job is to teach the class about your topic in a way that is dynamic, entertaining and engaging.
CLASS DISCUSSIONS - Spill the Tea, Check the Receipts (50pts. - 7%)
For some chapter topics, there will be discussions based on current events. Your assignment is to lead the class in a discussion on a current event applying course concepts. To lead the discussion, you will need to submit a question to Prof. Fogg in advance and get it approved, or I will give you one.
QUIZZES - (150 pts - 20%)
There will be online quizzes for each chapter based on the lecture and reading. Some of the chapter quizzes will be combined based on timing. You may be given class time to take some quizzes.
MOVIE ANALYSES - (30pts. - 4%)By the end of the term you will need to watch two movies that deal with journalism/media and media literacy. One of the movies we may watch together in class and you will be given quiz questions at the end of class. So don't skip out on the movie day. The second movie is your choice. The movie must be from the list provided or should be a movie that obviously covers journalism or the media.
DAYS OF DISCONNECT - (75pts - 10%) - For this assignment, you must go without ALL ELECTRONICS for 2 days. Yep, that means no phones, no TV, no internet, no gaming, no movies, no iPad, no TikTok, no Instagram, no Apple Watch, no computer. Before you freak out and dismiss the idea, this is a unique assignment where you will experience what it was like "back in the day." It requires some preparation, like you need an alarm clock (or a roommate), and you need to tell your friends and family. If you use electronics for work, that's ok, you can exercise self-control and use only what is required for work. The point is to break your pattern and see what you can learn from going without for 2 days.
What I Know Now Paper (80 pts. - 11%)- This is your final. There's no final exam. This 2-3 page write-up is designed to demonstrate your understanding of course concepts and how they apply to your life. You will also be expected to make assessments about what you learned over the term. (80 pts.)
HOW ASSIGNMENTS MEASURE THE GENERAL EDUCATION OUTCOMES
Each graded assignment is aligned to at least one R470 Social and Behavioral Sciences outcome, and the rubrics in Canvas make that alignment explicit. Weighting favors analysis and application over recall: the Screen/Media Log and Analysis Paper, Days of Disconnect, and the “What I Know Now” paper together total 205 points and assess application; the written assignments and led discussions total 250 points and assess perspective-taking and analysis; quizzes provide frequent low-stakes formative feedback on concepts and theories but account for well under a third of the grade.
Durable skills.
Three UBHE-identified durable skills are developed deliberately.
Literacy: students apply a six-move analytical method — frame, selection and omission, signs, language, structure and sequence, and interest — to a new media artifact nearly every week until the method is automatic.
Ethical Reasoning: students must state the strongest version of a position before critiquing it, and every analysis of a source they distrust must be paired with the same analysis of a source they trust.
Civic Engagement: students examine speech law, the First Amendment and its limits, media and elections, and how media frames political participation.
High-impact practice. The group project is a public demonstration of learning: teams research a medium and teach it to their peers in a structured format, deepening learning through preparation, feedback, and accountability beyond a private submission. Weekly quizzes and discussions supply formative feedback; the Days of Disconnect write-up and the “What I Know Now” paper supply metacognitive reflection.
ADDITIONAL COURSE POLICIES AND RESOURCES
Department of Communication AI Policy
AI cannot substitute for foundational learning. Students must acquire disciplinary knowledge and critical thinking skills in order to evaluate AI outputs appropriately. Thus, the Communication Department will maintain a 25% tolerance threshold for AI use in completing assignments. That means, unless explicitly stated by your instructor for a specific assignment, any work that is submitted as AI generated at a rate of 26% or higher will receive a zero on their grade and require a conversation with the instructor. In those cases where assignment instructions allow for AI use, students must certify that they have reviewed, verified and edited all AI outputs, which may include AI prompts used. Students should treat AI as a partner in thought and creation, not as a shortcut or a substitute for human expertise, ethics, and judgment. Students should not input sensitive, personal, confidential, copyrighted or proprietary information into public AI tools (e.g. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini) as it is illegal and violates expectations of privacy and academic/creative work.
AI is allowed for certain assignments (see individual assignment instructions for details). However, presenting AI-generated work as entirely one’s own in a course that does not permit such use, or using AI in ways explicitly prohibited in assignment instructions, constitutes a violation of SUU Policy 6.33: Academic Misconduct and opens the violator up to a series of potential sanctions.
AI in this course specifically
The department policy applies here as written, with a 25% tolerance threshold unless an assignment says otherwise. Two clarifications for this course in particular.
The analysis has to be yours. Most of the writing in this class asks you to look at a specific artifact — a photograph, a headline, an advertisement, a thirty-second clip — and say what it is doing and how you know. An AI can produce a competent-sounding reading of almost anything. It cannot produce your reading, and your reading is the entire assignment. Work that analyzes an artifact without evidence of having actually looked at it is weak work whether or not AI was involved.
The Days of Disconnect and the Screen/Media Log are about your own behavior. They cannot be generated, and inventing the data defeats the only purpose they have.
Where AI is permitted the assignment instructions will say so, and you must certify that you reviewed, verified, and edited every output, including the prompts, as the department policy requires.
A note worth making in a media literacy course. A tool that produces confident, fluent, well-structured text on any topic is itself one of the media forces this class exists to help you see clearly. We will analyze AI-generated media this semester the same way we analyze everything else — asking what is in the frame, what was selected, whose interest it serves. Using it uncritically while learning to read media critically is a tension worth noticing.