Media Studies 200: An Introduction to Media Studies
Intended for 72 undergraduate students
Spring 2024 at the University of Victoria
lək̓ʷəŋən and WSÁNEĆ territories
M and Th, 10 - 11:20am
Taught by Jentery Sayers (he / him)
Office hours: Th, 11:30am - 12:30pm, in CLE D331
jentery@uvic.ca
This worksheet covers material from Weeks 1, 2, and 3 of MDIA 200. Your response is due via Brightspace by Thursday, February 1st at 10am.
The worksheet is open-book, meaning you are allowed to use assigned primary sources, handouts, the course website, my slides, your notes, the library, and the internet to address the prompts.
Please cite your source material.
Please download the worksheet (DOCX format) to complete it in a word processor such as Microsoft Word, Google Docs, OpenOffice, LibreOffice, or Pages for Mac.
This open-book worksheet contains five prompts totalling 100 points. Each response is worth 20 points. You are welcome to attach media (audio, image, or video files) to your response when prompted.
1. The Instagram Egg is part of the so-called “content industry,” where content circulates to fill people’s feeds and increase their time on device. Let’s trace that circulation and test that assertion.
Identify three places where the Instagram Egg appeared online and sparked meaningful engagement. Then use no more than 250 words to tell me about these appearances and what was meaningful about their engagements. You’re welcome to use point form and don’t forget to cite all three of the Egg’s appearances, including their URLs.
2. According to a 2023 report by WebAIM, “data show that one may expect over one third of the images on popular home pages to have missing, questionable, or repetitive alternative text.” Take a minute to write alt text.
Visit a home page that’s familiar to you, find an image on that page that’s missing alternative text, and then write new alt text for that image. Once you’re done, use no more than 150 words to explain how writing alt text is an act of community-building. Be sure to cite the home page and include your alt text in your response.
3. The differences between one-to-one and one-to-many communications appear obvious at first but can in fact be subtle. After all, the particulars of tone, delivery, context, scale, and content matter in messaging. Let’s test that idea through repetition.
Create 30-60 seconds of audio to verbally communicate roughly the same message twice: first to a friend at UVic via a hypothetical voice message (one-to-one) and second to all UVic students via a hypothetical CFUV 101.9 FM transmission (one-to-many). Then use no more than 250 words to explain the differences between your two communications. Don’t forget to attach or embed your audio file.
4. Most models of communication, especially the transmission model, invest in clarity, efficiency, and effectiveness, but noise abounds in everyday life. Perhaps it even constitutes everyday life. Let’s test this idea by making some noise.
Create 30-90 seconds of video to demonstrate three types of noise in everyday communication. Then use no more than 250 words to explain how noise evinces the labour and values of communication. Don’t forget to attach or embed your video file.
5. Whether you’re in the loop often determines whether you got the message. If you know, you know. Let’s test this idea by speaking in code through text or image.
Use two cultural codes I probably won’t understand and then explain them to me in no more than 150 words. Don’t forget to attach or embed your images if you made some.
I will use the following rubric, based on UVic’s official grading system, to assess your responses.
1 point will be deducted for every 25 words over the prescribed word count.
10 points will be deducted from the overall mark if no references are included at the end of the worksheet (see details below).
The total of these points (0-100) will constitute 20% of your final mark in this course.
You do not need to meet the word count in each response to earn a high mark.
Please do not forget to cite any material from which you draw ideas or examples. This includes material from the course. Here are some sample references to get you started.
Brewster, Jack, Zack Fishman, and Elisa Xu. “Funding the Next Generation of Content Farms.” NewsGuard, NewsGuard Technologies, Inc., 26 June 2023, newsguardtech.com/misinformation-monitor/june-2023/.
Eichhorn, Kate. Content. The MIT Press, 2022.
Sayers, Jentery. “The Content Industry.” MDIA 200: Media in the 21st Century, 8 January 2024, University of Victoria. Class handout.
world_record_egg. “Posts.” Instagram, 2019, instagram.com/world_record_egg/.
Please submit a DOCX, ODT, PAGES, or PDF file containing your answers and references along with any media you were prompted to attach or embed. You are welcome to use your preferred citation style (MLA, Chicago, or APA, e.g.). The examples above (“Citing Your Sources”) are in MLA format.
A response to Worksheet 1 is due by 10am on Thursday, February 1st.
I will deduct five points for every business day (excluding holidays and weekends) that I receive Worksheet 1 after Monday, February 5th at 10am. I will close the submission portal at 10am on Thursday, February 15th and cannot accept any submissions after the portal is closed. Thank you for understanding.