FALL 2008
ENGL 273 MEDICINE & MEDIA
Instructor: Ostherr, K.
Seminar: T/Th time TBA
Screening: W 7-9:30pm
Office: Herring 313, x4318
Office Hours: W 1:30-3 & by appt.
Email: kostherr@rice.edu
This interdisciplinary course explores the role of imaging technologies in the practice of medicine, and the role of mass media in shaping our understandings of the body, health, and disease. The proliferation of screen technologies such as film, television, internet, and video games has led researchers to identify media literacy as a critical component of both medical training and public health intervention. Simultaneously, healthcare is increasingly promoted and delivered through imaging technologies. We will examine the historical foundations of these interrelated developments and students will develop a framework for better understanding the potential positive and negative impacts of visual images in medical contexts. Students will analyze their positions as media consumers and develop skills necessary for producing ethical images and information about bodies, health, and disease. Emphasis on gender and race in representation and treatment in the clinical setting. Examination of how visual media structure “ways of seeing” for physicians and public. Emphasis on developing media literacy skills.
4 credit hours.
Required texts:
Sturken & Cartwright, Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture (2001)
Friedman, ed., Cultural Sutures: Medicine and Media (2004)
Seale, Media & Health (2002)
Recommended:
Kevles, Naked to the Bone: Medical Imaging in the Twentieth Century (1997) [Accessible online via Fondren]
Course requirements:
1. Attendance and Participation: Attendance is required at all class meetings and screenings. Screenings will take place outside of class. Class participation is worth 20% of the final grade, and will be evaluated based on weekly engagement with readings and screenings during class discussions.
2. Writing Assignments: Two short papers, 5 pages long, emphasizing close analysis of a film/television clip or print image (20% each). Paper assignments will be distributed in class. Due dates TBA.
3. Viewing Log part 1: Each student will keep a television news log every weeknight for two weeks of the semester. You will choose a specific network news broadcast (ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, or PBS) and time slot for each week, including one week of local and one week of national news, and you should take notes emphasizing coverage of health and medical issues, advertisements for health products, and examples of concepts discussed in course readings. Each student will hand in an individual viewing log at the end of the semester, which should describe and analyze what you saw in relation to class readings and screenings. Aim for 250-500 words per nightly entry. (15%)
4. Viewing Log part 2: Each student will select a weekly fictional television program that deals with medicine such as Grey’s Anatomy, House, MD, etc. (others subject to approval by instructor) and view the program at least four times throughout the semester, taking notes for their viewing log. (15%)
5. Presentations: On assigned dates, groups of 3-5 students will collectively present an overview of the previous week’s television news to the class. Each group member will watch a different network in the same time slot, so the group can present a comparative analysis of health coverage for the week. Group presentations should last 10-15 minutes (10%). More on this in class.
4. See attached course policies.
WEEK 1
T 8.26: Introduction
Th 8.28: Jordanova, “Medicine and Genres of Display” (1995): 203-217 [E] & Waldby, “Virtual Anatomy: From the Body in the Text to the Body on the Screen,” J of Med Hum 21:2 (2000): 85-105 [E] & “Visible Human” website at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/research/visible/visible_gallery.html
WEEK 2
T 9.2: Sturken & Cartwright, Practices of Looking Ch. 1 “Practices of Looking: Images, Power, and Politics” pp. 10-43
W 9.3 Screening: Big Bucks, Big Pharma: Marketing Disease & Pushing Drugs (Ridberg, 2006)
Th 9.4: Seale, Media & Health, Ch. 1 “Media Health and Everyday Life” & Ch. 2 “The Forms of Media Health” pp. 1-43
WEEK 3
T 9.9: Daston and Galison, “The Image of Objectivity,” Representations 40 (1992): 81-123 [E] & Presentation Group 1
W 9.10 Screening: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation [Season 6] (CBS, 2005): “Bite Me” [disc 1] & “Secrets and Flies” [disc 2]
Th 9.11: Practices of Looking Ch. 8 “Scientific Looking, Looking at Science” pp. 279-313
WEEK 4
T 9.16: Lerner, “The Perils of ‘X-Ray Vision’: How Radiographic Images Have Historically Influenced Perception,” in Persp. in Biology and Medicine 35.3 (1992): 382-397 [E] & Presentation Group 2
W 9.17 Screening Underexposed: The Temple of the Fetus (High, 1992) & I Need Your Full Cooperation (High, 1989)
Th 9.18: Practices of Looking Ch. 2 “Viewers Make Meaning” pp. 45-70 & in class: DiAna’s Hair Ego: AIDS Info Up Front (Spiro, 1990)
***MONDAY SEPTEMBER 21 - PAPER #1 DUE IN DR. OSTHERR’S MAILBOX BY 5pm***
WEEK 5
T 9.23: Practices of Looking Ch. 5 “The Mass Media and the Public Sphere,” pp. 151-186
W 9.24 Screening: Capturing the Friedmans (Jarecki, 2003)
Th 9.25: Media & Health Ch. 3 “The Production of Unreality” & Ch. 4 “Danger, Fear and Insecurity” pp. 44-92 & Presentation Group 3
WEEK 6
T 9.30: Media & Health Ch. 5 “Villains and Freaks” and Ch. 6 “Innocent Victims” pp. 93-142 & Presentation Group 4
W 10.1 Screening: Medic Vol. 2, “Wild Intruder” (12/6/54); St. Elsewhere Season 1, Disc 1, “Cora and Arnie” (11/23/82); ER Season 4, Disc 1, “Ambush” (9/25/97)
Th 10.2: Media & Health Ch. 7 “Professional Heroes” & Ch. 8 “Ordinary Heroes” pp. 143-186
WEEK 7
T 10.7: Practices of Looking Ch. 3 “Spectatorship, Power, and Knowledge” pp. 72-107
W 10.8 Screening: Coma (Crichton, 1978)
Th 10.9: No reading assigned; discussion of Coma & Presentation Group 5 & MIDTERM TV LOG REVIEW***
WEEK 8
T 10.14: NO CLASS – MIDTERM RECESS
W 10.15: NO SCREENING
Th 10.16: Shohat, “‘Lasers for Ladies’: Endo Discourse and the Inscription of Science” in Visible Woman pp. 240-270 [E] & Presentation Group 6
WEEK 9
T 10.21: Practices of Looking Ch. 6 “Consumer Culture and the Manufacturing of Desire,” pp. 189- 235
W 10.22 Screening: Nip/Tuck Season 1, Disc 2, “Sophia Lopez” (8/12/03); Grey’s Anatomy Season 1, Disc 1, “No Man’s Land” (4/17/05)
Th 10.23: Balsamo, “On the Cutting Edge: Cosmetic Surgery and the Technological Production of the Gendered Body,” in Visual Culture Reader (1998): 685-695 [E]
***MONDAY OCTOBER 27 PAPER #2 DUE IN DR. OSTHERR’S MAILBOX BY 5pm***
WEEK 10
T 10.28: Practices of Looking Ch. 4 “Reproduction and Visual Technologies” pp. 109-149 & Presentation Group 7
W 10.29 Screening: Gattaca (Niccol, 1998)
Th 10.30: Kirby, “Extrapolating Race in Gattaca: Genetic Passing, Identity, and the Science of Race” in Literature & Medicine 23.1 (2004): 184-200 [E] & Hammonds, “New Technologies of Race,” in Processed Lives (1997): 108-121 [E]
WEEK 11
T 11.4: Practices of Looking Ch. 7 “Postmodernism and Popular Culture,” pp. 237-277 & Presentation Group 8
W 11.5 Screening: M*A*S*H* Season 4, Disc 2, “Quo Vadis, Captain Chandler?” (11/7/75); House, M.D. Season 1, Disc 1, “Maternity” (12/7/04) & Scrubs Season 1, Disc 2, “My Own Personal Jesus” (12/11/01)
Th 11.6: Vandekieft, “From City Hospital to ER: The Evolution of the Television Physician,” in Cultural Sutures pp. 215-233
WEEK 12
T 11.11: Howell, “Technologies Transforming Health Care: X Rays, Computers, and the Internet,” & Lenoir, “The Shape of Things to Come: Surgery in the Age of Medialization,” both in Cultural Sutures pp. 333-372 & Presentation Group 9
W 11.12 NO SCREENING
Th 11.13: McLellan, “Medicine.com: The Internet and the Patient-Physician Relationship,” & Chambers, “Virtual Disability: On the Internet, Nobody Knows You’re Not a Sick Puppy,” in Cultural Sutures pp. 373-398
WEEK 13
T 11.18: Practices of Looking Ch. 9 “The Global Flow of Visual Culture,” pp. 315-345 & TV VIEWING LOGS DUE IN CLASS***
W 11.19 NO SCREENING
Th 11.20: Media & Health Ch. 9 “Real Men, Real Women” pp. 187-214
WEEK 14
T 11.25: TBA
W 11.26 NO SCREENING
Th 11.27: NO CLASS - THANKSGIVING
WEEK 15
T 12.2: TBA
W 12.3 NO SCREENING
Th 12.4: Wrap-up
Fall 2008 Course Policies
- Disabilities: Any student with a documented disability needing academic adjustments or accommodations should speak with Dr. Ostherr during the first two weeks of class. All discussions will remain confidential. Students with disabilities should also contact Disability Support Services in the Ley Student Center, at ext. 5841.
- Attendance: Attendance at all class meetings and screenings is required. If you absolutely cannot attend a class or screening, notify Dr. Ostherr in advance to make alternate arrangements. More than two unexcused absences will affect the student’s grade for participation as follows: for each additional absence, the participation grade will be reduced by a third of a grade point (e.g. from a B to a B-). If you miss or are late for a class or screening, it is your responsibility to check with Dr. Ostherr about announcements you may have missed.
- Extensions/Late Papers: Extensions are granted at Dr. Ostherr’s discretion. Except in cases of emergency, extensions will only be considered if the student approaches Dr. Ostherr at least one week before the paper is due with a legitimate conflict. If an extension is not granted, the grade will be reduced by one third of a grade for each day it is late. (For instance, if a paper is due on Monday but handed in on Tuesday, an original grade of B will be reduced to B-.)
- Email: Papers should be delivered in hard copy. Emailed papers will only be accepted with advance permission from Dr. Ostherr. Always save a hard copy of any emailed documents.
- Rewrites: No rewriting of papers will be allowed. However, you are encouraged to discuss early outlines and drafts with Dr. Ostherr during office hours, and to use the writing center.
- Honor Code: Students should abide by the Honor Code on all assignments. Cite all sources (direct and indirect) in papers by author’s last name and page number in parenthesis at the end of the sentence that contains the quotation. Example (Seale, 23). For more details, see the Honor Council’s publication, Academic Fraud and the Honor System. Plagiarism will not be tolerated.
- Pronunciation: Ostherr is pronounced “Aw-stair.”
