Geek

A lot of stuff is interesting and even boring stuff can be made so.

What is a geek?

. . .

Meaningful

• I wrote Hacking Life for this class, which is
• complemented by lots of other interesting texts,
• and a style guide.

Engaged

• Not the sort of class where “just get Prof’s notes and you’ll get an A”

Active

• You will be working on:
  • reading responses
  • in class exercises
  • reviews

Meta

• Meta means going a level higher and taking a bigger picture: how can we improve?
• Educational psychologists speak of meta-cognition: becoming cognizant of our learning.
• The syllabus is a Web page, with links to how to do everything and better.

Motivation

The self-help genre reflects popular aspirations and fears across work, wealth, health, relationships, and meaning. They are also laden with assumptions—and biases—about what is worthwhile and worthy. You’ll work to understand how this genre of popular communication reflects and shapes our sense of identity, purpose, and worth. You’ll even have a chance to write some self-help of your own.

Skills

1. recall, compare, and give examples of key concepts and theories in popular communication (e.g., popular & mass communication, ideology, audience reception studies);
2. understand how the popular shapes and is shaped by its people;
3. understand the historical context of the self-help genre;
4. critically analyze self-help with respect to social, economic, and political values and events;
5. demonstrate proficiency in communicating your analyses.

What is “popular communication”?

• definition?
• example?
• counter-example?

What is “self-help”?

• definition?
• example?
• counter-example?

. . .

What is Goop?

. . .

• aspirational wellness brand
• celebrity-driven
• in response to Paltrow’s father’s cancer diagnosis

What odd products did Khazan mention?

• grounded bed sheets
• vibrational fields
• infamous jade egg – critiqued by gynecologist Jen Gunter

What can we find?

• paste URL/link of something that might be:
  • useful.
  • bogus.

Why is Goop so popular?

. . .

• news consumers increasingly seeking out their own sources
• low-budgets for fact checking at places like Goop and those who report on them
• targets wealthy people who can spend more on “achieving even greater vitality” and the aspirational (Khazan 2017)

Other thoughts?

Syllabus

BTW: Posting Style

In emails, click the ‘…’ to see my response.

Please see my comments below. —Dr. Reagle
…

On Tuesday, Sue wrote:
>>> Michael Pollen argues agriculture is the new industrial.
>>
>>typo: it's "Pollan"  —Dr. Reagle
>>
> Thanks for noting that. — Sue
It's an easy mistake to make. —Dr. Reagle

PDFs

Password: ‘casper’

Course policies

Office hours

• see syllabus and
• “end of class” conference

Communication

• You can post to our Canvas discussion thread for show & tell, updates, etc.

Edit Google Docs

• Roster
• FAQ

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