WEEK ZERO

 Hello and welcome! It is good to meet again. You are reading this post because you signed up for the 3rd year elective course Retorika tekstualne kulture.

Tomorrow we should meet for our WEEK ZERO orientation, but since it is also the last day to sign up for elective courses (which means you can still change your mind), I thought it would be fair to let you know what you should expect.

Now, about the course – if you wondered what it is really about, it is about various products of our culture which can be observed and interpreted as  “texts“, that is, messages constructed from specific elements following specific rules establishing a relationship between author, audience and cultural context. We will be looking into texts that are considered to be popular, in the sense that they are ubiquitous: printed media, advertising and consumer culture products, television shows and Hollywood film. Our goal is to establish interpretations on how these texts testify about our culture and how they influence us as individuals, from a semiotic perspective which will provide analytical tools to go beyond likes and dislikes.

What will you be required to do?

We will be using two textbooks, Critical Media Studies by Brian Ott and Signs of Life in the USA by Sonia Maasik, articles and excerpts from various publications and you will have assigned readings every week. Those will be accompanied by short writing assignments (on a blogging platform, made available for comments to everyone in the group) and discussions, for which you will collect points (total of 8 assignments which will have fixed time frames).

There will be a midterm test and a final written/oral exam, too.

All of your formal assignments will be administered through a learning management system and you will be required to turn them in using the system as well.

The schedule says 2+1, i.e. Tuesdays from 13.30 to 15.45. Since we cannot meet in person, we will begin by using Zoom and see where that takes us. Some of our time should also be dedicated to discussions, and we will see how we can make the most of it.

The amount of time in online contact will vary, depending on the activities. I will be available on email (mirna.radin.sabados@ff.uns.ac.rs) every work day from 8 a.m. to 6p.m. and if you feel comfortable we can set up individual hours using Zoom (voice or chat).

You will not be required to be present at all meetings (you will not lose any points simply by not being there), but unfortunately, I am required to monitor your presence (for administrative reasons).

For more details first Zoom session tmrw 13.30...