What a great idea for a course! I wish I could take it.

You don't say what level the course is, so it's hard to suggest appropriate
readings. I've taught a small unit on how Hollywood represents TV, which
included some of the films you've listed (*A Face in the Crowd, Network,
Videodrome, Goodbye and Good Luck* [which wouldn't fit into your "bad
device" idea], and *The Truman Show). *The students responded really well
to it. One book that helped me a lot is this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Cinema-Dreams-Its-Rivals-Internet/dp/0816635994/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1385240203&sr=1-1&keywords=cinema+dreams+its+rivals

One point that was worth making was how Hollywood became progressively
connected to these media economically but still represented them as
destructive.

Good luck,
Sandy Camargo



On Thu, Nov 21, 2013 at 3:14 PM, [log in to unmask] <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Dear all,
>
> I am teaching a course next semester on "Bad Devices": that is,
> contemporary media/technology in films and television wherein the
> camera/video, television, radio, telephone/mobile phone, Internet, GPS,
> gaming etc. become devices of tragedy, mishap, power-play, evil, even
> supernatural force that mess us up: Face in the Crowd, Quiz Show, Truman
> Show, Mothman Prophecies, Blair Witch Project, Ring/Ringu, Shadow of the
> Vampire, the holodeck in Star Trek, Matrix, eXistenZ, possibly BBC Sherlock
> (Scandal in Belgravia). I would greatly appreciate any advice on this
> topic-- there are so many possibilities in Anime and Manga, for instance,
> in films about "haunted technology" (a website devoted to it), but I would
> like some guidance on focusing it and on the most relevant criticism to
> give to my students.
>
> Thanks,
> Sarah Higley
>
> ----
> Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite
> http://www.ScreenSite.org
>



-- 
Sandy Camargo
Senior Lecturer in English and
Adj. Assistant Professor of Media and Cinema Studies
University of Illinois Department of English
608 S. Wright Street
208 English Building
Urbana, Illinois 61801
217-300-4278

----
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podcast:
http://www.screenlex.org