Winter 2013/Pasadena

CO521

Moore

CO521: ETHNIC IDENTITIES IN THE MEDIA. Joy J. Moore.

DESCRIPTION: This course will consider and reflect upon the portrayals of ethnicity, race and religion that have been communicated through the media. It will provide the opportunity to examine the ways in which media has communicated and cultivated racial subjectivity in the modern Christian social imagination. Participants will be expected to convey a playfully orthodox ecclesiology within contemporary contexts of personal, social, and cultural change through written word, speech, and visual media.

SIGNIFICANCE FOR LIFE AND MINISTRY: Offering alternative narratives, the present cultural climate questions Christian speech, as it is formed by an ancient story of a religious people who testify to the particular God of Jesus. A faithful Christian voice must be able to answer “how such speech functions in a multi-ethnic/multicultural, secular 21^st century society.”As religious communities seem to take a backseat to ethnic, cultural, political and social networks, often provided through media portrayals, the next generation of Christian leaders will need to recognize the competing stories, identify the entertaining hyperbole, and offer an alternative narrative that sustains the integrity of each community while proclaiming the multicultural, multiethnic Kingdom of God.

LEARNING OUTCOMES: Course objectives are that students would grow in their ability to: (1) Identify the political and racializing role that the media’s portrayal of ethnicity has played in the construction of Americans’ religio-racial imagination, (2) Recognize how the African-American church and pulpit reframed conventional wisdom from the 18th century through the early 20th century, (3) Develop skills as critical and confessional interpreters of culture, and (4) Articulate their own coherent vision of the public role of Christian speech and their own sense of call to such a ministry.

COURSE FORMAT: This course, meeting twice weekly for two-hour sessions, has both lecture and practicum components.

REQUIRED READING:

Anyabwile, Thabiti M., and Mark A. Noll. The Decline of African American Theology: From Biblical Faith to Cultural Captivity. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2007. ISBN 978-0830828272. Pub. price $20.00. (255 pgs).

de Zengotita, Thomas. Mediated: How the Media Shapes Our World and the Way We Live in It. New York: Bloomsbury, 2005. ISBN 978-1596910324. Pub. price $16.00. (304 pgs).

Jennings, Willie James. Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011. ISBN 978-0300171365. Pub. price $25.00. (384 pgs).

Recinos, Harold J., and Hugo Magallanes (eds), Jesus in the Hispanic Community: Images of Christ from Theology to Popular Religion. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2009. ISBN 978-0664234287. Pub. price $30.00. (204 pgs).

Simmons, Martha, Frank A. Thomas, and Gardner C. Taylor. Preaching with Sacred Fire: An Anthology of African American Sermons, 1750 to the Present. New York: W W Norton Company, 2010. ISBN 978-0393058314. Pub. price $45.00. (960pgs).

ASSIGNMENTS AND ASSESSMENT:

1. Five (5) reflection papers (15%);

2. Two (2) individual presentations; and one (1) group presentation [an informative speech, a critical review, and a collaborative media presentation] (55%).

3. One (1) exam (10%).

4. Small group activities (10%).

5. Class participation and attendance (10%).

PREREQUISITES: None.

RELATIONSHIP TO CURRICULUM: This course meets the Communication requirement (COMM) in MA programs and also meets the four-unit requirement for CO500 and CO503 in any applicable pre-2007 MA program.