CMDA 210-02 Haines Thursday January 30, 2019 PRELIMINARY NOTES ON FRESH PRINCE: MISTAKEN IDENTITY If I were going to write a 10-page critical analysis of today’s screening, these would be my preliminary notes. I would organize these notes as a kind of launch for my writing project, keeping in mind that multiple drafts would be in my future. Good writing is re-writing, yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s TRUE! Some of these notes would help lead me to my final draft; some of these notes would be discarded along the way. I am sharing this with you as a model for your own preliminary notes. PRODUCTION · What production company produced the series? · Who are the principle personnel on the production and creative side? What are their professional track records? What happened to them after they finished with the series? Is their current status important? · I need to make sure I have the episode’s end credits in my notes. · Date of original broadcast. · What was happening in the U.S. at the time of the original broadcast? What’s the original political and social context of the episode? · Can I find out what the ratings were generally for the series? · Can I find out the specific audience rating for this episode when it first aired? · Looks like standard multi-camera sitcom live production; flat sitcom lighting; can I contact somebody on SCM’s production side for info? · Can I find out the budget per episode? · Who are the principle actors and their track records? What happened to them after the series? · Who currently owns the series? · Is there anything in the trade press that deals with the production of the series? Is it relevant to my argument? DISTRIBUTION · What network originally broadcast the series? Did the series stay on that network throughout the entire run? · Can I figure out how this series fit into the overall network programming schedule in its original run? · Can I track down hard audience data about demographics? What demographic categories were the original audience? · Can I find out anything about the off-network syndication deal that propelled the series into TV markets throughout the country? Does the series have international off-network distribution? · Besides off-network syndication, what are the other distribution channels for the series? I know there are DVDs; you can buy the entire run. Any other options? · Is it possible to accurately estimate how much profit this property has generated? CRITIQUE / INTERPRETATION / USE · Maybe rhetorical analysis is the way to go on this; it seems to be trying to persuade, but what specifically is it trying to do? How does it instruct the audience? What’s the audience take-away? What is the rhetorical strategy of the episode? · What are the chronological segments of the episode? It’s clearly the standard sitcom narrative structure, but I need to break it down and identify what happens in each segment. · Should I bother to apply Todorov’s Equilibrium-Disequilibrium-Equilibrium narrative fo.

1. CMDA 210-02
Haines
Thursday January 30, 2019
PRELIMINARY NOTES ON FRESH PRINCE: MISTAKEN
IDENTITY
If I were going to write a 10-page critical analysis of today’s
screening, these would be my preliminary notes. I would
organize these notes as a kind of launch for my writing project,
keeping in mind that multiple drafts would be in my future.
Good writing is re-writing, yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s TRUE! Some
of these notes would help lead me to my final draft; some of
these notes would be discarded along the way. I am sharing this
with you as a model for your own preliminary notes.
PRODUCTION
· What production company produced the series?
· Who are the principle personnel on the production and
creative side? What are their professional track records? What
happened to them after they finished with the series? Is their
current status important?
· I need to make sure I have the episode’s end credits in my
notes.
· Date of original broadcast.
· What was happening in the U.S. at the time of the original
broadcast? What’s the original political and social context of
the episode?
· Can I find out what the ratings were generally for the series?
· Can I find out the specific audience rating for this episode
when it first aired?
· Looks like standard multi-camera sitcom live production; flat
sitcom lighting; can I contact somebody on SCM’s production
side for info?
· Can I find out the budget per episode?
· Who are the principle actors and their track records? What

2. happened to them after the series?
· Who currently owns the series?
· Is there anything in the trade press that deals with the
production of the series? Is it relevant to my argument?
DISTRIBUTION
· What network originally broadcast the series? Did the series
stay on that network throughout the entire run?
· Can I figure out how this series fit into the overall network
programming schedule in its original run?
· Can I track down hard audience data about demographics?
What demographic categories were the original audience?
· Can I find out anything about the off-network syndication deal
that propelled the series into TV markets throughout the
country? Does the series have international off-network
distribution?
· Besides off-network syndication, what are the other
distribution channels for the series? I know there are DVDs;
you can buy the entire run. Any other options?
· Is it possible to accurately estimate how much profit this
property has generated?
CRITIQUE / INTERPRETATION / USE
· Maybe rhetorical analysis is the way to go on this; it seems to
be trying to persuade, but what specifically is it trying to do?
How does it instruct the audience? What’s the audience take-
away? What is the rhetorical strategy of the episode?
· What are the chronological segments of the episode? It’s
clearly the standard sitcom narrative structure, but I need to
break it down and identify what happens in each segment.
· Should I bother to apply Todorov’s Equilibrium-
Disequilibrium-Equilibrium narrative formula? That might help
me to identity the rhetorical strategy. Yes! I should do that;

3. maybe use it in the paper. What IS the problem to be solved? Is
it solved? Is Equilibrium actually restored? In whose interest?
· OK, it’s about race and social class. How are race and social
class visually coded? Are the aural codes important in this
regard? I have to ID the codes! Start there and build.
· Stereotypes; got to ID them.
· Crazy white dude in the jail cell; HUH? What is the function
of this character? I need to know about the specific songs he
sings; why those choices? What’s with the minstrel thing?!
· Can I identify how this episode serves somebody’s political /
social/ economic interests? That’s the key to understanding the
ideological component of the episode.
· Has anybody else written about the series, or better---- has
anybody else written about this episode? What did they say?
· Any relevance to current political / social issues in 2019?
Black Lives Matters? Any campus contacts? Community
contacts?
· So, it looks like I will deal with ideology, codes of race and
social class, rhetorical strategy, narrative structure---- more
complicated than I figured!
SOCIAL REPRODUCTION
· Can I figure out what swag accompanied this series in its
original network run? T-shirts, action dolls, games?
· If I move quickly, I can organize a screening for a few people
(fellow majors, residence hall types, family members, etc.) and
then pick their brains about their reactions; kind of low-end
ethnographic audience analysis that Haines says is legit. 3 to 5
people only, otherwise it’s too much to handle.
· Reminder to self: This series has a long shelf life. It’s still
around, so it’s clearly important cross-generational. There’s got
to be some social reproduction going on; probably will surprise
me.
NEXT STEPS
· Start following up now on the questions I’ve jotted down.
· Develop some sense of the time line for the project; most

4. important, focus on at least one of the four segments, and start
writing a draft, even if it’s the “s*it” draft. Run it by Haines.
He says he’s my editor.
· Got to track down APA Style Guide ASAP; check Google for
free on-line summary of basic APA Style; format of paper must
comply.
· I may not be able to answer all the questions, so what’s my
triage plan? Also, what relatively challenging things can I
accomplish in order to demonstrate ingenuity, self-direction,
etc., because I DO want the A!
CMDA 210-02
Haines
Thursday January 31, 2019
SCREENING
Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
Season One / Episode Six: Mistaken Identity
Classic “fish out of water” formulaic sitcom; Will goes from
West Philly to Bel-Air (a very up-scale district in Los Angeles)
Network run: 1990-1996
Widespread off-network syndication worldwide
Created by comedian/satirist Andy Borowitz (1958- ) who
now writes a satirical political column for New Yorker
magazine.
In this episode, Will Smith (Will Smith, 1973- ) and Carlton
Banks (Alfonso Ribeiro, 1971- ) are arrested as they drive
from Los Angeles to Palm Springs.
The Formulaic Nature of the Situation Comedy
As a genre, the situation comedy can be understood as a highly
ritualized attempt at problem solving. Indeed, the “situation” is
always problematic. Characters get into trouble, and they have

5. to overcome it in about 18 minutes. How they overcome it is the
comedy part! The limited time frame requires economical
writing, one reason the genre is so very difficult for writers to
master and why the genre tends to be so formulaic.
The genre is ideologically volatile, because the problematic
situation very often taps into social, political, and economic
issues. The genre does this, because the problematic situation
has to be immediately recognized by the audience. There is a
reductive element to the writing; complex issues have to be
streamlined to fit into the time frame.
Additionally, there is almost always a stereotyping of characters
in the genre; stereotyping makes the characters immediately
recognizable. Part of the success of this series is that it plays
against racist stereotypes in our culture. And this famous
episode, especially, deals with race and social class.
As we conclude our reading of Stuart Hall’s influential work in
the area of Cultural Studies, consider the episode as a location
for ideological struggle. What values clash in this episode?
What seems to be the implied hegemonic or dominant ideology,
and how is it challenged? In whose interest is the world put
“right” by the episode’s closure? As an example of rhetorical
strategy, what seems to be the episode’s persuasive element?
What is the so-called privileged reading position for audience
members? What are the narrative functions of the character
Bob?
“One is the loneliest number you will ever do.” (Bob is played
by Raymond McLeod)

6. CMDA 210-02
Haines
Spring Semester 2019
POSTED: January 8, 2019
THE FINAL CRITICAL PAPER
Specifications
PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT: Remember that the
assignment is intended to give class members the opportunity to
apply some of the theoretical concepts that we are examining in
the assigned textbook (O&M), additional readings (especially
Stuart Hall’s Encoding/Decoding essay) and in classroom
lectures and discussions.
You apply the theoretical concepts to some example of media
content that you select and that you identify in your Game Plan,
due in class on September 19. You use the theoretical concepts
to support your interpretation of meaning of the media content.
In other words, you get to function as a serious media critic.
The assignment is also intended to help each class member
develop a coherent critical perspective on media content that
can be used again, well after the course concludes. Your critical
perspective is expected to keep evolving after the course, as you
fine tune it and as you gain experience and confidence in the
evaluation of media content.
It’s important to keep in mind that the overriding intention of
the entire course is to sharpen your critical skills, so that you
start thinking about media content in new ways. The critical
paper offers you the opportunity demonstrate those critical
skills and to build a strong foundation that you can take with
you at the end of the semester. It’s a valuable asset.

7. THE FORMAT OF YOUR PAPER:
· 10 pages, double spaced, computer generated. Your paper must
have a standard title page and a set of References at the end.
The title page and the References page are in addition to the ten
pages that makeup the body of your paper. A sample title page
is attached to these Specifications. You are required to use it as
a model. You are required to provide a brief Abstract for your
paper. We’ll ignore the APA requirement to place the Abstract
right at the beginning of your paper; let’s place it on the Title
Page as indicated in the sample below.
· Comply with the guidelines found in the American
Psychological Association’s (APA) style guide. These
guidelines are especially important as they pertain to source
citations within the body of your paper and to the References at
the end of your paper. Other style guides, including MLA, are
not acceptable.
· Do not use a plastic cover for your paper. Do not submit your
paper in a cardboard file.
· Do not use a paper clip to hold the pages together; use a
staple. Every student should have a stapler as part of an
academic tool box. I do not carry one around for your use in
class. Staplers are available for your use in Morehead Hall, but
you should have one of your own. Some class members may
need to go long on the page count, going beyond the required 10
pages, perhaps including additional pages that include images,
etc. This is fine, but it may mean that you will need the
industrial sized, heavy duty stapler in Morehead Hall. Under
very special circumstances, I will consider giving permission to
use a metal clip, but this must be discussed well before the due
date.
THE ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE OF YOUR PAPER:
The structure of your paper must reflect the Encoding /

8. Decoding concept presented by Stuart Hall in the essay you read
on Canvas. You can accomplish this in one of two ways.
OPTION ONE
Four Sections with Subheadings: If you select this structure,
you use Stuart Hall’s formula of Production, Distribution, Use,
and Social Reproduction as clearly identified sections in your
paper. Here’s the approach:
· Production: Where does the content originate? Where is it
actually manufactured? What interesting and relevant things can
you tell us about the production process and the creative team
responsible for it? What’s the track record of the creative team?
Can you find out the production budget and the profit numbers?
How about ratings, box office sales, unit sales? How have
audiences and critics / reviewers reacted to the product? This
section positions your content as an industrial product, and so
does the next section.
· Distribution (Hall calls it Circulation): Simply, where does the
audience have to go to access this content? Network or cable
TV? Premium cable outlets? Internet services like Netflix or
Amazon? What are the various platforms that make the content
available? DVD? CD? Streaming? Note that distribution (what
Hall calls circulation) is very important, because it indicates
reach and share-of-mind.
· Critique (Hall calls it Use): Remember that Hall employs the
term Use to stress how audiences interpret the meaning of the
product’s content. At this point in the Encoding / Decoding
process, from Hall’s perspective, the audience experiences---or
“reads”---the content’s symbolic codes and thereby generates
the meaning of the content. Here, we do a bit of finessing of
Hall’s concept. Given the nature of the paper assignment, the
Use section becomes your critical interpretation of the content.

9. YOU are the user. So, why don’t we modify the term Use and
call it Critique?
In this Critique section, you get to make sense of concepts from
our reading and from lectures and discussions to interpret the
meaning of the content. Your perspective---your head----
becomes the instrument of examination; it’s your job to tell
your reader the meaning that you discover in the content.
In other words, this is the most challenging section of your
paper, and it is probably the longest section. Keep in mind,
also, that this section is an argument that you’re making, so it is
definitely rhetorical. You’re trying to convince your reader to
experience the content the way that you experience it. You’re
probably trying to convince your reader to either love or hate
the content. You’re trying to win an argument. I’ve provided
some tips for winning the argument at the end of these
Specifications.
· Social Reproduction: This section gets a little tricky, because
you may be examining a product that has simply not generated
much social reproduction among audience members. On the
other hand, keep in mind that social reproduction can be
nuanced and even under the radar, far from your observation.
Think in terms of how audience members (including you) make
use of the content as models of behavior or stylistics. There
may even be news reports about some audience members acting
out specific aspects of the narrative, perhaps adopting
costuming. Behavioral responses are especially golden in this
section, because behavior indicates penetration of the culture
and significant share-of-mind.

10. One of the more bizarre current examples of social
reproduction.
Now, here is a Big Warning: Do not, under any set of
circumstances, make claims about “effects.” Don’t even use the
word “effect” in this paper. In our field, media “effects”
research is distinctly different from the cultural orientation of
CMDA 210. You may observe behavior that seems to mimic the
content you have chosen, but deal with that behavior as cultural
phenomena, as if you were a cultural anthropologist. We can’t
make claims about media “effects,” because the theories that we
are using in this course simply do not allow us to do so. We’ll
talk more about this issue in class.
An interesting, productive, and entertaining way for you to get a
handle on the content’s social reproduction could include some
audience interviews or observations. The potential value of this
approach will be determined by the nature of the medium in
which the content operates. We’ll talk about this option in class.
OPTION TWO
You collapse all four phases of the Encoding / Decoding
formula into a well written essay with a structure that you
determine, using the eight sample “A” essays at the end of our
textbook (pp. 351-374) as inspiration. Given this option, your
paper should still hit upon the four phases of the formula, but
you have different options for creative expression. Don’t go this
route unless you read all eight sample essays carefully, as well
as other brief essays about current media content that I’ll
handout in class.
TIPS FOR WINNING YOUR ARGUMENT:
· Use relevant concepts from O&M, lectures, and discussions,

11. but use them wisely. Don’t just identify theoretical concepts for
the sake of identifying concepts. Make sure they actually apply
to your argument. Not all of the textbook’s concepts will be
relevant to your critical project. Part of the game is to locate
and apply the concepts that will support your persuasive
argument.
· You must put your essay through several drafts. Your first
draft should be written right off the top of your head, as if you
were writing a long letter home. First drafts are usually
horrible; at least, mine are. Most of the time, first drafts are
self-indulgent, incoherent, and thoroughly unpersuasive. But a
writer of criticism has to go through the torture and
embarrassment of a first draft just to discover what the writer is
trying to say. Get something down on paper, and then start
making sense of what you have written, using critical theory.
· Use specific examples from the media content to illustrate the
observations you make. The number three is the usual number
of examples that turn up in this kind of student essay. You need
at least three examples to support your observations, more if
you care to expand. Strict adherence to the number three helps
keep you away from the temptation to describe the entire bit of
content, which is unnecessary and potentially boring for your
reader. Your paper should not repeat in great detail the entire
narrative of your content. Note how the sample essays avoid
that trap. Read the sample student essays that O&M provide at
the end of textbook.
· Avoid the passive voice whenever possible. Remember, you’re
making an argument. You want to be declarative and forceful.
Take the position that you have nailed the content; you have the
definitive interpretation of the meaning. You’re tellin’ it like it
is. You’re throwing punches in an academic boxing ring. So,
avoid phrases like “In my opinion,” “I seem to think,” “I
believe that,” “It would appear to me that,” etc. Good criticism
has a declarative tone. It should be hard, if not impossible, for
you to imagine anybody disagreeing with your argument.
Criticism has an attitude. Adopt it.

12. · And good criticism almost always has an element of self-
disclosure, often implicit. The critic often reveals some
autobiographical aspect or values and beliefs, without even
trying to do so. If you read good criticism, you develop some
understanding of the person who is courageous enough to act on
the need to write it. Remember: Your paper is objective in the
sense that it’s based on disciplined observation and
interpretation (this is where the examples come into play); your
paper is also subjective, because you are revealing the meaning
that you, as the instrument of observation, discover in the
content.
· Don’t forget “interpellation” and Stuart Hall’s three reading
positions: Dominant, Negotiated, and Oppositional. They could
come in handy.
· Ott&Mack (O&M) must be used within the body of your
paper, and the textbook must be included in your References at
the end of your paper. The quality of your argument will also be
judged by the other sources you include. These other sources
will vary throughout the class, of course, but they should be
there. Trade journals, academic journals, popular press pieces,
etc., are all fair game. Wikipedia is not fair game, although
Wikipedia may offer you some tips on other sources. Remember
that Wikipedia is nothing more than a very helpful, often very
cool, on-line encyclopedia. That’s all that it is. An encyclopedia
citation, even from the legendary Encyclopedia Britannica
(which operates on an entirely different intellectual level from
Wikipedia) will undercut your credibility and weaken your
argument, unless you are the one who wrote the entry.
· You may want use the concepts of genre and narrative in your
paper, although it’s not required.
· Beginning now, as you start writing the first draft, you should
consider me your editor, a role that I have played
professionally. I like being an editor, so let me at your drafts as
you proceed. I’ll be happy to meet with writers throughout
January, February, and March, but access to your editor
becomes very dodgy in late-March and early April.

13. · Get this writing project underway now, not later.
· Feel free to run your ideas by other faculty and staff members
and the people who should be the harshest critics of your work:
Fellow students.
SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
· Two copies of your paper are required. One hard copy will be
submitted in class at our April 18, 2019 meeting. An electronic
copy is also required for submission as a pdf via our Canvas
site, also on April 18, 2019.
SAMPLE TITLE PAGE WITH ABSTRACT
A Buddhist Rhetoric of Suffering:
Visualizing Gun Violence in the Police Procedural
Mildred Pierce
School of Communication and Media
Montclair State University
CMDA 210-02
Professor Harry Haines

14. Submitted April 18, 2019
ABSTRACT: This paper examines the visual codes used to
represent gun violence in three television police procedurals:
Hill Street Blues, Homicide: Life on the Street, and Blue
Bloods. The paper makes use of Stuart Hall’s Encoding /
Decoding concept in conjunction with Rhetorical and Cultural
theories and argues that the visual codes constitute a rhetoric of
suffering consistent with contemporary Buddhist thought.
CMDA 210-02 Spring 2019 UN 1070 T/Th 10:00-11:15
GAME PLAN FOR FINAL CRITICAL PAPER
SPRING SEMESTER 2019
Detach this sheet, fill in the info, and be sure to submit it in
class on Tuesday February 5, 2019. Do not submit it via Canvas
or email.
YOUR NAME
_____________________________________________________
__

15. Identify the example of media content that you will analyze for
your Final Critical Paper: