Academic Team:
Dean Mundy (dmundy@uoregon.edu)
FIG Seminar Instructor
Paige
FIG Assistant
Courses in the FIG:
UGST 109 FIG Seminar
Monday | 16:00-17:20 | CH 103 | 16399 | 1 Credit
In the SOJC, you learn to craft compelling stories. Stories that draw you in, challenge your thinking, and make compelling arguments. Among all stories, however, human stories have long been the most powerful. And one tool we use in creating those human stories is creating a “persona” – a description of a fictional person who represents an audience we’re trying to reach. What drives them, frustrates them, their hopes, fears, demographics, etc.
So each week, I’m going to give you a communication challenge. You determine who might be a good audience to target with that challenge. Then, using tools like CHAT GPT, you’ll do some digging to find out about that audience, and then develop a persona for them. At the same time, in class we’ll discuss your own transition to college and the process of building character as a developing professional.
By the end of the term, you will have developed a cast of characters, so to speak. So your final project, just for fun, is to write a fictional story based on those characters.
Along the way, you’ll find I, too, can be a character, as in a self-proclaimed smart Alec. So let’s brainstorm, do some digging, tell good stories, and have some fun along the way.
PSY 202Z Intro to Psychology II
Social Science (>2)| Tuesday/Thursday | 10:00-11:50 | STB 156 | 14610 | 4 Credits
+Discussion | Thursday | 12:00-12:50 | MCK 347 | 14617
Introduction to the science and application of psychology. Emphasis will be placed on psychological concepts, theories, and principles related to: Personality, Social Psychology, Health and Well-Being, Motivation and Emotion, Disorders, Therapies, Lifespan Development, and related topics
JCOM 201 Making Sense of Media
Social Science (>2)| Tuesday/Thursday | 14:00-15:50 | 123 PAC | 12700 | 4 Credits
Nearly every facet of human life today—work, play, study, relationships, and more—involves media. This course examines how this came to be, why it matters that media are so thoroughly infused in our lives individually and collectively, and how we can become more thoughtful and engaged media consumers and creators. Making sense of media means grappling with the social, cultural, economic, interpersonal, and political implications of this current moment: one in which people have increasingly expansive and near-instantaneous access to an abundance of information—social media, entertainment, games, news, and more—in a way that is unprecedented in the history of communication technologies. Media consumption has been transformed, but so has media production: People can create and disseminate their own content, receive and share files, and closely monitor the activities of friends and others. At the same time, networked communication platforms have forged new relationships between institutions and individuals and between social movements, states, and corporations. Over the course of the term, we will explore some key transformations in media over the past century, paying close attention to the interplay of meaning and power and the way media contributes to both shaping our identities and facilitating self-expression. We will also explore the rise and development of media professions, and examine some of the central tensions in the media world today: How can we tell whom or what to trust via media? What does verification look like in a world of fakes and misinformation? And how can we avoid being fooled by the use of numbers, data, and visualizations? In all, this course will equip students with a foundation in media literacy for the 21st century.