Mayhem, Magic, Movement, and Methods: Teaching and Learning about Hearing and Listening

This is an article about a course, but shadows a much wider history of online education, media literacies and sonic media.[1] Teaching research methods is difficult.[2] Students hate it. Staff tolerate it. Occasionally, there is a comrade or sister who demonstrates as much commitment to Marxist and feminist research methods as Paris Hilton does to shopping, but most of the time it is hard to summon enthusiasm. Students approach these often mandatory courses with the excitement of a dental appointment. Similarly, academic staff justify such courses as being good for students, like regular flossing. I had a problem. I had to develop a Masters-level methods module in Media Studies that could be taught throughout the world to students fluent in many languages and derived from myriad disciplines and professional experiences. It had to be applicable and rigorous, flexible and committed, motivating and stimulating. I had few staff, fewer resources and no technical support. It was just me, a microphone, an overloaded hard drive and a slow, standardized and generic university portal. This paper explores what happened from this mayhem with methods.[3] It is a truth of education that we teach the surprises. Through this process, I learnt how to transform hearing into listening[4] and surprise into an opportunity. From this teaching-led research project, I explore how teachers can use the dynamic and emerging literature on sonic media, auditory cultures and media literacy to not only rescue a method from mayhem, but create magic through the movement in ideas and application. When the Fast Capitalism of contemporary higher education slams into the slow processes of teaching research methods, the resultant contradictions are productive and revelatory.