Pretty easy class overall. He's very helpful during office hours and helps edits your papers. TAs also are open to proofreading your papers and they also grade them, so I would suggest giving them your essays for them to look over. I would recommend this class if you want an easy ge!

TAKE THIS CLASS IF YOU WANT TO BOOST YOUR GPA. Theres theres a midterm, some photo/art reviews (which I did pretty much the day they were due and got A's), a midterm, and a final essay which is 3, 3 page essays. I would recommend doing the essays a week in advance because it got in the way of studying for my finals, but overall It was pretty easy. Most people, including me, just sign in and leave. It's 2 days a week, no discussion. If you don't stay for the lectures, it won't matter cause everything is based on common sense.

Take this class if you want an easy GE. There is no discussion, and you only have to attend two lectures. He does take attendance through an app called Arkaive, but you can leave after you check in. I never read any of the required readings or paid close attention during the lecture, and I still passed the class. Of course, once the midterm or final essay comes, I encourage you to look at the slides and the readings. I do regret purchasing the "required" book since I never read it besides using it as a reference in my final essay.

This class is very much what you have read from previous comments. Attendance is mandatory, but attendance is also all you truly need to succeed in this class. Show up, pay attention, take notes, and you will be fine. The class consisted of 2 reflections on outside events, a photo analysis project, a midterm and a take home essay final. That is it. You can get by without doing most of the readings if you focus during lecture. At times the class can be rather dry, especially during more of the history lectures, but in general, Lunenfeld does a good job of making the topic interesting. I highly recommend taking this course. Not only is it rather easy, it is also interesting and worth while.

After reading all of the previous reviews I still decided to take the class because of the fact that it had no discussion and a lot of people were getting A's. While that is true, you have to think about what you want. If you don't want to think about the class and want a lot of free time during the lecture to do other work, then it's probably worth it. This year it was 2 classes for an hour and 20 minutes . However, you have to understand that once finals roll around, you will be completely and utterly unprepared. The final is a take home final, featuring 3 short papers, which doesn't sound that bad. No. Wrong. You have to use quotes from all the readings that you will undoubtably not do, and the prompts are complicated, theoretical, and make little sense- much like Lunenfeld's teaching style. Most of the assignments in this class will have you thinking: why am I doing this. Also, the majority of the information is made up by Lunenfeld himself, along with the readings which are mostly written by him. If you actually want to learn something, this class is a bad idea. But if you are the type of person (which a lot of us are) who thinks a quarter of doing nothing is worth being completely and utterly lost for the final, then it's worth it. Also, your grade depends on your TA, so if you have a bitchy TA then you're screwed. If you have a nice TA, the class is a cake walk and you don't have to worry about the fact that nothing you write makes sense.

SELLING:
The Secret War Between Downloading and Uploading: Tales of the Computer as Culture Machine by Peter Lunenfeld.

It was the book used in DESMA 8.The book is just like new. selling it for $10
text me if interested **********

The good thing about this class is that its only one three hour lecture per week, with no discussions. Most people leave after attendance is taken during the break. And you can do well in the class without paying attention at all during lecture. Your entire grade is based on whether your TA likes your writing.

Lunenfeld doesn't even care that most of the audience isn't paying attention. The class is used for promoting his book about stuff that nobody cares about. You can't google any of the topics because he made them up and gives them vague and arbitrary definitions in his book.

The photo assignment and reviews barely take any effort. You only have to read the readings once: when the professor tells you that there's a quiz the next week.

Although this class requires minimal effort, your grade is entirely dependent on whether your TA likes your writing. My friends who got the best grades were the ones who bullshitted their essays the night before. If you're good at that, this class should be an easy A for you.

Lunenfeld is a great guy, but never take DESMA 8 unless you want to waste 3 hours a week stuck in a lecture room listening about bullshit media history that makes absolutely no sense and is useless. Literally 90% of the students are at lectures because of mandatory attendance and do something else (e.g. working on their homework, watching movies on their laptops) in class. Plus your grade basically depends on which TA you get (which you don't even get to choose) and some kids work really hard on the assignments and end up with B or B+ while some get straight As from their TAs who don't even read their students' works. NEVER, NEVER TAKE THIS CLASS. Enrolling in this class is the worst decision that I made in my life so far.

He seriously cares about his students and if you go to his office hours, he is really willing to help you in his class to understand his material and even help you with midterms. With that being said, this class is completely graded based on the teaching assistant, and you can't choose since it's based on your last names. The two papers (midterm and final) are fairly easy however the TA's give you no comments for your grade and it basically seems like an arbitrary grade.

Class grading:
2 quizzes (1 is dropped) - 5%
1 midterm- 30%
Paper about photography-15%
2 Reviews- 10% (5% each)
Final- 40%

This class was easily the biggest joke I've ever laughed through at UCLA. I went to every single lecture and can say with pure honesty that I haven't learned a single thing. I was disappointed; as a Cinema/Media studies student, I was extremely excited about the class, but it was an utter waste of 3 hours per week.

I will say one thing: they go on and on about how crucial the readings are to pass; I didn't read a single page (I literally did not open any of the books or even glance at the online readings) and yet finished the class with a B+. If you want a ridiculous(ly easy) GE class where all you have to do is show up and sign your name on an attendance sheet, maybe take a few basic notes while silently giggling at the fact that this professor sounds like Stewie Griffin, and write the essays the night before they're do, then DesMA 8 is the class for you!