This is the best class I have ever taken. The only assignment was a final presentation or video and all of the guest speakers were very helpful and knowledgeable. If you aren't willing to work it's probably not right for you but if you are you won't regret it.

Rhonda Hammer was hands down the best professor I have had at UCLA so far. She cares so much about the subject, which makes learning it more enjoyable. This also means she is open for discussion, questions, and alternate points of view. If you care to learn, then she cares that you are learning. The readings are exquisite, eye-opening, and brilliant, that is if you actually do them. The cultural studies approach taught in this class by Hammer is not readily available in the UC system, but is of high value. I recommend taking this class if you can, for it offers a unique perspective which is so relevant to our everyday lives given our high engagement with media. Rhonda's passion and experience makes her a great professor, very real and down to earth. She was incredibly helpful with the essays, looking over FULL drafts before the due date and providing extensive feedback, which is incredibly rare for a professor to do. It is not hard to earn an A, as long as you take advantage of the resources she provides you with. Love her.

Yes, some of the materials are a bit dated. I think this is because the rate at which quality independent media on the study/effect of media is not up to par. There are definitely some really good contemporary media that could be used available on YouTube but they don't seem to have extensive research to back up their claims and/or the same sort of credentials. The screenings are still relevant to society today. It's up to you to integrate new materials. You can do so in your papers, or bring up such examples in class discussions.

Class discussions, to be fair, are limited. With all the screenings, there isn't much time to spend on discussion, which is what I consider the biggest weakness of the course. Lecture isn't done through slides. You receive a handout (class notes) at the beginning of each class. They are written in full sentences. This initially stressed me out because I like to have a visual slides with bullet points to follow along with. I also like to type on my laptop (no laptops/electronics allowed, except in first row) so it was difficult to adjust to, but totally okay. Lecture is about getting a feel for materials (I only took notes on the screenings to remember key scenes/points) and you do not need to know anything word for word--especially since the only graded materials are your papers so you have access to any definitions/concepts you may need. No memorization necessary.

As for the other person saying that the notes and handouts (midterm/final guidelines) are hard to follow, it's true. This is because everything is written in full sentences, and every possible issue/element of the midterm/final is discussed. If you read the whole thing and can highlight the important bits, you'll be fine. Also, Rhonda doesn't like to talk about midterm/final requirements in class because it wastes time. If you have any misunderstandings, she'll totally help you if you communicate through email, or meet with her before/after class or during break. I took a mark off for easiness because other people seemed to complain that the grading was out of wack. I think they should have tried to meet with Rhonda. I noticed that many people were confused but didn't take the time out of class to help themselves.

As for the assignments, besides the midterm paper and final paper, there are only weekly readings but they are very short. Usually 2-6 pages each, maybe 3-6 readings weekly. They're pretty interesting/fun to read too.

The class overall is easy if you come to every lecture and do the readings. You should get a good grade and learn a lot from the class if you go to office hours (people say "go to office hours" all the time but it's true).

Don't take her class.
Class contents are really old and dated. Many of the mdeia she has shown are from 1990's and 2000's some are even on VHS. That tells you she has not updated her lectures from 15 years ago. And we not taking Greek Mythology, you know?

She can be very vindictive and often talks down on the students. Her paper prompts are disorganized and comes in bold face letters, underlines everywhere with no rhyme or reason. Some parts are numbered without any prioritized order. They are written for 4 pages in single spaced , 9pt. characters... That is already longer than the paper itself. Then, comes the additional 5pages of part 2. ... Then another, and another. Aome are duplicates, but it gets more confusing than helping.

After all that, if we fail to decipher her inefficient communication, somehow, it is our fault for not reading. Haha. It gets hilarious when I realized that she is also teaching communication. Yup, that is like the drunk driver teaching precision driving.

Save yourself. Take something else. Or just dont take any class. i wasted a lot of time for something I already know. There is a better way to do this. I assure you, yoh will not miss anything.

Rhonda Hammer is one of the best professors I have had at UCLA. I took this class because my friend highly recommended Rhonda's class. I would highly recommend Rhonda's class. Take this class before you graduate! The class fills up fast for a reason.

Each week, Rhonda hands out an outline of her lecture. For required readings, we had online readings and textbook readings. She picks out specific readings because the readings directly link to the concepts taught in class. Though it may seem like there is a lot to read, the readings are very easy to read through because the text material itself is actually very interesting and entertaining.

What I loved most about Rhonda's class was that when I told her about my interest in disability studies and disability readings, she changed her syllabus to add readings on disability in the media. She listens to her students and cares about her students. I was very touched that she changed her course curriculum.

Rhonda and her TA are very approachable. Rhonda is very responsive through email. Rhonda and her TA put detailed, written feedback responses on the midterms because they want students to improve. She helps her students become better writers because she cares about each student. I became a better writer from her class.

i liked the content and the media presented in class, not a fan of the professor. I often found her hard to follow, and GOOD LUCK trying to get her to answer your question. Ever ytime I asked a question she would reply with the most vague and off-topic answer often followed by a tangent about something that happened in Canada.

She also assigned her husband and her own work as readings, which to me seemed a little pretentious especially since one of the core readings was her husband's essay on cultural media literacy and his points were repeated in every lecture(i get it, you love him).

She throws around a lot of big terms but offers little to no concrete explanation. Her class notes weren't very helpful it was like she just threw a bunch of terms and quotes together (which was obvious from the many spelling errors). Her directions for assignments aren't very clear.

She also had a TA that wasn't very helpful. Took two weeks to respond to an e-mail and then stood me up when it came to meeting up with me.

I personally did not have a great experience in her class, if you're tired, don't show up and just watch the videos she shows in class online. I wouldn't necessarily suggest her seeing as how I thought she was not a very helpful professor, but the content of the class and a few the readings (definitely not all, especially not the ones assigned by her and her husband)were pretty insightful. plan on teaching yourself during the course should you be stuck taking her class.

This was honestly one of the best classes that I have taken at UCLA. I feel that I learned something that has both academic worth as well as practical application. All of the assignments really helped to advance my understanding of the concepts and Rhonda is incredibly knowledgable in the field. She really cares about the students in the class and wants everyone to learn. We watched a lot of excerpts from films and documentaries that aided our understanding of the topics we were discussing. She even went out of her way to provide writing help for any student in the class that needed help or had trouble with writing. Honestly a great class, I wish I could take her others too!

Rhonda Hammer's class is one of the best classes I have had at UCLA. This really should be a required class for all students! She cares deeply about her students, is accessible, and provides numerable writing tutorials to help students with papers. She is very passionate about the subject matter and provides extremely interesting articles for reading, many of which I saved on my hard drive for additional use. In fact the articles were so good that I also read all of the recommended readings. She is very clear about what she expects and if you follow all of her guidelines it is not hard to do well. There was one mid-term paper, 3-5 pages, and one final paper, 7-10 pages. There is a lot of freedom to chose the medium you are most interested in. The videos and guest speakers were all excellent. Although there were students who tried to dominate the conversation, Hammer never had favorites at all!! She encourages everyone to participate and express their opinions. She is one of the most caring instructors on campus. I highly recommend this class!

Professor Hammer, although she would insist that you note that she's actually a lecturer, is one of the greatest profs i've ever had at ucla. she is extremely educated and knowledgeable about the top of critical media studies and extremely passionate. it's not difficult to see that she's a bleeding liberal but it doesn't mean she doesn't teach an amazing class. the readings, the syllabus, and instructions that she emails may seem intimidating, but she's really not at all. i bet those are just the result of years of students constantly complaining and asking the same questions over and over. she's clear about what she expects and just wants students to do well. her course is not difficult and can be very fun (it's about pop culture and media--can't say that's boring in my opinion). Her papers are not too difficult, you just need to go to the writing sessions she and her helper hold and make sure to have your thursday nights open if you want to see her. she only gets paid to be on campus once a week (i'm thinking) so she isn't going to drive miles just to see one student (that's just not smart). everyone should take her class and learn a thing or two about the media and how it affects us. good times!

Unapproachable, she has her favorites and is not willing to meet up with her students unless its 5-10 before and after class. I contacted her for help she declined. Rhonda comes across as Anti-American, shows bitterness against military which I find offensive given that I'm a combat veteran sacrificed 6 years of my life. She needs to keep her political views outside the classroom, very unprofessional. She assigns a lot of reading, which most of the reading is redundant and its nearly impossible to keep up with the reading unless this is the only class you're taking. I wouldn't recommend her.