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!

I hate his phrasing in finals. Dont make much sense to me even if I've been attending all his lectures, managing to take a fair amount of notes, and keeping up with most of the reading he assigned. I am seriously thinking about dropping this class in tenth week after getting 4 A-s in the previous assignments. His take-home final gets in my way of studying!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you are looking for a GE course that doesn't require much time in terms of attendance, this is the right class, because most people I know leave the class after signing up. However, if you are really interested in learning more about media history, I am afraid that from this class I learned least. Maybe it's because of the three-hour lecture in a dark and huge auditorium or maybe it's because of Prof. Lunenfeld's voice(which sounds very tired) and his lecture(which is very dry), I almost never managed to stay focused and took down any useful notes apart from copying his slide which he would post online(FYI, I am the kind of person who usually ends up with three pages or more notes after an one-hour lecture). No doubt Prof. Lunenfeld is really knowledgeable in this field and has made great preparation beforehand as his slides are usually neat and contain lots of information. However, I am afraid that he is simply not a good lecturer. I feel like he has put too many dense texts on his slides that he ends up spending a lot of time reading them without explaining much. Thus, I feel like I learnt most from reading his assigned reading and his notes by my self although I swear I went to every one of his lectures and at least tried very hard to stay focused. Sometimes, I feel he doesn't seem to care much about us, as his audience, because most of the time he is either looking down at his laptop reading sth. or staring blankly at an audience of absent-minded, shoe-shopping, facebooking students. The only interaction with the audience he invites and gets is "a quick show of hands." Sometimes I feel sorry for him because almost the only persons responding are his two TAs. In addition,he assigned tremendously dense and too much reading which he doesn't even cover much in class. Without a discussion session, the incentive to read is ever less. However, when you get the take-home midterm prompt, that's when you start to regret not keeping up with the readings cuz it asks you to reference, if I am not mistaken, five readings in each answer. Lastly, I don't really like his grading plan. You feel like you've written way too much for a GE class..... BTW, just a word of warning, this media history class satisfies SOCIAL ANALYSIS requirement which is really weird. I sincerely regret taking this class partly because of that.

I would HIGHLY recommend this class for a GE. There is no discussion for this class. There is a three hour lecture once a week. You must check in but most people leave after they have checked in. His lectures are semi-interesting, but you can get the notes online. There is one assignment, 2 reviews on different lectures, a 1500 word paper for the midterm and a 2000 word paper for the final. The grading is VERY fair. This class is actually very interesting. Lunenfeld is a great professor, I really enjoyed his class.