JOUR 4871/5871
Alternative Media
Spring 2004
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:30
– 10:45
CEDU 140
Andrew
Calabrese
103A
Armory
Phone:
(O) 492-5374
E-mail:
andrew.calabrese@colorado.edu
Office
hours: T 11:00 – 1:00, or by appt.
Course
Overview:
This is a course about the culture and politics of
independent/alternative media. Readings and assignments will focus on the
United States, as well as on selected cross-cultural differences and
transnational patterns. Case studies will examine “underground” print media,
small-scale independent documentary film and video, community radio,
alternative music, and a variety of uses of the Internet for maintaining and
mobilizing social movements. Readings, projects, and classroom activities will
focus on the reasons why alternative media emerge in a given era, and on
indications of their value and impact. The course will take an historical
approach and examine how alternative media have been used in a wide range of
movements, including slave abolitionism, peace movements since World War I, the
civil rights movement of the 1960s, the American Indian Movement, and the
current global justice movement. We will also study selected examples of
government surveillance and repression of alternative media producers in the
United States and other countries.
Readings:
John
D.H. Downing, with Tamara Villarreal Ford, Genève Gil and Laura Stein, Radical
Media: Rebellious Communication and Social Movements (Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage, 2001).
Nick
Couldry and James Curran, eds. Contesting Media Power: Alternative Media in
a Networked World (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003).
Additional
readings will be required.
This
course involves lecture and discussion
sessions; in-class video screenings, web demonstrations, and other audiovisual
exercises; visits by local alternative media producers; critical analyses of
contemporary writing on the topic, writing assignments, and a final paper or
project.
Grades
will be based on the following criteria:
Five writing assignments (45%)
Class participation (15%)
Final paper/project (40%)
Papers are due in class on the day we discuss the
topic.
Class participation is based on attendance,
presentations from writing assignments, and leading and participating in class
discussions.
Disabilities: If you qualify for
accommodations because of a disability, please submit to me a letter from
Disability Services (DS) early in the semester so that your needs may be
addressed. DS determines accommodations
based on documented disabilities (303-492-8671, Willard 322)
Religious
observance:
If you have a religious obligation that conflicts with a particular date of
classroom attendance, or with meeting an assignment deadline, please notify me
two weeks prior to the date so that we may consider possible solutions to the
conflict.
Classroom
behavior:
As a result of extensive discussions with and recommendations from faculty and
students, the University has a new classroom behavior policy. Please consult the policy at: (http://www.colorado.edu/policies/index.html)
Honor
code:
According to the university’s honor code, students must neither give nor
receive unauthorized assistance on the work they do. You are responsible for
knowing and adhering to this code. The honor code is available at: (http://www.colorado.edu/academics/honorcode/).
Please pay particular attention to the definitions of various forms of academic
dishonesty, so that you may be certain that you are not in violation of the
code.
Tentative Schedule
|
Week |
Day |
Assignment / Activity |
|
|
|
|
|
Wk 1 |
Jan 13 |
Introduction |
|
|
Jan15 |
Preliminary paper/project proposals |
|
Wk 2 |
Jan 19 |
Downing, pp. 1-55 |
|
|
Jan 21 |
C&C, ch. 1 & 3
|
|
Wk 3 |
Jan 27 |
|
|
|
Jan 29 |
Start of Assignment #2: Media Watch Organizations; Downing, ch. 13; C&C, 7 |
|
Wk 4 |
Feb 3 |
|
|
|
Feb 5 |
Paper/project
proposals due |
|
Wk 5 |
Feb 10 |
|
|
|
Feb 12
|
Assignment #1 due
|
|
Wk 6 |
Feb 17 |
Assignment #1
discussions continued |
|
|
Feb 19 |
Start of Assignment
#3: Magazine Profile; C&C, ch. 4; 90s DiY
culture: Music;
Digital
Economy
|
|
Wk 7 |
Feb 24
|
Jason Vest
visit |
|
|
Feb 26
|
C&C, ch.
11, 13 |
|
Wk 8 |
Mar 2 |
Downing, ch. 18,
19, 22 |
|
|
Mar 4 |
Assignment #2 due |
|
Wk 9 |
Mar 9 |
Calabrese, “Communication and the end of sovereignty?”; C&C, ch. 2 |
|
|
Mar 11
|
Start of Assignment #4: Internet Resources as Alternative Media; C&C, ch. 15; Downing, ch. 17 |
|
Wk 10 |
Mar 16 |
David Barsamian of KGNU visits; C&C, ch. 16-17
|
|
|
Mar 18 |
Assignment #3 due |
|
Wk 11 |
Mar 23 |
Spring Break – no classes
|
|
|
Mar 25 |
Spring Break –
no classes
|
|
Wk 12 |
Mar 30
|
Clemencia
Rodriguez visit |
|
|
Apr 1
|
Downing, ch. 10, 11, 12 |
|
Wk 13 |
Apr 6 |
Documentary – “Union Maids” |
|
|
Apr 8 |
Calabrese, “Virtual Nonviolence?”; Downing, ch. 23 |
|
Wk 14 |
Apr 13 |
Assignment #4 due |
|
|
Apr 15 |
Visit by John
Schwartz, founder of FSTV
|
|
Wk 15 & 16 |
Apr 20 - 29 |
Presentations & discussions of papers / projects |
|
|
May 1 |
Final
papers / projects due at 12:00 noon
|