JOUR 2011
Media and Public Culture
Fall 2004
Lectures: MW, 3:00 – 3:50
HUMN 150

 

Prof. Andrew Calabrese
103A Armory
Phone:  492-5374
E-mail: 
andrew.calabrese@colorado.edu
Office hours: M, W 4:00 – 5:00, or by appointment

 

Recitations:

Recitation instructors will be:

Elizabeth Franko (elizabeth.franko@colorado.edu)

Robert Peaslee (robert.peaslee@colorado.edu)

Ildiko Rezmuves (rezmuves@colorado.edu)

All recitations are on Fridays at the following times and locations:

Section

Instructor

Time

Location

110

Liz

8-9

KTCH 118

120

Rob

3-4

KTCH 119

130

Ildi

2-3

HUMN 1B70

140

Liz

3-4

KTCH 118

150

Rob

8-9

FA N185

160

Ildi

3-4

HUMN 1B70

 

Course Description:

This course examines the historical development of the relationship of media, culture, and the public. It traces the development of various communication technologies, their impacts on culture, and their relationships to various conceptions of "the public." It draws on this history to also explore current debates about the influences of media technologies and popular culture on public life.

JOUR 2011, Media and Public Culture, is one of four core courses required of all journalism and mass communication majors and is intended to give students conceptual and historical background for further study of and practice in the media. It is divided into three weekly meetings: two lecture sessions with the professor (Monday and Wednesday) and one recitation/discussion session with a graduate teaching assistant (Friday). The recitation sessions will draw on issues raised in the lectures and allow for extensive discussion and in-class exercises. Keeping up with the reading, attending lectures and recitation sessions, and participating in discussions and exercises are essential to doing well in the course.

There are two exams (a mid-semester and final) and four short papers. The format of the exams will be multiple choice and short answers drawn from readings, lectures and recitation activities; the mid-semester and final exams are each worth 25% of your course grade. Each written assignment is worth 10% of the course grade. Attendance and participation in the recitation sessions is worth 10% of the course grade. Course grades will be based as follows: 4.0 = A; 3.7 = A-; 3.3 = B+; 3.0 = B; 2.7 = B-; 2.3 = C+; 2.0 = C; 1.7 = C-; 1.3 = D+; 1.0 = D; 0.7 = D-; 0.0 = F.

All written assignments are due on the dates listed below. Written assignments must be typed and double-spaced. Both exams must be taken on the dates listed below. No early exams will be given. Make-up exams will be given in cases of serious medical problems that are verified by a physician or health service provider. If you are having difficulty keeping up with the assignments, meeting deadlines, etc., please let us know as soon as a problem arises.

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).s

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.

 

Readings/Course Materials:

John Downing, Ali Mohammadi and Annabelle Sreberny-Mohammadi, eds., Questioning the Media, 2nd ed. (Sage, 1995). [Referred to below as: QM]

Additional readings will include occasional handouts distributed in class, materials to be retrieved online by you from the Internet (links to online readings will be provided via the syllabus web page), and materials on electronic reserve via Chinook.

Lecture Outlines: Reproductions of transparencies that were used for outlines of class lectures will be posted on this web site prior to the exam to which they apply. However, you should not consider those outlines as substitutes for attending class, since they are outlines and do not provide the detailed explanations and examples presented in the class lectures.

 

Mon. 8/23

Introduction and overview

 

Wed. 8/25

Key concepts in media and cultural theory

 

Fri. 8/27

Key concepts, cont’d.

 

O’Connor & Downing, "Culture and communication," ch. 1 in QM.

 

Mon. 8/30

Forms of media as social  institutions

 

Sreberny-Mohammadi, "Forms of media as ways of knowing," ch. 2 in QM.

 

Wed. 9/1

Harold Innis and Marshall McLuhan

 

From Wikipedia:

Harold Innis

Staples Thesis

Marshall McLuhan

Global Village

J.M.S. Careless, “Harold Adams Innis: Blazing the communications trail.”

 

Fri. 9/3

Meyrowitz’s "no sense of place"

 

Meyrowitz, "Mediating communication," ch. 3 in QM.

 

Mon. 9/6

LABOR DAY – NO CLASSES

 

Wed. 9/8

Literacy and cultural identity

 

Interpretations of the impact of print,” History of Publishing Website.

Eisenstein: Printing revolution in early modern Europe,” History of Publishing Website.

Eisenstein: Western Christendom disrupted,” History of Publishing Website.

 

Fri. 9/10

Assignment #1 due (forms of media)

 

Mon. 9/13

Literacy and cultural identity, cont'd.

 

Febvre and Martin: The coming of the book,” History of Publishing Website.

 

Wed. 9/15

The principle of publicity and the right to free expression

 

Immanuel Kant, "What is enlightenment?"

 

Fri. 9/17

"Public space": What is it, and how should we use it?

 

Ray Oldenburg, "The Problem of Place in America," in his The Great Good Place (1991). [e-reserve on Chinook]

 

Mon. 9/20

The idea of the public sphere

 

General summary of Jurgen Habermas’s Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, in Spark Notes. Also: read links from this article to the following terms:

- public sphere

- representative publicity

- rational-critical debate

- refeudalization

 

Wed. 9/22

Mass society – mass media

 

Alexis de Tocqueville, "The unlimited power of the majority in the United States, and its consequences," from his Democracy in America, vol. 1.

C. Wright Mills, "The mass society," in his The Power Elite.

 

Fri. 9/24

Journalism and the good citizen

 

Michael Schudson, "The new journalism." [e-reserve on Chinook]

 

Mon. 9/27

Mass society cont’d.

 

Negus, “Popular music,” ch. 22 in QM.

 

Wed. 9/29

Advertising, commerce, and culture

 

Kellner, "Advertising and consumer culture," ch. 19 in QM.

 

Fri. 10/1

FALL BREAK – NO CLASSES

 

Mon. 10/4

Critics of the pubic sphere; Assignment #2 due in class

 

Michael Schudson, “Was there ever a public sphere? If so, when? Reflections on the American case.” [e-reserve on Chinook]   

Christopher Lasch, “Journalism, publicity and the lost art of argument.” [e-reserve on Chinook]

 

Wed. 10/6

Review for midterm

 

Fri. 10/8

Study day (TAs will be available at recitation times)

                             

Mon. 10/11

MIDTERM EXAM

 

Wed. 10/13

Constructing the audience

 

Ang, "The nature of the audience," ch. 12 in QM.

Gandy, "Tracking the audience," ch. 13 in QM

 

 

Fri. 10/15

Stereotyping, race and the media

 

Corea, "Racism and the American way of media," ch. 20 in QM

Lyrics of "Fear of a Black Planet."

 

 

Mon. 10/18

Video: "Ethnic Notions."

 

 

Wed. 10/20

Stereotyping continued: Media and gender

 

Van Zoonen, "Gender, representation, and the media," ch. 18 in QM

 

 

Fri. 10/22

Information poverty and the "digital divide"

 

Cees J. Hamelink, "Information imbalance across the globe," ch. 17 in QM.

 

 

Mon. 10/25

Media, globalization, and culture

 

Ali Mohammadi, "Cultural imperialism and cultural identity," ch. 21 in QM

 

 

Wed. 10/27

Media and language

 

Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, "What fate awaits the world’s languages?" on e-reserve.

Cees J. Hamelink, "Language and the right to communicate," on e-reserve.

 

 

Fri. 10/29

Spanish-language media in the United States

 

Brent Cunningham, “The Latino Puzzle Challenges the Heartland,” Columbia Journalism Review (March/April 2002).

 

 

Mon. 11/1

Video: The First Universal Nation

 

 

Wed. 11/3

Media, culture and public policy

 

Demac & Sung, "New communication technologies and deregulation," ch. 16 in QM.

 

 

Fri. 11/5

Media policy and media literacy

 

Roger Silverstone (2000). “Regulation, media literacy and media civics,” Media, Culture & Society, vol. 26(3), pp. 440-449.

 

 

Mon. 11/8

Media, culture and public policy, cont’d.

 

John Dunbar, Daniel Lathrop & Robert Morlino, Networks of Influence: The Political Power of the Communications Industry (10/28, 04). The Center for Public Integrity.

Hal Plotkin, “All hail creative commons.” San Francisco Chronicle (2/11/02).

 

 

Wed. 11/10

Media, culture and public policy, cont’d.

 

Webster’s world of cultural policy

New Deal cultural programs: Experiments in cultural democracy

 

 

Fri. 11/12

Assignment #3 due in class

 

 

Mon. 11/15

Guest lecture: Prof. Elizabeth Skewes on media coverage of the 2004 Presidential Election

 

James Carney and John F. Dickerson, “W and the Boy Genius,” Time.

 

 

Wed. 11/17

Documentary on election campaigning

 

 

Fri. 11/19

Discussion of media responsibility in election coverage

 

Thomas E. Patterson, Eleven Recommendations for Improving Election Night Coverage. Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy.

 

 

Mon. 11/22

Guest presentation by Alan Kirkpatrick, Director of the SJMC Internship Program

 

 

Wed. 11/24

No class

 

 

Fri. 11/26

THANKSGIVING – NO CLASSES

 

 

Mon. 11/29  

Media and citizenship

 

Project Censored, “Corporate personhood challenged”

 

 

Wed. 12/1

Media and citizenship, cont’d.

 

Dorothy E. Denning, “Is Cyber Terror Next?” in After September 11: Perspectives from the Social Sciences (New York, NY: Social Science Research Council). Published online in November, 2001.

 

 

Fri. 12/3

Assignment #4 due: “A career in the media”

 

 

Mon. 12/6

Review for final

 

 

Wed. 12/8    

Study day (TAs will be available at class time)

 

 

Fri. 12/10

FINAL EXAM (7:30 – 10:00 a.m. in HUMN 150)