INSTRUCTOR:

Andrew Calabrese, Ph.D.

103A Armory

Phone: 492-5374

E-mail: andrew.calabrese@colorado.edu

Web: http://spot.colorado.edu/~calabres/

SUMMARY OF REQUIREMENTS:

Two Writing Assignments (30%)

Group Project (20%)

Final Paper (40%)

Participation (10%)

Attendance is required.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course surveys the major themes in theory and research about the political, economic, and cultural impact of international and global mass communication. The lectures, audiovisual presentations, discussions, and assignments will provide illustrations, explanations, and critical analyses of:

1. the role of communications media in the early emergence of nationalism and nation states, and the continued role of media systems in nation building;

2. the significance of the forces and relations of global political and economic transformations for the media systems of individual nation states and for transnational communications, including technological and industrial convergence, and new patterns of ownership and control;

3. efforts by social movements (e.g., environmental, feminist, peace, civil rights, labor, ethnic, religious) to influence and/or bypass national and transnational media systems in their efforts to bring about social change through the use of communications media;

4. efforts by governmental and nongovernmental organizations to institute systems of governance and principles of democratic communication on a transnational scale

5. the commonly applied concepts and terms used in discussions about international communication, including “development,” “modernization,” “dependency,” “colonialism,” “post-colonialism,” “cultural imperialism,” “nationalism,” “cosmopolitanism,” and “globalization”;

6. the unique role of the United States in the global media system, particularly in terms of the power and responsibilities of, and limits to, American global media influence; and

7. case studies about local, national, regional and global media systems, both public and private.

In addition to these course-specific objectives, this course will generally promote student understanding of the history and role of professionals and institutions in shaping communications, and understanding of the diversity of groups in American society and in a global society in relationship to communication.

University Policies

Disability: If you qualify for accommodations because of a disability, please submit to me a letter from Disability Services in a timely manner so that your needs may be addressed. Disability Services determines accommodations based on documented disabilities. Contact: 303-492-8671, Willard 322, and www.Colorado.EDU/disabilityservices

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.

Sexual harassment: The university’s policy on sexual harassment applies to all students, staff and faculty. Sexual harassment is unwelcome sexual attention. It can involve intimidation, threats, coercion, or promises or create an environment that is hostile or offensive. Harassment may occur between members of the same or opposite gender and between any combination of members in the campus community: students, faculty, staff, and administrators. Harassment can occur anywhere on campus, including the classroom, the workplace, or a residence hall. Any student, staff or faculty member who believes s/he has been sexually harassed should contact the Office of Sexual Harassment (OSH) at 303-492-2127 or the Office of Judicial Affairs at 303-492-5550. Information about the OSH and the campus resources available to assist individuals who believe they have been sexually harassed can be obtained at: http://www.colorado.edu/sexualharassment/

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

This course involves lecture and discussion sessions, critical analysis of contemporary writing on the topic, writing assignments, a group report, and a final research project.

Individual writing assignments will require use of the readings and your thoughts about them to develop a position with respect to a set of issues that are presented to you in the form of questions or arguments. For example, you may be asked to compare briefly the views of two authors with respect to the concept of “development,” and to explain why you agree with one compared with the other. The papers will be graded on your use of the readings, by the quality of the argument you develop, and the quality of the writing.

The group project will be a report about a country’s media system. More details about this assignment will be provided in class. The final paper will be about a topic of your choosing, in consultation with me. We will discuss paper topic options in detail in class and in individual consultations.

Participation will be evaluated on the basis of classroom presentations, participation in discussion, and regular attendance.

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE

Week	Day	Topic	Assignment
Wk.1	17 Jan	Introduction
	19 Jan	Communication, national development & Modernization	Anderson, Imagined Communities, pp. 1-46.
Wk.2	24 Jan		Rostow, “The five stages of growth,”; Lerner, “The grocer and the chief”
	26 Jan	Colonialism, anti-colonialism and communication	Fanon, “On national culture”; Encyclopedia of Communication, “Development communication”
Wk.3	31 Jan	Video: Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White Mask
	2 Feb	Post-colonialism and communication	Gandhi, “After colonialism”; Said, “Overlapping territories, intertwined histories”
Wk.4	7 Feb	Assignment 1 introduced: Profile of a Global Media Corporation (due on Feb. 23)	Chatterjee, “Whose imagined community?”
	9 Feb	Selected regional cases	Nyamnjoh, “Media ownership and control in Africa”
Wk.5	14 Feb	Final paper assignment introduced	Splichal, “Privatization: The cost of media democratization in East and Central Europe?”
	16 Feb		Fiol, “Media and neoliberalism in Latin America”
Wk.6	21 Feb		Readings on media in China and India
	23 Feb	Global media	Assignment 1 due; Steven, Intro, ch. 1 & 2
Wk.7	28 Feb	Assignment 2 introduced: Profile of a global NGO (due on March 23)	Steven, ch. 3 & 4
	2 Mar	Group project introduced: Global literacies (reports due on April 27)	United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Human Development Report 2005, Ch. 2: Inequality and human development (supplement for group project: Human development indicators)
Wk.8	7 Mar	Global media governance	UN Declaration of Human Rights; Jean D’Arcy on the right to communicate; Final paper topic proposal due
	9 Mar		Antonio Pasquali, “The South and the imbalance in communication,” Global Media and Communication, vol. 1(3), December 2005 (available on Chinook)
Wk.9	14 Mar		World Summit on the Information Society: 1) Geneva Declaration of Principles; 2) Tunis Commitment; 3) Civil Society WSIS Statement: “Much More Could Have Been Achieved”
	16 Mar	Video: America: The First Universal Nation?	Schiller, Intro, ch. 1 & 2
Wk.10	21 Mar		Schiller, ch. 3, 4 & 5
	23 Mar		Assignment 2 due; Schiller, ch. 6 & 7
Wk.11	28 Mar		SPRING BREAK
	30 Mar		SPRING BREAK
Wk.12	4 Apr		United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Human Development Report 2004, Overview: Cultural liberty in today’s diverse world; UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (20 October 2005)
	6 Apr		Tyler Cowen lecture on his book, Creative Destruction, delivered at the Cato Institute (available in Real Video and Real Audio).
Wk.13	11 Apr	Social movements & global civil society	Calabrese, “Communication and the end of sovereignty?” Excerpts from Global Uprising
	13 Apr	Video: The 4^th World War	Excerpts from Global Activism, Global Media
Wk.14	18 Apr	Media audiences	Steven, ch. 5 & 6
	20 Apr	Media and cosmopolitan thought	Excerpts from Ulrich Beck, others
Wk.15	25 Apr		Group reports in class
	27 Apr		Group reports, cont’d.; Written group reports due
Wk.16	2 May		Steven, ch. 7
	4 May		Final papers due