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INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION
TC 477
Prof. Bella Mody
Michigan State University
418 Comm Arts
This senior capstone writing (W) course will examine the global configuration of electronic media, the business transactions media enable, and the entertainment content they provide.
Global telecommunication is increasingly characterised by competition between opposing forces: competing companies, capital and labor, the state and the market, global consumer identity and and local culture.
Telecommunication conduits are enabling the creation of a global mall. This course presents an understanding of this process, embedded in the history, economics, politics and culture of the nation.
Course Format:
My conception of education is "drawing out" insights from you in response to a menu of stimulating readings, lectures and videos. Education consists of two equally important parts: teaching (my responsibility), and learning (your responsibility): you will get out of the course only as much as you put in to it. A rule of thumb is to plan twice as much out-of-class preparation and review time (8 hours a week for this course) as in-class time.
You are required to do all the readings before class in preparation for discussion. Bring your notes and assigned readings to class. Every class session will consist of two parts: first, your discussion of the assigned readings or a short answer test on them, and then, instructor presentations. I repeat:Please bring daily assigned readings to class.
Assignments with an asterisk are essential requirements.
Grading:
15%: attendance (0.5 points per class, beginning from the second class session). This will be taken 5 minutes after the instructor arrives. If you arrive later, you lose your 0.5 for attendance for the day.
45%: 3 short answer tests on the readings. In case of an illness, an essay-type qs. will be assigned for make-up.
40%: 1 literature review and analysis paper of 15 dbl-spaced typed pages each. A session on how to use the wonderful resources in the library will be conducted on 9/16 in theInstruction Room in the library during class hours.
Since this is a writing course (W), we are required to comment on your writing and to give you a chance to re-draft your research papers for an improved grade. You have a week from the return of papers to return it with writing improvements (e.g. sentence construction, spelling) for re-grading.
Choose a topic that interests you that is central to this course's subject matter. Get approval from the instructor for your topic as early as possible, so you have more time to research it.
Use logical section headings to help the reader understand your main points, e.g. purpose, organisation of paper, method of data collection, findings (use subheadings in this section), conclusions, summary, references. Use any one stylebook consistently, e.g. APA, MLA.
Approval of paper topic: This will be based on a proposal consisting of a research question and a print out of library refrences and Internet sources that are adequate to answer your research question.
Length: 15 pages dbl-spaced typed, 25 lines per page. No plastic covers, just a staple, thanks.
Examples of paper topics are:
- "World music" production around the globe
- The effects of foreign TV shows on audiences in othercountries
- The downsizing of labor in the telecommunication industries.
- Co-production of films and TV in Canada (or any other location
- The global animation (or cellular or satellite) industry
- The global data entry work force
- The local adaptation of foreign TV formats in different countries
- Media in ---- (particular media or all electronic media) in particular country/region of yr choice.
- The Internet in ------(can be global or restricted to a region of the world or country on which there is enough literature to sustain a 15 page paper).
Paper milestones: proposal due 9/30; proposals returned 10/14; paper due 16 Nov.
Bonus points: Up to 1 bonus point is available per 1 typed page analysing an activity relevant to the course (e.g. Dr Rashmi Doraiswamy's lecture on the alternative non-commercial film industry in India on Sep 8 in Rm 204 of the International Center at 12 noon). Get instructor pre-approval for the international telecommunication event, video, movie or TV show that you want to write up. Submit the emailed approval from the instructor with your write-up for your bonus point. One pre-approved video is Red Corner (with Richard Gere): write who is being critiqued and why in this fiction about a telecom negotiator in China. Write what you would do differently. Another pre-approved video is Martin Scorcese's Kundan. One student can submit no more than 3 bonus point papers.
There is no final exam.
Academic honesty: We follow MSU's policy on academic honesty.
Plagiarism is defined as presenting someone else's work as your own. Students who plagiarize will receive severe grading penalties up to and including failing the course.
If you have a disability, please let me know on the first day of class so I can accomodate your special needs.
The end of 100% refund period is Sep 23. The last day to drop the course with no grade reported is Oct 19. You may drop this course after the middle of the term only to correct verified errors of enrollment or because of a catastrophic event. Failing a test is not a catastrophic event. After you drop a course, make a copy of your amended schedule for verification. If you will be absent from class for a religious holiday, make arrangements with the instructor well in advance if a test or paper submission is scheduled.
Required Reading
I. Required Texts: The following required texts are available in all local text book stores.
- Thussu, Daya Kishan. Electronic Empires: Global Media and Local Resistance. London: Arnold, 1998.
- 2. Gershon, Richard. The transnational media corporation. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1997.
- 3. Schiller, Dan. Digital Capitalism: Networking the Global Market System. Cambridge, Mass: 1999.
- II. Reading packet (RP): for sale in Budget Printing on Trowbridge Road down a bit from Shoprite. An announcement will be made in class when it is ready to be picked up.
III. Keep up to date on breaking events in our cutting-edge field: Check out the websites of good dailies, weekly periodicals and relevant international organizations before you come to class: ex: www.iht.com (go to tribtech and its finance sections daily), www.mercurycenter.com, www.timedigital.com, www.businessweek.com, dowjones.com (select each relevant industry group, e.g. telecommunication, media and entertainment),www.itu.int/indicators, www.ustr.gov/reports, fcc.gov/international, ntia.gov/international
Reading Assignments
I. GLOBALIZATION
31 Aug Introductions
Video: A Poor Man Shames Us All
2 Sep The globalization of corporate economic power
Thussu text, pp. 1-26
7 Sep Tools of the globalization of capital : deregulation and privatization
Gershon, Ch. 2
Guest lecturer: Dr. Rashmi Doraiswamy, Jamia Milia University, Delhi, India. Juror for Toronto Film Festival next week. What is Unique About India's Commercial Film Industry
8 Sep Bonus: Up to 1 bonus point for write-up on Dr. Doraiswamy's talk on the Non-Commercial Film Industry in India. 12 noon, Center for International Programs Rm 204
II. CULTURAL INDUSTRIES
9 Sep Global expansion of cultural industries
Gershon, Ch. 1. Thussu Ch. 2
Use www.corpwatch.org to monitor the activities of particular transnational businesses)
Video: Wall Street Journal video on India
14 Sep McWorld
Thussu, Chs. 9
Gershon Ch. 3
Hoskins, McFadyen and Finn, Why Does the U.S. Dominate Trade in Global TV and Film. Oxford: Clarendon Press,1997.
Video: Distress Signals
16 SepMain Library Instruction Room: bring tentative paper
topics to try lit searches.
21 Sep Major US firms in the global entertainment industry:
Disney, Time Warner, NewsCorp
Gershon, Ch. 8, 11, 12
Video: Who's Afraid of Rupert Murdoch?
23 Sep Short answer test #1:Covers all course material till 9/21
Other firms, other nations: Sony, Bertelsmann
Gershon 9, 10
28 Sep Geolinguistic rather than global markets
Thussu, Ch. 10
Video: Wall St. J video on Brazil
30 Sep Global marketing and advertising
Gershon Ch. 4
Thussu Ch. 7
Video: Smoking in China
LAST DAY FOR TERM PAPER PROPOSALS
5 Oct After Communism in Central and Eastern Europe
Thussu, Ch. 3
7 Oct News coverage of other countries
Thussu, Ch. 10
Video: Guinea Bissau
12 Oct Effects of foreign TV on other cultures
Thussu Ch. 11
Gershon Ch. 7
Jian Wang. Global media and cultural change. Media Asia, v. 24, 1, 1997 RP
III. TELECOMMUNICATION NETWORKS
14 OctWho does not have access to a telephone?
ITU. World Telecom Development Report 1998. Universal Access: Executive Summmary. RP
PROPOSALS RETURNED
19 OctOwnership and investment in telecommunication
ITU. World Telecomm Development Report 96/97. Ch 4: Foreign Investment RP
Video: Banking on Life and Debt
21 OctTrade in telecom services
ITU. World Telecom Dev Report 1996/97. Ch. 3 (RP)
26 OctShort answer test # 2 covering all course material between 9/23 and 10/21
Trade in telecomm equipment
ITU. World Telecom Development Report. 1996. Ch. 2 RP.
28 Oct Networking
Digital Capitalism, Ch. 1
2 Nov Going global
Digital Capitalism Ch. 2
4 Nov The Internet and its sponsors
Digital Capitalism Ch. 3,
9 Nov Satellites, cable, intermodal competition
Hudson, H. Global Connections. Ch 15 (RP)
Frieden, R. International Telecommunications Handbook. Artech House: 1996. Ch. 7 (RP)
11 Nov Globalization of telecommunications: effects on banking and commerce Gershon Ch. 5,
ITU. World Telecom Dev Report 1996-97. Ch. 5 (RP)
16 Nov Globalization of telecoms: impacts on labor
Bella Mody, Hyun-oh Yoo and Carleen Maitland. Preparingfor competition in telecommunication services: effects onemployment around the world. Presented at IAMCR, Oaxaca, 1997.
Video: The global assembly line
16 NOV: TERM PAPER DUE
18 Nov Global policy and regulation: World Bank, IMF,ITU, OECD (MAI), WIPO, World Trade Organization, International Standards Organization
Hudson, H. Global Connections. Ch. 16 (RP)
Joseph Stiglitz, Creating Competition on Telecommunications. Presented at George Washington University, Ap 27, 1998.
23 NovGlobal networks and community
Downing, John D. H. In The Promise of Global Networks.
Aspen Institute, 1999. pp. 137-159.
IV NATIONAL, LOCAL and PUBLIC IMPLICATIONS
30 Nov Where is the public sphere?
Thussu, Chs. 5. 6
2 Dec National differences in access
Thussu, Ch. 8
Mody, B. The Internet in the Other Three Quarters of the World. In The Promise of Global Networks. Aspen Institute, 1999.
2 DEC: TERM PAPERS RETURNED: OPPORTUNITY TO CORRECT WRITING ERRORS IF ANY
7 Dec Localizing the global
Thussu Ch. 16, 14
9 Dec Economic globalization and the political democracy
Thussu Ch. 13
Short answer test # 3 covers all material between 10/26 and 12/9.
13 DEC: OPPORTUNITY TO RESUBMIT TERM PAPERS AFTER CORRECTING WRITING ERRORS.
Take-home exam:
This is a take-home exam. The honor code requests that you do not ask someone else to write the answers to your questions. Feel free to consult your readings and go to the library. Be sure to credit all sources of your ideas through footnotes or end notes. Review the guidelines on plagiarism in the syllabus.
Please type your answers with double spacing. They are due in my mail box by Feb 27, 2PM. Delays willl be marked down as indicated in the syllabus. Always keep a copy of everything important you hand in to some one else, particularly answers to exams worth 40% of your grade.
You are required to answer 4 questions. Each is equal to 10 points. Points will be subtracted for errors in spelling and sentence construction. No answer should be longer than 4 double-spaced pages. Please number each answer in accordance with question numbers to which you are responding. Please number each page. Please staple your answer sheets together. Please be sure your name is clearly legible on the front page.
The following questions deal with handouts, videos, assigned readings, and classroom discussion until Feb 16. The next exam will deal with material presented from 23 Feb until the end of the term.
I. Answer any one of the two foll. questions:
a. Please explain each of the following terms separately with reference to the context in which you read about them. Then explain how they are related to each other, if at all:
mercantile expansion in the 15th/16th century
colonialism
imperialism
cultural imperialism
media imperialism
global corporate expansion
transnational corporations as distinct from international corporate alliances
the law of uneven development
OR
b. Present the details of Boyd-Barrett's four modes of media imperialism. Specify which other readings and videos speak to each mode: what do they say? Which modes have been less well addressed in the course so far: speculate on how these less well addressed modes operate presently, if at all. What is at risk in the present system for Barber (Chs. 6-9) and Graham Murdock: amplify each of their arguments and explain your position.
2. Highlight the points made in Cowhey and Aronson. In the foreground, now discuss the strategies identified by either Mansell (Ch. 9) or Sharon Strover. Connect these strategies to the concepts presented by Cowhey and Aronson.
3. Compare and contrast any two different theoretical frameworks
and any two methodological different methodological approaches presented in the readings on the effects of the globalization of the cultural industries.
4. Why was MTV started? What are its goals? Analyse two problems related to MTV's global impact addressed in the Banks paper. What is Barnet's perspective on MTV in Ch 7 of his book? What perspective does the video directed by Prof Sut Jhally of U. of Massachusetts take: what is your position?
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