INTRODUCTION TO COMMUNICATION AS A SOCIAL FORCE

This course provides a critical overview of areas of macro communication and analysis, with special emphasis on the development of communication institutions, including print media, broadcasting, and telecommunication networks. By highlighting key issues both in the overall structure and in specific sectors of the communication industries, we will discuss the political, economic and social impact of communication systems and explore the contradictions and tensions between the institutional structure of communication systems and the democratic promises of communication technologies. While the course emphasizes current developments in communications in the United States, continuing historical processes and global issues will also be addressed to provide context and comparisons.

The following two required texts may be purchased at Groundwork Books:

Ben Bagdikian, The Media Monopoly, 5th Edition (Boston: Beacon Press, 1997).

Jack Banks, Monopoly Television (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996).

The following books are not required reading, but they do provide additional and important analyses of several of the major themes pursued in the course.

Leo Bogart, Commercial Culture

Richard Barnet and John Cavanagh, Global Dreams

Todd Gitlin, The Whole World is Watching

Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent

John Keane, The Media and Democracy

Douglas Kellner, Television and the Crisis of Democracy

John McManus, Market-Driven Journalism

Janet Wasco, Hollywood in the Information Age

Herbert Schiller, Culture, Inc.

Tutorial Attendance and Participation: 15%

Two Take Home Mid-term Essays: 20% each, due on Oct. 23 and Nov. 13 respectively.
Length of answer: no more than 5-doubled space pages for each question. Questions will be given out one week before the due date.

Final Exam (in class): 45%, December 8
A combination of various question formats: multiple choices, true/false statements, definitions of key concepts, and short answers. This exam is comprehensive, with a slight emphasis on material from the second half of the course.

Thursday, Sept. 25

Introduction to the Course

Recommended reading: George Soros, "The Capitalist Threat," Atlantic Monthly (February 1997): 43-58.

Tuesday, Sept. 30

Competing and Evolving Perspectives on Communication, Power, and Society

Peter Golding and Graham Murdock, "Culture, Communication and Political Economy," in James Curran and Michael Gurevitch (eds.), Mass Media and Society, Second Edition (New York: Arnold, 1996): 11-30.
Vincent Mosco, "Introduction: Information in the Pay-per Society," in Vincent Mosco and Janet Wasko (eds.), The Political Economy of Information (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988): 3-18.

Thursday, Oct. 2

Communication in the Age of Megamedia: Conglomeratization and Globalization

Ben Bagdikian, The Media Monopoly, ix-xlix.

Tuesday, Oct. 7

Implications of Ownership Concentration in Media Industries

Ben Bagdikian, The Media Monopoly, Chapters 1-5, pp. 3-101.
Todd Gitlin, "Not So Fast," Media Studies Journal 10:2-3 (Spring-Summer 1996): 1-6.
Steven Rattner, "A Golden Age of Competition," Media Studies Journal 10:2-3 (Spring-Summer 1996): 7-13.
Mary B. W. Tabor, "In Bookstore Chains, Display Space Is for Sale," The New York Times (Jan. 15, 1996): A1, C8.
Doreen Carvajal, "HarperCollins Cancels Book In Unusual Step for Industry," The New York Times (June 27, 1997): A1, A11.
Doreen Carvajal, "Middling (and Unloved) in Publishing Land," The New York Times (August 18, 1997): C1, C6.

Thursday, Oct. 9

The Intensification of Commodification: Examples from Hollywood

John Brodie, "Will Thinking Big Sink Hollywood?" Variety (April 29, 1996): 1, 153.
Chuck Crisafulli, "Screen Gems," Los Angeles Times Calendar (July 14, 1996): 8-9, 79.

Tuesday, Oct. 14

Paying the Pipe, Calling the Tune? Advertising and Its Impact on the Media

Janny Scott, "Study Links Ads, Coverage of Smoking Hazards," Los Angeles Times (January 30, 1992): A27.
Gloria Steinem, "Sex, Lies & Advertising," MS. (July/August 1990): 18-28.
Ben Bagdikian, The Media Monopoly, Chapters 6-12, pp. 105-222.
Robert M. Entman, Democracy Without Citizens: Media and Decay of American Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989): 91-101.

Thursday, Oct. 16

The State and the Allocation of Communicative Power: Regulation of Print and Broadcast Media

Myles A. Ruggles, The Audience Reflected in the Medium of Law: A Critique of the Political Economy of Speech Rights in the United States (Norwood, NJ:Ablex, 1994): ix-xiii, 3-23.
" Right Decision on `Must Carry'," The New York Times (April 2, 1997): A20.
Herbert I. Schiller, "Information Deprivation in an Information Rich Society," in George Gerbner, Hamid Mowlana, Herbert Schiller (eds.), Invisible Crisis: What Conglomerate Control of Media Means for America and the World (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996): 15-25.
Iver Peterson, "Public Information, Business Rates," The New York Times (July 14, 1997): C1, C8.
Edmund L. Andrews, "FCC Vote Gives Murdoch Big Victory on Ownership," The News York Times (May 5, 1995): C5.

Tuesday, Oct. 21

The American Newspapers: From the Penny Press to MBA Journalism

Daniel C. Hallin, We Keep America on Top of the World: Television Journalism and the Public Sphere (London, New York: Routledge, 1994): 18-39.
Doug Underwood, When MBAs Rule the Newsroom (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994): 26-37.
Iver Peterson, "At Times Mirror, What's the Plan?" The New York Times (June 26, 1996): C1, C7.
Iver Peterson, "Wall Street Journal on Line: Readers Pay but Profits Remain Elusive," The New York Times (February 10, 1997): D8.
Sreenath Sreenivasan, "As Mainstream Papers Struggle, the Ethnic Press is Thriving," The New York Times (July 22, 1996): C7.

Thursday, Oct. 23

Public Airwaves, Private Networks: The Structure of U.S. Broadcasting

Robert C. McChesney, Telecommunications, Mass Media, & Democracy: The Battle for the Control of U.S. Broadcasting, 1828-1935 (New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994): 3-7.
Lou Adler, "Off the Air," Media Studies Journal 10:2-3 (Spring-Summer 1996): 119-122.
Sandy Tolan, "Must NPR Sell Itself?" The New York Times (July 16, 1996) A11.
Neil Strauss, "A Radio Station for Its Neighbors, Not the FCC," The New York Times (July 22, 1996): B 5.

First Mid-term Essay Due at the Beginning of Class

Tuesday, Oct. 28

The Evolution of Network Television News: Selections from the CBC/BBC Documentary Dawn of the Eye

Daniel C. Hallin, We Keep America on Top of the World: Television Journalism and the Public Sphere (London, New York: Routledge, 1994): 58-86.

Thursday, Oct. 30

Power and Ideology in Network Television

George Gerbner, "The Hidden Side of Television Violence," in George Gerbner, Hamid Mowlana, Herbert Schiller (eds.), Invisible Crisis: What Conglomerate Control of Media Means for America and the World (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996): 27-34.
Lawrie Mifflin, "TV Ratings Accord Comes Under Fire From Both Flanks," The New York Times (July 11, 1997): A1, A15.

Tuesday, Nov. 4

Cable Television, Diversity, and the Fragmentation of Mass Audiences

Jack Banks, Monopoly Television, Chapters 1-4, 6-10, pp. 1-88, 117-206.
Mark Landler, "CNN Ratings Head South. Calling O.J., Calling O.J.," The New York Times (July 14, 1997): C1, C7.
Frank Rich, "Lamb to the Slaughter," The New York Times (February 5, 1997): A23.

Thursday, Nov. 6

The Unfolding Story of Digital TV: Technological Potentials, Corporate Imperatives

Michael Krantz, "A Tube for Tomorrow," Time (April 14, 1997): 69.
Claude Brodesser, Michael Freeman and Richard Katz, "The Resolution Will not Be Televised," Mediaweek (April 14, 1997): 12-16.
Joel Brinkley, "Lobbyists for TV Angle to Elude Rules to Return Fee Channels," The New York Times (June 25, 1997): A1, D3.
William Safire, "Broadcast Lobby Triumphs," The New York Times (July 23, 1997): A19.
Christopher Parkes, "Television Finds Space to Grow," Financial Times (February 21, 1996): 13.

Tuesday, Nov. 11

The Unfolding Story of Digital TV (Continued)

Tuesday, Nov. 13

Development of U.S. Telecommunication Networks

Robert Horwitz, The Irony of Regulatory Reform : The Deregulation of American Telecommunications (New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989): 90-104.
Dan Schiller, "Business Users and the Telecommunications Network," Journal of Communication 32:4 (Autumn 1982): 84-96.

Second Mid-term Essay Due at the Beginning of Class.

Tuesday, Nov. 18

Guest Lecture: Robert Horwitz

Technological Convergence and Domestic Telecommunications Deregulation: Withering the Public Interest?

Patricia Aufderheide, "Shifting Policy Paradigms and the Public Interest in the U.S. Telecommunications Act of 1996," Communication Review, 2:2(1997): 255-277.
Mike Mills and Paul Farhi, "This Is a Free Market?" The Washington Post, (January 19, 1997): H2, H5.
John Greenwald, "Hung up on Competition," Time (July 21, 1997): 50-51.

Peter Elstrom, "Why SBC Shouldn't be the First Bell in Long Distance," Business Week (July 21, 1997): 33.
Amy Harmon, "Out of the Loop," Los Angeles Times (November 8, 1995): D1, D5.
Jube Shiver Jr., "Budget Ax Poised over Phone Subsidy for Rural Areas," Los Angeles Times (July 24, 1997): D3.
Catherine Yang, "Memo to the FCC: Make Deregulation Work," Business Week (August 11, 1997): 33.

Thursday, Nov. 20

Computers and the Internet: Democratic Saviour or Digital Dystopia?

Peter Coy, Robert D. Hof, and Paul C. Judge, "Has the Net Finally Reached the Wall?" Business Week (August 26, 1996): 62-64, 66.
Linda Greenhouse,"Decency Act Falls," The New York Times (June 27, 1997): A1, A16.
Richard Tedesco, "That's Intertainment," Broadcasting & Cable (June 2, 1997): 54-64.

Tuesday, Nov. 25

The Structure of International Communication: Cultural Imperialism and Beyond

Jack Banks, Monopoly Television, Chapter 5, pp. 89-116.
Julia Flynn, "Who Will be the First Global Phone Company?" Business Week (March 27, 1995): 176-180
Kevin Leppmann, "Putting the Public on Hold," Dollars and Sense, (May/June 1996): 14-17.
Kerry A. Dolan, "Crowded Skies," Forbes (July 29, 1996): 46.
Drew Fagan and Laura Eggertson, "Canada Loses Magazine Case," The Globe and Mail (January 17, 1997): A1, A7.
Neil Weinberg, "Cable Comes to Fuchu," Forbes (November 6, 1995): 44-45.
Peter Golding, "The Communication Paradox: Inequality at National and International Levels," Media Development 4/1994: 7-9.

Thursday, Nov. 27: Thanksgiving Day, No Class.

Tuesday, Dec. 2

Communication, Market, and Democracy

James Curran, "Mass Media and Democracy Revisited," in James Curran and Michael Gurevitch (eds.), Mass Media and Society, Second Edition (New York: Arnold, 1996): 81-119.

Thursday, Dec. 4

Nibbling at the Margins: Alternative Media and the Struggle for Democratic Communication

Ben Bagdikian, The Media Monopoly, Chapter 13, "Afterward," pp. 223-252.
Robert A. Hackett and Yuezhi Zhao, Sustaining Democracy? Journalism and the Politics of Objectivity (Toronto: Garamond Press, 1997): 209-223.

1. No incomplete or make-up exams will be given in this course, except on documented medical and legal grounds.

2. As a protection against misplacement of mid-term exams, you are strongly advised to retain an extra-copy (or computer file) of your answers until final grades have been submitted.

3. Most students are aware of requirements of intellectual honesty and play by the rules of the game. Students are reminded that intellectual dishonesty is a serious academic offense and will be treated as mandated by University regulations. It is your responsibility to be familiar with these regulations. Ignorance will not be accepted as an excuse.