Summer II 2009 -- Semester Calendar -- COMS / MSTD 335 Media and Society
Day / Theme
Your Assignments
Readings & instructions
Schedule, links, selections from videos

June 29

Introductions

1. Pick a Media Critic. Give a two minute report about your picks on Tuesday June 30. Follow your pick and report twice a week on the Wiki page.

 

Subject areas:


Rich media, poor democracy

 

Media and the "Original dogma of democracy"

 

 

 

 


Walter Lippmann and Public Opinion

Do we still believe in the first amendment? -- Bill Moyers, from “Keynote Address,” National Conference on Media Reform (Video 2008)

The Hutchins Commission (Reading)

  • A truthful, comprehensive, and intelligent account of the day’s events in a context which gives them meaning.
  • A forum for the exchange of comment and criticism. The projection of a representative picture of the constituent groups in society
  • The presentation and clarification of the goals and values of the society.
  • * Full access to the day’s intelligence.

 

Foreign TV interview with media critic Danny Schechter. news dissector -- What are his baseline points of comparison? How far has the US media strayed from those ideals?

June 30

Early ideas of media influence

Electronic Storyteller - Gerbner (On reserve after viewing in class)

Media and the American mind from Morse to McLuhan Czitrom, Daniel J., 1951- Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, c1982 - Handout - Also on reserve

 

2. Find a journal article in an area of interest and report on it to the class. File a copy of you report on your wiki page.

Communications and Mass Media Databases

Search for a subject like "advertising and children" or "climate change and denial" or "video games and violence"

 

War of the Worlds -Orson Wells / Radio Broadcast

 

 

3. Take the Quiz on your individual WIKI page.

   

July 1

Early critcs

 

 

 

 

Free Speech: Jim Lehrer with Ben Bradley (On Reserve)

Take the Money and Run (On Reserve)

     

 

July 2

Understanding Media

 

Read and watch these videos.

Undetstand the different theories.

Be prepared for a brief quiz on the videos and on the theories

Media at the center of history
Media as extensions of humankind

Marshall McLuhan and Harold Innis

Medium is the message video 1971

Tetrad of Media Effects

 

       

July 6

Media criticism

IN CLASS QUIZ on material from July 1 and July 2.

Launch research projects

Media Influence / Media effects

  • violence and children
  • indecency and children
  • women and body image
  • negative campaigning and political attitudes
  • censorship and war images


George Gerbner - Cultivation Theory

The Crisis of the cultural environment

Watch Michael Moore's - Bowling for Columbine

July 7
Launch research projects Library briefing on media research journals  
July 8

Virtual meetings

Report on journal article on Wiki page

   
July 9
Virtual meetings    
 

 

 

July 13

Media, language, propaganda and the public sphere

Review for quiz 2 Bowling for Columbine and Cultivation Theory

Persuasion

. . Elaboration likelihood

Propaganda - Wiki article

Noam Chomsky - Manufacturing Consent

Daniel Boorstin - The Image - A guide to pseudo events in America

What Orwell didn't know : propaganda and the new face of American politics ON RESERVE -- HM1231 .W43 2007

Holocaust denial (Follow up to Manufacturing Consent)

East Timor (Follow up to Manufacturing Consent)

July 14
QUIZ on Bowling for Columbine and Cultivation Theory

The Wonderful horrible life of Leni Riefenstahl

Why we fight

George Orwell - Politics and the English Language

Persuasion & Attitude Formation, Peer Pressure

The image : a guide to pseudo-events in America
ON RESERVE -- E169.12 .B66 1987

Hijacking Catastrophe JZ1480 .H55 2004

July 15
QUIZ on Orwell, Boorstin, Chomsky
Herbert Gans - Deciding What's News

Todd Gitlin - Media Unlimited
Used and Gratifications theory
July 16
 

 


 

 

July 20

Media and globalization / Critical theory

 

Critical theory and the media

Twilight of the Book

New World Information Order debate / Media Imperialism

Distress Signals (on reserve)

July 21

The rise of new media

 

Survival of journalism and public relations ( A compilation by Bob Stepno)

Media Convergence

Adoption and Diffusion Theory

Triumph of the Nerds web site

Nerds 2.0 web site

July 22
Media Reform Media reform web site Low power FM radio
the end of monopoly media
July 23
  Tetrads and revolutions  
     
July 27
Final projects / papers due    
    * Symbolic Interactionism, Adoption and Diffusion, Systems, Uses and Gratification, Convergence, , Selective Perception, Psychoanalytical, Repetition & Imitation Learning, Desensitizing, etc.