Readings should be completed no later than the date under which they are listed. Reading ahead is practical and encouraged.
Changes to readings and assignments may become necessary during the semester, and will be announced in class. It is your responsibility to keep abreast of changes, if you miss class.
Click on the following to go to the different sections of the course:
Part I Finding the Scholarly Conversation Jan 16 - 25
Part II Making News and the Student Movement Against the Viet Nam War in the 1960s Jan 30 - Feb. 13
Part III Media and the Politics of Public Feelings in the 1990s March 1 - March 22
Part IV Social Media and Networked Society (or, How the Internet became like a Dumpster Fire) March 27 - April 5
Part V Protest Movements in the networked era, April 10-19
VI Term paper presentations April 24 - May 3rd
Changes to readings and assignments may become necessary during the semester, and will be announced in class. It is your responsibility to keep abreast of changes, if you miss class.
Click on the following to go to the different sections of the course:
Part I Finding the Scholarly Conversation Jan 16 - 25
Part II Making News and the Student Movement Against the Viet Nam War in the 1960s Jan 30 - Feb. 13
Part III Media and the Politics of Public Feelings in the 1990s March 1 - March 22
Part IV Social Media and Networked Society (or, How the Internet became like a Dumpster Fire) March 27 - April 5
Part V Protest Movements in the networked era, April 10-19
VI Term paper presentations April 24 - May 3rd
I) How do Media Matter?: Finding the scholarly conversation
1/16 Media and Society Overview
1/18 Making sense of the symbolic: Analyzing Media Texts
1/23 Media and Modernity
“The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionising the instruments of production, and thereby the relations of production, and with them the whole relations of society. Conservation of the old modes of production in unaltered form, was, on the contrary, the first condition of existence for all earlier industrial classes. Constant revolutionising of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones. All fixed, fast-frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind.” Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx. The Communist Manifesto. Penguin UK, 2004/1848
1/25 Culture, Ideology, and Power
1/16 Media and Society Overview
- “Media and the Social World,” Chapter 1 of David Croteau and William Hoynes, Media/Society: Industries, Images, and Audiences, fifth edition, pp. 2-30.
1/18 Making sense of the symbolic: Analyzing Media Texts
- View Semiotic Analysis slide show; look over this set of definitions of semiotic concepts, and read this, this, and this advertising analyses. (If your ad concerns gender, or you just are curious, you may also want to check out this online slideshow on the male gaze.) Start working on your semiotic analysis of an advertisement (due in Class 1/25).
1/23 Media and Modernity
“The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionising the instruments of production, and thereby the relations of production, and with them the whole relations of society. Conservation of the old modes of production in unaltered form, was, on the contrary, the first condition of existence for all earlier industrial classes. Constant revolutionising of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones. All fixed, fast-frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind.” Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx. The Communist Manifesto. Penguin UK, 2004/1848
- A youtube video about cell phones and everyday life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OINa46HeWg8
- Ferdinand Tonnies, excerpts “On Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft,” from Marcello Truzzi, Sociology: The Classic Statements, New York: Oxford University Press, 1971, pp. 145-154
- Marshall Berman, excerpt from All That is Solid Melts Into Air: The Experience of Modernity, 1982 (Simon and Schuster), pp 15-36.
1/25 Culture, Ideology, and Power
- Pallavi Dhakal, “An attempt to understand the role of the mass media in society through the concept of ‘hegemony’,” blogpost, https://palv.wordpress.com/2011/01/20/an-attempt-to-understand-the-role-of-the-mass-media-in-society-through-the-concept-of-hegemony/
- Helen Morgan Parmett, “‘Shredding’ the Love: A Feminist Political Economy Critique of Gendered Lifestyle Branding,” Journal of Sport and Social Issues 2015, Vol. 39(3) 202–224.
- Thomas Streeter, "Steve Jobs, Romantic Individualism, and the Desire for Good Capitalism," International Journal of Communication 9 (2015), Feature, pp. 3106–3124. http://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/4062/1473
Part II: Making News and the Student Protest Against the Viet Nam War Jan 30 - Feb. 13
1/30 Making News: methods and theory
Feb. 1: Frame Analysis
Feb. 6 Overview
Todd Gitlin, The Whole World Is Watching: Mass Media in the Making and Unmaking of the New Left (Univ. of California Press, 1980/2003 with a New Preface).
• Gitlin, Introduction 1-20
Feb. 8, Methods
• Gitlin, 21-77 and “Appendix on Sources and Methods” 293-306
Feb. 13 -15
• Gitlin, 78-204
Feb. 20 - 27
• Gitlin, 205-292
1/30 Making News: methods and theory
- Tuchman, Gaye. “Objectivity as Strategic Ritual: An Examination of Newsmen’s Notions of Objectivity.” American Journal of Sociology 77, no. 4 (1972): 660–79.
- https://publiceditor.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/23/the-raging-debate-over-objectivity-
and-transparency/ - https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2017/0706/Why-journalism-is-shifting-away-
from-objectivity
Feb. 1: Frame Analysis
- Tuchman, Gaye. Chapter 1 “News as Frame,” Making News. Free Press, 1980, pp. 1-8.
- How to do a Frame Analysis of News
Feb. 6 Overview
Todd Gitlin, The Whole World Is Watching: Mass Media in the Making and Unmaking of the New Left (Univ. of California Press, 1980/2003 with a New Preface).
• Gitlin, Introduction 1-20
Feb. 8, Methods
• Gitlin, 21-77 and “Appendix on Sources and Methods” 293-306
Feb. 13 -15
• Gitlin, 78-204
Feb. 20 - 27
• Gitlin, 205-292
Part III: Media and the Politics of Public Feelings in the 1990s March 1 - March 22
March 1 [Research Project Proposals Due]
March 8
March 20
March 22
March 1 [Research Project Proposals Due]
- Fox, Kathryn J. (2013). “Incurable Sex Offenders, Lousy Judges & the Media: Moral Panic Sustenance in the Age of New Media,” American Journal of Criminal Justice 38: 160-181.
- Introduction: Media, Emotion, and the Public Sphere 1 - 22, from Jennifer Petersen, Murder, the Media, and the Politics of Public Feelings: Remembering Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr., Indiana University Press (August 18, 2011)
March 8
- Petersen Ch. 1 Mourning Matthew Shepard: Grief, Shame, and the Public Sphere 23-60, and Ch. 2 "Hate Is Not a Laramie Value": Translating Feelings into Law 61-91
March 20
- Petersen Ch 3 The Murder of James Byrd Jr.: The Political Pedagogy of Melodrama 92-122
March 22
- Petersen Ch 4 The Visibility of Suffering, Injustice, and the Law 123-150 and Conclusion; Feeling in the Public Sphere 151
Part IV: Social Media and Networked Society (or, How the Internet became like a Dumpster Fire) March 27 - April 10
March 27-29
April 5
April 10
- Whitney Phillips, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things: Mapping the Relationship between Online Trolling and Mainstream Culture (MIT Press) Paperback – September 2, 2016 ISBN-13: 978-0262529877
March 27-29
- Oldenburg, Ramon, and Dennis Brissett. 1982. “The Third Place.” Qualitative Sociology 5(4):265-284.
- Doug Laney, “To Facebook You’re Worth $80.95,” CIO JOURNAL, Wall Street Journal Online, May 3, 2012
- Mark Granovetter, “The Strength of Weak Ties,” American Journal of Sociology, Volume 78, Issue 6 (May, 1973), 1360-1380.
- Jenny Chan, “ISlave,” The New Internationalist, April 1, 2011
- [warning: this audio segment discusses internet rape threats in detail; it is upsetting, and so optional] Lindy West, This American Life “Ask not for whom the bell trolls: it trolls for thee.” (First 26 minutes)
- Whitney Philips, pp. 1-48
April 5
- Whitney Philips, pp. 49-134
April 10
- Philips, 135-169
Part V. Protest Movements in the networked era, April 12-19
April 12th
• Tufekci pp. 49 - 184
April 19
• Tufekci - pp. 185 - 278
- Zeynep Tufekci, Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest, Yale University Press Hardcover – May 16, 2017 ISBN-13: 978-0300215120
April 12th
- T. Streeter, “Introduction: Redefining the Possible,” Chapter 1 of Teachout and Streeter, Mousepads, Shoe leather, and Hope: Lessons from the Howard Dean Campaign for the Future of Internet Politics,” Routledge, 2007, pp. 2-14.
- Zeynep Tufekci, Adventures in the Trump Twittersphere, NYT, March 31, 2016.
- https://www.ted.com/talks/zeynep_tufekci_we_re_building_a_dystopia_just_to_make_people_click_on_ads
- Tufekci Preface to p. 48
• Tufekci pp. 49 - 184
April 19
• Tufekci - pp. 185 - 278
VI. Term paper presentations April 24 - May 3rd