Syllabus

Communication 405: Social Implications of an Information Society
Spring 2009

Tuesday and Thursday, 12:30–1:45pm
O’Kelly 1

Professor Kyle Conway
Office: Merrifield 221D
Office phone: 777-4344
Office hours: Tues. & Thurs. 11:00am–noon & 2:00–2:30pm & by appointment
Email: kyle.conway - at - und.edu

Course objectives and approach:

If the title of this course appears clear and straightforward, then it is deceptive. “Society” (and its derivative “social”), “implications,” and “information” are all words we toss around easily, as if their meanings were entirely clear. When we look at them closely, however, and begin to tease out descriptions of the entities and processes they describe, what we discover is considerably more complex, contradictory, and therefore worthy of academic attention.

To get at these gray areas, we will approach the question of the “social implications of an information society” through the lens provided initially by the Frankfurt School, whose members worked after the Second World War to try to understand the role of the media in everyday life. We will consider their arguments in the light of 21st century concerns, including media convergence and globalization. We will apply the theories we read and, at the same time, look for the contradictions they cover up.

By the end of this course, you will have a strong command of the vocabulary shaping theoretical inquiry. More important, however, you will have sharpened your skills at critique, skills that will serve you well as you engage with information in an ever changing media environment.

Required materials:

Books

Henry Jenkins, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide
Jan Nederveen Pieterse, Globalization and Culture: Global Mélange

Articles

listed in bibliography and available online, though ODIN/Journal Titles, and through electronic reserve at Chester Fritz Library

Grading:

Assignments

Participation 5%
Provision of media artifacts 20%
Note-taking 15%
Mid-term paper 25%
Presentation/final paper 35%

Grading scale

A: 90–100% B: 80–89% C: 70–79% D: 60–69% F: 0–59%

Provision of media artifacts and note-taking

At the beginning of each class, each student will give his or her three answers to the questions listed below under the heading “reading approach.” One student will copy down these answers and post them to the Comm 405 blog before noon the following day. This responsibility will fall to a different student for each class, following a schedule to be determined on Aug. 25.

These answers will guide the discussion of a media artifact such as a TV show, a YouTube clip, a song, a website, and so on (all types of media are welcome), that another student will provide. This responsibility, too, will fall to a different student for each class, following a schedule to be determined Aug. 25.

Policies:

Academic honesty

See UND’s Code of Student life: http://sos.und.edu/csl/. In addition, you may not turn in work for Communication 405 that you have turned in or intend to turn in elsewhere.

Attendance

Attendance is mandatory. You get one free absence. After that there will a penalty.

Email and grades

FERPA (the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) prevents me from discussing grades over email. However, I am more than happy to meet with you during my office hours if you would like to discuss your grade.

Cell phones

As a courtesy to me and to your classmates, please turn cell phones off during class.

Communication program information:

This course falls under the information and technology headings and addresses the following goals for student learning, as established by the UND communication program:

Information

• Cultural knowledge: Students understand the diverse and historically changing ways humans acquire, produce, and share knowledge about the world.
• Textual representation: Students understand theories of textual construction and the legal and ethical considerations of representation.
• Interpretive frameworks: Students understand the role of interpretation in how humans respond to messages and texts.
• Responsible message creation: Students are able to research and evaluate information (including numerical and statistical evidence) and create and edit socially responsible oral, written and visual communication.

Technology

• Changing technologies: Students understand the historical and contemporary context (political, economic, legal and social) of communication institutions and technologies.
• Media consequences: Students understand the consequences for individuals and diverse communities of the use and content of communication media.
• Alternative models: Students understand alternate possibilities for having access to, using, and arranging communication technologies and institutions.
• Ethical use: Students are able to use communication technologies ethically in conventional, as well as imaginative, ways.

Reading approach:

For each day’s reading, please answer the following questions:

• What is one question the author is seeking to answer?
• What is one main point the author makes?
• What is one critique of the author’s argument?

The first two questions should be relatively straightforward, but the third might be new, depending on the types of classes you have taken before. “Critique,” in this case, means a wide range of things. Some possibilities include:

• Omission: what else might the author have included or discussed?
• External contradiction: how does the author’s argument differ from your experience or from what you observe in the world around you?
• Internal contradiction: does the logic of the author’s argument contradict itself?

Reading schedule:

METHOD

Week 1 - Introduction

Tuesday 8/25 - Introduction and course overview

Thursday 8/27 - What is theory? What is method?
Culler, “What is Theory?” (electronic reserve)
Conway, Technology/Form, chap. 1 (available here)

Week 2 - Method and what’s at stake

Tuesday 9/1 - The method of critique
Conway, Technology/Form, chaps. 2–6

Thursday 9/3 - Convergence and globalization
Jenkins, Convergence Culture, introduction
Nederveen Pieterse, Globalization & Culture, chap. 1

CULTURE INDUSTRIES AND CONVERGENCE

Week 3 - Where is the public’s voice?

Tuesday 9/8 - The culture industries
Horkheimer and Adorno, “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception” (electronic reserve)
McDonald, “Midcult and Masscult” (electronic reserve)
Scott, “Open Wide: Spoon-fed Cinema” (available here)

Thursday 9/10 - Theorizing the public sphere
Habermas, “The Public Sphere: An Encyclopedia Article” (ODIN/Journal Titles)
Conway and Galewski, “Not the Voice Coppola Would Expect: Microcinema and Its Challenge to Public-ness” (available here)

Week 4 - Convergence and the culture industries

Tuesday 9/15 - Convergence and television
Jenkins, Convergence Culture, chaps. 1–2

Thursday 9/17 - Transmedia storytelling
Jenkins, Convergence Culture, chap. 3

Week 5 - The participatory audience

Tuesday 9/22 - Walter Benjamin: participation as salvation
Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” (electronic reserve)

Thursday 9/24 - Participatory media, old-school
Halleck, “Plunk Your Magic Twanger: Community Control of Technology” and “The Uses of Community Media: A Global Survey” (electronic reserve)
Boyle, “From Portapak to Camcorder: A Brief History of Guerilla Television” (electronic reserve)

Week 6 - The productive audience and politics

Tuesday 9/29 - Convergence and the productive audience
Jenkins, Convergence Culture, chaps. 4–5

Thursday 10/1 - Convergence and politics
Jenkins, Convergence Culture, chap. 6

APPLICATION

Week 7 - Application and analysis

Tuesday 10/6 - Media artifact

Thursday 10/8 - In-class analysis

Week 8 - Application and analysis

Tuesday 10/13 - In-class analysis

Thursday 10/15 - MIDTERM PAPER DUE - discuss papers in class

Week 9 - Writing workshops

Tuesday 10/20 - Writing workshop/consultation

Thursday 10/22 - Writing workshop/consultation

GLOBALIZATION AND PARTICIPATION

Week 10 - Theorizing globalization

Tuesday 10/27 - Globalization timelines
Nederveen Pieterse, Globalization & Culture, chap. 2

Thursday 10/29 - Paradigms of globalization
Nederveen Pieterse, Globalization & Culture, chap. 3

Week 11 - Hybridity

Tuesday 11/3 - Hybridity
Nederveen Pieterse, Globalization & Culture, chap. 4
Carroll, “American Television in Europe: Problematizing the Notion of Pop Cultural Hegemony” (available here)

Thursday 11/5 - Anti-hybridity
Nederveen Pieterse, Globalization & Culture, chap. 5

Week 12 - The clash of civilizations

Tuesday 11/10 - The clash of civilizations
Huntington, “The Clash of Civilizations?” (ODIN/Journal Titles)

Thursday 11/12 - NO CLASS (NCA conference)

Week 13 - Globalization and counter-power

Tuesday 11/17 - Globalization and power
Castells, “Communication, Power and Counter-power in the Network Society” (available here)

Thursday 11/19 - Globalization and participatory media
Jenkins, Convergence Culture, conclusion
Conway, “Small Media, Global Media: Kino and the Microcinema Movement” (ODIN/Journal Titles)

Week 14 - Implications

Tuesday 11/24 - Global implications
Jenkins, Convergence Culture, afterword
Nederveen Pieterse, Globalization & Culture, chap. 6

Thursday 11/26 - NO CLASS - THANKSGIVING

Week 15 - Presentations

Tuesday 12/1 - Student presentations

Thursday 12/3 - Student presentations

Week 16 - Presentations

Tuesday 12/8 - Student presentations

Thursday 12/10 - Student presentations

FINAL EXAM - DECEMBER 15, 1:00PM