Official Course
Schedule & Links to Reading Questions
This schedule is subject
to change. Changes will be announced in class and listed here. Readings
listed below each lecture topic are to be completed before that
day’s lecture. If a reading is listed with page numbers, it is in
Massey’s Readings in Mass Communication, 2nd Edition. Other
readings are listed as in the course packet or online. Go to the lectures page
to get overheads, or click on a reading to get reading questions.
Click
here to see course requirements.
M 25
Aug: Introduction to the Course and Basic Issues
I. Media
as Institutions: The Structure and Economics of Mass Media Organizations
Goals: after
this unit, you will be able to:
1. Explain
how money is made in mass communication.
2. Describe
how the drive for profit affects the process and content of mass
communication.
3. Define
corporate conglomeration and explain its effects on the mass communication
process today.
4. Name
and explain the roles of the major players in the mass media economy,
such as conglomerates, advertising firms, ratings firms, networks,
dotcoms, and studios.
5. Apply
your knowledge of players and processes in the media economy in an
analysis of a media artifact.
W
7 Jan: Media
Markets I
M 19
Jan: No class: Happy Labor Day!
W
21 Jan: Advertising II: Advertising and Culture
M
26 Jan: Audience Economics
W
28 Jan: Targeting Audiences
M
2 Feb: Making Money on Content & Intellectual Property
W 4 Feb: Alternatives and Protests
M 9 Feb: Catch-up day. We may
need it.
II. Media as Representations:
Realism is not Reality
Goals: after
this unit, you will be able to:
1. Define “realism” and
explain how it differs from reality.
2. Identify
the major conventions used to make film and television
texts (and other texts) look “realistic” and recognize the roles
played by those conventions in media texts.
3. Define
narrative and recognize the role of narrative in media texts.
4. Define
ideology and recognize ideological aspects of media texts.
5. Apply
your knowledge of conventions, narrative, and ideology in an analysis
of a media text.
M
16 Feb: What
Makes Sounds and Images Look Real?
M 1 Mar: Conventions, Narratives,
and Ideologies at Work: Issues in Fictional Representation
W
3 Mar: Conventions,
Continued
MW 8-10 Mar: Spring Break 2004!
III. Understanding
News: Institutions + Representations
Goals: after this
unit, you will be able to:
1. Name
and explain the role of major institutions and types of people
involved in making the news.
2. Explain
how news is constructed, and explain the difference between “making” news
and “gathering” news.
3. Identify
and explain the major factors that limit what can appear on the news.
4. Identify
the major conventions of print and television news and recognize
those conventions in news texts.
5. Explain
the role of narrative and ideology in news.
6. Apply
your knowledge of newsmaking in an analysis of a news text.
M
15 Mar: Institutions and Sources of News I: Wires, Sources,
and Journalists
W
17 Mar: Institutions
and Sources of News II: Public Relations (+ Media Pranks!)
M
22 Mar: “The
Five Filters”: Obstacles to Fully Factual Coverage
W 24 Mar: Conventions of Print News:
M
29 Mar: Conventions
of TV News
IV. Understanding New Media: Technologies
+ Regulations + Institutions + Representations
Goals: after
this unit, you will be able to:
1. Define
the concept of technological determinism and explain what’s wrong
with it.
2. Describe
the technological and corporate aspects of new media development.
3. Name
the U.S.’s major media laws, date them, and explain their major provisions.
4. Define “intellectual
property” and identify and explain
the key intellectual property
issues raised by digital media.
5. Describe
the relationship between media policy and media corporations in the
U.S.
6. Define “convergence” and
explain what’s new and what’s not in the contemporary media environment.
M
5 Apr: Coverage
of New Technologies II: Understanding Corporatization and Development
W
7 Apr: A
Brief History of Media Regulation
M
12 Apr: New Technologies
+ New Regulations = Convergence + Globalization
Final Exam, Monday 19 April 2004, 8-9:50am (ouch!).
Location TBA during the last week of class. It will probably be 120
Lawrence.
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