Instructor: Dr. Marc Edge
            SCS 02-42|790-5810
            tmarc@ntu.edu.sg

Office Hours:     M  11-12, T 11-12, TH 11-12, F 10-12

Lecture:          T  3:30-5:30, PPC Lab

Tutorial:         W  10-12, CSTR2 ***Note venue change***
 

Textbook: Mitchell Stephens, A History of News (New York, Harcourt Brace), 1997.

Readings: Supplementary readings will be available from
the Copy Centre, Library 1
 

Grading: Final course grades will be determined equally by the student’s
performance on a Final Exam, and by Continuous Assessment of the student’s
performance on assignments and in class discussion.
 

Assignments: Each student is expected to write a short (10-15 pages) research
paper on a topic relevant to the course, the findings of which are to be summarized
in a  class presentation during the final week of the course. Paper topics are to be
developed in consultation with the instructor and finalized in a one-page outline
by recess.
 

NOTE: Due to the Chinese New Year holiday, classes will not be held for this
course during Week 6.
 
Course Outline and Reading List

Week 1         Introduction

James Carey, “The Problem of Journalism History,” (pp. 86-93) in Munson and Warren, eds., James Carey: A Critical Reader
(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press), 1997.

Week 2         News in Oral Societies

Stephens, Ch. 1-3

Jack Goody, “Oral Culture,” (pp. 12-19) in Richard Bauman, ed., Folklore, Cultural Performances, and Popular Entertainments: A Communications-Centered Handbook (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 1992.

Week 3         The Writing Revolution

Stephens, Ch. 4-5

Marshall McLuhan, “The Spoken Word,” (pp. 77-80); “The Written Word,” (pp. 81-88); and “The Printed Word,” (pp. 170-178) in
Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (London: Routledge), 1964.

Week 5         The Printing Press

Stephens, Ch. 6-8

Elizabeth Eisenstein, “The Expanding Republic of Letters,” (pp. 92-107) in The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press), 1983.

Z. He, “Diffusion of movable type in China and Europe: Why were there two fates?” Gazette (1994), 153-174.

Week 6          Early Newspapers

Stephens, Ch. 9-10

Daniel J. Czitrom, “‘Lightning Lines’ and the Birth of Modern Communication, 1838-1900,” (pp. 3-29) in Media and the American
Mind From Morse to McLuhan (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press), 1982.

Neil Postman, “The Typographic Mind,” (pp. 44-63) in Amusing Ourselves to Death (New York: Penguin), 1985.

Week 7         Mass Circulation Dailies

Stephens, Ch. 11-12
Li Liangrong, “The Historical Fate of ‘objective reporting’ in China,” (pp. 225-236) in C.C. Lee, ed. China’s media, media’s China
(Boulder, Colorado: Westview), 1994

Week 8         Recess

Week 9         The Rise of Reporting

Stephens, Ch. 13-14

Michael Schudson, “Telling Stories: Journalism as a Vocation After 1880,” (pp. 61-87) in Discovering the News: A Social History of
American Newspapers (New York: Basic Books), 1978.

Michael Schudson, “Question Authority: A History of the News Interview,” (pp. 72-93) in The Power of News (Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press), 1995.

Week 10         Electronic Media

Stephens, Ch. 15-16.

Marshall McLuhan, “Radio,” (pp. 297-307) in Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (London: Routledge), 1964.

Joshua Meyrowitz, “The Separation of Social Place from Physical Place,” (pp. 113-125) in No Sense of Place: The Impact of Electronic
Media on Social Behavior (New York: Oxford University Press), 1985.

Week 11         Advertising and Public Relations

Gerald Baldasty, “Advertising and the Press,” (pp. 59-80) and “Shaping and Packaging the News: Luring Readers and Advertisers,”
(pp. 113-138) in The Commercialization of News in the Nineteenth Century (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press), 1992.

Stuart Ewen, “Controlling Chaos,” (pp. 60-81) and “Educate the Public,” (pp. 82-101) in PR! A Social History of Spin (New York:
Basic Books), 1996.

Week 12         A (Very) Short History of Singapore Media

C.M. Turnbull, “Origins,” (pp. 3-16); and “‘Pains and Perils,’ 1845-1867,” (pp. 17-37) in Dateline Singapore: 150 Years of the Straits
Times (Singapore: Singapore Press Holdings), 1995.

Francis T. Seow, “The Subjugation of the Print Media: Two Important Cases,” (pp. 38-55) in The Media Enthralled: Singapore Revisited
(London: Lynne Reiner), 1998.

Drew McDaniel, “Broadcasting in Singapore,” (pp. 163-190) in Broadcasting in the Malay world : radio, television, and video in Brunei,
Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore (Norwood, NJ: Ablex), 1994.

Week 13         Paper Presentations