Instructor: Dr. Marc Edge
Office M 10:30-12
SCS 02-42
Hours: T 2:30-4
6790-5810
F 10-12
tmarc@ntu.edu.sg
www.marcedge.com
Lecture: M
9-10:30 LT11
T 1-2:30 CSLT1
Tutorials: T1
M 2:30-3:30
CSTR5
T2 T 11-12
CSTR1
T3 T 12-1
CSTR1
T4 W 9-10
CSTR6
T5 W 10-11
CSTR6
T6 W 11:30-12:30
CSTR6
T7 Th 2-3
CSTR2
T8 Th 3-4
CSTR2
Textbook: Daniel Czitrom, Media and the American Mind, from Morse to McLuhan (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press), 1982.
Readings: Supplementary readings will be available from the Copy Centre, Library 1
Grading: Final course grades will be determined by the student’s performance
on a Final Exam (70%), and by Continuous Assessment of the
student’s performance on assignments (30%).
Assignments: Students will be expected to participate in a group project
researching some aspect of Communication History and/or
Communication Theory, the topic of which is to be determined in consultation
with the instructors. Findings of group projects will be
presented in tutorial. Pop quizzes will also be given during lecture.
Course Outline and Reading List
Week 1
July 15 Introduction
No tutorials
Week 2
July 22 The Nature of Theory and the Importance of History
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.
John Durham Peters, “Genealogical Notes on ‘The Field,’” Journal of Communication (1994), pp. 132-138.
Everett M. Rogers, “The Empirical and Critical Schools of Communication
Research,” Ch. 14 (pp. 219-233) in E. Rogers and F. Balle, eds.,
The Media Revolution in America and in Western Europe (Norwood:
Ablex), 1985.
July 23 Medium Theory – Innis and McLuhan
Czitrom, Chapter 6: “Metahistory, Mythology, and the Media: The American
Thought of Harold Innis and Marshall McLuhan,” (pp. 147-182)
Tutorials: Form groups for research projects
Week 3
July 29 Pre-Media: News in Oral Cultures
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.
Mitchell Stephens, “News in Preliterate Societies – In the Ordinary Way,” Ch. 2 (pp. 15-30) in A History of News (Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace), 1997.
July 30 Communication Breakthroughs: Writing and Paper
Marshall McLuhan, “The Spoken Word,” (pp. 77-80) and “The Written Word,” (pp. 81-88) and “The Printed Word,” (pp. 170-178) in Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (London: Routledge), 1964.
Henri-Jean Martin, “The Written and the Spoken Word,” (pp. 60-73) in The History and Power of Writing (Chicago: University of Chicago Press), 1994.
Tutorials: film
Week 4
Aug. 5 The Printing Press
Elizabeth Eisenstein, “The Expanding Republic of Letters,” (pp. 92-107) in The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 1983.
Neil Postman, “Information,” Ch. 5 (pp. 82-98) in Building a Bridge to the 18th Century: How the Past Can Improve Our Future (New York: Vintage), 1999.
Aug. 6 Asian Printing History
Shelton A. Gunaratne, “Paper, Printing and the Printing Press: A Horizontally Integrative Macrohistory Analysis,” in Gazette (2001), pp. 459-476.
Z. He, “Diffusion of movable type in China and Europe: Why were there two fates?” Gazette (1994), 153-174.
Tutorials: film (Aug. 9 tutorials cancelled)
Week 5
Aug. 12 Early Newspapers
Mitchell Stephens, “The First Newspapers – Expecting The News,” Ch. 9 (pp. 135-151) and “The Power of the Periodical – Domesticating News,” Ch. 10 (pp. 152-166) in A History of News (Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace), 1997.
Aug. 13 News at the Speed of Light: The Telegraph
Czitrom, Chapter 1: “‘Lightning Lines’ and the Birth of Modern Communication, 1838-1900,” (pp. 3-29).
Neil Postman, “The Typographic Mind,” (pp. 44-63) in Amusing Ourselves to Death (New York: Penguin), 1985.
Tutorials: film
Week 6
Aug. 19 Mass Society and Mass Media
Czitrom, Chapter 4: “Toward a New Community? Modern Communication in the Social Thought of Charles Horton Cooley, John Dewey, and Robert E. Park (pp. 91-121).
Stanley J. Baran and Dennis K. Davis, “The Rise of Media Industries
and Mass Society Theory,” Ch. 3 (pp. 32-55) in Mass Communication Theory:
Foundations, Ferment, and Future (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth), 1995.
Aug. 20 Commercialization of the Press/Newspaper Economics
Gerald Baldasty, “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.
Tim Pilgrim, “Newspapers as Natural Monopolies: Some Historical Considerations,” Journalism History, 1992 (pp. 3-10).
Tutorials: film
Week 7
Aug. 26 The Rise of Reporting/Yellow Journalism
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.
Aug. 27 Muckraking/Investigative Journalism
David L. Protess, et. al., “The Investigative Tradition,” (pp. 29-54) in The Journalism of Outrage: Investigative Reporting and Agenda Building in America (New York, Guildford Press), 1991.
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
Tutorials: film
Week 8 -----------------------RECESS--------------------
Week 9
Sept.9 The Rise of the Image: Public Relations and Advertising
Gerald Baldasty, “Advertising and the Press,” (pp. 59-80) in The Commercialization of News in the Nineteenth Century (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press), 1992.
Stuart Ewen, “Controlling Chaos,” (pp. 73-81) and “Educate the Public,” (pp. 82-101) in PR! A Social History of Spin (New York: Basic Books), 1996.
Sept. 10 Propaganda and Powerful Effects Theory
Czitrom, Chapter 5, “The Rise of Empirical Media Study: Communications Research as Behavioral Science, 1930-1960,” (pp. 122-146).
Stanley J. Baran and Dennis K. Davis, “The Rise of Media Theory in the Age of Propaganda,” Ch. 4 (pp. 58-72) in Mass Communication Theory: Foundations, Ferment, and Future (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth), 1995.
Tutorials: Group Project Presentations
Week 10
Sept. 16 Motion Pictures and the Payne Fund Studies
Czitrom, Chapter 2: “American Motion Pictures and the New Popular Culture, 1893-1918 (pp. 30-59).
Garth Jowett, “Social Science as a Weapon: The Origins of the Payne Fund Studies, 1926-1929,” Communication, 1992 (pp. 211-225).
Sept. 17 Radio and the Beginnings of Broadcasting
Czitrom, Chapter 3: “The Ethereal Hearth: American Radio From Wireless Through Broadcasting,” (pp. 60-88).
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.
Tutorials: Group Project Presentations
Week 11
Sept. 23 Television and the Dominant Paradigm: Limited Effects Theory
Stanley J. Baran and Dennis K. Davis, “The Limited Effects Paradigm Emerges,” Ch. 8 (pp. 156-181) in Mass Communication Theory: Foundations, Ferment, and Future (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth), 1995.
Brian Winston, “Fugitive Pictures,” Ch. 2 (pp. 35-67) in Misunderstanding
Media (New York: Routledge), 1985.
Sept. 24 Managing the Modern Media Mind: Cultivation Theory
Armand Mattellart, “The Market of Target Groups,” Ch. 12 (pp. 277-300) in The Invention of Communication (Minneapolis: U. of Minnesota), 1997.
James Shanahan and Michael Morgan, “Methods of Cultivation and Early Empirical Work,” Ch. 3 (pp. 59-80) in Television and its Viewers: Cultivation Theory and Research (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 1999.
Tutorials: Group Project Presentations
Week 12
Sept. 30 A Brief History of the Press in Singapore
C.M. Turnbull, “Origins,” Ch. 1 (pp. 3-16); and “‘Pains and Perils,’ 1845-1867,” Ch. 2 (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,” Ch. 4 (pp. 38-55) in The Media Enthralled: Singapore Revisited (London: Lynne Reiner), 1998.
Oct. 1 The Development of Broadcasting in Singapore
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.
Tutorials: Group Project Presentations
Week 13
Oct. 7 Doing History: The Singapore Oral History Project (guest speaker)
No Readings
Oct. 8 Looking Forward: The History and the Future of Digital Media
Czitrom, Epilogue, “Dialectical Tensions in the American Media, Past and Future,” (pp.183-196).
Mitchell Stephens, “Thinking Above the Stream,” Ch. 13 (pp. 204-230) in The Rise of the Image the Fall of the Word (New York: Oxford University Press), 1998.
Tutorials: Group Project Presentations
Week 14
Oct. 14 Review
No Tutorials