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Lecturer: Dr. Marc Edge
e-mail: tmarc@ntu.edu.sg
Lecture: Mondays 1:30-3:30 p.m., PPC Lab Tutorial: Tuesdays 2:30-4:30 p.m., PPC Lab Office Hours: Mondays 3:30-5:30 p.m.
Description: This course examines communication theories and key concepts, from a sociological perspective, in an historical manner. The focus is on the roots of modern communication thought, from the earliest social scientific studies through the rise of empirical research to modern forms of integrative analysis. Emerging areas of critical and cultural theory will also be explored. Assessment: 70 per cent by Final Examination. 30 per cent by Continuous Assessment, including tutorial attendance and participation, tutorial presentations, and a research paper. Text: Stanley J. Baran and Dennis K. Davis, Mass Communication Theory: Foundations, Ferment, and Future, 3rd ed., (New York: Longman), 2003. (Available at Popular bookstore) Readings: A packet of supplemental readings is available at the Library 1 copy center. Assignments: Each student is expected to participate in tutorial
group presentation of readings and write a short (10-15 pages) research
paper relevant to the course, the topic of which is 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 5.
Week 1 January 6 Introduction January 7 No Tutorial Week 2 January 13 Communication Thought and Theory Readings: Baran & Davis, Chapters
1-2 (pp. 3-37).
Everett M. Rogers, “The Empirical and Critical Schools of Communication Research,” (pp. 219-233) in E. Rogers and F. Balle, eds., The Media Revolution in America and in Western Europe (Norwood: Ablex), 1985. January 14 Form tutorial groups
Week 3 January 20 Mass Society and Powerful Effects Theory Readings: Baran & Davis, Chapters 3-4 (pp. 40-90). Walter Lippmann, “The World Outside and the Pictures in Our Heads,” (pp. 3-32) Public Opinion (New York: Macmillan), 1922. January 21 Tutorial presentations and discussion Week 4 January 27 Normative Press Theory Readings: Baran & Davis, Chapter 5 (pp. 91-122). John C. Merrill, et. al., “The Sunrise of Freedom,” (pp. 1-26) Twilight of Press Freedom, (Malwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum), 2001. January 28 Tutorial presentations and discussion Week 5 No Classes – Chinese New Year Week 6 February 10 Empiricism and Limited Effects Theory Readings: Baran & Davis, Chapters 6-7 (pp. 126-182). Armand Mattelart and Michele Mattelart, “New World Empiricism,” pp. 19-42) in Theories of Communication: A Short Introduction (London: Sage), 1998. February 11 Tutorial presentations and discussion Week 7 February 17 Political Economy and Critical Theory Readings: Baran & Davis, Chapter 9 (pp. 220-252). Robert W. McChesney, “The Political Economy of Global Communication,” (pp. 1-26) in McChesney, et. al., eds., Capitalism and the Information Age: The Political Economy of the Global Communication Revolution (New York: Monthly Review Press), 1998. February 18 Tutorial presentations and discussion Week 8 Recess Week 9 March 3 Communication and Culture Readings: Baran & Davis, Chapter 11 (pp. 291-345). James W. Carey, “Overcoming Resistance to Cultural Studies,” (pp. 89-110), in Communication as Culture: Essays on Media and Society (New York: Routledge), 1989. March 4
Tutorial presentations and discussion
March 10 Case Study: Medium Theory Readings: Daniel Czitrom, “Metahistory, Mythology, and the Media: The American Thought of Harold Innis and Marshall McLuhan,” (pp. 147-182) ) in Media and the American Mind, from Morse to McLuhan (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press), 1982. Joshua Meyrowitz, “Medium Theory,” (pp. 50-77) in D. Crowley and D. Mitchell, eds., Communication Theory Today (Stanford: Stanford University Press), 1994. March 11 Tutorial presentations and discussion Week 11 March 17 Case Study: Cultivation Theory Readings: George Gerbner, “The cultural frontier: Repression, violence, and the liberating alternative,” (pp. 155-170) in Philip Lee, ed. The Democratization of Communication (Cardiff: University of Wales Press), 1995. James Shanahan and Michael Morgan, “Methods of Cultivation and Early Empirical Work,” (pp. 59-80) in Television and its Viewers: Cultivation Theory and Research (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 1999. March 18 Tutorial presentations and discussion Week 12 March 24 Case Study: Agenda Setting and Frame Analysis Readings: Baran & Davis, pp. 273-278. T. Michael Maher, “Framing: An Emerging Paradigm of a Phase of Agenda Setting?” (pp. 83-93) in Stephen D. Reese, et. al., Framing Public Life: Perspectives on Media and Our Understanding of the Social World (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum), 2001. Robert T. Entman, “Framing: Toward Clarification of a Fractured Paradigm,” (pp. 51-58) in Journal of Communication, Autumn 1993. March 25 Tutorial presentations and discussion Week 13 March 31 Case Study: News Production Routines Readings: J. Herbert Altschull, “Press Content and Financing: Paying the Piper,” (pp. 253-276) in Agents of Power: The Role of the News Media in Human Affairs (New York: Longman), 1984. Pamela J. Shoemaker and Stephen D. Reese, “Patterns of Media Content (pp. 41-61) in Mediating the Message: Theories of Influences on Mass Media Content, 2nd ed. (New York: Longman), 1996. Barbie Zelizer, “Has Communication Explained Journalism?” (pp. 80- 88) Journal of Communication (1993). April 1 Tutorial presentations and discussion Week 14 April 8 Review
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