Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism
University of Southern California
COMM599: International Communication
Dr. Yu Hong
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Course Description
The course addresses two interrelated questions: First, how do media and communication contribute to the contemporary global political-economic order; second, how does unequal development shape media institutions and the production, distribution, and consumption of information and communication technologies/resources across and within national borders. Students will look at shifting relationships between developed and developing countries and between nation and class and evaluate the implications of communication-facilitated globalization on national development, economic growth, institution building, social justice, labor market, and civil society.
Course Organization
This course will mix lectures and discussions. Class will begin with a 15-20 minute discussion and will be followed by lectures, films, and presentations.
Expectations
1. Discussion participation: 35%
This is a seminar course, and you are expected to contribute to class discussion and debate at each meeting.
3. Presentation on class readings: 15%
You will present on class readings between 15-20 minutes.
2. Final paper 50%
For your final paper, you have three options. (1) A report of original research, written in a form suitable for submission to a conference, (2) A theory paper that attempts to synthesize some chunk of literature in a new way and/or proposes a new way to think about a question linked to international communication, or (3) a detailed proposal for an empirical study you plan to conduct in the following semester (as evidenced by a completed IRB submission, if necessary). You will work closely with me to develop your paper. A 2-3 page proposal is due Week 4— make sure you talk with me about your project before that deadline. You’ll present your papers to your colleagues during the final class meeting.
Statement on Academic Integrity
USC seeks to maintain an optimal learning environment. General principles of academic honesty include the concept of respect for the intellectual property of others, the expectation that individual work will be submitted unless otherwise allowed by an instructor, and the obligations both to protect one’s own academic work from misuse by others as well as to avoid using another’s work as one’s own. All students are expected to understand and abide by these principles. Scampus, the Student Guidebook, contains the Student Conduct Code in Section 11.00, while the recommended sanctions are located in Appendix A: Students will be referred to the Office of Student Judicial Affairs and Community Standards for further review, should there be any suspicion of academic dishonesty. The Review process can be found at:
Statement for Students with Disabilities
Any student requesting academic accommodations based on a disability is required to register with Disability Services and Programs (DSP) each semester. A letter of verification for approved accommodations can be obtained from DSP. Please be sure the letter is delivered to me (or to TA) as early in the semester as possible. DSP is located in STU 301 and is open 8:30 a.m.–5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. The phone number for DSP is (213) 740-0776
COURSE OUTLINE
(I will make minor alterations throughout the semester, so please pay close attention as we go along)
Week 1
Introduction
Introduction, Mechanics and topics of the Course
Lesson activity: Choose discussion topics and readings
Discuss and explore project topics
Week 2
Historical Paths of Global Communications
Kaarle Nordenstreng, “The Context: Great Media Debate.”
“The Processes: From Nationalism to Transnationals,” in Media and cultural studies: keyworks / edited by Meenakshi Gigi Durham and Douglas M. Kellner, 2006.
Amin Alhassan, (2004) “Communication, the Postcolonial Nation-State and Development: A New Political Economic Research Agenda.”
Gerald Sussman, “ Transformation of Capitalism, Communication, and Culture: A Primer on Political Economy”
Week 3
Global Media Giants
The Legacy of Robert A.Brady: Antifascist Origins of the Political Economy of Communications Dan Schiller
DavidHarvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism. New York: Oxford University Press (2005), pp.1-19, 120-151.
Robert McChesney, “The Media System Goes Global.” In International Communication: A Reader edited by Daya Kishan Thussu.
Gerald Sussman, “Global Telecommunications and the Third world: Theoretical Consideration.”
Armand Mattelart, “The Restructuring of the European Advertising Industry.”
Optional: Amelia H. Arsenault & Manual Castells. “The Structure and Dynamics of Global Multi-Media Business Network,” International Journal of Communication 2 (2008), 707-748.
Week 4
Media and Global Divide
Oliver Boyd-Barrett, “Media Imperialism Reformulated”
Herbert I. Schiller, “Not Yet and Post-Imperialist Era”
Anirudh Krishna and Nederveen Pieterse, “Hierarchical Integration: The Dollar Economy and the Rupee Economy”
Gerald Sussman and John A. Lent, “Who Speaks for Asia: Media and Information Control in the Global Economy.”
Jan Nederveen Pieterse, Media and global divides: representing the rise of the rest as threat, Global Media and Communication. 2009.
Jan Nederveen Pieterse, “Introduction 1: Development and Inequality.”
Week 5
Alternative Global Media
Daya Kishan Thussu, “Mapping Global Media Flow and Contra-Flow,” in International Communication: A Reader edited by Daya Kishan Thussu
Joseph Oliver Boyd-Barrett & Shuang Xie. “Al-Jazeera, Phoenix Satellite Television and the Return of the State: Case Studies in Market Liberalization, Public Sphere and Media Imperialism,” International Journal of Communication 2 (2008), 206-222.
Jerry Harris, “To be or Not to Be: The Nation-Centric World Order under Globalization,” in Science & Society, Vol. 69, No. 3, July 2005, pp. 329-340.
Yuezhi Zhao, “The Challenge of China: Contributions to a Trancultural Political Economy of Communication in the 21st Century,” In J. Wasko, G. Murdock & H. Sousa, eds., The Handbook of Political Economy of Communications
Sinclair, John. "The Hollywood of Latin America"." Television and New Media 4, no.3
(2003): 211-29.
Week 6
No formal class
Individual meetings with the instructor
Lesson activity: Revise your paper proposal
Week 7
Global Civil Society
Manuel Castells, et. al. “Electronic Communications and Socio-Political Mobilisation,” Global Civil Society 2005/6, pp. 266-285. (4/6)
James Curran, “Rethinking Media and Democracy”
Yuezhi Zhao and Robert A. Hackett, “Media Globalization, Media Democratization: Challenges, Paradoxes, Issues,” in Democratizing Global Media: One World, Many Struggles edited by Robert A. Hackett and Yuezhi Zhao.
Week 8
Cyber Marx
Nick Witheford, Cyber Marx: Cycles and Circuits of Struggle in High-technology Capitalism, Chapter 1-5 and Chapter 9
Week 9
Development Communication
Srinivas R. Melkote, “Theories of Development Communication.” In International Communication: A Reader edited by Daya Kishan Thussu.
Andrew Gillespie and Kevin Robins, “Geographical Inequalities: The Spatial Bias of the New Communication Technologies” in The Information Gap: How Computers and Other New Communication Technologies Affect the Social Distribution of Power edited by M. Siefert, G. Gerbner, and J Fisher.
Graham Murdock and Peter Golding, “Information Poverty and Political Inequality: Citizenship in the Age of Privatized Communications”
Sue Curry Jansen, “Gender and the Information Society: A Socially Structured Silence.”
Jan Nederveen Pieterse “Information-for-Development: Business As Usual, Or Breakthrough?”
Week 10
Digital Capitalism
Herbert Schiller, Introduction to Information and the Crisis Economy
Dan Schiller, The Information Commodity: A Preliminary View
Thomas, Pradip N. (2008). A contemporary denial of access: Knowledge, IPR and the public good. In C. Jin and Y. Zhao (Ed.), 传播政治经济学英文读本（上、下册） (pp. 334-343) Shanghai, China: Fudan University Press
Dan Schiller, “World Communications in Today’s Age of Capital,” in International Communication: A Reader edited by Daya Kishan Thussu.
Boyd-Barrett, Oliver. (2006). “Cyberspace, Globalization and Empire.” Global Media and Communication, 2 (1): 21-41.
Week 11
National ICT4D Policy
Curtin, Michael. “Global Media Capital and Local Media Policy,” in Janet Wasko and Graham
Murdock, eds., Blackwell Handbook of the Political Economy of Communication, forthcoming.
Kong, Lily. “Cultural Policy in Singapore: Negotiating Economic and Socio-cultural Agendas.”
Geoforum 31 (2000): 409-424
Yu Hong, “Reading the Twelfth Five-Year Plan: China’s Communication-Driven Mode of
Economic Restructuring.”
Yuezhi Zhao, Rethinking Chinese media studies: history, political economy and culture” pp. 175-195.
Thomas Guback, “Government Financial Support to the Film Industry in the United States.”
Goldsmith, Ben, and Tom O'Regan. "The Policy Environment of the Contemporary Film
Studio." In Contracting out Hollywood: Runaway Productions and Foreign Location Shooting,
edited by Greg Elmer and Mike Gasher, 41-66. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005.
Week 12
Labor and the Information Economy
Graham Murdock, Reconstructing the Ruined Tower: Contemporary Communications and Questions of Class
Gerald Sussman & John A Lent, Global Productions: Labor in the Making of the “Information Society.” Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 1998. 317 pp.
Vincent Mosco, Political Economy, Communication, and Labor.
Yu Hong, “Introduction” in Labor, Class Formation and China’s Informationized Policy of Economic Development. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
Week 14
To be determined
Week 15
Future Research
Student Presentation
Final paper is due!