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Mass Media, Global Communication and the Future
E59.1300.001
Mondays and Wednesdays, 2:00-3:15 p.m.
48 Cooper Square, Room 112
Prof. Rodney Benson
Room 551-A, Pless Annex
Department of Culture and Communication, NYU
239 Greene Street, NYC10003
E-mail:
Telephone: 212/992-9490
Office Hours: By Appointment.
Course Description
This course seeks to cover the landscape in contemporary theorizing and research on cultural globalization. It is organized broadly around three partially competing/partially complementary theories of globalization – homogenization, enduring cultural differences, and hybridization. We will attempt to bring each of these theories to life with case studies of the production, distribution, and reception of cultural forms and experiences from across the globe. Our focus will be first and foremost empirical, that is, oriented to describing and understanding as fully as possible what is happening and why. But we will also address at various times normative issues, that is, what should be done. Hopefully, by the end of this course, you will have a better sense of what globalization is, what forces are driving it, and what you can or want to do about it as a student and scholar, future communications professional, citizen, consumer, activist, and/or global cosmopolitan.
Course readings and assignments are designed to help you in this learning process. Given the complexity of our topic – the whole world! – it is essential for you to be an active and critical reader. This means: Underline key passages in your books and articles. Write critical comments in the margins. Be able to identify the basic argument of each book, chapter, or article in a single sentence (yes, it can be done! Just imagine yourself responding to a friend who asks: So, what’s that about?). Outline the critical supporting arguments and examples. And most importantly, identify the ways each author’s argument is similar or different to others we have read.
Lectures will draw upon readings, but will often elaborate and illustrate them as well as introducing additional material which will be included on the exams.Discussion is also an important part of the learning process, so come prepared to talk as well as listen.
Texts
Books(Available at NYU Bookstore)
Jan Nederveen Pieterse. 2004. Globalization and Culture: Global Mélange. New York: Rowman & Littlefield.
Daniel Hallin and Paolo Mancini. 2004. Comparing Media Systems: Three Models of Media and Politics. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press.
George Ritzer. 2004. The McDonaldization of Society. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge.
Pdf texts:Available on Blackboard under “Course Documents” (indicated in schedule with asterisk).
Course Assignments and Evaluation
Grading for this course will be based on your performance on the following:
(1) Attendance and Active Participation (10 percent): Come to class, on time, stay in your seat for the 75 minutes we are all together, and be prepared to discuss the assigned readings. Quizzes may be given if it becomes evident that students are not prepared.
(2) Mid-Term Exam (25 percent):Essays and short answers. Covers lectures and readings from the first half of the course.
(3) Final Exam (35 percent):Essays and short answers. Focuses on lectures and readings from the second half of the course, but at least one essay question may be comprehensive. Will also include questions about student presentations.
(3) Research Paper (30 percent): In this theoretically-framed empirical paper of 15 pages, you will conduct primary research on globalization and media. A detailed research prospectus will be due midway through the semester, and all topics must be approved by the professor. To emphasize: Your paper must include some form of primary research, such as content analysis of media texts/images, surveys, in-depth interviews, or ethnography. (Style guidelines: Use staples, not paper clips or plastic covers. Double-space. Number your pages. Use a formal style manual for citations.) At the end of the semester, you will give a brief (10-15 minute) in-class presentation of your chief findings.
Grading Policies
It should go without saying that plagiarism is strictly prohibited. This policy will be strictly enforced.“Plagiarism, one of the gravest forms of academic dishonesty in university life, whether intended or not, is academic fraud. In a community of scholars, whose members are teaching, learning and discovering knowledge, plagiarism cannot be tolerated. Plagiarism is failure to properly assign authorship to a paper, a document, an oral presentation, a musical score and/or other materials which are not your original work. You plagiarize when, without proper attribution, you do any of the following: Copy verbatim from a book, an article or other media; Download documents from the Internet; Purchase documents; Report from other’s oral work; Paraphrase or restate someone else’s facts, analysis and/or conclusions; Copy directly from a classmate or allow a classmate to copy from you.” (NYUSteinhardtSchool of Education Statement on Academic Integrity)
Assignments:
1) must be turned in on-time: late assignments will be down-graded (one full grade per week late);
2) must be stapled, if more than one page;
3) must have your name at the top of the page;
4) must have all pages numbered.
Any assignments not formatted as indicated in 2) through 4) will be downgraded an additional 1-3 points.
Basic standards:
A = excellent. Outstanding work in all respects. Your papers and essays are thoroughly researched, appropriately documented, logically organized and rhetorically convincing. Your analysis is not only comprehensive and sound, but creative and original. In short, you not only get it, but begin to see through it!
B = good. Your understanding of course materials is complete and thorough, and there is at least some evidence of your own critical intelligence at work. You demonstrate basic competence in research, writing and oral presentation.
C = adequate. Your writing is vague and incoherent or riddled with grammatical or spelling errors. You do not make proper use of source materials, and there is little depth or concreteness to your research or analysis. Your understanding of concepts and ideas is incomplete and often misguided, but there is at least some evidence that you “got” something from this course.
D = unsatisfactory. Work exhibits virtually no understanding or even awareness of basic concepts and themes of course. Your participation has been inadequate or superficial. Either you have not been paying attention or you have not been making any effort.
F= failed. Work was not submitted or completed according to the basic parameters outlined in the course syllabus (basic requirements for page length, topical focus, types and number of sources, documentation of primary source materials).
Grades are calculated according to the following scale:
94-100 A; 90-93 A-; 87-89 B+; 83-86 B; 80-82 B-;
77-79 C+; 73-76 C; 70-72 C-; 67-69 D+; 63-66 D; 60-62 D-; 0-59 F
Schedule (subject to revision; readings may be added or subtracted; *=articles or excerpts from books available on Blackboard):
WEEK 1
Wed., 9.6Three Theories of Globalization:
Homogenization, Enduring Differences, and Hybridization
Pieterse, Globalization and Culture, chs. 1 and 3
Curran and Park, ‘Beyond globalization theory’ (esp. pp-13)
WEEK 2
Mon., 9.11Cultural or Media Imperialism
*Mattelart and Dorfmann, How to Read Donald Duck(excerpts)
*McChesney, ‘The Media System goes Global’
*Serra, ‘The killing of Brazilian street children’ (optional)
Wed., 9.13Digital and Other Media Divides
*Norris, ‘The Digital Divide’
*Sreberny-Mohammadi, ‘The Global and the Local in International Communications’
*Spitulnik, ‘Mobile Machines and Fluid Audiences...Zambian Radio Culture’
WEEK 3
Mon., 9.18Rationalization / McDonaldization
Ritzer, The McDonaldization of Society, pp. 1-158
Wed., 9.20McDonaldization (II)
Ritzer, pp. 159-67, 202-12
*Fantasia, ‘Fast Food in France’
WEEK 4
Mon., 9.25Multiple Audience Interpretations
*Katz and Liebes, ‘Decoding Dallas’
Wed., 9.27And yet ... Globalization of ‘Disposable Feeling’
*Gitlin, Media Unlimited, pp. 31-45, 177-210
WEEK 5*Paper Prospectus DUE MON., 10.2 Beginning of Class*
Mon., 10.2Globalization and Internet: Public Sphere, Global Village, or Network Society?
*Dahlgren, ‘The Public Sphere and the Net’
*Rantanen, ‘The message is the medium: An interview with Manuel Castells’
Wed., 10.4Globalization and Social Movements
*Bennett, ‘New Media Power: The Internet and Global Activism’
*Russell, ‘Zapatistas Online’
WEEK 6
Mon., 10.9No Class (Holiday)
Wed., 10.11MIDTERM EXAM
WEEK 7*Research Paper Consultations*
Mon., 10.16Persistent Differences: Clash of Civilizations
*Huntington, ‘The Clash of Civilizations?’
*Mahbubani, ‘The Dangers of Decadence’
*Ajami, ‘The Summoning’
*Huntington, ‘Response: If Not Civilizations, What?’
Wed., 10.18Persistent Differences: Jihad v. McWorld
*Barber, from Jihad v. McWorld
WEEK 8
Mon., 10.23How States Matter
*Morris and Waisbord, eds., from Media and Globalization: Why the State Matters
*Kit-wai Ma, ‘Rethinking media studies: The case of China’
*Thompson, ‘Google’s China Problem (And China’s Google Problem)’ *Barber, from Jihad vs. McWorld (ch. 19 and afterword)
Wed., 10.25News Media Models
Hallin and Mancini, Comparing Media Systems, chs. 1-4
WEEK 9
Mon., 10.30European-U.S. Differences: Broadcasting and Print Journalism
Hallin and Mancini, Comparing Media Systems, chs. 5 and 7
*Benson and Hallin, ‘The French and American National Press...’
Wed., 11.1Non-Western News Media: The Case of Al Jazeera
*Mohammed El Oifi, ‘Influence without Power: Al Jazeera and the Arab Public Sphere,’ and MuhammadI. Ayish, “Media Brinkmanship in the Arab World: Al Jazeera’s The Opposite Direction as a Fighting Arena,” in M. Zayani, ed., The Al Jazeera Phenomenon:Critical Perspectives on New Arab Media.
WEEK 10
Mon., 11.6Guest Speaker
Wed., 11.8 National/Regional Differences Exported: Contra-Flows
*Rogers and Antola, ‘Telenovelas: A Latin American Success Story’
*Rosin, ‘Life Lessons: How soap operas can change the world’
*Thottam, ‘A Telenovela Revolution’
WEEK 11
Mon., 11.13Hybridization
Pieterse, Globalization and Culture, chs. 4-6
*Lee, ‘The absorption and indigenization of foreign media cultures’
Wed., 11.15Hybridization, cont.
*Shim, ‘Hybridity and the rise of Korean popular culture in Asia’
WEEK 12FINAL PAPER DUE Wed., 11.22, 5 p.m., in Professor’s Mailbox
Mon, 11.20Hybridization: Bollywood
*Ganti, ‘ “And Yet My Heart is Still Indian” ...
Wed., 11.22Cultural Flows and Power: Bringing It All Together
*Biltereyst and Meers, ‘The international telenovela debate...’
*Kraidy, ‘Hybridity without Guarantees’
*Straubhaar, ‘Distinguishing the global, regional and national levels of world television’
WEEK 13
Mon, 11.27Cosmopolitanism
*Hannerz, ‘Cosmopolitans and Locals in World Culture’
Wed., 11.29Student Presentations
WEEK 14
Mon, 12.4Student Presentations
Wed., 12.6Student Presentations
WEEK 15
Mon, 12.11Student Presentations
Wed., 12.13FINAL EXAM