SOCIOLOGY 4TT3 – MASS MEDIA
Winter 2017Instructor: Dr. P. G. Watson
Wednesdays 7:00-10:00pmOffice: KTH-643 Ext.: T27346
Class LocationKTH-B107Office Hours:Wednesday, 4:30-6:00pm
Email Address:
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
OUTLINE: The course will follow a classical seminar format; it is highly interactive, and will involve the interrogation of various media texts from a sociological lens. Our core issue will be based around a sociological problem: are media texts or institutions meant to represent ‘reality’? and if so, how is that reality being or not being achieved? We will pose these questions by looking at media texts themselves, along with sociological writings about media interaction(s) and examining the way sociological analyses can be mobilized when doing so.
ACTIVITIES & EVALUATION:
Seminar Presentation -25%
Seminar Response-15%
Seminar Participation-10%
Term Paper Proposal-15% (Due February 17th)
Term Paper Final-35% (Due April 7th)
SEMNINAR PRESENTATION: Each week, a pair or group of students will be assigned a leadership role for seminar discussions. The groups will be responsible for preparing a short presentation (30mins-1hour) that address that week’s readings. Groups should look for common themes between the readings and consider how sociologists understand media products. Secondly, groups should bring some media product (or segments thereof) as a demonstration and application of that week’s readings. Demonstrations should not exceed 30 minutes and groups should prepare a clear and cogent explanation for how the demonstration applies to the readings in question. Demonstrations should not be too close to the subject matter for the week; for instance, in Week 6 ‘Race’, we’ll be discussing The Cosby Show so demonstrations should not be comprised of excerpts from The Cosby Show or other sitcoms of middle class racial minority life, but instead should examine how the themes apply to other media texts.
SEMINAR RESPONSE: In addition to the presentation, each group will also perform as a discussant for a separate week of the course. The response is intended to mobilize discussion, not quiz the presenters, so discussion points should be written in such a way as to involve the whole class. Discussion points could include (but are not limited to): points of readings that seemed particularly relevant; points of readings that felt inaccurate or unrepresentative of contemporary social life; points for clarification; insights from other courses, etc…
SEMINAR PARTICIPATION: to be very clear, Seminar Attendance is Not Optional and students who do not attend class will likely fall behind very quickly in assessed work. You must attend seminars and be prepared to contribute. I will make every effort to get to know you by name, and I will evaluate you on a general impression of your contributions to seminars, including attendance, discussion contributions and demeanor.
TERM PAPER PROPOSAL: The term paper proposal is, more than anything else, an opportunity to get feedback and guidance on your direction for the term paper assignment. You should prepare an introductory paragraph, an explanation of what text/subject you intend to evaluate, a rough outline of your final draft, and any other materials thought appropriate. This is a change to get a good idea of how comfortable you should be proceeding into the term paper.
TERM PAPER: The term paper will involve a theoretical analysis of a media text, or a report of an observation of news-in-production. While more specific details will be discussed in seminars, the general idea is to either examine a media text in relation to how themes and concepts from the course are manifest in a popular media text, or; to find a site of news media production (i.e. a place reporters will be) and examine the contrast between what is witnessed in that site versus what emerges in news media reportage.
TEXTS:
All readings will be available on the course Avenue to Learn page in PDF format. Readings are mandatory, in particular for groups who are presenting in a given week, but all students should attend seminars with at least a passing familiarity of the week’s readings. Familiarity and sophistication will be noted and will contribute to the participation mark at the end of the course.
WEEK 1: Introduction (January 4th)
Sharrock, W. W. and Coleman, W. (1999). Seeking and Finding Society in the Text. In P. Jalbert (ed.). Media Studies: Ethnomethodological Approaches. pp 1-30. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
McChesney, R. (2001). Global Media, Neoliberalism, and Imperialism. Monthly Review. 52(10): 1-19.
Negus, K. (1997) The Production of Culture. in P. Du Gay (ed.) Production of Culture/Cultures of Production. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
WEEK 2: A News Controversy – the “Bush / Rather Encounter”(January 11th)
Schegloff, E. A. (1988/89). From Interview to Confrontation: Observations of the Bush/Rather Encounter. Research on Language and Social Interaction. 22: 215-240.
Clayman, S. E. and Whalen, J. (1988/89). When the Medium Becomes the Message: The Case of the Rather-Bush Encounter. Research on Language and Social Interaction. 22: 241-272.
Pomerantz, A. (1988/89). Constructing Skepticism: Four Devices Used to Engender the Audience’s Skepticism. Research on Language and Social Interaction. 22: 293-314.
Anderson, D. C. and Sharrock, W. W. (1979). Biasing the News: Technical Issues in ‘Media Studies’. Sociology. 13(3): 367-385.
WEEK 3: Medium Theory(January 18th)
Innis, H. A. (1949). The Bias of Communication. Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science. 15(4): 457-476.
McLuhan, M. (2006). The Medium is the Message. in M. G. Durham and D. M. Kellner (eds). Media and Cultural Studies: Key Works. Malden, MA: Blackwell. pp. 107-116.
Meyrowitz, J. (1997). Shifting Worlds of Strangers: Medium Theory and Changes in “Them” Versus “Us”. Sociological Inquiry. 67(1): 59-71.
Heyer, P. (2008). Live from the Met: Digital Broadcast Cinema, Medium Theory, and Opera for the Masses. Canadian Journal of Communication. 33(4): 591-604.
Week 4: Postmodernism (January 25th)
Luke, T. W. (1991). Power and Politics in Hyperreality: The Critical Project of Jean Baudrillard. The Social Science Journal. 28(3): 347-367.
Poster, M. (2007). The Mode of Information and Postmodernity. in R. T. Craig and H. L. Muller (eds). Theorizing Communication: Readings Across Traditions. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. pp. 377-390.
Poster, M. (2004). Consumption and Digital Commodities in the Everyday. Cultural Studies. 18(2-3): 409-423.
Hall, S. (1980) Encoding/Decoding. in S. Hall, D. Hobson, A. Lowe and P. Willis (eds) Culture, Media, Language. London, UK: Unwin Hyman. pp. 117-127.
Week 5: Political Economy (February 1st)
Mansell, R. (2004). Political Economy, Power and New Media. New Media & Society. 6(1): 96-105.
McChesney, R. (2008). The Political Economy of Media: Enduring Issues, Emerging Dilemmas. New York, NY: Monthly Review Press. Chpt. 4 - Telling the Truth at the Moment of Truth: U.S. News Medai and the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq. pp. 97-116.
Habermas, J. (2006). Political Communication in Media Society: Does Democracy Still Enjoy and Epistemic Dimension? The impact of Normative Theory on Empirical Research. Communication Theory. 16(4): 411-426.
Verstraeten, H. (1996). The Media and the Transformation of the Public Sphere A Contribution for a Critical Political Economy of the Public Sphere.European Journal of Communication,11(3), 347-370.
Week6: Race(February 8th)
Inniss, L. B. and Feagin, J. R. (1995). The Cosby Show: The View from the Black Middle Class. Journal of Black Studies. 25(6): 692-711
Havens, T. (2000). ‘The Biggest Show in the World’: Race and the Global Popularity of The Cosby Show. Media, Culture & Society. 22(4): 371-391.
Powell, K. A. (2011). Framing Islam: An Analysis of U.S. Media Coverage of Terrorism Since 9/11. Communication Studies. 62(1): 90-112.
Mahtani, M. (2008). Racializing the Audience: Immigrant Perceptions of Mainstream Canadian English-Language TV News. Canadian Journal of Communication. 33(4): 639-660.
Week 7: Gender(February 15th)
Mendes, K. (2011). Framing Feminism: News Coverage of the Women’s Movement in British and American Newspapers, 1968-1982. Social Movement Studies. 10(1): 81-98.
Kim, S. (2008). Feminist Discourse and the Hegemonic Role of Mass Media: Newspaper Discourse about Two South Korean Television Dramas. Feminist Media Studies 8(4): 391-406.
O’Brien, A. (2014). ‘Men own Television’: Why Women Leave Media Work. Media, Culture and Society. 36(8): 1207-1218.
Thorpe, H. (2008). Foucault, Technologies of Self, and the Media: Discourses of Femininity in Snowboarding Culture. Journal of Sport and Social Issues. 32(2): 199-229.
-- Mid-Term break, no lecture February 22nd --
Week 8: Violence and Conflict(March 1st)
McLuhan, M. (1977/2003). Violence as a Quest for Identity. In S. McLuhan and D. Staines, (eds) Understanding Me: Lectures and Interviews. Toronto, ON: McLellan & Stewart. pp. 264-276.
Goodwin, C. (1992). Professional Vision. American Anthropologist. 96(3): 606-633.
Mair, M., Elsey, C., Smith, P. V. and Watson, P. G. (2016). The Violence You Were/n’t Meant to See: Representations of Death in an Age of Digital Reproduction. In R. McGarry and S. Walklate (eds). The Palgrave Handbook of Criminology and War. London, UK: Palgrave.
Eglin, P. and Hester, S. (2003). The Montreal Massacre: A Story of Membership Categorization Analysis. Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press. Chpt. 3 – Stories of Crime, Horror, Tragedy, Gun Control, and the Killer. pp. 29-46.
Week 9: The Political Spectrum/Propaganda(March 8th)
Herman, E. S. (2000). The Propaganda Model: A Retrospective. Journalism Studies. 1(1): 101-112.
Gunster, S. (2008). Listening to Labour: Mainstream Media, Talk Radio, and the 2005 B.C. Teachers [sic] Strike. Canadian Journal of Communication. 33(4): 661-683.
DeCillia, B. and McCurdy, P. (2016). The Sounds of Silence: The Absence of Public Service Values in Canadian Media Discourse about the CBC. Canadian Journal of Communication. 41(4): 547-567.
Fuchs, C. (2010). Alternative Media as Critical Media. European Journal of Social Theory. 13(2): 173-192.
Week 10: Science, Technology and Knowledge(March 15th)
Postman, N. (1985). Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. New York, NY: Elisabeth Sifton. Chpt. 2: Media as Epistemology. pp. 16-29.
Long, M. (1995). Scientific Explanations in US newspaper science stories. Public Understanding of Science. 4(2) 119-130.
Brossard, D. (2009). Media, scientific journals and science communication: examining the construction of scientific controversies. Public Understanding of Science. 18(3): 258-274.
Amend, E. and Barney, D. (2016). Getting it Right: Canadian Conservatives and the “War on Science”. Canadian Journal of Communication. 41(1): 8-35.
Week 11: Active Audiences and Individual Cultural Production (March 22nd)
Morley, D. (1993). Active Audience Theory: Pendulums and Pitfalls. Journal of Communication. 43(4): 13-19.
van Dijck, J. (2009). Users like You? Theorizing Agency in User-Generated Content. Media, Culture & Society. 31(1). pp. 41-58.
Ekstrom, M., Eriksson, G. and Lundell, A. K. (2013). Live Co-Produced News: Emerging Forms of News Production and Presentation on the Web. Media, Culture and Society. 35(5): 620-639.
Thurman, N. (2008). Forums for Citizen Journalists? Adoption of User Generated Content Initiatives by Online News Media. New Media & Society. 10(1): 139-157.
Week 12: Fake News?(March 29th)
Chomsky, N. (2002). Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda. Montreal, PQ. Seven Stories. Chpt. 1 – Early History of Propaganda.
Borden, S. L., & Tew, C. (2007). The role of journalist and the performance of journalism: Ethical lessons from “fake” news (seriously).Journal of Mass Media Ethics,22(4), 300-314.
Marchi, R. (2012). With Facebook, blogs, and fake news, teens reject journalistic “objectivity”.Journal of Communication Inquiry,36(3), 246-262.
Bucher, T. (2012). Want to be on the top? Algorithmic power and the threat of invisibility on Facebook.New Media & Society,14(7), 1164-1180.
Week 13: Catch-up and Conclusion(April 5th)
COMMUNICATION:
I am available via either my McMaster email or Avenue Mail. If you send a message to my Avenue email and it goes unanswered, please notify me through McMaster email. You are responsible to check your Avenue email through the term. This is the easiest method for me to get in touch with you, when necessary, so please remain mindful that as things arise through the term, I will take notice of unexpected events or announcements through Avenue.
ACADEMIC DISHONESTY:
Academic dishonesty consists of misrepresentation by deception or by other fraudulent means and can result in serious consequences, e.g. the grade of zero on an assignment, loss of credit with a notation on the transcript (notation reads: "Grade of F assigned for academic dishonesty"), and/or suspension or expulsion from the university.
It is your responsibility to understand what constitutes academic dishonesty. For information on the various kinds of academic dishonesty please refer to the Academic Integrity Policy, specifically Appendix 3, located at
The following illustrates only three forms of academic dishonesty:
1. Plagiarism, e.g. the submission of work that is not one's own or for which other credit has been obtained. (e.g. following style guide, accrediting work to incorrect sources, omitting sources, etc.)
2. Improper collaboration in group work. (e.g. term paper assignment not being sufficiently unique)
3. Copying or using unauthorized aids in tests and examinations.
In this course we will be using a software package designed to reveal plagiarism. Students will be required to submit their work electronically via Avenue to Learn; it will be checked for academic dishonesty.
COURSE LEARNING OBJECTIVES
This course addresses three University Undergraduate Degree Level Expectations (see, University Undergraduate Degree Level Expectations).
- Depth and Breadth of Knowledge: we will develop advanced analytical and theoretical understanding of concepts crucially important to sociology and media studies
- Knowledge of Methodologies: especially content analysis; active audience theory; postmodern media theory; medium theory; and subject specific analyses.
- Communications Skills: synthesizing and presenting detailed summations of sociological literature in both verbal and written formats, as well as responding to verbal reports.
- Autonomy and Professional Capacity: particularly in the interest of developing future professional sociological researchers, working effectively with others, managing one’s own learning, etc…
DEPARTMENTAL/UNIVERSITY POLICIES:
Do NOT fax assignments. Please see your instructor for the most appropriate way to submit assignments.
The Sociology staff do NOT date-stamp assignments, nor do they monitor the submission or return of papers
The McMaster Student Absence Form ( is a self reporting tool for Undergraduate Students to report absences that last up to 3 days and provides the ability to request accommodation for any missed academic work. Please note, this tool cannot be used during any final examination period.
You may submit a maximum of 1 Academic Work Missed request per term. It is YOUR responsibility to follow up with your instructor immediately regarding the nature of the accommodation.
If you are absent more than 3 days, exceed 1 request per term, or are absent for a reason other than medical, you MUST visit your Associate Dean’s Office (Faculty Office). You may be required to provide supporting documentation.
This form should be filled out when you are about to return to class after your absence.
Students should check the web, the white board and the Undergraduate Bulletin board outside the Sociology office (KTH-627) for notices pertaining to Sociology classes or departmental business (eg. class scheduling information, location of mailboxes and offices, tutorial information, class cancellations, TA job postings, etc.).
Computer use in the classroom is intended to facilitate learning in that particular lecture or tutorial. At the discretion of the instructor, students using a computer for any other purpose may be required to turn the computer off for the remainder of the lecture or tutorial.
The instructor and university reserve the right to modify elements of the course during the term. The university may change the dates and deadlines for any or all courses in extreme circumstances. If either type of modification becomes necessary, reasonable notice and communication with the students will be given with explanation and the opportunity to comment on changes. It is the responsibility of the student to check his/her McMaster email and course websites weekly during the term and to note any changes.
It is the policy of the Faculty of Social Sciences that all e-mail communication sent from students to instructors (including TAs), and from students to staff, must originate from the student’s own McMaster University e-mail account. This policy protects confidentiality and confirms the identity of the student. It is the student’s responsibility to ensure that communication is sent to the university from a McMaster account. If an instructor becomes aware that a communication has come from an alternate address, the instructor may not reply at his or her discretion.