SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION
CMNS 428-4

MEDIA ANALYSIS PROJECT GROUP:
PUBLIC COMMUNICATION AND DEMOCRACY: JOURNALISM, SOCIAL MOVEMENTS, AND TRANFORMATAIVE ACTION

Prerequisites:

Two upper division CMNS courses, and permission of the instructor, which normally will be automatic for CMNS majors with 75 credit hours, CGPA of at least 2.75, and CMNS 331. CMNS 224, 235, 240, 347 or 422 are recommended.

Overview:

This advanced seminar offers students an opportunity to deepen their understanding of journalism and movements for social change as communicative practices, and their current and potential contributions in constraining or strengthening a democratic public sphere(s). Possible topics include:

- Public communication and democracy: An overview
- Social determinants of the news
- Journalism, hegemony and the public sphere
- Introduction to social movement theory
- Media and movements: Symbiotic or asymmetrical relationship?
- Communicative practices of social movements
- Democratizing communication: Prospects for transformative action

Format:

A weekly seminar, also involving graduate students in CMNS 855, of up to four hours. This will normally include a participatory lecture, discussions of weekly readings (with which you are expected to keep pace), and on occasion -- a unique opportunity -- critical viewing of several feature films about journalism. Film viewing will be partly within and partly outside our regular seminar time, since we are sharing them with Prof. Kline's seminar.

Required Texts:

Pamela Shoemaker & Stephen Reese, Mediating the Message: Theories of Influences on the Media, 2nd ed. (Longman, 1996).
- Several other texts, TBA
- Custom courseware package

Assignments and Grades: (Subject to change with notice)

25% - Attendance & participation, including occasional written summaries of class discussion,
PLUS: your choice of the following options, totaling 75%:
25% - Review essay, analyzing the assumptions about journalism and democracy in our selected films
25% - In-class mid-term mini-essay
25% - Take-home exam
50% - Term paper: case study involving some primary research

The School expects that the grades awarded in this course will bear some reasonable relation to established university-wide practices with respect to both levels and distribution of grades. In addition, the school will also follow Policy T10.01 with respect to "Intellectual Honesty" and "Academic Discipline" (see the current calendar, General Regulations Section).