SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION

CMNS 386-4

Richard Gruneau	Spring 2002
RCB 6238; 604-291-3857	Burnaby Day
email: gruneau@sfu.ca

(SPECIAL TOPICS)

MEDIA, SPORT AND POPULAR CULTURE

Prerequisites:


Priority is given to 3rd and 4th year communications students who have completed two or more courses in the media studies/political economy areas (e.g. CMNS 220, 221, 223, 240). Permission to register can be obtained from Lucie Menkveld, Communication Advisor, or from Prof. Rick Gruneau.


Course Description:

This course examines the changing relationships between media, sport and popular culture in both a North American and a global context. The course adopts a broadly historical perspective, beginning with an exploration of the role of the mass press in the popularization and commercialization of sport in the nineteenth century. From here the course moves on to consider the close interrelationships that grew up between sport and radio, and sport and television. The final sections of the course examine sport as a key element of national popular cultures and identify formation as well as an important part of the broader entertainment industries in the age of digital technologies, media convergence, and globalization.


Course Evaluation:

Tutorial Participation 10%
Mid-Term Exam 25%
Term Paper 35%
Final Exam 30%


Required Texts:*

David Rowe, Sport, Culture and Media: The Unholy Trinity, London: Open University Press, 1999.
Mark Douglas Lowes, Inside the Sports Pages: Work Routines, Professional Ideologies, and the Manufacture of Sports News. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999.
*Additional Readings will be placed in the Bennett Library Reserve room.

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 follow Policy T10.02 with respect to “Intellectual Honesty” and “Academic Discipline” (see the current Calendar, General Regulations section).