Fall 2017 - CMNS 437 D100

Media Democratization: From Critique to Transformation (4)

Class Number: 5561

Delivery Method: In Person

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    Sep 5 – Dec 4, 2017: Wed, 1:30–5:20 p.m.
    Burnaby

  • Prerequisites:

    75 units, including CMNS 235, 240 or 331.

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

An advanced seminar on the normative debates, social bases, and strategic potential for media democratization in the context of economically developed liberal democracies like Canada and the United States. This course complements other courses which critically examine state communication policies and the political economy and allegedly ideological character of corporate media. Here, we focus on campaigns and movements in civil society to define and build alternative communicative forms based on equality, democratic participation and/or human rights. Students with credit for CMNS 428 or 487 under the same title may not take this course for further credit.

COURSE DETAILS:

Overview:

Ours is a world in crisis. Too often, the response of corporate and state media to the current threats of climate chaos, terror war, and fascistic ‘populism’, has been inadequate, or even complicit.  What kind of media structures, policies and practices do we need to revitalize democracy? Or indeed, to survive?     

This course starts where many others end – the need for a democratic renewal of the media system in economically developed liberal-democracies like the US and Britain – with some attention to struggles elsewhere. The course assumes some background in critiques of dominant state and corporate media, and focuses mainly on popular efforts and movements to define and build positive alternatives. Students are being asked to consider, and engage in, normative reasoning. As a starting point, the course requires no particular political perspective other than a value commitment to democracy, and a willingness to seriously (and critically) consider “progressive” critiques of, and alternatives to, dominant media.

Course Themes Include:

• Media and democracy.  How should we understand the relationship between capitalism, democracy and media?  What roles should the media play in a democracy?  In what ways, according to progressive critics, do the corporate media fall short of realizing communication rights?  What alternative structures and paradigms are being proposed?

• Historically, what political and social processes and groups have favoured or hindered media democratization?  What strategic routes, and what forms of struggle, have popular groups adopted in their efforts to win communicative space?

• What social contradictions – from class domination and racial inequality to environmental injustice – have given rise to ‘rebellious communication’?  What struggles and resources could be a potential “springboard” for further media democratization?

• What can we learn from the practice of independent, radical media? How can media better respond to crises of democracy and environment?

• Is there a coherent movement for media democratization, and what might be the most fruitful strategies for its growth?

Format:   

A weekly, participatory seminar based on serious and extensive reading and discussion, aiming for intellectual independence, critical engagement, synthesis and evaluation, rather than regurgitation. You'll need your SFU e-mail account, but use of digital technology will be minimized; ours will be a laptop, and cellphone-free zone! Instead, well-prepared participation in face-to-face discussion, exercising your intellectual imagination, and keeping up with the readings, and commenting on them in writing, are essential. Budget the time to read and make notes on 65-80 pages/week. Also, working with other students, you are asked to design and carry out a small-scale media democratization envisioning exercise and intervention in a community and/or media setting.  These activities, more than library research, characterize the course.  See the handout on Seminars:  Guidelines for effective participation, from the Learning Commons, in SFU Bennett Library (http://learningcommons.sfu.ca/topics/seminar_participation.pdf). This course is for students who want to use their critical understanding of communication to bring about positive change. It also provides an opportunity to develop useful skills such as: learning and applying concepts to concrete cases; doing effective presentations and written summaries; engaging critically with challenging texts; participating respectfully in dialogue; and collaborating with others to make a difference.

Grading

  • Attendance/Participation (E.g., presentation of readings, discussion panel, oral or written responses to pre-assigned study questions; attendance at a Media Democracy public event in November.) 15%
  • Bi-Weekly Reading Journal. Note: A passing mark on this assignment is necessary to pass the course. 25%
  • *Media Democracy Intervention and Presentation 40%
  • Final Take-Home Exam: Strategies for Democratic Change 20%
  • *Working with others in the class, develop a vision statement of a more democratic media policy or system, and a small-scale community-oriented intervention that expresses or works towards that vision.  The ‘products’ from this exercise would be: (a) an initial group proposal for an intervention; (b) an individually authored memo on priorities for media democratization in Canada, written in class Week 7;  (c) a group poster or slide show for class presentation; and (d) a group paper explaining and evaluating the project.  (This assignment may be replaced by one research paper that links course concepts with fieldwork in a media democratization campaign or group, with Instructor’s permission.)

NOTES:

A minimum CGPA of 2.25, and approval as a communication student is required for entry into most communication upper division courses.

Note:  Admission to students from other departments is by written permission of the Instructor; please email your transcript to the Instructor.  

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 S10.01 with respect to Academic Integrity, and Policies S10.02, S10.03 and S10.04 as regards Student Discipline.  [Note: as of May 1, 2009 the previous T10 series of policies covering Intellectual Honesty (T10.02), and Academic Discipline (T10.03) have been replaced with the new S10 series of policies.]

Materials

MATERIALS + SUPPLIES:

A number of articles and chapters are required reading.  Many of these are contained in a Courseware package, which students need to purchase at the SFU Bookstore (on a print-on-demand basis).  Other required chapters are in one of the following three books. Copies have been ordered for the SFU Bookstore for your convenience; they are strongly recommended for purchase.  They may ultimately be required; check the detailed course syllabus in August.

Hackett, Robert A. and William K. Carroll, Remaking Media: The Struggle to Democratize Public Communication. Routledge, 2006.  ISBN: 978041539469
[Paperback].

McChesney, Robert W., Digital Disconnect: How Capitalism is Turning the Internet Against Democracy. New Press, 2013. ISBN: 9781595588678
[Hardback].

Freedman, Des, J. Obar, C. Martens and R. McChesney, (eds.,), Strategies for Media Reform: International Perspectives. Fordham University Press, 2016.
ISBN: 9780823271658.

REQUIRED READING:

Courseware package, which students need to purchase at the SFU Bookstore (on a print-on-demand basis).

RECOMMENDED READING:

Hackett, Robert A. and William K. Carroll, Remaking Media: The Struggle to Democratize Public Communication. Routledge, 2006. [Paperback]
ISBN: 978041539469

McChesney, Robert W., Digital Disconnect: How Capitalism is Turning the Internet Against Democracy. New Press, 2013. [Hardback]
ISBN: 9781595588678

Freedman, Des, J. Obar, C. Martens and R. McChesney, (eds.,), Strategies for Media Reform: International Perspectives. Fordham University Press, 2016.
ISBN: 9780823271658

Registrar Notes:

SFU’s Academic Integrity web site http://students.sfu.ca/academicintegrity.html is filled with information on what is meant by academic dishonesty, where you can find resources to help with your studies and the consequences of cheating.  Check out the site for more information and videos that help explain the issues in plain English.

Each student is responsible for his or her conduct as it affects the University community.  Academic dishonesty, in whatever form, is ultimately destructive of the values of the University. Furthermore, it is unfair and discouraging to the majority of students who pursue their studies honestly. Scholarly integrity is required of all members of the University. http://www.sfu.ca/policies/gazette/student/s10-01.html

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS