Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

Course Outlines

Spring 2020 - CMNS 858 G100

Selected Topics in Communication Studies (5)

Middle East Media Systems

Class Number: 7353

Delivery Method: In Person

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    Jan 6 – Apr 9, 2020: Tue, 1:30–5:20 p.m.
    Vancouver

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Specialized graduate course offering on a topic related to the current research of school faculty or visiting professor.

COURSE DETAILS:

Since September 11, 2001, much public and scholarly attention has been drawn towards the operations of Middle Eastern media institutions. This course delves into the increasingly influential realm of international broadcasting as it applies to the Middle Eastern media milieu. By engaging primary issues pertaining to the development, structure and impact of contemporary media institutions and their content, the course allows students to explore the theoretical approaches underlying a burgeoning "industry" in the region. Topics include: the political and economic structures of regional media, the history of journalism, identity-construction and representation, operations of government broadcasting, the advent of satellite television, and new media technology and their ramifications. The course also problematizes such notions as: the "Al-Jazeera Effect" and "the Arab Street", as well as issues including reporting styles in the Middle East press, legislation and "freedom of the press" policies, religious and doctrinal broadcasting, and entertainment/pop culture in the region. Through the evaluation of exemplar case studies, the future of Middle East media, in light of new technological innovations and the advent of "alternative notions" of information delivery, is studied including: mobile phone messaging, blogging, and other forms of digital communication. Now that attention is being drawn again towards media in the region, this time in relation to the popular uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Syria, Libya, and elsewhere, it is an important historical juncture for the assessment of traditional and new media’s capacity to use reporting to represent, amplify, expedite, and mobilize.

This course offers a basis for understanding issues concerning media industries in the contemporary Middle East (including regions of North Africa, the Levant, and the Gulf; including Turkey and Iran) in concrete historical, socio-economic and geopolitical contexts. The region has undergone significant transformation in a very short time period, including wars, democratic uprisings, counter-revolutions, and shifting patterns of governance. The course will both address these transformations, and help guide students to a range of epistemological and theoretical issues, in studying media industries, in an extremely diverse and vibrant region, that is undergoing a period of rapid economic and geopolitical change. Students will learn to address problems pertaining to the region, identify the forces shaping the Middle East’s variable information and communication industries, and master key conceptual frameworks drawn from the humanities and social sciences.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

By the end of the course, students will:

  • Have a greater appreciation of the range of media/state relationships in the greater Middle East, and develop an initial understanding of the inter-relationship among class, state, and communication.
  • Understand the complicated ways in which the media intersect with processes of liberal democratization and neoliberal globalization in the region.

Grading

  • To be confirmed in class*
  • Attendance and Participation 10%
  • Paper Outline 10%
  • Mid-Term Exam (In-Class) 15%
  • Group Presentation 15%
  • Final Paper and Mini Conference 50%

NOTES:

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.]

These policies, procedures and guidelines will be assiduously upheld.  They protect your rights, as well as those of the Instructor.  It is particularly important that you be aware of, and avoid, plagiarism, cheating on exams, submitting a paper to more than one professor, or submitting a paper authored by anyone other than yourself.  Violations of this policy will result in a failing grade in the course, and will be reported to the proper university office.  If you have any doubts about any of these practices, you must confer with the Instructor.

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

El-Nawawy, Mohammed and Adel Iskandar, Al-Jazeera: The Story of the Network that is Rattling Governments and Redefining Modern Journalism. Westview Press, 2003. [Paperback].
ISBN: 9780813341491

Sakr, Naomi, Jakob Skovgaard-Petersen, and Donatella Della Ratta, Arab Media Moguls. I.B. Tauris & Company, 2015. [Paperback].
ISBN: 9781780767321

Sabry, Tarik, Arab Cultural Studies: Mapping the Field.  I.B. Tauris & Company, 2011. [Paperback].
ISBN: 9781848855595

Additional readings will be made available on Canvas.

Graduate Studies Notes:

Important dates and deadlines for graduate students are found here: http://www.sfu.ca/dean-gradstudies/current/important_dates/guidelines.html. The deadline to drop a course with a 100% refund is the end of week 2. The deadline to drop with no notation on your transcript is the end of week 3.

Registrar Notes:

SFU’s Academic Integrity web site http://www.sfu.ca/students/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