Ferruh Yılmaz


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COMMUNICATION AS SOCIAL FORCE (COSF) 100
Summer Session II, 2004
Instructor: Ferruh Yilmaz

Course Synopsis
This course introduces main themes and central concepts in the Social Force part of the curriculum. We approach communication from a “social” perspective by examining the various social structures and institutions that constitute the environment in which the media function in the United States and globally. We will also examine how social and economic structures, and a complex set of social rules and cultural norms influence public debate and public consciousness in the United States .

Requirements
The most important requirement is to complete all of the readings assigned and attend each lecture : comprehension of the arguments is crucial to your success in this course. At least one quiz a week will be given to ensure that students read the assigned articles and book chapters. The quizzes will be graded as a part of participation.

80 % attendance is required to pass the course.

Plagiarism is a serious offence and you will fail the class if you copy others' work wholly or partly without appropriate reference.

Course evaluation 

  • 20 % for class participation (quizzes and general participation in class discussions)
  • Midterm: 35 %. The midterm will cover the basic concepts introduced in the first half of the course and will be an in-class test.
  • Final paper: 45 %. The final paper will require students to do their own discourse analysis of an example of their own choice (a conversation, an interview, a news story or a movie) drawing on the course material.

Books (available at Groundworks)
Crouteau, D. & Hoynes, W. (2001). The Business of the Media. Corporate Media and the Public Interest. Thousand Oaks , CA : Pine Forge Press.
Course Reader: sold at the end of the two first lectures.

1. Week
Class 1 – Tuesday, August 3
- Introduction to the main themes and concepts.
Class 2 – Thursday, August 5 - The Debate over Media Markets: History and Context
Reading : 113 pages

  • Croteau, D. & and Hoynes, W. (2001). Introduction and chapters 1 & 2 (pp. 1-68)
  • Fowler, M., and Brenner, D. (1982). A Marketplace Approach to Broadcast Regulation. Texas Law Review (pp. 205-257).

2. Week
Class 3 – Tuesday, August 10 –
Changes in Media Structures, New Media Giants
Reading : 72 pages

  • Croteau, D. & and Hoynes, W. (2001). Chapters 3 & 4 (pp. 71-145)
Class 4 – Thursday, August 12 – Media Markets, democracy, and professionalism
Reading : 79 pages
  • Croteau, D. & and Hoynes, W. (2001). Chapters 5 (pp. 149-182)
  • McManus, J. (1994). Market-Driven Journalism: Let the Citizen Beware? Finding the Logic of Commercial News Production (pp. 57-83).
  • Hallin, D. (2000). “Commercialism and professionalism in the American news media” in Curran, J. and Gurevitch, M. (eds), Mass Media and Society, 3 rd ed ., London : Arnold (pp. 218-235).

3. Week
Class 5 – Tuesday, August 17 – Future of the Media: Media in Public Interest?
Reading : 78 pages

  • Croteau, D. & and Hoynes, W. (2001). Chapters 6 & 7 (pp. 183-243)
  • Debate on Public Broadcasting from opendemocracy.net

Class 6 – Thursday, August 19 – Globalization and the Debate over Media Imperialism

***********MIDTERM*************

Reading : 50 pages

  • Schiller, H. (1991). Not yet the post-imperialist era. Critical Studies in Mass Communication (pp. 13-26)
  • Sreberny, A. (2000). The global and the local in international communications. Mass Media and Society , (pp. 93-117)
  • Golding, P. (1998). Worldwide wedge: Division and contradiction in the global information infrastructure. Electronic Empires: Global Media and Local Resistance . London : Arnold (pp. 135-148).

4. Week
Class 7 – Tuesday, August 24 – Media, Social Movements, and Political Power I
Reading : 64 pages

  • Gitlin, T. (1980). The Whole World is Watching: mass media in the making and unmaking of the new left . Berkeley : University of California Press. Introduction and chapter 1 (pp 1-77)
Class 8 – Thursday, August 26 – Media, Social Movements, and Political Power II
Reading : 78
  • Gitlin, T. (1980). The Whole World is Watching: mass media in the making and unmaking of the new left. Berkeley : University of California Press.Chapter 2 & 10 (pp 78-123)

5. Week
Class 9 – Tuesday, August 31 – Hegemony and Media
Reading : 79 pages

  • Meehan, E. & Byars, J. (2000). Telefeminism: How lifetime got its groove, 1984-1997. Television & New Media , 1, 1, (pp. 33-51)
  • Yilmaz, F. (2000): Ideology at work in (the production of) the news on Latinos (unpublished paper)
  • Lewis, Justin (2001). Constructing Public Opinion: how political elites do what they like and why we seem to go along with it. New York : Columbia University Press. Chapters 4 (pp 88-97, ch. 6: pp. 129-137, ch. 7: 138-166)

Class 10 – Tuesday, September 1 – Media, War, and Cultural Assumptions
Reading : 23 pages

  • Said, Edward (1978). “Orientalism” in Gray, A. (ed): Studying Culture, London : Arnold (pp. 42-53)
  • Said Edward (1997). Islam as News in Covering Islam. First Vintage edition . New York : Vintage Books (pp. 24-35).

A GUIDE FOR WRITING BETTER ESSAYS (for pdf, click here)


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