Mass Media History I

elective courses

Classroom

An introductory course on the history of American mass media. It will focus mainly on traditional print media (newspapers and magazines) and their modern electronic counterparts, preparing the ground to understand modern media landscape.

An introductory course on the history of American mass media. It will focus mainly on traditional print media (newspapers and magazines) and their modern electronic counterparts, preparing the ground to understand modern media landscape.

We will look at the development of the channels of communication in America since the early days, colonial times. We will trace their role in the nation building and their place in functioning of mature democracy. Massification and commercialization of the media will also be the subject of our studies, as well as the changes in their institutional organization, i.e. media mergers. Moreover, we will look at the media formats and content, discuss the issues of representation and/or omission applying basic media theories.

Crowley, David and Paul Heyer, Communication in History: Tchnology, Culture, Society. 6th ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2011.

Curran, James, and Michael Gurevitch, eds. Mass Media and Society. 2nd ed. New York: Arnold, 1997.

Emery, Edwin, and Michael Emery. The Press and America: An Interpretive History of the Mass Media. 9th ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2000.

Schudson, Michael, Discovering the News: A Social History of American Newspapers. Basic Books, 1978.

Sloan, David Wm., and James D. Startt, eds. The Media in America: A History. 7th ed. Northport, Al: Vision Press, 2008.

Additionally articles from journals and other media sources on American media in historical perspective.

Knowledge:

*Students will be able to identify main stages in the development of American media.

*They will be acquainted with main concepts, structures and working of the media industry.

*Students will be able to identify, describe and define main media formats, place them within the framework of the media history and trace their development or demise.

Skills:

*Students will develop critical approach to discuss the media and grasp their further evolution.

*Having an understanding of the processes in the media world and various interdependencies, they will be able to formulate simple hypotheses about media development

*Students will attempt to work with primary media sources

*Students will try to communicate the results of their findingd in presentations

Competences:

*The course will also serve the purpose of media literacy equipping students with tools to grasp and understand modern media environment, concerning issues of ethics, objectivity, representation (stereotyping, omission), in their roles as media receivers/participants.

Students will be graded on account of their presence and active participation in class discussions based on assigned readings (15 pt). They will contribute two written assignments (working on primary media sources) (15 pt + 25 pt) and a presentation with handout (15 pt). They will also contribute a few small exercises and/or quizzes (max 30 pt)

100-90/5, 89-85/4+, 84-78/4, 77-71/3+, 70-61/3, 60-0/2