JOMC 842: History of Media Technology and Social Policy
Journalism 842: History of Media Technology and Social Policy
Class Time: 9:30-12:15 CA 338
Office Hours: Wednesday, 3:15-4 p.m.
Thursday, 9:30 a.m.-noon
Assignments:
1. Historiographical Papers — These are two brief review essays (3 pages). Each student will
be assigned for two specific weeks. The essays should critically evaluate the themes and
methods of
the week’s readings. Due: the week to which the essay applies. (20%)
2. Weekly Questions — Each week I would like you to raise two questions or
problems about the week’s readings. One should be about the value of the author's argument;
the other should be about a methodological or empirical issue. (10%)
3. Formal Research Proposal (20%)
4. Final Research Paper (50%)
Wednesday, August 21
Introduction to the Course
Anchored in the Past: Media Explosion of 1640 to the End of Books?
Readings: Elizabeth Eisenstein, Divine Art, Infernal Machine (Philadelphia and
Oxford: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011). (Available as E-Book or paper from
amazon; also UNC bookstore)
August 28
Technology and Values
Readings: John F. Kasson, Civilizing the Machine: Technology and Republican Values in
America, 1776-1900 (Hill and Wang, 1999). (Available in paper amazon or UNC bookstore)
David Paul Nord, "Religious Reading and Readers in Antebellum America," Journal of the
Early Republic , Vol. 15, No. 2 (Summer, 1995), pp. 241-272
Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3123909 (Available electronic reserves)
September 4
The Scientific Viewpoint: Development of new media product of "constant play-off
between social necessity and suppression."
Readings:
David M. Henkin, The Postal Age: The Emergence of Modern Communications in
Nineteenth-Century America (Chicago:University of Chicago Press, 2006), intro and chaps.
1–2 (E-book available UNC libraries)
Brian Winston, Media Technology & Society: A History from the Telegraph to the
Internet. London & New York: Routledge, 1998, Introduction and Chapter 1. (In paper from
Amazon or UNC Bookstores)
Menahem Blondheim, News over the Wires: The Telegraph and the Flow of Public
Information in America, 1844-1897 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1994), Intro &
Conclusion (H) and chap. 8 (R & r). (In paper Amazon or UNC Libraries)
September 11
Information Highway Transcending Centuries of American Development
Readings:
Alfred D. Chandler Jr. and James W. Cortada, A Nation Transformed by
Information: How Information Has Shaped the United States from Colonial Times to the
Present (Oxford University Press, 2000). (E-book or paper from amazon; paper from UNC
bookstores.)
John Nerone, “Newswork, Technology, and Cultural Form, 1837–1920,” in Explorations
in Communication and History, ed. by Zelizer (E).
September 18
Media Technology and the Corporation
Readings:
Steve J. Wurtzler, Electric Sounds: Technological Change and the Rise of Corporate Mass
Media. (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007. (E-book or paper from amazon; paper
from UNC bookstore)
September 25: Visit to the Manuscript Collection of the Wilson Library
Readings:
Carolyn Marvin, When Old Technologies Were New: Thinking About Electric
Communication in the Late Nineteenth Century (Oxford University Press, 1099). Available
e-book or paper from Amazon; paper from UNC bookstore.
Prepare list of ideas for research for presentation October 2.
View Empire of the Air available from UNC libraries in streaming video as part of the PBS
collection.
October 2:
Present Three ideas for research. Discuss proposed topic, approach, methodology and
resources.
Readings:
Richard R. John, Network Nation: Inventing American Telecommunications (2010) (In
paper from amazon or UNC bookstore)
Garth S. Jowett, "Urban Communication: The City, Media and Communications Policy,"
in Beyond Agendas: New Directions in Communication Research, Philip Gaunt, ed.
(Westport Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1993), 41-56.
October 9
Television
Readings:
Susan Douglas, Listening In: Radio and the American Imagination (University of
Minnesota Press, 2004). Available UNC library, bookstore and paper and e-book from
amazon).
Robert W. McChesney, "Conflict, Not Consensus: The Debate over Broadcast
Communication Policy, 1930-1935," in Ruthless Criticism: New Perspectives in U.S.
Communication History (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993), 222-258.
Nancy E. Bernhard, "Ready, Willing, Able: Network Television News and the Federal
Government, 1948-1953," in Ruthless Criticism.
October 16 (Fall break starts at 5 p.m.)
Readings: Carey, James W. "Journalism and Technology." American Journalism 17, no. 4
(Fall 2000): 129-135. Communication & Mass Media Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed April
15, 2013).
Carey, J. W. (1980). "Changing Communications Technology and the Nature of the
Audience," Journal Of Advertising, 9(2), 3-43. (Electronic reserves)
October 23
Formal Research Proposal Due. In-Class Presentations.
October 30
The Critics
Readings: Susan P. Crawford, Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly
Power in the New Gilded Age (2012) (E-book from amazon or paper UNC bookstore)
J. Herbert Altschull, From Milton To McLuhan: The Ideas Behind American Journalism
(New York & London: Longman, 1990), 335-348.
Daniel Czitrom, Media and the American Mind: From Morse To McLuhan (Chapel
Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1982), 147-182.
November 6
Print is Still Important?
Readings:
Barbara A. Brannon, “The Laser Printer as an Agent of Change: Fixity and Fluxion in the
Digital Age,” in Agent of Change: Print Culture Studies After Elizabeth L. Eisenstein,
Sabrina Alcorn Baron, Eric N. Lindquist, and Eleanor F. Shevlin, eds. (Amherst and
Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 2007), 353-364.
James A. Dewar and Peng Hwa Ang, “The Cultural Consequences of Printing and the
Internet,” in Agent of Change, 365-377.
November 13
Lee Rainie and Barry Wellman, Networked: The New Social Operating System
(2012). Available e-book from amazon or UNC bookstore).
Hintz A, Milan S. At the margins of Internet governance: grassroots tech groups and
communication policy. International Journal Of Media & Cultural Politics [serial on the
Internet]. (2009, Jan), [cited April 20, 2013]; 5(1/2): 23-38. Available from: Academic
Search Complete. (Electronic reserves)
November 20: Discussion of research progress.
November 27 : (Thanksgiving break) No Class.
December 4: Student Presentations
December 10: Final paper due 4 p.m. (This date and time is based on the final exam
schedule for fall, 2012, and may be revised when the 2013 final exam schedule is published.)