JAMS 360 Syllabus DRAFT Online Prof. Jeff Smith Fall 2016 HISTORY OF MASS MEDIA Introductions to the history of mass media in the United States traditionally have focused on prominent mainstream professionals, assumed that the media have powerful effects, and placed developments in distinct time periods. In many cases, however, the lionized individuals are not the most innovative, the mainstream media reflect rather than shape public opinion, and change cannot be confined to specific dates. Historians now are more concerned with dissidents, the meaning-making process, and long-term trends. The objectives of JAMS 360 are to study American media history in order to a) acquire basic knowledge of some of the trends, concepts, issues, events, and people, b) understand how the past is related to present realities, and c) complete assignments in locating and interpreting communication content, documents, and other historical materials found online. The assignments are the kinds of investigations, analyses, and writing tasks that are performed in a knowledge-based world. Assignments are short essays that rely on course and library database material. No exams are given. JAMS 360 considers connections between media content and the forces at work in society. Part I, “The Ideal and the Real in the Media Industry,” uses selected media studies concepts to analyze developments in the theory and practice of media communication. Often today’s professional controversies are nothing new and sometimes media perspectives and actions that are taken for granted now were not the norm in the past. Part II, “Mass Communication and Change,” examines the attempts of activist communicators to change the status quo. Their experiences show how ideas can be rejected or can be fiercely resisted before being more or less accepted. Readings: No textbook is required. The required readings are in the UWM Library’s A-Z databases and can be found and read by clicking on the hyperlinked bibliographic listings below and in lectures. (Enter your UWM ePantherID and password and then click on the .pdf or html icon that will appear on the left of the screen. You may also need to click on “download .pdf” at the top left.) Recommended readings listed below are on D2L except for the recommended textbook (available at the UWM eCampus site): Streitmatter, Rodger. Voices of Revolution: The Dissident Press in America. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001. One copy of the Voices book is on library reserve. The class D2L site has lectures, video clips, assignments, and the assignment dropbox. D2L sites can be found at http://d2l.uwm.edu/ Downloaded course lectures have hyperlinks that can be clicked for additional information on the topics. Grading: The top ten scores taken from up to twelve of the fourteen 500- to 700word assignments will each be 10% of the course grade. In other words, students can turn in 10, 11, or 12 assignments. Up to four assignments can be skipped. The main grading 2 criteria are accuracy, adequacy of research, the soundness and sophistication of understanding and analysis, and the organization, clarity, and correctness of the writing. The grading scale for assignments and the course will be: 94-100 A, 91-93 A-, 88-90 B+, 85-87 B, 82-84 B-, 79-81 C+, 76-78 C, 73-75 C-, 70-72 D+, 67-69 D, 64-66 D-, 63 or below F. Semester grades are not rounded. A teaching assistant will do most of the grading. My office hours are by Skype or other electronic means. Contact me for details. My e-mail is jsmith@uwm.edu. Consider me readily available by e-mail for any questions or comments you have. SCHEDULE Week of September 6: Introduction and Objectives. Doing Assignments. Read the welcome announcement and lecture material carefully to avoid mistakes later. Week of September 12: The Master Narratives of Media History. Assignment 1: Digital Native due in the D2L dropbox by 10 p.m. on Saturday, September 17. Summary: Describe and interpret the history of your media use. Part I: The Ideal and the Real in the Media Industry Week of September 19: Media Philosophies and Narratives. Assignment 2: Memorial Maker due in the D2L dropbox by 10 p.m. on Saturday, September 24. Summary: Write the words that would appear on a media history memorial or monument of your choice. Lule, Jack. “Myth and Terror on the Editorial Page: The New York Times Responds to September 11, 2001.” Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly 79 (Summer 2002): 275-93. Also on D2L. Recommended: Smith, Jeffery A. “The Enticements of Change and America’s Enlightenment Journalism.” In Media and Revolution: Comparative Perspectives, edited by Jeremy D. Popkin. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1995. Pages 74-89. Week of September 26: Professionalism and Practices. Assignment 3: Database Ace due in the D2L dropbox by 10 p.m. on Saturday, October 1. Summary: Find and evaluate historical information in news story databases that would be useful for a fictional, historical television program you propose. Smith, Jeffery A. "Moral Guardians and the Origins of the Right to Privacy." Journalism & Communication Monographs 10, no. 1 (Spring 2008): 64-110. Also on D2L. 3 Recommended: Wells, Robert W. The Milwaukee Journal: An Informal Chronicle of Its First 100 Years. Milwaukee, Wis.: Milwaukee Journal, 1981. Pages 1-11. Week of October 3: Public Opinion and Stereotypes. Assignment 4: Virtual Museum Curator due in the D2L dropbox by 10 p.m. on Saturday, October 8. Summary: Specify and justify what media content you would include in a virtual museum Web site you would design to accompany a History Channel program on a particular stereotype. Sobieraj, Sarah, and Jeffrey M. Berry. "From Incivility to Outrage: Political Discourse in Blogs, Talk Radio, and Cable News." Political Communication 28, no. 1 (January 2011): 19-41. Recommended: Coward, John M. “The Making of an Indian Villain: Sitting Bull in War and Peace.” Chap. 6 in The Newspaper Indian: Native American Identity in the Press, 1820-90. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1999. Pages 159-95. Week of October 10: Public Relations and Propaganda. Assignment 5: Crisis Communicator due in the D2L dropbox by 10 p.m. on Saturday, October 15. Summary: Travel back in American history to a crisis that a person or organization experienced in order to give advice on how to communicate through the media about the problem. Hallahan, Kirk. "Ivy Lee and the Rockefellers' Response to the 1913-1914 Colorado Coal Strike." Journal Of Public Relations Research 14, no. 4 (October 2002): 265-315. Recommended: Bayley, Edwin R. Joe McCarthy and the Press. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1981; New York: Pantheon, 1982. Pages 125-39. Recommended: Jackall, Robert J. and Janice Hirota. “Advertising the Great War.” Chap. 1 in Image Makers: Advertising, Public Relations, and the Ethos of Advocacy. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2000. Pages 1135. Week of October 17: The Marketplace of Ideas and Self-Censorship. Assignment 6: Standard Setter due in the D2L dropbox by 10 p.m. on Saturday, October 22. Summary: Using historical information, discuss what appears to be faulty in a media organization’s current stated policy (e.g., ethics code or user rights) created in the past. What needs to be eliminated, revised, or added? Make and justify a specific proposal for change with some references to developments over time. 4 Prigge, Matthew J. "Dangers in the Dark: Motion Picture Reform in Progressive-Era Milwaukee." Film History 24, no. 1 (March 2012): 74-81. Smith, Jeffery A. "Hollywood Theology: The Commodification of Religion in TwentiethCentury Films." Religion & American Culture 11, no. 2 (Summer 2001): 191-231. Also on D2L. Recommended: Murray, Matthew. “‘The Tendency to Deprave and Corrupt Morals’: Regulation and Irregular Sexuality in Golden Age Radio Comedy.” In Radio Reader: Essays in the Cultural History of Radio, edited by Michele Hilmes and Jason Loviglio. New York: Routledge, 2002. Pages 135-56. Recommended: Sova, Dawn B. Forbidden Films: Censorship Histories of 125 Motion Pictures. New York: Checkmark Books, 2001. Pages x-xiii, 46-50, 135-37, 14547. Week of October 24: Emotional Intelligence and Sensationalism. Assignment 7: Media Career Coach due in the D2L dropbox by 10 p.m. on Saturday, October 29. Summary: Choose a fading media-industry celebrity (someone who has been employed in news, entertainment, or persuasion) and advise him or her on how to regain popularity and/or adjust to changed circumstances by making references to successful career climbs, comebacks, or transitions by other media figures in the past. Reel, Guy. "A Dirty Dozen: Twelve of the ‘Best’ Tabloids of all Time." American Journalism 27, no. 2 (Spring 2010): 138-146. Recommended: Bly, Nellie. “Ten Days in a Mad-House.” New York World, October 16, 1887. In Muckraking! The Journalism that Changed America. New York: New Press, 2002. Pages 142-46. Recommended: Stark, Steven D. “The Oprah Winfrey Show and the Talk-Show Furor.” Chap. 56 in Glued to the Set: The 60 Television Shows and Events That Made Us Who We Are Today. New York: The Free Press, 1997. Pages 276-82. Week of October 31: News and Media Scandal. Assignment 8: History Detective due in the D2L dropbox by 10 p.m. on Saturday, November 5. Summary: Find material published online to document past wrongdoing or questionable behavior and assess how worthwhile the information could be if exposed now in the media. Summers, John H. “What Happened to Sex Scandals? Politics and Peccadilloes, Jefferson to Kennedy.” Journal of American History 87 (December 2000): 82554. Also on D2L. 5 Recommended: Lull, James and Stephen Hinerman. “The Search for Scandal.” Chap. 1 in Media Scandals: Morality and Desire in the Popular Culture Marketplace, edited by James Lull and Stephen Hinerman. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997. Pages 1-33. Recommended: Walls, Jeannette. “The War Against Confidential.” Chap. 2 in Dish: How Gossip Became the News and the News Became Just Another Show. New York: Avon, 2000; New York: Perennial, 2001. Pages 11-28. Part II: Mass Communication and Change Week of November 7: Freedom and Responsibility. Assignment 9: Post-mortem Publicist due in the D2L dropbox by 10 p.m. on Saturday, November 12. Summary: Write a letter offering your services as a post-mortem publicist to the “Father of the Constitution,” James Madison, to explain how the ideas of the founding generation could be used in a campaign for freedom of expression today. Smith, Jeffery A. "Public Opinion and the Press Clause." Journalism History 14, no. 1 (Spring 1987): 8-17. Also available on D2L as reprinted in: Smith, Jeffery A. “Public Opinion and the Press.” In Media Voices: An Historical Perspective, edited by Jean Folkerts, 105-120. New York: Macmillan, 1992. Week of November 14: The Rights of Workers, Slaves, and Women. Assignment 10: Professor for a Day due in the D2L dropbox by 10 p.m. on Saturday, November 19. Summary: Prepare a mini-lecture on a specific media topic of your choice in the history of workers, slaves, or women. Helwig, Timothy. "Black and White in Print: Cross-Racial Strategies of Class Solidarity in Mechanics’ Free Press and Freedom’s Journal." American Periodicals 19, no. 2 (September 2009): 117-135. Recommended Voices text: Chapters 1-3. Week of November 21: The Battles over Sex, Lynching, and Radicalism. Assignment 11: Moral Panic Pundit due in the D2L dropbox by 10 p.m. on Monday, November 28. Summary: Placing yourself in 1898 when racial hatreds flared and violence erupted in Wilmington, North Carolina (see the lecture for a summary and video), write a letter to the editor of any newspaper you select to comment on the press coverage and/or published opinions related to the conflict. Horowitz, Helen Lefkowitz. "Victoria Woodhull, Anthony Comstock, and Conflict over Sex in the United States in the 1870s." Journal Of American History 87, no. 2 (September 2000): 403-434. 6 Recommended Voices text: Chapters 4-7. Note: Thanksgiving Break is Wednesday, November 23, through Sunday, November 27. Remaining assignments are due on Mondays Week of November 28: The Great Migration and Birth Control. Assignment 12: Ad Campaigner due in the D2L dropbox by 10 p.m. on Monday, December 5. Summary: Go back in time to the Great Migration (mainly ca. 1916-1930) and prepare the basic contextual groundwork and some ad copy for a public service advertising campaign concerning African Americans who were moving from the South to cities such as Chicago and Milwaukee. Ross, Felicia G. Jones and Joseph P. McKerns. "Depression in ‘The Promised Land’: The Chicago Defender Discourages Migration, 1929-1940." American Journalism 21, no. 1 (Winter 2004): 55-73. Recommended Voices text: Chapters 8-9. Week of December 5: Sixties Issues. Assignment 13: Agent of Change due in the D2L dropbox by 10 p.m. on Monday, December 12. Summary: Discuss what newspaper or magazine you might have wanted to start in the 1960s to promote a specific kind of change if you were alive and interested in media opportunities then. Explain the reasons for your choice with references to the historical context and the media of the time. DeBrosse, Jim. "Four Dead in Ohio." Journalism History 39, no. 1 (Spring 2013): 40-49. Recommended Voices text: Chapters 10-15. Week of December 12: Entrepreneurs: Looking Back and Ahead. Note: Final exams begin on Friday, December 16. Assignment 14: Spirited Entrepreneur due in the D2L dropbox by 10 p.m. on Monday December 19. Summary: Write a biographical sketch of a media entrepreneur or innovator that includes personal background, his or her thoughts about the industry, and accounts of the person’s past successes and failures in a media-related field. Gladwell, Malcolm. "The Tweaker." New Yorker 87, no. 36 (November 14, 2011): 32-35. COURSE POLICIES Work turned in late will receive a 10-point penalty plus one point for each hour unless an exception is made by the instructor, in advance if possible, for circumstances beyond a student’s control. 7 Incidents of academic misconduct, such as cheating, handing in work to more than one course without permission, and plagiarism (directly quoting the words of others without using quotation marks or indented format to identify them, using sources of information without identifying them, or paraphrasing materials or ideas of others without identifying the sources) will be handled with UWM procedures and can result in penalties such as a grade of F for the course. For explanations of UWM policies and procedures, go to: http://www4.uwm.edu/acad_aff/policy/academicmisconduct.cfm . For information on academic misconduct that could be considered plagiarism, go to: http://guides.library.uwm.edu/c.php?g=56454&p=363101 For information on campus policies on disabilities, religious observances, military duty, incompletes, discriminatory conduct (such as sexual harassment), academic misconduct, complaints, grade appeals, and final examinations, go to: http://www4.uwm.edu/secu/SyllabusLinks.pdf In the event of disruption of normal academic activities, the format for this course may be modified to enable completion of the course. In that event, you will be provided an addendum to this syllabus that will supersede this version. Estimates of how your time will be spent: Reading and viewing online material: 62 hours. Completing 10, 11, or 12 assignments: 82 hours.