HISTORY OF RADIO AND TELEVISION
COM 220, Spring 2012
CLASS WEBSITE:
Dr. Christopher Anderson
Monday, 2:30-6:20
Office: 1P / Room 232A
2N 005
Office Hours: Monday, 1:00pm-2:15pm; Wednesday, 1:00pm–2:15pm
Required Texts
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Hilmes, Only Connect (3rd ed.)
Course Learning Objectives
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To understand the political, social, technological, cultural, and economic
conditions which made broadcast television and radio possible.
To understand the history of these media
To understand the invention, culture, and impact of broadcast journalism
To understand current digital challenges which are affecting the world of
broadcast media
Course Description
This course examines the development of radio and television broadcasting systems in the
United States, from their origins in "wireless telegraphy" to the current age of
multichannel cable and satellite transmission. The course considers different theoretical
approaches to the analysis of radio and television; their distinct genres; economic,
regulatory, technological, and aesthetic features of these commercial media and public
broadcasting; and their roles as key social institutions.
There are many aspects of our 21st century media world that would seem to argue that we
have left the days of mass-broadcasting far behind. There are hundreds, even thousands,
of cable channels. Indeed, an increasing number of consumers are even leaving cable
behind, watching the majority of TV through Netflix or Hulu or Youtube. To understand
the world of the present, however, we could do worse than understand the world of the
past, the days when broadcast television—and before that, radio--- reigned supreme.
This course will introduce students to the invention of broadcast media, the culture of
“listening in,” the development of broadcast news, and the history of television and radio
up to the present day.
Course Requirements
This is the grading breakdown for the course. To receive a passing grade for the class,
students must meet all requirements. Missed assignments will automatically result in a
failing grade.
Participation ...............................................................………
In Class Drill Assignments...............................................................
Quizzes ………………………………………………………
Midterm Paper …………………………………………………..
Final ………………………………………………………...
15%
15%
15%
25%
30%
General Class Structure
If you look ahead to your schedule of classes, you’ll see that this class consists of four
basic elements: readings, lectures, group conversation, and classroom debates.
Readings: A few times this year, you’re going to be reading a couple of sections a week
from multiple books. Because of this, you have to make sure you do all the readings, or
else you’ll be missing important aspects of the class. Don’t pick one book to read and one
book to skip. It won’t work.
Lectures: The early part of most classes will consist of a lecture and some general
discussion of the topic at hand. These lectures are not a substitute for the readings, but
rather compliment and expand upon them.
In class participation: The second part of each class will consist of some combination of
group conversation and weekly structured classroom debates. There may be an element
of social-media (Facebook, twitter, blogging) documentation of these debates as they
occur.
MidTerm Paper
Instead of a mid-term, you will be assigned a mid-term writing assignment that will count
25% of your final grade. The paper will be due on March 19, and can either be emailed
to me or placed in my mailbox in room 226 of building 1P.
Final
The final will count for 30% of your grade, and will be given on a date TBA. The final
exam will be cumulative; you will need to know all of the material we have covered in
class up until that point.
Quizzes
Students will be given randomly assigned quizzes during the course of the semester.
These quizzes will count for 15% of your final grade
Attendance
Students are expected to attend every session of “History of Radio and Television.”
According to college policy, unexcused absences exceeding 15% of course hours can
result in a WU grade. 15% of the classes in this class would be two sessions or more.
Bottom line: don’t miss class.
In the event that a student must miss a class due to religious observance or family
emergency, students must provide advance notice, in writing, of days missed. In the
event of class missed due to illness, students must provide the instructor with a doctors’
note. No exceptions.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is a major—perhaps the major—academic offense a student can commit as an
undergraduate, graduate student, or as a scholar. Plagiarism is defined as either (1) failure
to acknowledge the source of ideas not one’s own or (2) failure to indicate verbatim
expressions not one’s own through quotation marks and footnotes. Plagiarism is a
growing problem on college campuses across the nation, largely due to growing
technological ease in accessing already composed papers and sources of information. For
this reason, I personally will be relentlessly unforgiving regarding any suspected cases of
plagiarism this semester—and I will check. There will probably not be a second chance
in this regard, and I will recommend the strict enforce university policy for all cases of
plagiarism. Bottom line: don’t do it. If you have any questions, please talk to me before
you write rather than afterward. For more information, see the CUNY Policy on
Academic Integrity: http://www1.cuny.edu/academics/info-central/policies.html. For a
guide on how to cite your sources well, see
http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/?option=com_content&view=article&id=130
Schedule of Classes
January 30
Class Introduction and overview of the issues
February 6
READING DUE: “Before Broadcasting” (Hilmes, Ch. 2); “Radio,”
and “The Great Radio Controversy,” from Tesla: Man Out of Time
(Cheney)
IN-CLASS ASSIGNMENT: Life before the radio
LECTURE: Before broadcast
February 21
READING DUE: “Broadcasting Begins,” and “The Network
Age” (Hilmes, Ch. 3-4)
LECTURE: On the radio
SCREENING: Selections from radio soap operas, comedies, and
dramas
***
PLEASE NOTE: CLASS TODAY IS ON A TUESDAY
***
February 27
READING DUE: “The Zen of Listening,” and “Exploratory
Listening in the 1920s” from Listening In: Radio and the American
Imagination (Douglas); “The Enormous Radio,” (Cheever)
LECTURE: The Zen of listening
SCREENING: Selections from Radio Days
March 5
READING DUE: “Radio for Everyone,” and “The FCC” (Hilmes,
Ch. 5-6)
SCREENING: “7 Dirty Words.”
IN-CLASS ASSIGNMENT: The FCC and “fleeting expletives.”
LECTURE: Regulation and the “public interest.”
March 12
READING DUE: “At Last Television,” and “The Domesticated
Medium,” (Hilmes, Ch. 7-8).
SCREENING: “War of the Worlds” episode of Radiolab
LECTURE: The implications of a mass audience.
.
March 19
***
NO CLASS: MIDTERM DUE
***
March 26
Selections from This Is Berlin: Reporting from Nazi Germany,
1938-40 (Shirer); “The Blitz,” and “Buchenwald,” from Edward R,
Murrow and the Birth of Broadcast Journalism (Edwards)
IN-CLASS SCREENING: excerpts from Goodnight and Good
Luck
LECTURE: The Invention of Broadcast Journalism
April 2
READING: “Rising Discontent,” (Hilmes, Ch. 10); Selections
from Amusing Ourselves to Death (Postman)
IN CLASS ASSIGNMENT: How bad is TV?
LECTURE: Is TV Trash?
***
SPRING BREAK: APRIL 6-15, 2012
April 16
`
***
READING: “The War on Television,” and “The Uncensored
War,” from The Uncensored War: The Media and Vietnam
(Hallin)
IN-CLASS SCREENING: excerpts from Network
LECTURE: The rise and fall of broadcast news
April 23
READING: “Reality Bites Back,” (Pozner); “Networked: A
Contemporary History of News in Transition,” (Russell).
SCREENING: Selections from the Colbert Report, the Daily
Show, and Bachelor
LECTURE: Satire, “fake” news, and reality TV
April x
*** PLEASE NOTE: This class is on a [x] to accommodate ***
*** CLASS TRIP TO THE PALEY CENTER FOR MEDIA ***
Address: 25 West 52 Street New York NY 10019
May 7
READING: “Convergence Culture in the New Millenium,”
(Hilmes, Ch. 13)
SCREENING: Excerpts from “Control Room.”
LECTURE: Globalized television
May 14
READING: “TV after TV,” (Hilmes, Ch. 14); “A New YouTube:
Herding Those Funny Cats.” (Hale); “Cord Cutting Continues
Apace,” (Kaplan); “Occupy PressThink: Tim Pool.” (Rosen)
LECTURE: TV in the Digital Age