http://faculty.washington.edu/baldasty/200.htm

Winter Quarter, 2000

10:30 to 11:50, Tuesdays and Thursdays, Kane 130.

Office: 343 Communications

Office hours: Tuesdays, 1:30 to 3 p.m., Thursdays, 9 to 10 a.m.

E-mail: baldasty@u.washington.edu

Fiona Clark (Lead TA), Jeffrey Bates, Taso Lagos, Paola Bellotti, Robert Newell and Mike McCluskey.

By the end of the quarter, you should have acquired a critical awareness of how the U.S. mass media operate and a critical awareness of media content. In particular, you should acquire:

• an understanding of the societal environment in which the media operate, with a particular emphasis on economics, government/politics and culture. You should be able to see how this broader environment shapes media content. Theme 1: Media content is shaped in part by external societal forces.
• an understanding of media production processes (media business practices, news-gathering norms, objectivity, personnel, etc.) and their influence on content. Theme 2: Media content is shaped in part by the media’s own production processes.
• an overview of key issues and problems in U.S. mass media today.
• an overview of the future of U.S. mass media. What can we expect in the next 5-15 years? How will these changes (often driven by technology or economics) affect information? privacy?

In examining these themes, we will focus on several broad areas:

• key issues in the historical development of contemporary mass media (emphasizing economics, government-press relations and broad cultural concerns).
• key issues, problems and challenges in contemporary U.S. mass media.
• media as businesses, the nature of inter-media competition.
• entertainment and news.
• movies, television, newspapers and the Internet.

By the end of the quarter, you should be able to provide fairly sophisticated answers to these (and other) questions:

• Why have situation comedies dominated prime-time TV? What are the implications of this? Why is a new genre of shows emerging (one hour soap/drama hybrids, such as Ally McBeal, Buffy, Angel, Dawson’s Creek)?
• Why did the news media cover the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal as a lurid soap opera? What are the implications of this?
• Are the media liberal? conservative? objective?
• Why would some maintain that the Super Bowl is the single most important TV show of the entire year? What are the implications of this?
• Who owns the media? What are the implications for us?
• How well do media serve democracy in the United States?
• Why are the WB and UPN networks representative of developments in U.S. television today? What are the implications of this?
• Are the U.S. media really "free" and uncensored? if not, what are the constraints on the information we get from the media?
• Do the U.S. media reflect the diversity of American life? If not, why not?
• How do media processes influence content?
• How has the rise of cable television influenced the older broadcasting networks (NBC, ABC, CBS)? What kinds of changes can we expect in programming in the near future?

1. Cmu. 200 Packet of Readings at Rams Copy Center, 4144 University Way N.E.

I created this readings packet primarily to accompany the lecture material in the first half of the course. Most of the readings emphasize the relation between production processes and content in entertainment media.

2. Shanto Iyengar and Richard Reeves, editors, Do the Media Govern? Politicians, Voters and Reporters in America. Sage. Paperback. New: $34.95; Used $26.25.

I chose this book because it provides a broad overview of key issues in news today. It draws on work from more than 50 authors, thus providing you with a cross-section of the top work on news and government today.

There will be three exams, each worth 100 points.

Exam 1: 100 points. Date: Tuesday, January 26.

Exam 2: 100 points. Date: Tuesday, February 22.

Exam 3: 100 points. Monday, March 13, 10:30 to 11:30 a.m.

There will be no early exams. Exams will be a combination of multiple choice and matching, and perhaps fill-in-the-blank.

Paper. There will be one paper, worth 200 points. Details will be announced in discussion sections.

There will be a series of "one minute papers" at various points through the quarter. These are 1-2 sentence papers, done at the end of a lecture, that summarize the key points in that day's lecture. The point of this requirement is to help you get into the habit of thinking about the key points in each day's lecture.

Discussion sections will be worth 25 points. This portion of the grade will derive from class participation.

Extra credit: At least 5 points of extra credit will be available; further extra credit might be available at various points during the quarter.

To recap:

• Exams 1,2, 3: 100 points each; 300 points total.
• Paper: 200 points
• Discussion section: 25 points.
• One minute papers: 25
• Total possible points: 550
• Extra credit. There will be an extra credit option; it is described below. Extra credit work is voluntary; you will not be penalized if you choose not to do it.

Extra credit option. You may earn 5 points for participating in a small research project outside of class time, probably during 8th or 9th week of quarter. More details later.

Attendance at lecture is not required, although the exams will draw from lecture material. When you attend, please plan on participating in class by listening or discussing when appropriate. Do not talk extensively with other students; it disrupts both the lecturer and other students. Reading a newspaper or magazine is also disruptive. Disruptive students will be asked to leave the room. If you do not want to come to class to listen and participate in a constructive way, stay away.

You may subscribe to ASUW lecture notes in this class. Two caveats: first, I assume no responsibility for the notes. Second, I encourage you to learn to take your own notes; use the ASUW notes to supplement your own notes or to cover classes you miss. Lecture overheads will list key points in each lecture; these will be posted each week on the course web page (URL above).

Class will always end by 11:50 a.m.; lecture will never go beyond that time. Wait until 11:50 a.m. to prepare to leave the room. Do not start your preparations at 11:45 or you will miss the summary points in the lecture and you will disrupt others.

Changing your section: Only official changes, through the registrar, will be allowed. This policy avoids a great deal of confusion and ultimately protects students by (a) keeping your records in one place and (b) keeping discussion section sizes uniform.

If you cannot adhere to these policies, you will want to find another course.

Gerald Baldasty. This is my twenty-second year as a faculty member at the University of Washington. I did my Ph.D work here at UW in Communications, my M.A. work in Journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and my B.A. in Communications at UW.

I teach courses on media history, on gender, race and media and on research methods. My research work deals primarily with media business history in the 19th and early 20th centuries. I am also doing research on the African American press in Seattle, 1900-1950 and on representation of women and people of color in prime time television. I’ve written two books: The Commercialization of News in the Nineteenth Century (1992) and E.W. Scripps and the Business of Newspapers (1999).

My chief goal in this course is to help you develop a critical awareness of the mass media. I want you to understand how the media operate (production, news process) and to recognize that media content is socially constructed (meaning: it does not mirror actual events in our society; it is usually not real). I want you to leave this class in March with a much more sophisticated sense of the media -- and with more critical viewing and reading skills. The chief question in the student evaluations at the end of the quarter will be this: Are you a more critical and aware media consumer than you were at the start of the quarter?

Jeffrey Bates (jemiba@u.washington.edu) is a Ph.D. student who researches a variety of issues in international and cross-cultural communication. He has interests in the social and individual process of communication, especially in the realms of folklore, adoption patterns and identity formation. Jeff worked as a TA in Cmu. 200 during Autumn Quarter, 1999.

Paola Bellotti (bellotti@u.washington.edu) is a M.A. student interested in international communication and specifically in how media create or maintain national identity in an era of globalization. She is also interested in inter-cultural communication and in the concept of "flow of information," in how it has originated historically and how it is likely to be affected by the Internet.

Fiona Clark (fionac@u.washington.edu) is a Ph.D. student whose main research interest is in the role of communications in solving environmental problems. Fiona is a former video editor for BBC Television in the United Kingdom and has also worked on environmental communications projects in East Africa. She was the lead TA for Cmu. 200 during Spring and Autumn quarters, 1999.

Taso Lagos (taso@u.washington.edu) is a Ph.D. student interested in technology and its ability to improve the lives of the marginalized. He completed his M.A. thesis on "microcinemas," or small boutique film theaters currently rising in popularity across the country. Taso also makes feature films and teaches at Seattle Central Community College. He was a TA in Cmu. 320 during Autumn Quarter, 1999.

Michael McCluskey (mcclum@u.washington.edu) is a second-year M.A. student whose thesis is on newspaper coverage of the Wenatchee child sex-abuse investigations. He is also working on projects about news coverage of school shootings and a survey of public opinion before and after the recent WTO meeting in Seattle. McCluskey was a newspaper reporter and editor before starting graduate work at UW. He was a TA in Cmu. 200 in Autumn, 1999, and spent four quarters as a TA in Communications 362.

Robert Newell (rvnewell@u.washington.edu) is a second-year M.A. student whose research interests lie in international communication, media and sports, popular culture and media events as cultural practice. Robert’s thesis addresses natural disaster coverage from a cultural studies perspective. He has worked in a number of capacities in media production, including serving as camera operator and technical director for the NBC-affiliated evening news and as a news and feature writer for a small circulation newspaper, both in Austin, Texas. Robert has also worked on independent films and in the theatre, both in production and as an actor. He was a TA in Cmu. 200 during Autumn Quarter, 1999.

Introductions, overview on freedom of the press, media effects.

Readings:

Packet: "Hot News: Chinese Media Stifled Reports of Stifling Heat for Years"

Scott Stossel, "The Man Who Counts the Killings."

Iyengar, 211-216; 237-47

For further information on media effects, see the video "Slim Hopes: Advertising and the Obsession with Thinness" (Odegaard Media Center, Videorecord MEF 001) and the video "Does TV Kill: What should we do about TV?" (also in Odegaard Media Center, Videorecord PBS 217).

Week 2. January 10-14, 2000.

Lecture topics: Media ownership, Motion picture industry.

Iyengar, 66-76, 90-98,

Packet: Bagdikian, "The Endless Chain."

Russ Baker, "Murdoch's Mean Machine."

Douglas Gomery, "Hollywood’s Business."

Lectures will focus on contemporary movies, Disney.

Readings:

Packet: Newspaper ad: "TV is Leading Children Down a Moral Sewer."

Exam 1. Tuesday, January 25.

Thursday, January 28: Television.

Packet: Todd Gitlin, "TV and American Culture: Flat and Happy."

Contemporary television.

Readings:

Packet: "Stung by Criticisms of the New Fall shows, TV Networks Rush to Add Minority Roles."

Paul Espinosa, "The Rich Tapestry of Hispanic America is Virtually Invisible on Commercial Television."

Legal limits on the press. What's the role of the news media?

Iyengar, ix-xx, 3-32; 40-42.

Packet: "No Justice for Throwaway People," excerpt from "The 38 cases of September 1997," and Michael Fancher, 'Investigative report will stir your emotions, maybe stir us all to act."

"KOMO Announces it won't cover 'irresponsible or illegal' acts."

"Broadcast of Man's Death Rekindles a Debate in Los Angeles"

"British Paper's Sting Nets an Earl and a Scolding from a Judge"

Defining what's news.

Iyengar, 57-65, 77-81, 89-98, 103-117; 401-408.

Packet: Howard Kurtz, "Ho Hum ‘Historic’ Event."

Exam 2. Tuesday, February 22.

Thursday, February 24. News and the political process.

Readings: Iyengar: 101-2; 118-125; 132-137; 143-148, 248-257;258-275; 319-322; 349-363; 420-431.

Packet: "Meet the man who buffs Clinton's image."

"GOP, taking a Page from Clinton's Play Book, Wants Members to Say the Right Thing to Voters."

News.

Readings: Iyengar, 156-164; 181-194; 276-282; 283-286; 287-295

Lectures will focus on new media.

Packet: Rebecca Raney, "Former Wrestler’s Campaign Got a Boost From the Internet."