Mass Communications
History
Mass Communications History is a
graduate course that surveys the history of important events,
technologies, and figures in the development of mass media in
the United States.
Six books, covering different aspects
of the history of mass media in United States, are required.
For each book you are to write a 750-1,000 word review which
will be due on the dates shown on the calendar,
below. The books will be discussed in detail on those dates.
- Barnouw, Eric. Tube of Plenty: The Evolution of American
Television. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.
- Filler, Louis M. The Muckrakers: Crusaders for American
Liberalism. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press,
1968.
- Schlesinger, Arthur M. Prelude to Independence: The Newspaper
War on Britain, 1764- 1776. Boston: Northeastern University
Press, 1980.
- Sivulka, Juliann. Soap, Sex, and Cigarettes: A Cultural
History of American Advertising. Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth,
1998.
- Summers, Mark. The Press Gang: Newspapers & Politics,
1865-1878. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina
Press, 1994.
- Tucher, Andie. Scum and Froth: Truth, Beauty, Goodness,
and the Ax Murder in America's First Mass Medium. Chapel
Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1994.
Read a scholarly article related to each day's topic
and prepare a 100-200 word annotation. You can find appropriate
articles inJournalism and Mass Communication Quarterly,
Journalism History , American Journalism and Journal
of Broadcasting and Electronic and in some historical
association publications. An example
of the format is attached.
Please make two copies for the instructor and one copy for
each of the other students.
Part of each class period will be given over to discussion
of the articles, though not all may be considered each time.
No annotation will be due on a day on which we discuss a book.
If you wish to read along in a communication history text,
you might consider one of the following.
- Emery, Michael and Edwin Emery. The Press in America:
An Interpretive History of the Mass Media. 8th ed. Boston:
Allyn and Bacon, 1996.
- Folkerts, Jean and Dwight Teeter. Voices of a Nation:
A History of the Mass Media in the United States. 2d ed.
New York: Macmillan, 1994.
- Sloan, William David and James D. Startt. The Media in
America: A History. 3d ed. Northport, Ala.: Vision Press,
1996.
- Ward, Hiley H. Mainstreams of American Media History:
A Narrative and Intellectual History. Boston: Allyn and Bacon,
1997
A research paper of 3,500 - 5,000 words on a
topic in mass communications history is also required. You will
present your paper to the class, so it will be due prior to your
class presentation, as shown on the calendar. You should submit
two copies: one for the instructor and one for an assigned reader
who will comment on the paper.
All written work must be typed in 12 point Times or
New York, double spaced, and must conform to Chicago style for
the humanities, not APA style, as found in American
Journalism or Journalism History.. A handy and inexpensive
guide to endnotes is Kate L. Turabian's A Manual for Writers
of Term Papers, Theses and Dissertations, published by the
University of Chicago Press. Any edition is satisfactory. You
could also check the Chicago
Manual of Style Citation Guide compiled by the Ohio State
University library.
A final examination will be given on Thursday, Dec
13, from 5 to 7 p.m.
Course Calendar - Fall 2004
|
August |
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31 |
Course expectations, requirements |
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September |
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2 |
No class |
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7 |
The press in British America |
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9 |
The press in the American revolution |
Schlesinger |
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14 |
Press freedom in the United States |
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16 |
Party press--Federalist period |
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21 |
Party press--Jacksonian period |
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23 |
Penny press--the practitioners |
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28 |
Penny press--performance |
Tucher |
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30 |
Frontier press |
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October |
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|
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5 |
The black press and the press of
abolition |
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7 |
Press in the Civil War |
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12 |
The post-war press--the reporters |
Summers |
|
11 |
The post-war press--the publishers |
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19 |
Fall Break holiday |
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21 |
Research hour--no class |
|
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26 |
Development of magazines |
|
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28 |
The Muckrakers |
Filler |
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November |
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2 |
The press in modern war |
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4 |
The press and the presidency |
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9 |
Development of advertising |
Sivulka |
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16 |
Writing the research paper Jazz journalism |
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18 |
The media as big business |
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23 |
Radio and television as mass media |
Barnouw |
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25 |
Thanksgiving |
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30 |
Changing concepts of press freedom |
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December |
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Paper due |
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2 |
Paper presentations |
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7 |
Paper presentations |
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9 |
Paper presentations |
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13 |
Final examination, 5 7 p.m. |
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Annotation Form
- Ken Starr
- September 1, 2001
-
- Bekken, Jon. "A paper for those who toil: the Chicago
labor press in transition." Journalism History ,
23:1 (Spring 1997), 24-33.
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- (10 spaces)
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- Published from 1919 until 1924 (when it was renamed Federation
News, the title under which publication continues to this
day), The New Majority was the culmination of the Chicago
Federation of Labor's (CFL) efforts to create a press to give
voice to labor's interests and needs after World War I. That
labor needed such a voice was clear to CFL members; they saw
the existing capitalist press in Chicago as implacably hostile
to the cause. This article examines the role of The New Majority
in Chicago's labor world in the post-war era, a period of turmoil
in the American labor movement, during which the CFL struggled
to articulate a new labor vision. The New Majority
was launched to serve both the Cook Country Labor Party and the
CFL as official organ and was a key part of CFL's social and
political strategy. Nevertheless, both the party and The New
Majority proved controversial and expensive, and Chicago unionists
eventually retreated to a narrower emphasis on traditional trade
union concerns.
Updated AUGUST 26, 2004