JOUR8602, "Seminar: History of Mass Communication" will be taught spring 2011 by Professor Giovanna Dell'Orto on Tuesdays and Thursdays 12:45-2:00 p.m. This seminar provides opportunities to explore communication history's scholarly traditions and dimensions, as well as some core literature and new trends in research (both quantitative and qualitative).
JOUR8602, "Seminar: History of Mass Communication"
This seminar provides opportunities to explore communication history's
scholarly traditions and dimensions, as well as some core literature and
new trends in research (both quantitative and qualitative). In addition to
critical analysis of specific assigned readings, the course includes: 1)
Consideration of mass communication historiography (the history of the
field); 2) Attention to the evolution of explicit and implicit theories and
models; 3) Exploration of different types of mass communication histories.
Topics are chosen to introduce students to diversity in communication
history--in scholarly approaches, in fields of interest, in conceptual
frameworks, and in reflections of multiculturalism. The writings
assignments and student-led class discussions are designed to advance
seminar members' individual research projects, which can be within or
outside mass communication history per se (e.g., a student of 21st century
new media would be learning about previous use of technology-centered
explanations of change in communication). Meaningful class participation
and the development of a research agenda are essential to succeed in this
course. Inquiry will be driven by three major sets of questions: 1) How
have different scholars defined mass communication as a historical concept?
Have they focused on medium, message, audience, production, etc.? 2) What
are the significant agents of change in mass communication history? What
roles have been played by technologies, ideas, cultures, politics,
individuals? 3) How do historical developments in mass communication relate
to other social, cultural and political processes, including the
development of a
public sphere, democratic discourses, and multiculturalism?
