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Home , Communication theory, Mass Communication

G. Thomas Goodnight ASC Core Course Spring 2012

Humanities and Approaches to Human II Syllabus: Communication 526

READINGS: Meenakshi Gigi Durham and Douglas M. Kellner, Media and : Key Works. Blackwell, 2006. (MCS) Charles E. Morris III Remembering the Aids Quilt. Michigan State University Press, 2011. (RAQ) Books must be ordered. Additional are posted on Black Board (BB), available through the library at Communication & Media Complete, or through Google Scholar. See also files on DropBox with the email [email protected] password lpsgtg2011

SOURCES: The course will take up core views of communication. Select readings are provided. You may wish to try through Alibris or other used book sites to find: Floyd W. Matson and Ashley Montagu, eds. The Human Dialogue: Perspectives on Communication, New York: Free Press, 1967; Lee Thayer, ed. Communication: and Perspectives, London: MacMillan, 1967; Stephen W. Littlejohn, Theories of Human Communication, Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1983; C. David Mortensen, Problematic Communication: The Construction of Invisible Walls, Westport, CT: Praeger, 1994; Robert T. Craig and Heidi L. Muller, Theorizing Communication: Readings Across Traditions, Los Angeles: Sage, 2004; Kenneth K. Sereno and C. David Mortensen, Foundations of , New York: Harper and Row, 1970; Walter W. Powell and Paul J. Di Maggio, Institutional Organizational Analysis, Chicago: Press, 1991.

GOALS: The objectives of this course are several. First, the course introduces key thinkers and organizes theoretical spaces within the field of Communication. Second, the course identifies critical communication inquiry at the individual, group, public and collective levels of theory and practice. Third, the course discusses strategies of engagement or thinking that could extend, modify, or overturn standing theoretical positions and initiate new inquiry. Critique and criticism are developed. Fourth, the course engages development and reflection on digital age communication study. The course is taught from the position of Critical Communication Inquiry, namely that theories and practices of communication are constructed with various strengths and weaknesses, insights and blind spots. Study will equip students to explore how we moved (and continue to accelerate) from modern traditions of inquiry dominated by concerns with modern, to the evolving contexts of a twenty-first century revolution.

REQUIREMENTS: Requirements will be discussed at the opening seminar. As a strategy, the seminar is composed of many short readings, clustered around key topics and authors in the formation of the discipline. Supplemental readings are provided in some cases. and participation is expected for all A level grades.

OFFICE: Mr. Goodnight occupies 206A ASC West Wing. Phone 213-821-5384. The course subscribes to the Graduate School rules on academic integrity.

Tentative Syllabus

1. T Jan 10 Introduction: Critical Communication Inquiry

What is to become of the area, field, or discipline of communication?

Herbert Laswell, “The Emerging Discipline of Communications,” 6 (1958), 245-254. Gordon A. Sabine, “The Emerging Discipline of Communications,” Journal of the University Producers Association 11 (1958), 3-5, 13-15. Craig Calhoun, “Communication as Social Science (and More),” IJOC 4 (2011), 1479-1496. Thomas A. Discenna, “Academic Labor and the Literature of Discontent in Communication,” International Journal of Communication 5 (2011), 1843-1852. Cheryl L. Coyle and Heather Vaughn, “Social Networking: Communication Revolution or Evolution?” Technical Journal 13:2 (2008), 13-18. Supplement Bibliography, The Human Dialogue. Stephen Littlejohn, “The Status of Human Communication Theory,” Theories of Human Communication, 299-309.

2. T Jan 17 Communication Theories

How do communication models regulate inquiry?

Wayne E. Brockriede, “Dimensions of the of ,” Foundations of Communication Theory, 25-39. Dean C. Barnlund, “A Transactional Model of Communication,” Foundations of Communication Theory, 83-102. Frank Dance, “The Concept of Communication,” The Journal of Communication 20 (1970), 201-210. Thomas R. Nilsen, “On Defining Communication,” Foundations of Communication Theory, 15-24. Frank E. X Dance, “A Helical Model of Communication,” Theories of Human Communication, 103-107. Robert T. Craig and Heidi L. Muller, “Communication Theory as a Field,” Theorizing Communication, 63- 92. Supplement Stephen Littlejohn, “Theory in the Process of Inquiry,” Theories of Human Communication, 2nd ed. Wadsworth, 9-25.

3. T Jan 24 The Library & the Archive: Spaces for Communication Inquiry

Of what use are the archeological and anthropological approaches to communication study?

Hanah Arendt, “Society and Culture,” The Human Dialogue, 346-354. Leo Lowenthal, “Communication and Humanitas,” The Human Dialogue, 335-345. Ernst Cassirer, “The Power of Metaphor,” Myth and Language, S. Langer, trans. Dover: 1946, 83-99. Dell Hymes, “The of Communication,” Human Communication Theory, 1-39. Hans Blumenberg, “An Anthropological Approach to the Contemporary Significance of Rhetoric,” After Philosophy, K. Baynes, J. Bohman, and T McCarthy, eds., MIT Press, 1987: 429-57. BB Michel Foucault, “Discourse Formation,” Archeology of Knowledge Tavistock, 1978, 21-39. BB Gary R. Radford, “A Foucauldian Perspective of the Relationship between Communication and ,” Between Communication and Information, Schement and Ruben eds., Transaction, 1993, 105-114. BB Raymie E. McKerrow, “Critical Rhetoric: Theory and Praxis,” Communication Monographs 56 (1989), 91- 111. BB Barbara Beisecker, “Of Historicity, Rhetoric: The Archive as Scene of Invention, Rhetoric and Public Affairs 9 (2006), 124-131. BB Supplement G. Thomas Goodnight, “The Nuclear Age,” Dubrovnik Yugoslavia, 1987. BB

4. T Jan 31 Phenomenology & the Life World

What is it to experience communication or not?

William Ernest Hocking, “Knowledge of Other Minds,” The Human Dialogue, 539-547. Gabriel Marcel, “Intersubjectivity,” The Human Dialogue, 118-127. Alfred Schutz, The Phenomenology of the Social World, G. Walsh and F Lehnert, trans., 1967. Maurice Natanson, “The Privileged Moment: A Study in the Rhetoric of Thomas Wolfe,” Quarterly Journal of 2:43 (1957), 143-151. BB C. David Mortensen, “The Construction of Interpersonal Boundaries,” Problematic Communication, Praeger, 1994, 109-132. BB Robert L. Scott, “Dialectical Tensions of Speaking and Silence,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 79 (1993), 1- 18. C. David Mortensen, “Silence, Discourse and Dialogue,” Problematic Communication, Praeger, 1994, 73- 108. BB Abraham H. Maslow, “Isomorphic Interrelationships Between Knower and Known,” The Human Dialogue, 195-206. Carl R. Rogers, “The Therapeutic Relationship: Recent Theory and ,” The Human Dialogue, 246- 259.

5. T Feb 7 Social Theory of Communication: Self, Society & Existence

Why does communication generate symbolic worlds?

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. “Free Trade in Ideas,” The Human Dialogue, 295-300. BB George Herbert Mead, “Thought, Communication and the Significant ,” The Human Dialogue, 397-403. BB Hans H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills, “Symbol Spheres in Society,” The Human Dialogue, 404-410. Hugh Duncan, “Communication and Social Oder,” The Human Dialogue, 383-396. Susanne K Langer, “On a New Definition of ‘Symbol,” The Human Dialogue, 548-554. Herbert Blumer, “Social Problems as Collective Behavior,” Social Problems, 3:18 (1971), 298-306. BB Herbert Blumer, “Fashion: From Class Differentiation to Collective Selection,” Sociological Quarterly 3:10 (1969), 275-291. BB Supplement: Stephen Littlejohn, “Symbolic Interaction and Rules Theory,” Theories of Human Communication, 45-73.

6. T Feb 14 Systems World:

How does autonomic communication shape and position the system world?

Ludwig von Bertanlanffy, “The Mind-Body Problem: A New View,” Human Dialogue, 224-245. Nicolas Luhman, “What is Communication?” Communication Theory, 2 (1992), 251-259. BB Nicolas Luhman, “On the Scientific Context of the Concept of Communication,” Social Science Information 35 (1996) 257-267. Norbert Weiner, “Cybernetics and Society,” The Human Dialogue, 15- Leah Ceccarelli, “Manufactured Scientific Controversy: Science, Rhetoric and Public Debate,” Rhetoric and Public Affairs 14:2 (2011). BB Lee Thayer, “Deconstructing Information,” Between Communication and Information, Schement and Ruben eds, Transaction, 1993, 105-114. Paul Weiss, “Love in a Machine Age,” The Human Dialogue, 67-70. Supplement Stephen W. Littlejohn, “General Systems Theory and Cybernetics,” Theories of Human Communication, 2nd ed. Wadsworth, 29-43.

7. T Feb 21 Groups, , Institutions

How do state of the art institutional practices of communication embed and change?

F. A. Hayek “Rules, Perception, and Intelligibility,” The Human Dialogue, 555-578. Jack Knight, “Spontaneous Emergence of Social Institutions,” Institutions and Social Conflict, Cambridge University Press, 123-170. Lynne G. Zucker, “The Role of Institutionalization in Cultural Persistence,” Institutional Organizational Analysis, 83-107. Walter W. Powell, “Expanding the Scope of Institutional Analysis,” Institutional Organizational Analysis, 183- 203. Paul J. DiMaggio, “Constructing an Organizational Field,” Institutional Organizational Analysis, 267-292. Amalya L. Oliver and Kathleen Montgomery, “Field-Configuring Events for Sense-Making: A Cognitive Network Approach,” Journal of Management Studies, 45 (2008), 1147-1167. Supplement Lee Thayer, Communication and Theory,” Human Communication Theory, 70-115.

8. T Feb 28 Culture, Ideology and Hegemony

What powers drive class, consciousness and communication?

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, “The Ruling Class and the Ruling Ideas,” MCS, 9-12. Antonio Gramsci, “(1) of the Subaltern Classes; (ii The Concept of ‘Ideology’; (iii) Cultural Themes: Ideological material,” MCS 13-18. , “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” MCS, 18-40. Jurgen Habermas, “The Public Sphere: An Encyclopedia Article,” MCS 73-78. Jurgen Habermas, Theory of Communicative Action, Volume I, 1-43. BB Louis Althusser, “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses,” MCS 79-89. Michael C. McGee, “The Ideograph: A Link Between Rhetoric and Ideology,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 66 (1980), 1-16. BB

9. T Mar 6 The Masses, Social Life & Critical Inquiry

What is media to the masses and to its forerunners?

Roland Barthes, “(1) Operation Margarine; (ii) Myth Today,” MCS, 99-106. Marshall McLuhan, “The Medium is the Message,” MCS, 107, MCS 107-117. Raymond Williams, “Base and Superstructure in Marxist Cultural Theory,” MCS 130-143. Dick Hebdige, “(1) From Culture to Hegemony; (ii)_ Subculture: The Unnatural Brea,” MCS, 163-173 Ien Ang, “On the Politics of Empirical Audience Research,” MCS, 174-194. Maurice Charland, “Constitutive Rhetoric: The Case of the Peuple Québécois,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 2:73 (1987), 133-150. BB Kurt Lang, Gladys Engel Lang, “Mass Society, Mass Culture, and : The Meanings of Mass,” IJOC 3 (2009), 998-1024. BB C. David Mortensen and Carter Morgan Ayres, “Symbolic Violence,” Problematic Communication, 178- 220. BB Supplement Stephen Littlejohn, “The Mediated Context: Theories of Mass Communication,” Theories of Human Communication, 263-295. BB , “Mass Media and Human Communication Theory,” Human Communication Theory, 40- 60.

T Mar 13 Spring Break

10. T Mar 20 Practice & of Communication

What is the deal with communication and ?

Nicholas Garnham, “Contribution to a Political Economy of Mass-Communication,” MCS 201-229. Dallas W. Smythe, “On the Audience Commodity and its Work,” MCS, 230-256. Edward Herman and , “A Model,” MCS, 257-294. Herbert I Schiller, “The Not Yet Post-Imperialist Era,” MCS, 295-310. Elieen R. Meehan, “Gendering the Commodity Audience,” MCS, 311-321. Pierre Bourdieu, “(1) Introduction; (ii) The Aristocracy of Culture,” MCS 322-328. Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thevenot, “The Six Worlds,” On Justification: Economies of Worth, C Porter trans. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 159-203. BB G. Thomas Goodnight and Sandy Green, “The Dot-Com Bubble,” Quarterly Journal of Speech (2010). BB Ron Greene, “Rhetorical Capital: Communicative Labor, Money/Speech, and Neo-Liberal Governances, Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies 4 (2007), 327-331.

11. T Mar 27 Affect, Memory, and Attachment

Why are there ties between communication and ?

Barbie Zelizer, “Reading the Past Against the Grain: The Shape of Memory Studies,” Critical Studies in Mass Communication 12 (1995), 214-239. GG Erl, “Media and Cultural Memory,” Cultural Memory Studies, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1-15. Eviatar Zerubavel, “Social Memories: Steps to a of the Past,” Qualitative Sociology, 3:19 (1996), 283-299. gg Gust A Yep, “The Politics of Loss and Its Remains in Common Threads,” RAQ, 43-68 M. DeLuca, C Harold, and K Rufo, “Q.U.I.L.T.” RAQ, 69-101. Bryant Keith Alexander, “ of Loss and Living,” RAQ, 189-228. B Ott, E. Aoki and G. Dickinson, “Collage/Montage as Critical Practices,” RAQ, 101-132. J Bennett, “A Stitch in Time: Public Emotionality…,” RAQ, 133-160. Supplement Franklin Fearing, “Toward a Psychological Theory of Human Communication,” Foundations of Communication Theory, 40-54

12. T Apr 3 Narrative, Memory and Movement

Why are there ties between communication and narrative?

Jeffrey K. Olick and Joyce Robbins, “Social Memory Studies,” Annual Review of Sociology 24 (1998), 105- 140. Carole Blair and Neil Michel, “The Aids Memorial Quilt,” RAQ, 3-40. Dan Brouwer, “From San Francisco to Atlanta and Back Again,” RAQ, 161-188. Erin J. Rand, “Repeated Remembrance,” RAQ, 229-260. Kyra Pearson, “How to Have History in an Epidemic,” RAQ 229-261. Charles E. Morris III, “Experiencing the Quilt,” RAQ, 299-308. Walter Fisher, “Narration as a Human Communication Paradigm: The Case of Public Moral Argument,” Communication Monographs, 51, 1-22. BB

13. T Apr 10 Contagion, Cascade & Reputation

How do spirals of influence get out of hand?

David A. Levy and Paul R. Nail, “Contagion: A Theoretical and Empirical Review and Reconceputalization,” Genetic, Social and General Social Monographs, 1993. BB Joost A. Merloo, “Communication and Mental Contagion,” Communication: Concepts and Perspectives, 1-23. Single A. Barsade, “ The Ripple Effect: Emotional Contagion,” Administrative Science Quarterly 47:4 (2002), 644-675. BB Eytan Adar and Lada A. Adamic, “Tracking Information Epidemics in Blogspace,” Proceedings IEEE/WIC 2005. BB Jure Leskovec et al, “The Dynamics of Viral ,” ACM Transactions on the Web 2007. BB JB Thompson, “Scandal and Social Theory,” Media Scandals: Morality and Desire, 2007, 34-59.

14. T Apr 17 Globalization, Diaspora & Communication

Is a global field of critical communication inquiry possible?

Arjun Appadurai, “Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy, MCS, 584-603. Annabelle Srenberny, “The Global and the Local in International Communications,” MCS, 604-620. J. Martin-Barbero, “The Processes: From Nationalisms to Transnationalism,” MCS, 658-680. Joseph Staubhaar, “(Re)Asserting National …,” MCS, 681-702. Richard Kahn and Douglas M. Kellner, “Oppositional Politics and the ,” MCS, 703-726. Chandra Talpade Mohanty, “Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses,” MCS, 396-421. Roza Tsagarousianou, “Rethinking the Concept of Diaspora: Mobility, Connectivity and Communication in a Globalised World,” Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture 1 (2004), 52-65.

15. T Apr 24 Critical Cosmopolitanism, Contestation & Feminism

Who must we become to appreciate and critique communication?

Walter Fisher, “Glimpses of Hope: Between Cosmopolitanism and Provinciality,” Robert and Arnett eds. Communication Ethics, New York: Peter Lang, 2008, 45-68. George Delanty, “The Cosmopolitan Imagination: Critical Cosmopolitanism and Social Theory,” The British Journal of Sociology 57: 1 (2006), 25-53. BB Ulrich Beck, “The Cosmopolitan Society and its Enemies,” Theory, Culture and Society 19 (1-2): 17-40. BB J. Habermas, “Equal Treatment of Cultures and the Limits of Postmodern Liberalism,” the Journal of 13(1): 1-28. BB B. S. Turner, “Cosmopolitan Virtue: On Religion in a Global Age,” European Journal of Social Theory 4(2): 131-152. BB Seyla Benhabib, “The Philosophical Foundations of Cosmopolitan Norms,” Another Cosmopolitanism, Robert Post, ed. New York: Oxford, 2005.