SEMESTER AT SEA COURSE SYLLABUS Spring 2012 Discipline: Media Studies MDST 3559-506: International Mass Media/Global Mass

Communication Division: Upper Faculty Name: John Downing Pre-requisites:

COURSE DESCRIPTION Students in this class explore global media systems by engaging in a comparative study of the media in the countries we visit during the voyage. Using knowledge gained through academic and field work, we will identify and discuss factors that influence production and export of media content, as well as explore the effects of mass media on culture and politics. We will also investigate and critique legal and ethical problems relating to the media in some of the countries we visit and in America. Two faculty-directed practica are required, one in Cochin (Kochi) to The Times of India bureau office (KOC28), and the other to the Shanghai Media Group office (SHA79, if confirmed), or an approved alternative if unavailable.

COURSE OBJECTIVES Develop knowledge of different media systems and processes, selected in relation to the countries visited during Semester At Sea. Familiarize students with standard concepts utilized in international and comparative media research, such as the state, cultural industries and creative industries, cultural domination and cultural proximity, cultural hybridity, media imperialism, globalization, modernity. Concepts will be introduced and developed as the course proceeds, rather than in a solid prior bloc. REQUIRED TEXTBOOKS AUTHOR: Thomas L. McPhail, ed. TITLE: Global Communication: Theories, Stakeholders and Trends PUBLISHER: Wiley-Blackwell ISBN #: 9781444330304 DATE/EDITION: 2010, 3rd ed. COST: 52.95 TOPICAL OUTLINE OF COURSE Session A/B Topic Next location 1 Introduction and overview of the course: culture, MANAUS political economy and globalization questions: are there common aspects of media across the planet? Are media to be understood as businesses, cultural creators, institutions of governance, or all of these? Do some countries media dominate global
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media flows? Why is this? Is it problematic in any way? Reading for next class: Thomas L. McPhail, ed., Global Communication: Theories, Stakeholders and Trends, Boston, Mass., Wiley-Blackwell 2010, 3rd ed., ch. 1. 2 Major topic: What is meant by global communication? By international communication? By psychological warfare? By the free flow of information? How have specialists defined these terms as an area of study? Introductory sketch: Brazils modern cultural & media history; weakness of the daily press; the Red Globo TV company; the central place of the telenovela in modern Brazilian culture. questions: how do Brazils history, political development and cultures play out in its mainstream media system? In what major ways does Brazils mediascape contrast or resonate with the U.S. media system? Reading for class 3: McPhail, ch. 2. Major topic: What has been the importance within U.S. government policy-making circles of what used to be called the Third World, or the developing world, but now more often the Global South? Academic Communication researchers and government communication policymakers: allies, enemies, or what? Introductory sketch: Manaus as a manufacturing hub for digital television sets questions: what are the labor conditions of making TV sets, computers, cell phones? And where do they go to die? Reading for class 4: McPhail, ch. 3. Major topic: Does global communication just happen, like moss growing? If not, which international organizations have a vested interest in the practices and policies of global communication? Does this matter for the rest of us? Introductory sketch: media development on the African continent over the 20th/21st centuries questions: how important were media for the colonial powers in sustaining their rule? What were the roles of independence movement media? What have been the respective roles of the press, radio and TV in the continent since independence, beginning with Ghana in 1957? What are the roles of satellite TV and cell phones today? Reading for class 5: McPhail, ch. 5; also recommended: Vicki Mayer, Digitally Not Yours: spatial discourses and discursive spaces for Brazilian digital television policy in Manaus, Communication Review 12.1 (2009), pp. 1-19. Major topic: global interfaces between communication technologies and the firms which produce and market them (please note the plurals in each case!) TEMA
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Introductory sketch: France and African cultural production, 1960 now questions: What has been the relation of France to Algeria and francophone Africa since independence? What is meant by Franafrique and Franalgrie? Has the French government supported or corralled the continents cinemas? Its press? What is the role of Radio France Internationale? Reading for class 6: McPhail, ch. 6; and Lights, camera, Africa, The Economist, 10/18/2010, pp. 85-86, 88. 6 Major topic: How has the emergence of the Internet complicated global media patterns and processes? What is meant by legacy media? Introductory sketch: Africas video-movie industries questions: what is meant by Nollywood? How did it emerge and why? What are the differences between the videos produced in southern and in northern Nigeria? Is this a new, spontaneous form of pan-Africanism? How does it compare with Berber video-movie production in Morocco? Reading for class 7: Helga Tawil-Souri, Americanizing Palestine through Internet development, in Gerard Goggin & Mark McLelland, eds., Internationalizing Internet Studies: beyond Anglophone paradigms, London, UK, Routledge, 2010, ch. 3; Gholam Khiabany & Annabelle Sreberny, The Internet in Iran: the battle over an emerging public sphere, ibid., ch. 13. Major topic: is the Internet a free, open and universal public forum? A library/archive? An advertising opportunity? Spamorama? Introductory sketch: Ghanas video-movie industry questions: given Ghanas strong economic record over the past decade, and the recent discovery of oil, but the sharpening gulf between wealthy and poor, where does its video-movie industry fit in this developing picture? What is the role of religious video-movies in the mediascape? Reading for class 8: McPhail, ch. 7. Major topic: Do U.S. media dominate the worlds CAPE TOWN media? If so, in which ways? If not, what are their forms of influence? Introductory sketch: South Africas media under apartheid questions: what were the apartheid regimes mechanisms of control of the press? Why was television so late to be developed? What was the relation in the mediascape between the English-speaking and Afrikaner wings of the white power structure? How did the Bantustans policy operate in the mediascape? How did language policies develop 1948-2012? Reading for class 9: McPhail, ch. 8. Major topic: Which are the other major players in the global media market? What is the importance of global regions in cultural globalization processes? Introductory sketch: TV and the South African Truth & Reconciliation Commission questions: can a country use media to heal fresh social
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traumas with profound historical roots? Was the Commission a failed project from the outset? Did it use media differently to other countries that organized similar projects? Reading for class 10: McPhail, ch. 10; and view Long Nights Journey Into Day documentary, 2000, 94 minutes). 10 Major topic: How does the commercial market for recorded music figure in the global mediascape? Introductory sketch: South Africa as regional media power questions: how has South Africa developed satellite television delivery, inside its borders and across the continent? Who are its continental competitors? How does it operate in terms of mobile phones? Internet service provision? What is the relation of these developments to the countrys continental economic strategy? Reading for class 11: McPhail, ch. 11. Major topic: CNN as a game-changer since 1980. The CHENNAI two CNNs. Earlier international radio broadcasting. Is there a CNN effect? Introductory sketch: Indias mediascape since 1900 questions: what patterns did mainstream Indian print and broadcast media develop from 1900 through 1947? From the first decades of independence through the early 1990s? What were the satellite SITE experiments? How did the neoliberal turn of the 1990s and the simultaneous rise of extreme-rightist fundamentalism affect mainstream media? How have Doordashan (national state TV) and Zee TV (major private channel) reflected these changes? Reading for class 12: McPhail, ch. 12. Major topic: global news agencies (Reuters, Associated Press, China Xinhua News Network Corp., Agencia EFE, Agence France Presse, Interfax, ITAR-TASS, Interpress) Introductory sketch: Bollywood and Indias regional movie industries, especially the Tamil Nadu industry questions: how to explain the paradox of northern Indian cinemas origin in the Parsee minority, always using many Muslim stars, and relying upon profound identification with Hindu cultural traditions? What is different about the regional cinema industries, especially Tamil Nadus? What parallels were there between the rise of Ronald Reagan, and the ascent of MGR (M.G. Ramachandran) and later his leading lady Jayalitha, to be governor of Tamil Nadu state? Reading for class 13: McPhail, ch. 15.

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Major topic: Global advertising: financial promise and practical challenges. Introductory sketch: Indias roles in global movie and video production and distribution questions: what were the roles of Indian movies in the Arab region, sub-Saharan Africa and Russia, 1960s-1990s? how have they changed in response to globalizing forces and trends, including the 25million-strong Indian diaspora especially the often affluent diaspora in Canada, Australia and the USA? Reading for class 14: McPhail, ch. 14. Major topic: what are the main features of media globalization in Asia? Is this a stupidly framed question, given that around two-thirds of humans live in Asia, with many different national traditions and languages, all predating the United States of America? Introductory sketch: Indias English-language and vernacular language media questions: what is the place of English-language media in contemporary India? What roles have vernacular media begun to play in the intense regional and communalist conflicts of Indian politics? What is the future of news media in India? Reading for class 15: McPhail, ch. 13. Major topic: news media in the Arab region; the sharply contrasting roles of Lebanese and Saudi television corporations; the pivotal role of satellite TV entertainment; religious channels. Introductory sketch: Bangalore and Hyderabad as media technology hubs questions: how did Bangalore and then Hyderabad come to assume their current role as media technology hubs? What are their particular strengths? How do they relate to other high-tech media production centers inside and outside India? what are their likely future trajectories? Reading for class 16: McPhail, ch. 9. Major topic: The distinctive character of the HO CHI MINH CITY European Union (EU); its differences from the U.S., Canadian and Mexican federal systems, and from the North Atlantic Free Trade Association (NAFTA); attempts to promote European cultural identity via media policies. Introductory sketch: The Communist/Leninist media model questions: what were the origins of this model? Why and how did it persist in Soviet Russia after the 1917 revolutions? What were its forms of influence on media structures around the planet during the 20th century? In Viet Nam? Reading for class 17: McPhail, ch. 4.

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Major topic: how has international diplomatic communication changed in the era of global media? What is the meaning of soft power (Joseph
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Nye)? Has the Wikileaks project changed the game? Introductory sketch: Viet Nam as an animation production center questions: what were the origins of animation expertise in Viet Nam? How did the relationship develop with animation companies elsewhere in the world? What is the likely short- and medium-term future of the Viet Namese animation industry? Reading for class 18: Harmeet Sawhney, Innovations at the edge: the impact of mobile technologies on the character of the Internet, in Gerard Goggin & Larissa Hjorth, eds., Mobile Technologies: from telecommunications to media, London, UK, Routledge, 2009, pp. 105-117; Gerard Goggin, Power and mobile media: structures, networks and control, in Gerard Goggin, Global Mobile Media, London, UK, Routledge, 2011, ch. 2, pp. 13-37. 18 Major topic: are mobile media usages changing HONG KONG (1 day)/ the global communication scenario out of all SHANGHAI (2 days) recognition? Introductory sketch: Differing Hong Kong and Shanghai mediascapes questions: how have Hong Kongs and Shanghais respective 20th century histories played into their media industries structure and priorities? Reading for class 19: Virpi Oksman, Media contents in mobiles: comparing video, audio and text, in Gerard Goggin & Larissa Hjorth, eds., Mobile Technologies: from telecommunications to media, London, UK, Routledge, 2009, pp. 118-130; Liu Cheng & Axel Bruns, Mobile news in Chinese newspaper groups: a case study of Yunnan Daily Press Group, ibid., pp. 187-201. Major topic: getting down to specifics and away from KOBE (1 day)/ hype on smart phones YOKOHAMA (1day) Introductory sketch: Sony as global media corporationquestions: how is Sony similar to, and different from Time Warner, Bertelsmann, News Corp, Google, Apple and other global media corporations? Reading for class 20: Pamela T. Koch, Bradley J. Koch, Kun Huang & Wei Chen, Beauty is in the eye of the QQ user: instant messaging in China, in Gerard Goggin & Mark McLelland, Internationalizing Internet Studies: beyond anglophone paradigms, London, UK, Routledge, 2010, ch. 17; Kate Crawford, These foolish things: on intimacy and insignificance in mobile media, in Gerard Goggin & Larissa Hjorth, eds., Mobile Technologies: from telecommunications to media, London, UK, Routledge, 2009, pp. 252-265. Major topic: individual, mass and global media: how do these currently intersect? Introductory sketch: The Korean wave (hanryu/hallyu) questions: what were the origins of South Koreas sudden boom in cultural influence in East Asia from the mid-1990s? How and why did it become popular in Japan, in China, even in Manipur State in northeastern India?
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Reading for class 21: Yong Cao & John Downing, The realities of virtual
play: video games and their industry in China, Media, Culture & Society 30.4 (2008), pp. 515-529; Yukie

Hirata, Touring dramatic Korea: Japanese women as viewers of Hanryu dramas and tourists on Hanryu tours, in Cheng Beng Huat & Koichi Iwabuchi, eds., East Asian Pop Culture: analyzing the Korean wave, Hong Kong University Press, 2008, pp. 143-156; John Sinclair, The Hollywood of Latin America: Miami as
regional centre in television trade, New Media & Society 4.3 (2003), pp. 211-229.

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Major topic: dissecting culture and political economy as conceptual dimensions of global media. Introductory sketch: Miami as Latin Americas media hub questions: how do Los Angeles and Miami differ as cultural industry centers? How do they differ from Bangalore and Hyderabad? Reading for class 22: McPhail, ch. 16. Global, regional and comparative media: pulling the threads together.

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FIELD ASSIGNMENTS Students will be required to participate in at least two of these. Cochin (Kochi). Visit to The Times of India bureau. Within India, English is one of some sixteen official national languages. There are an estimated one hundred million Indian citizens whose English is somewhere between totally fluent, and sufficiently competent to read a newspaper. Indias English-language press is over a century old, and since before independence in 1947, has largely been Indian-owned. It caters, inevitably, to the most educated segment of Indian society, which is at the same time a crucial component of its leadership class. This will be a remarkable opportunity to hear how these matters have affected the newspapers policies, how the newspaper is run on a daily basis, and how the rise of the vernacular languages press poses a fresh challenge to the English-language press and to a peaceful political process. Shanghai. Visit to the Shanghai Media Group (SMG). This corporation is the PRCs second largest media firm. As of 2008, it operated 13 analog TV channels, 16 national digital cable channels, one broadband TV channel, one mobile TV channel, one IPTV service, 11 radio channels, five print media businesses, and six sports clubs. SMG has invested heavily in digitized media, including IPTV, broadband, and mobile TV. It closely collaborates technologically with Cisco Systems and Thomson Video Networks.

METHODS OF EVALUATION 2 five-minute oral presentations (10% each) 2 short spot-tests (5% each) 2 in-class short-answer written tests (10% each) 2 short essays on 2 field trips (5% each) Final [short-answer] written examination on entire course, including required assessment of field trips in relation to the course (40%) RESERVE LIBRARY LIST and ELECTRONIC COURSE MATERIALS Harmeet Sawhney, Innovations at the edge: the impact of mobile technologies on the character of the Internet, in Gerard Goggin & Larissa Hjorth, eds., Mobile Technologies: from telecommunications to media, London, UK, Routledge, 2009, pp. 105-117; Virpi Oksman, Media contents in mobiles: comparing video, audio and text, in Gerard Goggin & Larissa Hjorth, ibid., pp. 118-130; Liu Cheng & Axel Bruns, Mobile news in Chinese newspaper groups: a case study of Yunnan Daily Press Group, ibid., pp. 187-201; Kate Crawford, These foolish things: on intimacy and insignificance in mobile media, ibid., pp. 252-265. Gerard Goggin, Power and mobile media: structures, networks and control, in Gerard Goggin, Global Mobile Media, London, UK, Routledge, 2011, ch. 2, pp. 13-37. Helga Tawil-Souri, Americanizing Palestine through Internet development, in Gerard Goggin & Mark McLelland, eds., Internationalizing Internet Studies: beyond Anglophone paradigms, London, UK, Routledge, 2010, ch. 3; Gholam Khiabany & Annabelle Sreberny, The Internet in Iran: the battle over an emerging public sphere, ibid., ch. 13; Pamela T. Koch, Bradley J. Koch, Kun Huang & Wei Chen, Beauty is in the eye of the QQ user: instant messaging in China, in Gerard Goggin & Mark McLelland, ibid., ch. 17. Yong Cao & John Downing, The realities of virtual play: video games and their industry in China ,
Media, Culture & Society 30.4 (2008), pp. 515-529.

Yukie Hirata, Touring dramatic Korea: Japanese women as viewers of Hanryu dramas and tourists on Hanryu tours, in Cheng Beng Huat & Koichi Iwabuchi, eds., East Asian Pop Culture: analyzing the Korean wave, Hong Kong University Press, 2008, pp. 143-156. John Sinclair, The Hollywood of Latin America: Miami as regional centre in television trade,
New Media & Society 4.3 (2003), pp. 211-229.

Vicki Mayer, Digitally Not Yours: spatial discourses and discursive spaces for Brazilian digital television policy in Manaus, Communication Review 12.1 (2009), pp. 1-19. Lights, camera, Africa, The Economist, 10/18/2010, pp. 85-86, 88. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES Long Nights Journey Into Day documentary, 2000, 94 minutes. DVD. Distribution: California Newsreel, San Francisco. 99 dollars for schools and colleges.
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