Spring 2013
Mondays 4-6:45 pm
Merrill G47
Instructor:Christine Evans
Office hours: Tuesdays 2-4 and by appointment
Holton 369
History 940: Mass Media in World History
This course will introduce students to the special theoretical, methodological, and practical problems of writing media history (or history in which media figures centrally). What can we learn from radio broadcasts, television programs, advertisements, and films, as well as more familiar sources like the press? Readings will include theoretical works in media historiography and current work in the field, exposing students to the wide variety of possible approaches to media history. Since this is a seminar on “global history,” we will read media histories from a variety of geographic settings and consider whether theories developed for U.S. media work in other political, economic, and cultural contexts.
This course will proceed on two tracks. The first is the thematic readings and discussions outlined above; the second is a research workshop in which all of us (myself included) will produce an article- or chapter-like research paper based on a media archive. We will regularly submit and workshop preliminary components of these projects; these assignments and deadlines are outlined below. The success of this group endeavor will depend on your active participation in class and timely completion of reading and writing assignments.
Required Readings
3 books for purchase at People’s Books Coop/ available on reserve in the Golda Meir Library
Lynn Spigel. Make Room for TV: Television and the Family Ideal in Postwar America.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992. ISBN: 978-0226769677
SudhaRajagopalan. Indian Films in Soviet Cinemas: The Culture of Movie-
going After Stalin.Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2009. ISBN: 978-
0253220998
David M. Henkin. The Postal Age: the Emergence of Modern Communications in
19th Century America.Chicago: Chicago UP, 2006. ISBN: 978-
0226327211
All other readings available via electronic reserve.
Course Requirements
Attendance, active participation, and completion of reading and writing assignments are essential for your success in this class.
Participation, includingweekly one-paragraph reading responsesdue 20%
at noon the day of class.
Three oral presentations (two on assigned readings, one on your research)30%
Research paper (broken into components including proposal,
bibliography, and first and second drafts)40%
Schedule of Assignments
* indicates that reading is available on the course e-reserve site.
1/28 Week 1: Introduction
*Excerpt from Leo Lowenthal, "Historical Perspectives of Popular Culture,"
American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 55, No. 4 (Jan., 1950), pp. 323-326.
*James W. Carey, “A Cultural Approach to Communication” in Communication
as Culture. Essays on Media and Society.New York: Routledge, 1992, pp. 13- 36.
2/4Week 2: Beginnings of the media age
David Henkin, The Postal Age: the Emergence of Modern Communications in
19th Century America.Chicago: Chicago UP, 2006.
*James W. Carey, “Technology and Ideology: the Case of the Telegraph” in
Communication as Culture, pp. 201-230.
EviatarZerubavel, The Clockwork Muse: A Practical Guide to Writing Theses,
Dissertations, and Books.Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999,
pp. 15-55.
Writing due: Weekly research/ writing schedule, based on Zerubavel’s
model.
2/11Week 3: What do media do? part I: Marxist approaches
*Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, excerpt from “The Ruling Class and the
Ruling Ideas”
*Antonio Gramsci “(i) History of the Subaltern Classes; (ii) The Concept of
“Ideology”; (iii) Cultural Themes: Ideological Material”
*Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno, “The Culture Industry:
Enlightenment as Mass Deception.” All of the above in Douglas M. Kellner and Meenakshi Gigi Durham, eds, Media and Cultural Studies: Key Works. Malden: Blackwell, 2001, pp. 39-47, 71-101.
*Kristin Roth-Ey, “Finding a Home for Television in the USSR, 1950-1970,”
Slavic Review, Vol. 66 No. 2 (Summer 2007): 278-306
Zerubavel, The Clockwork Muse, 56-80.
Writing due: 1-2 page research proposal + bibliography. Must include the
following parts: a description of your possible topic, the questions
that interest you, and how you can answer them using sources
available here at UWM; a one paragraph description of at least one primary source base that you will draw on, and a short bibliography
listing 4-5 key secondary sources (including at least one article as well
as books) related to your topic.
2/18Week 4:What do media do? part II: public sphere(s)
*JurgenHabermas, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, pp.
14-88, 181-195.
*Nancy Fraser, “Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique
of Actually Existing Democracy,” in Craig Calhoun, ed., Habermas and the Public Sphere, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1992, 109-142.
* Kate Lacey. Feminine Frequencies: Gender, German Radio, and the Public Sphere 1923-1945. Social History, Popular Culture, and Politics in
Germany. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1997, pp. 97-126
2/25Week 5: Methodological problems:Media, power,language
*Michel-RolphTrouillot, Silencing the Past. Power and the Production of
History. Boston: Beacon Press, 1995, pp. 1-29
*Lynn Spigel, Welcome to the Dreamhouse. Popular Media and Postwar
Suburbs. Durham: Duke University Press, 2001, pp. 1-27
*Michel Foucault, The Archaeology of Knowledge and the Discourse on
Language. Trans. A. M. Sheridan Smith. New York: Pantheon Books, 1972, pp. 21-39
3/4Week 6: Individual meetings, class does not meet
Writing due: outline of your paper based on Zerubavel’s models.
3/11Week 7: What do media do? part III: Do Books Make Revolutions?
*Robert Darnton, “The High Enlightenment and the Low-Life of Literature,”
Past and Present, No. 51 (May, 1971): 81-115.
*Roger Chartier, “Do books make revolutions?” in Roger Chartier, The
Cultural Origins of the French Revolution.Durham: Duke University
Press, 1991, 67-91.
*Roger Chartier, “Texts, Printing, Reading,” in Lynn Hunt, Ed, The New
Cultural History. Berkeley: UC Press, 1989, 154-175.
Spring Break
3/25Media audiences
*Kelly J. Mays, “The Disease of Reading and Victorian Periodicals,” in John O.
Jordan, Robert L. Patten, eds. Literature in the Marketplace: Nineteenth-century British Publishing and Reading Practices, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1995, 165-194.
*Jonathan Rose, “Rereading the English Common Reader: A Preface to the
History of Audiences,” Journal of the History of Ideas (1992): 47-70.
*Lyn Pykett, “Reading the Periodical Press: Text and Context,” Victorian
Periodicals Review XXII, No. 3 (Fall 1989), 101-108.
4/1Class does not meet; complete first drafts
***Paper drafts due via e-mail to me by 5 pm on Thursday, 4/4***
4/8In-class workshop of first drafts
Read: draft papers
4/15Nationalism and media history
Read:
*Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin
and Spread of Nationalism. Revised Ed. New York: Verso, 2006,1-46
*Naoko Shimazu, “Popular Representations of the Past: the Case of Postwar
Japan.” Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 38 No. 1 (January 2003): 101-116.
4/22Transnationalism and media history
Read:
SudhaRajagopalan, Indian Films in Soviet Cinemas: The Culture of Movie-
going After Stalin.Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2009 (entire).
*Michele Hilmes, Network Nations. A Transnational History of British and
American Broadcasting. New York: Routledge, 2012, pp. 1-22, 47-62,
80-82.
Writing due: revised outline for second drafts, based on Zerubavel’s model
4/29Media and gender
Read:
Lynn Spigel. Make Room for TV: Television and the Family Ideal in
Postwar America. Chicago: Chicago UP, 1992. (entire)
*Lynn M. Thomas. “The Modern Girl and Racial Respectability in 1930s
South Africa.” The Journal of African History, Vol. 47, No. 3 (2006), pp. 461-490
*Paulina Bren. The Greengrocer and his TV: the Culture of Communism after
the 1968 Prague Spring. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 2010,159-176.
5/6Final presentations.
**Final papers due by 5 pm on 5/10/13 in my mailbox, Holton Hall 3rd floor**
UWM Policies
Students with disabilities.Verification of disability, class standards, the policy on the use of alternate materials and test accommodations can be found at the following: http://
If you need accommodations in order to complete any of the requirements for this course, please contact me as soon as possible.
Attendance: Attendance is mandatory. Please inform me by email in advance of class if you have to miss a session. I may ask you to provide evidence of the reason for your absence.
Late Assignments: Assignments may not be turned in late without prior permission from me. Please make every effort to complete your work on time. Assignments that are late may be graded down.
Religious observances. Policies regarding accommodations for absences due to religious observance are found at the following:
Students called to active military duty. Accommodations for absences due to call-up of reserves to active military duty should be noted.
Incompletes. A notation of "incomplete" may be given in lieu of a final grade to a student who has carried a subject successfully until the end of a semester but who, because of illness or other unusual and substantiated cause beyond the student's control, has been unable to take or complete the final examination or to complete some limited amount of term work.
Discriminatory conduct (such as sexual harassment).Discriminatory conduct will not be tolerated by the University. It poisons the work and learning environment of the University and threatens the careers, educational experience, and well-being of students, faculty, and staff.
Academic misconduct. Cheating on exams or plagiarism are violations of the academic honor code and carry severe sanctions, including failing a course or even suspension or dismissal from the University.
Complaint procedures. Students may direct complaints to the head of the academic unit or department in which the complaint occurs. If the complaint allegedly violates a specific university policy, it may be directed to the head of the department or academic unit in which the complaint occurred or to the appropriate university office responsible for enforcing the policy.
Grade appeal procedures. A student may appeal a grade on the grounds that it is based on a capricious or arbitrary decision of the course instructor. Such an appeal shall follow the established procedures adopted by the department, college, or school in which the course resides or in the case of graduate students, the Graduate School. These procedures are available in writing from the respective department chairperson or the Academic Dean of the College/School.
Credit hour policy. This 3-credit course meets for 3 hours per week during the semester. Students are expected to put in 7 additional hours per week studying and working on assignments to achieve the learning goals of this course.