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JAMS 360 Prof. Jeff Smith
Online Fall 2014
HISTORY OF MASS MEDIA
Introductions to the history of mass media in the United States traditionally have focused on prominent mainstream professionals, assumed that the media have powerful effects, and placed developments in distinct time periods. In many cases, however, the lionized individuals are not the most innovative, the mainstream media reflect rather than shape public opinion, and change cannot be confined to specific dates. Historians now are more concerned with dissidents, the meaning-making process, and long-term trends.
The objectives of JAMS 360 are to study American media history in order to a) acquire basic knowledge of some of the trends, concepts, issues, events, and people, b) understand how the past has shaped present realities, and c) complete assignments in locating and interpreting communication content, documents, and other historical materials found online. The assignments are the kinds of investigations, analyses, and writing tasks that are performed in a knowledge-based world. Assignments are short essays that rely on course and library database material. No exams are given.
The course will consider connections between media content and the forces at work in society. Part I, “The Ideal and the Real in the Media Industry,” uses selected media studies concepts to analyze developments in the theory and practice of media communication. Often today’s professional controversies are nothing new and sometimes media perspectives and actions that are taken for granted now were not the norm in the past. Part II, “Mass Communication and Change,” examines the attempts of activist communicators to change the status quo. Their experiences show how ideas can be rejected or can be fiercely resisted before being more or less accepted.
Readings: The required readings are in the UWM Library’s Resources A-Z databases and can be found and read by clicking on the hyperlinked bibliographic listings below. (Enter your UWM ePantherID and password and then click on the .pdf or html icon that will appear on the left of the screen. You may also need to click on “download .pdf” at the top left.) Recommended readings listed below are on D2L except for the recommended textbook (available at the UWM bookstore): Streitmatter, Rodger. Voices of Revolution: The Dissident Press in America. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001. One copy of the Voices book is on library reserve. No textbook is required.
The class D2L site has lectures, video clips, assignments, and assignment dropbox. D2L sites can be found at http://d2l.uwm.edu/ Downloaded course lectures have hyperlinks that can be clicked for additional information on the topics being discussed.
Grading: The top ten scores taken from up to twelve of the fourteen 500- to 700-word assignments will each be 10% of the course grade. In other words, students can turn in 10, 11, or 12 assignments. Up to four assignments can be skipped. The main grading criteria are accuracy, adequacy of research, the soundness and sophistication of understanding and analysis, and the organization, clarity, and correctness of the writing.
The grading scale for assignments and the course will be: 94-100 A, 91-93 A-, 88-90 B+, 85-87 B, 82-84 B-, 79-81 C+, 76-78 C, 73-75 C-, 70-72 D+, 67-69 D, 64-66 D-, 63 or below F. Semester grades are not rounded. Teaching assistants Sion Choudhury ( ) and Rachel Kinnard ( ) will do most of the grading.
My office hours in 538 Bolton Hall are 2:00 to 3:20 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Appointments can be made for other times. My e-mail is . Consider me readily available for any questions or comments you have.
SCHEDULE
Week of September 2: Introduction and Objectives. Doing Assignments.
Week of September 8: The Master Narratives of Media History.
Assignment 1: Digital Native due in the D2L dropbox by 10 p.m. on Saturday, September 13.
Part I: The Ideal and the Real in the Media Industry
Week of September 15: Media Philosophies and Narratives.
Assignment 2: Memorial Maker due in the D2L dropbox by 10 p.m. on Saturday, September 20.
Lule, Jack. “Myth and Terror on the Editorial Page: The New York Times Responds to September 11, 2001.” Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly 79 (Summer 2002): 275-93. Also on D2L.
Recommended: Smith, Jeffery A. “The Enticements of Change and America’s Enlightenment Journalism.” In Media and Revolution: Comparative Perspectives, edited by Jeremy D. Popkin. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1995. Pages 74-89.
Week of September 22: Professionalism and Practices.
Assignment 3: Database Ace due in the D2L dropbox by 10 p.m. on Saturday, September 27.
Smith, Jeffery A. "Moral Guardians and the Origins of the Right to Privacy." Journalism & Communication Monographs 10, no. 1 (Spring 2008): 64-110. Also on D2L.
Recommended: Wells, Robert W. The Milwaukee Journal: An Informal Chronicle of Its First 100 Years. Milwaukee, Wis.: Milwaukee Journal, 1981. Pages 1-11.
Week of September 29: Public Opinion and Stereotypes.
Assignment 4: Virtual Museum Curator due in the D2L dropbox by 10 p.m. on Saturday, October 4.
Sobieraj, Sarah, and Jeffrey M. Berry. "From Incivility to Outrage: Political Discourse in Blogs, Talk Radio, and Cable News." Political Communication 28, no. 1 (January 2011): 19-41.
Recommended: Coward, John M. “The Making of an Indian Villain: Sitting Bull in War and Peace.” Chap. 6 in The Newspaper Indian: Native American Identity in the Press, 1820-90. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1999. Pages 159-95.
Week of October 6: Public Relations and Propaganda.
Assignment 5: Crisis Communicator due in the D2L dropbox by 10 p.m. on Saturday, October 11.
Hallahan, Kirk. "Ivy Lee and the Rockefellers' Response to the 1913-1914 Colorado Coal Strike." Journal Of Public Relations Research 14, no. 4 (October 2002): 265-315.
Recommended: Bayley, Edwin R. Joe McCarthy and the Press. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1981; New York: Pantheon, 1982. Pages 125-39.
Recommended: Jackall, Robert J. and Janice Hirota. “Advertising the Great War.” Chap. 1 in Image Makers: Advertising, Public Relations, and the Ethos of Advocacy. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2000. Pages 11-35.
Week of October 13: The Marketplace of Ideas and Self-Censorship.
Assignment 6: Standard Setter due in the D2L dropbox by 10 p.m. on Saturday, October 18.
Prigge, Matthew J. "Dangers in the Dark: Motion Picture Reform in Progressive-Era Milwaukee." Film History 24, no. 1 (March 2012): 74-81.
Smith, Jeffery A. "Hollywood Theology: The Commodification of Religion in Twentieth-Century Films." Religion & American Culture 11, no. 2 (Summer 2001): 191-231. Also on D2L.
Recommended: Murray, Matthew. “‘The Tendency to Deprave and Corrupt Morals’: Regulation and Irregular Sexuality in Golden Age Radio Comedy.” In Radio Reader: Essays in the Cultural History of Radio, edited by Michele Hilmes and Jason Loviglio. New York: Routledge, 2002. Pages 135-56.
Recommended: Sova, Dawn B. Forbidden Films: Censorship Histories of 125 Motion Pictures. New York: Checkmark Books, 2001. Pages x-xiii, 46-50, 135-37, 145-47.
Week of October 20: Emotional Intelligence and Sensationalism.
Assignment 7: Media Career Coach due in the D2L dropbox by 10 p.m. on Saturday, October 25.
Reel, Guy. "A Dirty Dozen: Twelve of the ‘Best’ Tabloids of all Time." American Journalism 27, no. 2 (Spring 2010): 138-146.
Recommended: Bly, Nellie. “Ten Days in a Mad-House.” New York World, October 16, 1887. In Muckraking! The Journalism that Changed America. New York: New Press, 2002. Pages 142-46.
Recommended: Stark, Steven D. “The Oprah Winfrey Show and the Talk-Show Furor.” Chap. 56 in Glued to the Set: The 60 Television Shows and Events That Made Us Who We Are Today. New York: The Free Press, 1997. Pages 276-82.
Week of October 27: News and Media Scandal.
Assignment 8: History Detective due in the D2L dropbox by 10 p.m. on Saturday, November 1.
Summers, John H. “What Happened to Sex Scandals? Politics and Peccadilloes, Jefferson to Kennedy.” Journal of American History 87 (December 2000): 825-54. Also on D2L.
Recommended: Lull, James and Stephen Hinerman. “The Search for Scandal.” Chap. 1 in Media Scandals: Morality and Desire in the Popular Culture Marketplace, edited by James Lull and Stephen Hinerman. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997. Pages 1-33.
Recommended: Walls, Jeannette. “The War Against Confidential.” Chap. 2 in Dish: How Gossip Became the News and the News Became Just Another Show. New York: Avon, 2000; New York: Perennial, 2001. Pages 11-28.
Part II: Mass Communication and Change
Week of November 3: Freedom and Responsibility.
Assignment 9: Post-mortem Publicist due in the D2L dropbox by 10 p.m. on Saturday, November 8.
Smith, Jeffery A. "Public Opinion and the Press Clause." Journalism History 14, no. 1 (Spring 1987): 8-17. Also available on D2L as reprinted in: Smith, Jeffery A. “Public Opinion and the Press.” In Media Voices: An Historical Perspective, edited by Jean Folkerts, 105-120. New York: Macmillan, 1992.
Week of November 10: The Rights of Workers, Slaves, and Women.
Assignment 10: Professor for a Day due in the D2L dropbox by 10 p.m. on Saturday, November 15.
Helwig, Timothy. "Black and White in Print: Cross-Racial Strategies of Class Solidarity in Mechanics’ Free Press and Freedom’s Journal." American Periodicals 19, no. 2 (September 2009): 117-135.
Recommended Voices text: Chapters 1-3.
Week of November 17: The Battles over Sex, Lynching, and Radicalism.
Assignment 11: Moral Panic Pundit due in the D2L dropbox by 10 p.m. on Saturday, November 22.
Horowitz, Helen Lefkowitz. "Victoria Woodhull, Anthony Comstock, and Conflict over Sex in the United States in the 1870s." Journal Of American History 87, no. 2 (September 2000): 403-434.
Recommended Voices text: Chapters 4-7.
Week of November 24: The Great Migration and Birth Control.
Assignment 12: Ad Campaigner due in the D2L dropbox by 10 p.m. on Monday, December 1.
Felecia G. Jones, Ross, and Joseph P. McKerns. "Depression in ‘The Promised Land’: The Chicago Defender Discourages Migration, 1929-1940." American Journalism 21, no. 1 (Winter 2004): 55-73.
Recommended Voices text: Chapters 8-9.
Week of December 1: Sixties Issues.
Assignment 13: Agent of Change due in the D2L dropbox by 10 p.m. on Saturday, December 6.
DeBrosse, Jim. "Four Dead in Ohio." Journalism History 39, no. 1 (Spring 2013): 40-49.
Recommended Voices text: Chapters 10-15.
Week of December 8: Entrepreneurs: Looking Back and Ahead.
Assignment 14: Spirited Entrepreneur due in the D2L dropbox by 10 p.m. on Saturday, December 13.
Gladwell, Malcolm. "The Tweaker." New Yorker 87, no. 36 (November 14, 2011): 32-35.
Course grades should be available on PAWS by December 24.
COURSE POLICIES
· Work turned in late will receive a 10-point penalty plus one point for each hour unless an exception is made by the instructor, in advance if possible, for circumstances beyond a student’s control.
· Incidents of academic misconduct, such as cheating, handing in work to more than one course without permission, and plagiarism (directly quoting the words of others without using quotation marks or indented format to identify them, using sources of information without identifying them, or paraphrasing materials or ideas of others without identifying the sources) will be handled with UWM procedures and can result in penalties such as a grade of F for the course. For explanations of UWM policies and procedures, go to: http://www4.uwm.edu/acad_aff/policy/academicmisconduct.cfm .
· For information on academic misconduct that could be considered plagiarism, go to: http://guides.library.uwm.edu/c.php?g=56454&p=363101
· For information on campus policies on disabilities, religious observances, military duty, incompletes, discriminatory conduct (such as sexual harassment), academic misconduct, complaints, grade appeals, and final examinations, go to: http://www4.uwm.edu/secu/SyllabusLinks.pdf
· In the event of disruption of normal academic activities, the format for this course may be modified to enable completion of the course. In that event, you will be provided an addendum to this syllabus that will supersede this version.
· Estimates of how your time will be spent: Reading and viewing online material: 62 hours. Completing 10, 11, or 12 assignments: 82 hours.