Columbia College Media and Politics

COLUMBIA COLLEGE CHICAGO

Media, Politics and Intervention, 2008

50-2312

Dr. June Terpstra

There is a belief that media attention can shame people and governments into stopping human rights abuses. Yet, when examining reality: from past genocides to current unexplained killings to ongoing systemic abuses - we know that media attention alone is not sufficient. This course will explore how intervention by individuals, domestic/international advocacy groups and governments does or does not occur. The focus will be on the successful and unsuccessful use of media to provoke and sustain tangible respect for human rights.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

1. Class Participation--25% OF GRADE= 250 pts

2. An in-class mid-term media analysis presentation on a world crisis or social problem (war, hunger, poverty, sweatshops, etc.) and how corporate media frames and presents the problem.  You are encouraged to use graphics, film, music, and art.  A bibliography is required.  25% OF GRADE= 250 pts

3. A final in-class research report will continue your study of the group of the problem chosen in the mid-term now demonstrating how alternative and independent media presents the problem or how, after researching multiple points of view,  you would tell the story.   25% of Grade =250 pts. 

4. Weekly reaction papers reflexively analyzing the assigned class readings.--25% of Grade= 250 pts

COURSE TEXTS

All readings on web at:  juneterpstra.com or URL's and links provided

WEEK 1 THE POWER OF MEDIA

Read and respond:

1.  Propaganda by Edward Bernays, Chapters 1 and 11

http://www.scribd.com/doc/3998519/Propaganda-how-the-media-molds-your-mind-Bernays-1928

2. Censored 2007

The Top 25 Censored Stories

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Project%20Censored/CensoredNews_2007.html

FILM--The Century of the Self http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12642.htm

WEEK 2 MEDIA, PROPGANDA AND WAR

Read and respond: 

1. Managing Consent --The Art of War, Democracy and Public Relations

By Ramzy Baroud

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18221.htm

2. Backspin for War The Convenience of Denial By Norman Solomon

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18203.htm

FILM-Century of the Self cont. and Elite Propaganda  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6435.htm

WEEK 3 MEDIA AND IMPERIALISM

Read and respond:

1.  Waging the Media Battle by Robert W. McChesney

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/McChesney/Waging_Media_Battle.html

2.  The Unseen Lies: Journalism As Propaganda

by John Pilger

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Pilger_John/Journalism_As_Propaganda.html

3. Fighting Capitalism One Essay at a Time By Angie Tibbs

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15000.htm

FILM-Covert wars of the CIA

WEEK 4 MEDIA: Race, Class and gender

Read and respond:

1. No War But Class War! By Beth Moore

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10273.htm

2. Racism, Lynching, Slavery - Pillars of the American Dream By Yamin Zakaria

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9184.htm

3. A ‘Ho' By Any Other Color: The History and Economics of Black Female Sexual Exploitation

http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=195&Itemid=33

Film:  The Spook Who Sat by the Door

WEEK 5 Media and Globalization

Read and respond:

The Corporate Control Of Society and Human Life By Stephen Lendman http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12842.htm

The Project for the New American Century. By William Rivers Pitt

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3249.htm

Film:  Hop

WEEKS 6-8 MID-TERM RESEARCH PRESENTATIONS

 Hegemony-the manner in which crisis or a social problem is depicted in corporate media

WEEK 9 MEDIA AND Counter-Hegemony

Read and respond: 

1.  ANYTHING TO FIT THEIR AGENDA by Malcom Lagauche

Dick Cheney's Song of America By David Armstrong

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article1544.htm

US-Latin American Relations : Measuring The Rise or Fall of US Power By James Petras

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15464.htm

Film:  Fourth World War

WEEK 10 MEDIA AND Latin America

READ AND RESPOND:

The Empire And The Independent Island By Fidel Castro http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18216.htm

Chavez, Latin cultural unity & the amassing proletariat By Jessica Long

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18220.htm

IMAGES OF LATINO IMMIGRANTS IN THE MEDIA by Sheila L. Seshans

http://aabss.org/journal2001/Seshan2001.jmm.html

FILM-FIDEL

WEEK 11 MEDIA AND THE MIDDLE EAST

Read and respond:

Sheep can never be shepherds Tyranny Of The Few By Mirza Yawar Baig

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18209.htm

2.  Corporate Globalization and Middle East Terrorism

By Charles Sullivan

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14749.htm

FILM-Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land
U.S. Media & the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14055.htm

WEEKS 12-15 FINAL PRESENTATIONS Counter-hegemony