Media Activism Studies

Media Activism Studies, COMM 211 Professor: Victor Pickard Office hours (#310): Wednesdays, 1:30 – 3:30 Email: [email protected] Semester: Fall 2014 Course hours: Tuesdays, 1:30 – 4:30 Room: Annenberg 224 Course Description This seminar provides an introduction to the politics, aesthetics, and tactics underlying various types of media activism. The class will examine interventions aimed at media representations, labor relations in media production, media policy reform, activists’ strategic communications, and “alternative” media making. The course will draw from an overview of the existing scholarship on media activism, as well as close analyses of actual activist practices within both old and new media at local, national, and global levels. We will study how various political groups, past and present, use media to advance their interests and effect social change. Each member of the class will choose one case study of an activist group or campaign to explore throughout the semester. A note on email policy: Emails should be reserved for urgent issues or for setting up meetings. A note about the syllabus and readings: In addition to the readings listed in the syllabus, frequently I will assign short news stories, (found online unless noted otherwise). Course Requirements and Grading: Attendance is required at all scheduled class meetings. You should come to each class ready to discuss the readings. Your grade is based on the following areas: Grade breakdown: 30% Class participation This includes weekly writings (1-2 paragraphs) based on the readings. 30% Midterm paper (Students will select a media activism campaign or group for a 3-4 page proposal/outline for a longer project, which will form the basis of their final research paper). 30% Final research paper (10-12 pages on a student-selected case study using both primary and secondary sources). Assignment sheets that provide additional information about formatting and other details will be distributed in class. 10% Oral presentation 8-10 minute class presentation on a student-selected case study. COURSE OUTLINE (Usually I WILL NOT ASSIGN ALL OF THE LISTED READINGS each week, and additional weekly readings will be dictated by current activist-related events.) Sept. 2 Introduction: Fundamental Questions for Studying Media Activism Consider these questions: What is the role of media in a democracy? In social movements? Whose stories get told in mainstream media? How are media used to maintain power? How are media used to contest power? Historically, how have media been used to effect social change? 1 Sept. 9 Alternative Media & The Politics of Social Movements Alternative Media. (2007). In Todd M. Schaefer and Thomas A. Birkland (Eds.), The Encyclopedia of Media and Politics. Washington, DC: CQ Press, pp.12-13. Rosa Luxemburg (1900). Social Reform or Revolution. (Read the introduction and the section on “The consequences of social reformism and the general nature of revisionism”). John D.H. Downing (2012). “Towards a political economy of social movement media,” Annual Dallas Smythe Award Lecture.” Union for Democratic Communications Conference, May 1013, Forthcoming in Democratic Communique. Recommended: Chris Atton & James Hamilton, Alternative Journalism, Sage, 2008. Recommended: Leah Lievrouw, Alternative and Activist New Media, Polity, 2011. Sept. 16 Media Reform, Media Justice, Media Democracy Movements Look at the work of Freepress, Media Alliance, and MAG-net Robert Horwitz, “Broadcast reform revisited: Reverend Everett C. Parker and the ‘standing’ case,” The Communication Review 2(3), 1997, 311-348. Robert McChesney (2004). “Media Policy Goes to Main Street: The Uprising of 2003.” Communication Review. Vol. 7, pp. 223-258. Robert McChesney, “The U.S. Media Reform Movement Going Forward,” Monthly Review, September 2008, pp. 51-59. Robert McChesney (2014). “Sharp Left Turn for the Media Reform Movement: Toward a PostCapitalist Democracy,” Monthly Review, Vol. 65, No. 9 (February): pp. 1-14. Sept. 23 [Rosie will speak about feminist media activism] Social Media Activism, Social Networks, Occupy Wall Street & the Arab Spring Kreiss, Daniel and Zeynep Tufekci. “Occupying the Political: Occupy Wall Street, Collective Action, and the Rediscovery of Pragmatic Politics.” Cultural Studies ⇔ Critical Methodologies special issue, “What Happens When OWS Goes Home?,” 13, 163.167, 2013. González-Bailón, S. (2014). Online Social Networks and Bottom-Up Politics. In M. Graham & W. H. Dutton (Eds.), Society and the Internet. How Networks of Information and Communication are Changing Our Lives. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Zeynep Tufekci & Wilson, C. (2012). Social Media and the Decision to Participate in Political Protest: Observations From Tahrir Square. Journal of Communication, 62(2), 363-379. 2 Sept. 30 [Sharon will visit to talk about research methods] DIY Media & Video Activism Look at the work of Paper Tiger Television and PhillyCam Christopher Ali, The last PEG or community media 2.0? Negotiating place and placelessness at PhillyCAM , Media Culture Society January 2014 vol. 36 no. 1 69-86. Sasha Costanza-Chock, The Immigrant Rights Movement on the Net: Between “Web 2.0” and Comunicación Popular, American Quarterly, Volume 60, Number 3, September 2008. Recommended: Selections from Cultural Resistance Reader, edited by Stephen Duncombe, New York: Verso, 2002. Recommended: Selections from DeeDee Halleck, Hand-held visions: the impossible possibilities of community media, 2002. Oct. 7 [Anne will speak about Occupy and historical case studies of similar movements] Strategic Communications and Media Advocacy Look at the work of Move On, Bold Progressives, NOW, the Tea Party Movement Geert Lovink & Garcia,1999. “The ABCs of tactical media,” http://project.waag.org/tmn/frabc.html Victor W. Pickard (2008). Cooptation and Cooperation: Institutional Exemplars of Democratic Internet Technology. New Media and Society 10(4), 625-645. Selections from Todd Gitlin, The Whole World Is Watching Mass Media in the Making and Unmaking of the New Left, 1982. Selections from Martha McCaughey (Ed.) Cyberactivism on the Participatory, Routledge Studies in New Media and Cyberculture, 2014. Recommended: Milton Mueller, Brenden Kuerbis & Christiane Page, “Reinventing Media Activism: Public Interest Advocacy in the Making of U.S. Communication-Information Policy, 1960-2002.” July, 2004. Recommended: Charlotte Ryan, Prime time activism: media strategies for grassroots organizing Boston: South End Press, 1991. Oct. 14 Culture Jamming, Memes, Artivism and Ad Busting Look at the work of Ad Busters, The Yes Men, Memefactory Jonah Peretti “My Nike Media Adventure” The Nation, April 9, 2001. 3 Jack Bratich, “Occupy All the Dispositifs: Memes, Media Ecologies, and Emergent Bodies Politic,” Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies Volume 11, Issue 1, 2014. Selections from Kalle Lasn, Culture Jam: How to Reverse America's Suicidal Consumer Binge-And Why We Must, 2000. Sheng Kuan Chung & Kirby, Michael “Media Literacy Art Education: Logos, culture jamming and Activism,” Art Education, Jan. 1 2009. Oct. 21: MIDTERM PAPER DUE [Tim speaks about surveillance and privacy activism] Hactivism and the Free Software Movement Look at the work of groups like WikiLeaks and Anonymous Lawrence Lessig, “In Defense of Piracy.” The Wall Street Journal (Oct. 2008). Richard Stallman, “On Hacking,” http://stallman.org/articles/on-hacking.html; 2000; Richard Stallman, “The GNU Manifesto” http://www.gnu.org/gnu/manifesto.html, 1985. Cory Doctorow, “Stop Sopa, Save the Internet,” Boingboing, Nov. 11, 2011. Selections from Gabriella Coleman, 2013. Coding Freedom: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Hacking, Princeton University Press. Recommended: Tim Jordan (2008). Hacking: Digital Media and Technological Determinism. Cambridge, UK; Malden, MA: Polity Press.. Oct. 28 [Garrett talks about citizen journalism] Citizen/Community/Public/Independent/Grassroots Journalism Look at the work of Democracy Now and the Media Mobilizing Project. Gal Beckerman, “Edging Away From Anarchy.” Columbia Journalism Review 42.3 (Sep/Oct 2003): 27-30. Victor Pickard (2006). Assessing the Radical Democracy of Indymedia: Discursive, Technical and Institutional Constructions. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 23 (1), 19-38. Recommended :Selections from John Downing, Radical Media: Rebellious Communication and Social Movements. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2001. Recommended: Clemencia Rodriguez. 2001. Fissures in the Mediascape: An International Study of Citizens' Media. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press. 4 Recommended: Sascha Meinrath & Victor Pickard (2009). The Rise of the Intranet Era: Media, Research and Community in an Age of Communications Revolution. In Kevin Howley (Ed.), Understanding Community Media, London: Sage Publications, pp. 327-340. Recommended: Selections from Todd Wolfson (2014), CyberLeft. University of Illinois. Nov. 4: The Global Justice Movement and Global Media Activism Kimberly Massey, “The cultural environment movement: An international covenant.” Readings in Mass Communication: Media Literacy and Culture. Mayfield Publishing, 1999, 2-9. Victor Pickard, “Communication Rights in a Global Context.” In Robin Anderson and Jonathan Gray (Eds.), Battleground: The Media, Vol. 1. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, pp. 91-97, 2008. Stefania Milan (2010). “The Way is the Goal. Interview with Maqui, Indymedia London/IMCUK Network Activist,” International Journal of E-Politics, Vol. 1. Lance Bennett, “Communicating Global Activism: Some Strengths and Vulnerabilities of Networked Politics’, in W. van de Donk, B.D. Loader, P.G. Nixon and D. Rucht (eds) Cyberprotest: New Media, Citizens and Social Movement. London: Routledge, 2003. Recommended: Selections from Global Civil Society Yearbook 2007/8: Communicative Power and Democracy. London: Sage Publications. Nov. 11 LPFM and the Microradio Movement Ron Sakolsky. “‘The American People are Without a Voice’: An Interview With Louis Hiken.” Seizing the Airwaves: A Free Radio Handbook. Sakolsky, Ron and Stephen Dunifer (eds.). AK Press, 1998. 58-64. Jerry Landay, “‘We’re Part of the Restoration Process of Our People’: An Interview With Mbanna Kantako (Human Rights Radio).” Seizing the Airwaves: A Free Radio Handbook. Sakolsky, Ron and Stephen Dunifer (eds.). AK Press, 1998. 94-100. Ted Coopman, FCC Enforcement Difficulties with Unlicensed Micro Radio, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, Vol. 43, 1999. Christina Dunbar-Hester, 'Free the spectrum!' Activist encounters with old and new media technology, New Media Society, 2009. Recommended: Selections from Andy Opel, Micro Radio and the FCC: Media Activism and the Struggle over Broadcast Policy, 2004. Recommended: Peter Brinson, “Liberation Frequency: The Free Radio Movement and Alternative Strategies of Media Relations,” The Sociological Quarterly 47: 2006, 543-568. 5 Nov. 18 No class Consultations regarding final papers Dec. 2 The Politics of Media Representation/Class Presentations Look at the websites and work of FAIR, Media Matters, Guerrilla Girls, Media Research Center, Accuracy in Media and other groups. Selections from Rodriguez, C., Kidd, D., & Stein, L. (2009). Making our media: Global initiatives toward a democratic public sphere. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press. . Selections from Vota Risley. Abolition and the Press: The Moral Struggle Against Slavery. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2008. Dec. 9 Media Policy Activism/Class Presentations Consider case studies of the media ownership campaign and the movement in support of “Net Neutrality.” Look at the New America Foundation’s (designed by Jim Snider) “The Citizen's Guide to the Airwaves: A Graphic Depiction of the Uses – and Misuses – of the Radio Frequency Spectrum.” Washington, DC, 2003. “Who Owns the Media? (Media Ownership Distribution Chart).” Freepress.net. Selections from Victor Pickard (2014). America’s Battle for Media Democracy. Cambridge University Press. Recommended: Ben Scott, “The Politics and Policy of Media Ownership,” American University Law Review, 2004. Dec. 16 FINAL PAPER DUE by 5 PM 6