Anth/Soc 345: Media, Politics and Propaganda

Winter 2011

Home | Announcements| Lecture materials |Class schedule | Assignments


 

Schedule of readings
required texts

 

Reading schedule by week

Week topic(s) readings
Are media biased? Age of Propaganda, 1-17, 268-79; Idiot America (chapter 2)
2 Jan 10 - 14 How is news filtered? Herman and Chomsky, 1-35; Hart
MLK Day, Jan 17--no school
3 Jan 18 - 21 How free is our press? Huff, Capell, Bessie; Project Censored; Pierce
4 Jan 24 - 28 Persuasion and propaganda Age of Propaganda, 21-67; 93-100
5 Jan 31 - Feb 4 Public relations, propaganda Rampton and Stauber, Nelson, CDD, Bacon et al.
Midterm exam, Monday-Tuesday, Feb 7 - 8
6 Feb 7 - 11 Group term projects  
7 Feb 14 - 18 Feelings . . . Borosage, Brownell and Warner
8 Feb 21 - 25 Television Postman; Postman and Powers; Age of propaganda, 79-87
9 Feb 28 - Mar 4 What to do? Age of Propaganda, 329-56; Cathcart and Klein; Frankfurt
10 Mar 7 - 11 Presentations attendance required; each group will have 20 minutes
11 Mar 14 - 18
final exams (Tuesday, 8 - 10am)

Link to EOU academic calendar

 

 

Week 1: Are media biased?

  • Anthony Pratkanis and Elliot Aronson. 2007. Age of Propaganda: The everyday use and abuse of persuasion. New York: W.H. Freeman (pp 268-79 for Tuesday, pp. 1-17 by Friday). Also in Blackboard
  • Charles Pierce. 2009. Idiot America. NY: Anchor (read chapter 2, 'The War on Expertise,' by Wednesday) Also in Blackboard
  • Become familiar with the course Web page--do 20 minutes or so of surfing, make sure you know what's there and how to use it--we will use it often in here, and if you're familiar with it, there will be less unpleasant surprises for you in class.

 

 

Week 2: How is news filtered?

  • Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky. 1988. Manufacturing Consent. New York: Pantheon Books. (Chapter 1, 'A propaganda model,' pp 1-35) In Blackboard.
  • Peter Hart. 2010. Fear and Favor 10th Annual Report. In Censored 2011. NY: Seven Stories Press (chp 5 , pp 211-19) in Blackboard

Friday Discussion: (make-up questions)

back to schedule


 

 

Week 3: How free is the press?

  • Peter Phillips and Mickey Huff. 2010 . Censored 2011. NY: Seven Stories Press. Read at least five of these write-ups (there are links to the Top 25 censored stories from the year from Project Censored).  
  • Charles Pierce. 2009. Idiot America. NY: Anchor (read chapter 4, 'The Templars in town')
  • Mickey Huff, Frances Capell, Adam Bessie. 2010. Junk food news and news abuse on a feed to know basis. Pp 159-91 in (Huff and Phillips, eds) Censored 2011. NY: Seven Stories Press. In Blackboard

 

 

Week 4: Persuasion and propaganda

  • Pratkanis and Aronson. 2007. Age of Propaganda (Chapters 2-6, 21-67; Chapter 9, 93-100)

Friday Discussion: Going viral (group questions)

back to schedule


 

 

Week 5: Propaganda, PR

  • Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber. 2001. Trust Us, We’re Experts! NY: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Ptnam (Chapter 3, ‘Deciding what you’ll swallow,’ pp 53-74) In Blackboard
  • Joyce Nelson. 1988. Sultans of Sleaze: Public Relations and the Media. Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press. (Chapter 3, ‘Handling the legitimacy gap,’ pp 43-65) in Blackboard
  • Charles Pierce. 2009. Idiot America. NY: Anchor (read chapter 5, 'Radio nowhere')
  • Wendy Bacon, Michelle Loh, Alex Taylor and Sasha Pavey. 2010. Spinning the media: Key findings in the week in the life of the media. Mar 15, Crikey. Online at www.crikey.com.au/2010/03/15/spinning-the-media-key-findings-in-a-week-in-the-life-of-the-media/

Optional:

Center for Digital Democracy. 2007. Let the browser beware: A tour of online advertising’s two-way mirrors. Mar 7, Center for Digital Democracy www.democraticmedia.org/current_projects/privacy/analysis/adv_two_way_mirrors


 

 

Week 6: Midterm, Group projects on Friday

Charles Pierce. 2009. Idiot America. NY: Anchor (read chapter 6, 'God and Judge Jones')

back to schedule


 

 

Week 7: Tricks of the trade

Friday discussion: War and heroes (following up on Wag the Dog--group questions)


 

 

Week 8: Television

  • Neil Postman. 1985. Amusing ourselves to death: Public discourse in the age of show business. New York: Penguin Books. On electronic reserve
  • Neil Postman and Steve Powers. 1992. How to Watch TV News. NY: Penguin (chps 1, 3) In Blackboard
  • Anthony Pratkanis and Elliot Aronson. 2001. Age of Propaganda (pp 79-87)

Optional: Christine Rosen. 2004. Fast forward to passivity. Los Angeles Times, December 11. Find the article here.

back to schedule


 

 

Week 9: What to do?

Friday discussion: Attack! (read at least two readings, watch at least 3-4 videos) questions

Readings:

Video:

Attacks can be against individuals, against institutions, against ideologies, officeholders, etc. They may be tied into networks or conspiracies as well. Think about the concept of attack in a sophisticated way, and think about strategies of attack, and of persuasion. Check out snopes.com if you have doubts about any allegations above. And think about where these videos were aired.


 

 

Week 10: Presentations

 

Home | Announcements | Readings | Lecture materials | Class schedule |
| Assignments | grading procedures | Policies | Web links | News