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Digital Political Communication
Professor Jonathan Taplin
ASC 221
jtaplin@usc.edu
Office Hours: Tuesday 3:30-5:30
Sasha Costanza-Chock
costanza@usc.edu
Course Description: The convergence of digital technology and the television industry represents the most basic policy and planning challenge of the last 50 years for both media executives and policy planners. This course will take an in depth look at the foundations of current U.S. media policy and then turn to focus on one of the most pressing issues for both policy planners and political advocates: Digital Political Communication. The course will integrate readings with a documentary film survey of the modern political and cultural landscape. The second part of the course will study new tools such as blogs, online video, social network software, and others, and their use for DIY political communication. The final section will deal with the current regulatory framework both in Spectrum, Net Neutrality and Universal Broadband policy. The class will be divided into three groups of students charged with developing a robust policy document on how to extend the reach of alternative media. Each group will write a case study on a selected aspect of this topic.
Career Relevance: Both in the U.S. and in every major country, the issues of digital media policy are at the top of the agenda in the IT world. Graduates who hope to form policy initiatives, whether in government, nonprofit, or the commercial sector, will need to have a solid understanding of the political origins of modern communications. This course will be a deep research initiative, which will result in a published paper for peer review. Given the dearth of current published data on these subjects it is believed that the graduates of this course will have a unique capability in the Digital Media field.
Class Schedule
Week 1: Introduction to the class-Global Power in a Digital Age
Film: Why We Fight
Week 2: The Politics of Desire
Reading: McChesney, Robert (2004) The Problem of The Media New York: Monthly Review Press (p.7-97)
Film: Century of the Self, Pt. 2 & 3
Week 3: The Coming Anarchy
Reading: McChesney, Robert (2004) The Problem of The Media New York: Monthly Review Press (p.98-137)
Film: Pulp Future
Week 4: Fear, Propaganda and The Media
Reading: McChesney, Robert (2004) The Problem of The Media New York: Monthly Review Press (p.138-174)
Film: Politics of Fear, Pt. 1
Suggested viewing: Shocking and Awful, and short videos TBA
Week 5: Globalization and Control
Reading: Costanza-Chock, Sasha (2005). The Globalization of Media Policy, in Robert McChesney, Russell Newman, and Ben Scott (eds.), The Future of Media: Resistance and Reform in the 21st Century. New York: Seven Stories Press., 2005.
Drahos, Peter. Who Owns the Knowledge Economy? Political Organizing Behind TRIPS.
Film: Politics of Fear, Pt. 2 & 3
Week 6: Overview & History of DIY Media
This week we will discuss theoretical frameworks of alternative, independent, community, or DIY Media; then look briefly at previous movements for more democratic media policy, including early radio and public access television. We will also review the history of social movement use of the internet between 1985 and 1999. Each student is expected to make a blog entry briefly describing an interesting example of pre-internet, DIY political communication.
Reading:
Selections from John Downing, Radical Media.
Paper by Center for International Media Action on previous movements for communiction democracy.
The Association for Progressive Communications Annual Report 2000.
http://www.apc.org/english/about/history/apc_ar_2000.pdf
Film: 4th World War
[Suggested viewing: selection from Paper Tiger TV and Videazimut archives]
Week 7: DIY Political Communication in the Network Age: The Case of Indymedia
In this class we will focus on the network of Independent Media Centers that spread across the globe in the wake of the 1999 WTO protests in Seattle. Each student should choose a major protest that took place between 1999-2006 and write a blog entry comparing mainstream media coverage with Indymedia coverage, noting the differences and describing the strengths and weaknesses of each. Include links to photos and/or video material.
Reading:
John Emerson: An Introduction to Activism on the Internet http://www.backspace.com/action/
Kidd, Dorothy. 2003. "Indymedia.org: A new communications commons." Pp. 47-69 in Cyberactivism: Online activism in theory and practice, edited by M. M. a. M. Ayers. New York: Routledge.
Juris, Jeff. 2004. "Networked Social Movements: the Movement Against Corporate Globalization." In The network society : a cross-cultural perspective, edited by M. Castells. Cheltenham, UK ; Northampton, MA: Edward Elger.
Browse the Independent Media Center network (use the links to different cities on the left column of http://www.indymedia.org. Be sure to check out IMCs from different continents as well as radio.indymedia.org.
Film: This is What Democracy Looks Like
[Suggested viewing: selection of Indymedia shorts]
Week 8: The Dinosaurs Adapt? Mass Media, Political Parties, and the Internet
This week we look at how powerful institutions including mass media firms, established political parties, and corporations have adopted the tools and techniques pioneered by internet activists as essential elements of political communication. We will discuss the rise of MoveOn, the Dean campaign, Political Application Service Providers, MySpace and YouTube, etc. In this week's blog entry choose a large institution and describe the way it is now using the internet for political communication. Students should also use videobomb to tag a short video clip related to this week's discussion, to be watched and discussed together in class.
Reading:
Sey, Araba and Manuel Castells. 2004. "From Media Politics to Networked Politics: The Internet and the Political Process." In The Network Society : A Cross-Cultural Perspective, edited by M. Castells. Cheltenham, UK ; Northampton, MA: Edward Elger.
Excerpts from: Trippi, Joe. 2004. The revolution will not be televised : democracy, the Internet, and the overthrow of everything. New York: ReganBooks.
[Suggested reading:
Pew. 2004, "The Internet and Democratic Debate", Retrieved January 27, 2006
http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Political_Info_Report.pdf
Film:
Selection of MoveOn political ads, and recent shorts selected by the class and tagged to videobomb focused on the week's theme.
Week 9: Current Developments & the Future
We end the second section of the class by looking at current and near future developments in online political communication. Each person in the class is expected to blog about, and come prepared to informally present, a current example of online political communication that they find interesting and innovative. No powerpoint required, just show the example and discuss it for a few minutes.
Read:
[TBA; includes selections from Next 5 Minutes reader]
Browse the following sites, and others to be added to the class website:
http://weblogs.annenberg.edu/diy/
http://transmission.cc/
Additional reading:
Rainie, Lee. 2005, "The State of Blogging", Retrieved January 27, 2006
http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_blogging_data.pdf
Film: short videos tagged by the class.
The Regions
Week 10: Latin America
What is the role of the Media in Political control or coup?
Reading TBA: [selections from 'Communication in Movement,' by Leon, Burch, and Tamayo: http://www.alainet.org/publica/comm_mov/en/].
Film: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
[Suggested viewing: short selections from Argentina Arde, Grupo Alavio, La Plataforma, and one of the docs on the takeover of the TV/radio in Oaxaca.]
Week 11: Asia
What is the role of the Digital media in the Chinese democracy movement?
Reading:
Jack Qiu, 2003 China and the Internet. Paper prepared for ARNIC conference. http://arnic.info/Papers/JQ_China_and_Internet.pdf
Guobin Yang, 2006. "Activists beyond Virtual Borders: Internet Mediated Networks and Informational Politics in China." First Monday, volume 11, number 9 (September 2006).]
Film: China In the Red
[Suggested viewing: selections from S. Korean Labor News Production and Go Media Action, Thai peopleschannel, Hong Kong People's Action, Mardi Gras].
Week 12: Case Study Consultation
A first draft of each group’s Case Study will be due at the end of class.
Film: The Lost Year In Iraq
[Suggested viewing: Control Room, and selections from the Alive in Baghdad videoblog]
Week 13: Drafting Session
This will be a split class with each group being allocated 1:30 for work with the Professor on their draft White Paper.
Week 14: Final Presentations
Each group will present a 30 minute visual (PowerPoint) presentation of the highlights of their White Paper followed by a half hour of discussion and questions. Groups are expected to take the comments and critiques seriously and incorporate them into the final version of their White Paper.
Week 15: Final Presentations
ASC 221
jtaplin@usc.edu
Office Hours: Tuesday 3:30-5:30
Sasha Costanza-Chock
costanza@usc.edu
Course Description: The convergence of digital technology and the television industry represents the most basic policy and planning challenge of the last 50 years for both media executives and policy planners. This course will take an in depth look at the foundations of current U.S. media policy and then turn to focus on one of the most pressing issues for both policy planners and political advocates: Digital Political Communication. The course will integrate readings with a documentary film survey of the modern political and cultural landscape. The second part of the course will study new tools such as blogs, online video, social network software, and others, and their use for DIY political communication. The final section will deal with the current regulatory framework both in Spectrum, Net Neutrality and Universal Broadband policy. The class will be divided into three groups of students charged with developing a robust policy document on how to extend the reach of alternative media. Each group will write a case study on a selected aspect of this topic.
Career Relevance: Both in the U.S. and in every major country, the issues of digital media policy are at the top of the agenda in the IT world. Graduates who hope to form policy initiatives, whether in government, nonprofit, or the commercial sector, will need to have a solid understanding of the political origins of modern communications. This course will be a deep research initiative, which will result in a published paper for peer review. Given the dearth of current published data on these subjects it is believed that the graduates of this course will have a unique capability in the Digital Media field.
Class Schedule
Week 1: Introduction to the class-Global Power in a Digital Age
Film: Why We Fight
Week 2: The Politics of Desire
Reading: McChesney, Robert (2004) The Problem of The Media New York: Monthly Review Press (p.7-97)
Film: Century of the Self, Pt. 2 & 3
Week 3: The Coming Anarchy
Reading: McChesney, Robert (2004) The Problem of The Media New York: Monthly Review Press (p.98-137)
Film: Pulp Future
Week 4: Fear, Propaganda and The Media
Reading: McChesney, Robert (2004) The Problem of The Media New York: Monthly Review Press (p.138-174)
Film: Politics of Fear, Pt. 1
Suggested viewing: Shocking and Awful, and short videos TBA
Week 5: Globalization and Control
Reading: Costanza-Chock, Sasha (2005). The Globalization of Media Policy, in Robert McChesney, Russell Newman, and Ben Scott (eds.), The Future of Media: Resistance and Reform in the 21st Century. New York: Seven Stories Press., 2005.
Drahos, Peter. Who Owns the Knowledge Economy? Political Organizing Behind TRIPS.
Film: Politics of Fear, Pt. 2 & 3
Week 6: Overview & History of DIY Media
This week we will discuss theoretical frameworks of alternative, independent, community, or DIY Media; then look briefly at previous movements for more democratic media policy, including early radio and public access television. We will also review the history of social movement use of the internet between 1985 and 1999. Each student is expected to make a blog entry briefly describing an interesting example of pre-internet, DIY political communication.
Reading:
Selections from John Downing, Radical Media.
Paper by Center for International Media Action on previous movements for communiction democracy.
The Association for Progressive Communications Annual Report 2000.
http://www.apc.org/english/about/history/apc_ar_2000.pdf
Film: 4th World War
[Suggested viewing: selection from Paper Tiger TV and Videazimut archives]
Week 7: DIY Political Communication in the Network Age: The Case of Indymedia
In this class we will focus on the network of Independent Media Centers that spread across the globe in the wake of the 1999 WTO protests in Seattle. Each student should choose a major protest that took place between 1999-2006 and write a blog entry comparing mainstream media coverage with Indymedia coverage, noting the differences and describing the strengths and weaknesses of each. Include links to photos and/or video material.
Reading:
John Emerson: An Introduction to Activism on the Internet http://www.backspace.com/action/
Kidd, Dorothy. 2003. "Indymedia.org: A new communications commons." Pp. 47-69 in Cyberactivism: Online activism in theory and practice, edited by M. M. a. M. Ayers. New York: Routledge.
Juris, Jeff. 2004. "Networked Social Movements: the Movement Against Corporate Globalization." In The network society : a cross-cultural perspective, edited by M. Castells. Cheltenham, UK ; Northampton, MA: Edward Elger.
Browse the Independent Media Center network (use the links to different cities on the left column of http://www.indymedia.org. Be sure to check out IMCs from different continents as well as radio.indymedia.org.
Film: This is What Democracy Looks Like
[Suggested viewing: selection of Indymedia shorts]
Week 8: The Dinosaurs Adapt? Mass Media, Political Parties, and the Internet
This week we look at how powerful institutions including mass media firms, established political parties, and corporations have adopted the tools and techniques pioneered by internet activists as essential elements of political communication. We will discuss the rise of MoveOn, the Dean campaign, Political Application Service Providers, MySpace and YouTube, etc. In this week's blog entry choose a large institution and describe the way it is now using the internet for political communication. Students should also use videobomb to tag a short video clip related to this week's discussion, to be watched and discussed together in class.
Reading:
Sey, Araba and Manuel Castells. 2004. "From Media Politics to Networked Politics: The Internet and the Political Process." In The Network Society : A Cross-Cultural Perspective, edited by M. Castells. Cheltenham, UK ; Northampton, MA: Edward Elger.
Excerpts from: Trippi, Joe. 2004. The revolution will not be televised : democracy, the Internet, and the overthrow of everything. New York: ReganBooks.
[Suggested reading:
Pew. 2004, "The Internet and Democratic Debate", Retrieved January 27, 2006
http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Political_Info_Report.pdf
Film:
Selection of MoveOn political ads, and recent shorts selected by the class and tagged to videobomb focused on the week's theme.
Week 9: Current Developments & the Future
We end the second section of the class by looking at current and near future developments in online political communication. Each person in the class is expected to blog about, and come prepared to informally present, a current example of online political communication that they find interesting and innovative. No powerpoint required, just show the example and discuss it for a few minutes.
Read:
[TBA; includes selections from Next 5 Minutes reader]
Browse the following sites, and others to be added to the class website:
http://weblogs.annenberg.edu/diy/
http://transmission.cc/
Additional reading:
Rainie, Lee. 2005, "The State of Blogging", Retrieved January 27, 2006
http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_blogging_data.pdf
Film: short videos tagged by the class.
The Regions
Week 10: Latin America
What is the role of the Media in Political control or coup?
Reading TBA: [selections from 'Communication in Movement,' by Leon, Burch, and Tamayo: http://www.alainet.org/publica/comm_mov/en/].
Film: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
[Suggested viewing: short selections from Argentina Arde, Grupo Alavio, La Plataforma, and one of the docs on the takeover of the TV/radio in Oaxaca.]
Week 11: Asia
What is the role of the Digital media in the Chinese democracy movement?
Reading:
Jack Qiu, 2003 China and the Internet. Paper prepared for ARNIC conference. http://arnic.info/Papers/JQ_China_and_Internet.pdf
Guobin Yang, 2006. "Activists beyond Virtual Borders: Internet Mediated Networks and Informational Politics in China." First Monday, volume 11, number 9 (September 2006).]
Film: China In the Red
[Suggested viewing: selections from S. Korean Labor News Production and Go Media Action, Thai peopleschannel, Hong Kong People's Action, Mardi Gras].
Week 12: Case Study Consultation
A first draft of each group’s Case Study will be due at the end of class.
Film: The Lost Year In Iraq
[Suggested viewing: Control Room, and selections from the Alive in Baghdad videoblog]
Week 13: Drafting Session
This will be a split class with each group being allocated 1:30 for work with the Professor on their draft White Paper.
Week 14: Final Presentations
Each group will present a 30 minute visual (PowerPoint) presentation of the highlights of their White Paper followed by a half hour of discussion and questions. Groups are expected to take the comments and critiques seriously and incorporate them into the final version of their White Paper.
Week 15: Final Presentations
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