Schedule of Readings for the Fall 2010 Semester

Dr. Jelena Karanovic
Adjunct Assistant Professor
Department of Media, Culture and Communication
New York University

I. Foundations

Week 1
Session 1 – Introduction

• In-class screening: Rivera, Alex. 2008. “Sleep Dealer.” Clips.

Session 2 – What is globalization?

• Inda, Jonathan, and Renato Rosaldo. 2008. “Tracking Global Flows.” In The Anthropology of Globalization: A Reader. Second Edition. New York: Blackwell.
• Recommended: Featherstone, Mike. 2006. Genealogies of the Global. Theory Culture Society 23, no. 2-3 (May 1): 387-392.
• Blog kick-off: Post a media account that best exemplifies globalization.  Discuss how this account either confirms or challenges the arguments presented by Inda and Rosaldo. pp. 3-46.

Week 2
Session 1 – Tracking global media flows

• Appadurai, Arjun. 1996. “Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy.” In Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. pp. 27-47.
• Thussu, Daya. 2007. “Mapping Global Flow and Contra-Flow.” In Media on the Move: Global Flow and Contra-Flow. New York: Routledge. pp. 10-29.

Session 2 – Media practices and individual experience

• Rantanen, Terhi. 2005. “Mediated Cosmopolitanism?” In The Media and Globalization. London: Sage Publications. pp. 119-140.
• Gillespie, Marie. 1995. “Local Uses of the Media: Negotiating Culture and Identity.” In Television, Ethnicity and Cultural Change. New York: Routledge. pp. 76-108.

Week 3
Session 1 – A mediated world: historical trends
Make an appointment with me to discuss your interests and ideas for the final paper.

• Larkin, Brian. 2008. Introduction and Chapter 1 in Signal and Noise: Media, Infrastructure, and Urban Culture in Nigeria. Durham Duke University Press.

Session 2 – Reordering space

• Larkin, Brian. 2008. Chapters 4 and 5 in Signal and Noise: Media, Infrastructure, and Urban Culture in Nigeria. Durham: Duke University Press.
• Parks, Lisa. 2004. “Kinetic Screens: Epistemologies of Movement at the Interface.” In MediaSpace: Place, Scale and Culture in a Media Age. ed. Nick Couldry and Anna McCarthy. London: Routledge. pp. 37-57.
• Zhao, Michael. 2009. “eDump.” http://michaelzhao.net/eDump/
• In-class screening: Baichwal, Jennifer. 2006. “Manufactured Landscapes.” Clips.

Week 4
Session 1 – Technological infrastructures, media forms, and cultural practices

• Larkin, Brian. 2008. Chapters 6 and 7 in Signal and Noise: Media, Infrastructure, and Urban Culture in Nigeria. Durham: Duke University Press.
• In-class screening: Okereke, Afam. 2010. “White Hunters.” Clips.

Session 2 – Digital infrastructures and national politics

• Goldsmith, Jack, and Tim Wu. 2008. Preface, Introduction, and Chapters 6, 9 and 10 in Who Controls the Internet? Illusions of Borderless World. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. ix-xii, 1-10, 87-104, 147-177.

II. Global media industries

Week 5
Session 1 – A global oligopoly? Critical approaches to media conglomerates

• Miller, Toby, Nitin Govil, John McMurria, Richard Maxwell and Ting Wang. 2005. “Getting the Audience.” In Global Hollywood 2. London: British Film Institute. pp. 259-332.

Session 2 – Columbus Day, no class.

Week 6
Session 1 – Global news media organizations: the politics of international news
Your first writing assignment is due.

• Magnan, Natalie, Megan Boler, and Andréa Schmidt. 2008. “Al Jazeera English: An Interview with Hassan Ibrahim.” In Digital Media and Democracy: Tactics in Hard Times, ed. Megan Boler. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. pp. 301-319.
• In-class film screening: Noujaim, Jehane. 2004. “Control Room.”

Session 2 – Global news media organizations, continued

• Thussu, Daya. 2007. “Introduction and Infrastructure for Global Infotainment.” In News as Entertainment: The Rise of Global Infotainment. London: Sage Publications. pp. 1-14 and 43-68.

Week 7
Session 1 – International division of cultural labor: a case study of software industry

• Xiang, Biao. 2007. Preface, Introduction and Chapters 1-2 in Global Body Shopping: An Indian Labor System in the Information Technology Industry. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Session 2 – The cultural logic of uneven globalization

• Xiang, Biao. 2007. Chapters 3-5 in Global Body Shopping: An Indian Labor System in the Information Technology Industry. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Week 8
Session 1 – Ethical and political dimensions of globalization

• Finish reading Xiang 2007.

Session 2 – De-centering trends in media globalization

• Iwabuchi, Koichi. 2007. “Contra-flows or the cultural logic of uneven globalization? Japanese media in the global agora.” In Media on the Move: Global Flow and Contra-Flow. Thussu, Daya, ed. New York: Routledge. pp. 61-75
• Sinclair, John, Elizabeth Jacka, and Stuart Cunningham. 1996. New Patterns in Global Television: Peripheral Vision. New York: Oxford University Press. Excerpts. pp. 1-66.

III. Transnational cultures and national identities

Week 9
Session 1 – Diversification of media production: Ethno-mediascapes

• Schein, Louisa. 2002. “Mapping Hmong Media in Diasporic Space.” In Media Worlds: Anthropology on New Terrain. Ginsburg, F., Abu-Lughod, L., & Larkin, B. eds. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 229-244.
• Yang, Mayfair. 2002. “Mass Media and Transnational Subjectivity in Shanghai: Notes on (Re)Cosmopolitanism in a Chinese Metropolis.” In Media Worlds: Anthropology on New Terrain. Ginsburg, F., Abu-Lughod, L., & Larkin, B. eds. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 189-210.

Session 2 – Transforming the nation through movements of people and media

• Kosnick, Kira. 2007. Chapters 1 and 2 in Migrant Media: Turkish Broadcasting and Multicultural Politics in Berlin. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Week 10
Session 1 - National and transnational public spheres

• Kosnick, Kira. 2007. Chapters 3 and 5 in Migrant Media: Turkish Broadcasting and Multicultural Politics in Berlin. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Session 2 – National and transnational public spheres, continued
Your draft research paper is due for peer review.

• Kosnick, Kira. 2007. Chapters 6 and 8 in Migrant Media: Turkish Broadcasting and Multicultural Politics in Berlin. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
• In-class screening: Akin, Fatih. 2005. “Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul.” Clips.

IV. Media activism and alternative globalizations

Week 11
Session 1 – New media activism and alternative globalizations

• Juris, Jeffrey S. 2005. The New Digital Media and Activist Networking within Anti-Corporate Globalization Movements. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 597: 189-208.
• Danaher, Kevin, and Roger Burbach, eds. 2000. Globalize This! The Battle against the World Trade Organization and Corporate Rule. Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press. Excerpts.
• Zuckerman, Ethan. 2004. “Making Room for the Third World in the Second Superpower.” In Extreme Democracy, ed. Jon Lebkowsky and Mitch Ratcliffe. Available online at http://extremedemocracy.com/chapters/Chapter13-Zuckerman.pdf.
• In-class screening: Freidberg, Jill, et al. 2000. “This is What Democracy Looks Like.” Clips.

Session 2 – Digital media and social justice, continued
Your peer review is due in class (along with the copy of the paper that you reviewed)

• Guest speaker: Cindy Jeffers
• Readings TBA

Week 12
Session 1 – Global indigenous media

• Wilson, Pam and Michelle Stewart, eds. 2008. Introduction in Global Indigenous Media. Durham: Duke University Press. pp. 1-35.
• Turner, Terence. 2002. “Representation, Politics, and Cultural Imagination in Indigenous Video: General Points and Kayapo Examples.” In Media Worlds: Anthropology on New Terrain. Ginsburg, Faye, Lila Abu-Lughod, and Brian Larkin, eds. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 75-89.

Session 2 – Digital media and cultural activism

• Ginsburg, Faye. 2008. “Rethinking the Digital Age.” In The Media and Social Theory, ed. David Hesmondhalgh and Jason Toynbee. New York: Routledge. pp. 127-144.

Weeks 13 and 14 – Student conference
Your blog portfolio is due.
Your research paper is due.