Syllabus

Activist Media: A historical overview 1960-2008
MCOM 3150
DMST 3900
MW4:00 pm - 5:50 pm
Mass Communications Building 121
Levels: Graduate, Undergraduate
Professor Adrienne Russell
Adrienne.russell@du.edu
Office hours: Wednesdays 12:30-1:30 Sturm Hall 216 or by appointment

In studying 1960s-era Students for a Democratic Society, Todd Gitlin demonstrated how the group’s attempts to attract media attention ended with its giving over the movement message to reporters and editors. Today’s alternative cultures use internet and mobile technologies to access and circulate mainstream information, but also to rapidly exchange information that exists outside mainstream media channels. Activist movements today with access to digital tools and networks are no longer dependent on newspapers and broadcast networks to represent them, to disseminate their messages. On the contrary, these wired cultures are developing sophisticated public relations strategies. We are, however, just beginning to see how the proliferation of alternative networks of communication, and the content, practices, and identities they facilitate, interact with traditional political and business organizations, as well as with traditional media products and practices. This course focuses on media activism over the past half-century tied to various movements. We’ll examine the similarities and differences among media strategies with an emphasis on contemporary protest movements and their use of new and old media.

Books
John Downing, Radical Media: Rebellious Communication and Social Movements
Graham Meikle, Future Active: Media Activism and the Internet

Assignments/Exam
Blog You will receive an invitation via email to join our blog group. Please follow the directions in the email. This is not an extended discussion format as much as it is a graffiti wall and an ongoing exercise in collaborative linking. At least 4 times over the course of the quarter you should contribute to our blog a link and a short review (1 paragraph) of a site, article, example of activist media, art project, news story, or other resource relevant to the reading assignments. Please also post on the blog highlights and links related to your presentation (see below).

Exam
There will be a midterm essay exam.

Presentation In order to integrate diverse material into the course, each student will be asked to present in class an example of media activism (an ad, a website, a video clip, an article, a video game, organization etc.) and present it, explaining how it exemplifies, problematizes, or in some way helps illuminate an issue or idea that we are discussing in the course. The assignment is intentionally not strictly defined. Here are a few guidelines to consider as you plan your presentation: 1) you must show something in class; 2) be prepared to talk to the class about how your media product is related to a particular topic, issue, or theory; 3) consider preparing some questions for the class to encourage involvement in the analysis of your media product; 4) be prepared to speak for at least 10 minutes and not longer than 20 minutes; 5) be absolutely sure to present on the day on which you signed up to present; 6) come talk to me or send me an email if you need help coming up with or refining an idea.

Paper Prospectus
The research prospectus should serve as a plan for your research paper. It should be 3-4 double-spaced pages and should include:
1) a clear statement of your research question;
2) a description of specifically what you are going to look at (ie, audiences/users/producers, media content, media institutions);
3) an outline of the theoretical and empirical literature that will inform your work;
4) a preliminary bibliography.
Final Paper
Choose a theory presented in class or in the readings and apply it to a historical or conteporary activist media product, practice, or phenomenon. Your paper should explore the extent to which your theory is a useful way of understanding your particular object of study.

Your paper should be between 10-15 double-spaced pages and should use either APA or MLA style of bibliographic reference. All papers must build on literature in the field and include a literature review.

Talk to me if you have a different idea about what you would like to research and how you would like to approach your material.

Evaluation
Attendance/Participation 20 percent
Presentation and Blogging 20 percent
Midterm 30 percent
Final Paper and prospectus 30 percent

Schedule
W 1-2 Introduction
M 1-7 Towards a Definition of Alternative/Radical Media: Examining the Relationships between Culture and Politics, Content and Tactics
Reading: Downing 1, 2
W 1-9 Theories and Approaches to Media and Resistance: Networks, Community and and Détournement
Reading: Downing 3, 4, 5
Wikipedia entry Detournment
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detournement
Debord, Guy. "A User's Guide to Détournement." http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/detourn.htm
M 1-14 The Whole World is Watching: The relationship between mainstream and activist media in the 60s
Cases: American Civil Rights Movement and Students for a Democratic Society
Reading: Todd Giltin hand out
W 1-16 The History of Memory and Activist Media
Reading: http://www.library.vcu.edu/jbc/speccoll/civilrights.html
Downing 7, 8, 9
Film: The Long Nights Journey into Day
M 1-21 MLK Day no class
W 1-23 no class
Radical Media and resistance in everyday life
Reading: Downing 10, 11, 12, 14
M 1-28 The press
Reading: Downing 13, 18, 22
Case studies: Portugual 1974-1975; Samizdot in the former Soviet Republic; and contemporary examples of radical print media
W 1-30 Radio
Reading: Downing 15, 19, 21
Case studies: FIRE; Italian Radiopop and Controradio; KPFA
Guest speaker Margie Thompson of FIRE (not yet confirmed)
http://www.fire.or.cr/indexeng.htm
M 2-4 Video
Reading: Downing 16, 20
W 2-6 Video
Guest speaker Kate Burns and/or Shiela Schroeder (not yet confirmed)
Reading: TBA
M 2-11 no class
W 2-13 Midterm
M 2-18 Introduction to Online activism
Cases: Zapatistas and the global justice movement
Reading: Downing 17, Meikle 1, 2
W 2-20 Power and the Politics of Representation
Reading: Meikle 3,4
M 2-25 Culture Jamming/Hacking
Reading: Meikle 5,6,7
W 2-27 Field trip to Denver Open Media
Reading: TBA
M 3-3 Final presentations
W 3-5 Final presentation
M 3-10 Final presentations
Last day of classes