Citizens and the Media

COMM 594 Advanced Special Topics in Communication, Autumn 1998

Mondays, 4Ð 6:30 p.m. University of Illinois, Chicago, BSB 1169

Kevin G. Barnhurst, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Communication

Office BSB 1148A. Hours by appointment (312) 413-3231

Description

This seminar examines how people use the media in their lives as citizens, paying particular attention to the social science autobiography, the collective memory, and the problem of generations. We will cover methods of writing a limited life history, collecting narratives, and analyzing qualitative materials. Readings are drawn from classic and current political science, sociology, and media studies.

Rationale

The seminar has three goals: First to deepen your knowledge of the literature of citizenship, second, to develop analytical techniques for examining lived experience, and, third, to experience the roles of participant and of gatherer of life narratives. To reach these goals, we will join in the following activities:

Reading. This is a text-based seminar. Every class session will include readings. One topic weÕll return to often is how to read! Your task is to familiarize yourself with the literature (not read every word). Please relax, examine the assigned books carefully, and take good notes.

Discussion. Rather than formal lectures, the class will focus on discussions. These will be free-ranging, and personal examples (your own life narratives) are encouraged.

Experience. The major assignments in the seminar involve experiential learning Ñ building understanding by doing. The tasks are designed to place you in three roles, as a participant in research, as a researcher dealing with a participant, and as an analyst of the texts you create and gather.

Presentations. At each phase of the seminar, youÕll give an informal summary or presentation based on your work. Please include lots of examples from your experience (in the above roles) in your presentation.

Tentative Outline

August 24, Introductions.

Part I. Citizenship

August 31, Reading: Almond, Gabriel A., and Sidney Verba. 1963. The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes & Democracy in Five Nations. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press.

Sept. 7, Labor Day; no class.

Sept. 14, Summaries. Reading: Examine a study of citizenship and present a summary.

Sept. 21, Summaries. Reading: Examine another study of citizenship and present a summary.

Part II. Life History

Sept. 28, Reading: Blumer, Herbert. 1933. Movies and Conduct. New York: Macmillan.

Oct. 5, Summaries. Reading: Examine a limited life history and present a summary.

Oct. 12, Readings. Your Life History. Write a limited life history and read highlights in class.

Part III. Generations

Oct. 19, Reading: Mannheim, Karl. 1952. The Problem of Generations. Essays on the Sociology of Knowledge, pp. 276Ð322. 1928. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Oct. 26, Summaries. Reading: Examine a study of generational change and present a summary.

Nov. 2, Readings. Source Life History. Collect a limited life history from a participant and read highlights to class.

Part IV. Narrative Analysis

Nov. 9, Reading: Riessman, Catherine Kohler. Narrative Analysis. Qualitative Research Methods 30. Newbury Park: Sage, 1993.

Nov. 16, Summaries. Reading: Analyze a limited life history (your own or the one you collected) and present a summary in class.

Part V. Collective Memory

Nov. 23, Reading: Halbwachs, Maurice. 1980. The Collective Memory. 1950. New York: Harper.

Nov. 30, Presentations. Final Paper. Write a comparative analysis of two limited life histories and present.

Dec. 7, Final deadline (no late work accepted after this date)

Grading Criteria

Participation, 20 percent

Papers, 60 percent

Exams, 20 percent

Attendance Policy. Class attendance is essential to your success in the class and to the success of the seminar as a group. If you arenÕt able to come fully prepared to class, please come anyway. YouÕll benefit. Please talk to me in case of illness or another emergency that prevents you from attending class. Be sure to make arrangements if you must turn in work late. Unless due to illness, late work will be penalized.

Readings

For some weeks, readings are pot-luck from the following lists (weÕll coordinate the selection). Please examine your assigned book and prepare to describe it to the group.

Political Communication

Graber, Doris A. 1988. Processing the News: How People Tame the Information Tide. 2 ed. New York: Longman. See Chapter 10, pp. 201Ð217.

Iyengar, Shanto, and Donald R. Kinder. 1987. News that Matters: Television and American Opinion. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press. See Chapter 12, pp. 112Ð133.

Morley, David. 1990. The Construction of Everyday Life: Political Communication and Domestic Media. In New Directions in Political Communication: A Resource Book. Ed. David Swanson and Dan Nimmo. Newbury Park: Sage.

Milbrath, Lester W. 1982 (1977). Political Participation: How and Why Do People Get Involved in Politics. 2 ed. Lanham: Univ. Press of America. See Chapter 1, pp. 5Ð34.

Neuman, W. Russell. 1991. The Future of the Mass Audience. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.

Neuman, W. Russell, Marion Just, and Ann Crigler. 1992. Common Knowledge: News and the Construction of Political Meaning. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.

Nie, Norman H., Sidney Verba, and John R. Petrocik. 1979. The Changing American Voter. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press.

Popkin, Samuel L. 1991. The Reasoning Voter: Communication and Persuasion in Presidential Campaigns. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.

Putnam, Robert D. 1995. Bowling Alone: AmericaÕs Declining Social Capital. Journal of Democracy 6.1 (January): 56ff. See also the articles on its impact: Chronicle of Higher Education 42.25 (March 1, 1996): A10ff, and CQ Researcher 6.46 (December 13, 1996): 1092.

Smith, Eric R. A. N. 1989. The Unchanging American Voter. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.

Limited Life History

Barnhurst, Kevin G. 1991. The Great American Newspaper. American Scholar 60 (Winter): 106Ð12. Reprinted as Chapter 1 in Seeing the Newspaper (New York: St. MartinÕs Press, 1994).

Blumer, Herbert, and Philip M. Hauser. 1933. Movies, Delinquency, and Crime. New York: Macmillan.

Graev, Nicole. 1998. Tight Jeans. The Hudson Review 51.2 (Summer): 351Ð360.

Various authors. 1998. Life History & Media Project (www.iie.es/sumadrid/lifehist).

Various authors. 1998. Access Program Web Page (http://members.xoom.com/making).

Generations & Collective Memory

Easterlin, Richard A. 1980. Birth and Fortune: The Impact of Numbers on Personal Welfare. New York: Basic Books.

Eisenstadt, S. N. 1956. From Generation to Generation. London: WritersÕ and ReadersÕ Cooperative.

Fussell, Paul. 1975. The Great War and the Modern Memory. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.

Inglehart, Ronald. 1971. The Silent Revolution in Europe: Intergenerational Change in Post-Industrial Societies. American Political Science Review 65: 991Ð1017. See also his subsequent book, The Silent Revolution: Changing Values and Political Styles Among Western Publics. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1977.

Jennings, M. Kent, and Richard G. Niemi. 1981. Generations and Politics: A Panel Study of Young Adults and Their Parents. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press. See also the 1996 update by Jennings, Political Knowledge Over Time and Across Generations. Public Opinion Quarterly 60: 228Ð52.

Lang, Kurt, and Gladys Engel Lang. 1990. Collective Memory and the News. In Mass Communication and Political Information Processing. Ed. Sidney Kraus. Hillsdale: Erlbaum.

Schlesinger, Philip. 1991. State and Nation: Political Violence and Collective Identity. Newbury Park: Sage.

Schuman, Howard, and Jacqueline Scott. 1989. Generations and Collective Memories. American Sociological Review 54 (June): 359Ð81.

Steinberg, Ira. 1982. The New Lost Generation: The Problems of the Population Boom. New York: St. MartinÕs Press.

Wohl, Robert. 1979. The Generation of 1914. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press.

Background

The following items are background materials you may want to study for additional enrichment or to cite in your paper. Please let me know if you need help locating any of these.

Barber, Benjamin R. 1984. Strong Democracy: Participatory Politics for a New Age. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press. See Preface, pp. xiÐxvi.

Barnhurst, Kevin G. 1998. Politics in the Fine Meshes: Youth, Power & Media. Media, Culture & Society 20.2 (Spring): 201Ð218.

Bertaux, Daniel, ed. 1981. Biography and Society: The Life History Approach in the Social Sciences. London: Sage.

Clandinin, D. Jean, and F. Michael Connelly. 1994. Personal Experience Methods. In Handbook of Qualitative Research, 413Ð27. Ed. Norman K. Denzin and Yvonna S. Lincoln. London: Sage.

Clough, Patricia Ticineto. 1988. The Movies and Social Observation: Reading BlumerÕs ÒMovies and Conduct.Ó Symbolic Interaction 11: 3Ð22. Reprinted in, The Ends of Ethnography. Newbury Park, Calif.: Sage, 1991.

Edelman, Murray. 1988. Constructing the Political Spectacle. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press. Graber, Doris A. 1980. News and the Public. New York: Praeger.

Entman, Robert M. 1989. Democracy without Citizens: Media and the Decay of American Politics. New York: Oxford.

Josselson, Ruthellen, and Amia Lieblich, eds. 1993. The Narrative Study of Lives, vol. 1. Newbury Park, Calif.: Sage.

McCall, Michal M., and Judith Wittner. 1990. The Good News about Life History. In Symbolic Interaction & Cultural Studies, ed. H. Samuel Becker and Michal M. McCall, 46Ð89. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.

Plummer, Ken. 1983. Documents of Life: An Introduction to the Problems and Literature of Humanistic Method. London: Allen & Unwin. See also his article, Herbert Blumer and the Life History Tradition. Symbolic Interaction 13.2 (Fall 1990 ): 125Ð44.

Shaw, Clifford R. 1930. The Jack-Roller: A Delinquent BoyÕs Own Story. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.

Thomas, William I., and Florian Znaniecki. 1927. The Polish Peasant in Europe & America, 2 vols. New York: Knopf.