US Media in an Era of Fake News and Conspiracy Theories 4219-SD0038
Looking at the ways US media is changing in an era of declining sales, changing business models and ownership, the rise of social media, Fake News and Donald Trump. Emphasis on discussion, reflecting on assumptions by reading and watching US media.
Bi-weekly thematic introductions, handouts (newspaper article, journal paper etc) and assignments - writing an ‘American-style’ news article, or feature for the following week of 500 words on a relevant topic.
Style guide: the tool kit (news wires, features, newspaper reports, reportage etc). How to construct a decent article.
Write about yourself
Start with your own assumptions and biases. Who are you, why are you writing and what do you want to achieve?
The ‘New Normal’
Contemplating ‘Mainstream’ media in a liberal-democracy. The classical model; disruption and change. Exploring myths and the realities.
Social media
Democratization or dumbing down, or both?
Who owns what in the US media and does it matter?
Case studies
The journalistic community?
A socio-cultural space or just good trade-craft?
Methodologies
Van Dijk, critical discourse analysts. How to decode media texts.
The Trump presidency and the 2020 election
Type of course
Learning outcomes
Knowledge
-Understanding of key course themes (objectivity, truth, reporting, fake news etc)
-Specific knowledge of key parts of the US media
-Knowledge of media/journalism literature
Skills
-Writing week articles/essays
-Regular reading and watching US media
-Critical observation of media
Social Competences
-Short presentations
-Ability to communicate ideas
-Ability to discuss, listen and synthesise
Assessment criteria
Minimum pass criteria for all 50%+, with scale up to 70%+.
Bibliography
Some selected reading
In Mark Cooper (Ed) The Case Against Media Consolidation. McGannon Center for Communications Research, 2007, 39-62.
W. Lance Bennett, “Toward a Theory of Press-State Relations in the United States,” Journal of Communication 40(2), 1990.
Todd Gitlin. “Media Sociology: The Dominant Paradigm” Theory and Society, Vol. 6, No. 2 (Sep., 1978), pp. 205-253.
Prospects for the media
Clay Shirky. “Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable,” March 13, 2009.
John Nichols and Robert W. McChesney, “How to Save Journalism,” The Nation, January 25, 2010.
Will the Last Reporter Please Turn Out the Lights: The Collapse of Journalism and What Can Be Done to Fix It, New York: New Press, December 2010.
The Anthropology of News and Journalism: Global Perspectives. Edited by S. Elizabeth Bird.
The Audience in Everyday Life: Living in a Media World. Routledge. Bird, Elizabeth. 2003.
Bird, Elizabeth. 2005. “The journalist as ethnographer? How ethnography can enrich journalistic practice.” In Media Anthropology Eric Rothenbuehler and Mihai Comans, eds. Sage.
Grindal, Bruce T., and Robin Rhodes. 1987. Journalism and Anthropology share several similarities. Journalism Educator 41(4):4, 11-13, 38.
Hannerz, Ulf. 2002. “Among the foreign correspondents : reflections on anthropological styles and audiences. Ethnos 67(1): 57-74.
Hannerz, Ulf. 2005. Foreign News: Exploring the World of Foreign Correspondents. University of Chicago Press.
Pedelty, Mark. 1995. War Stories: The Culture of Foreign Correspondents. New York: Routledge.
Peterson, Mark Allen. 1993. Anthropology and the fourth estate. Anthropology Today 9(4): 20-21
Peterson, Mark Allen. 2001 Getting to the story: Off-the-record discourse and interpretive practice in American journalism. Anthropological Quarterly 74(4): 201-211.
Verscheuren, Jeff. 1985. International News Reporting: Metapragmatic Metaphors and the U-2. Philadelphia: Benjamin.
Performative journalism
The Anthropology of News and Journalism: Global Perspectives. Edited by S. Elizabeth Bird.
Bird, Elizabeth. 2005. “The journalist as ethnographer? How ethnography can enrich journalistic practice.” In Media Anthropology Eric Rothenbuehler and Mihai Comans, eds. Sage.
Boyer, Dominic C. 2001 “The Impact and Embodiment of Western Expertise in the Restructuring of the Eastern German Media after 1990.” Anthropology of East Europe Review 19(1):77-84.
Cotter, Colleen. 2001. “Discourse and media.” In Handbook of Discourse Analysis. Deborah Schiffrin, Deborah Tannen and Heidi E. Hamilton, eds. Cambridge, MA, and Oxford, UK: Blackwell: 416-436.
Cotter, Colleen. 2001. “The pragmatic implications of ‘boilerplate’ in news coverage of California’s immigration and race discrimination initiatives.” In Georgetown University Round Table 1999 Proceedings. James Alatis, ed. Washington, DC.: Georgetown University Press. 187-202.
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: