MSTU4010 Spring 2008

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Theories of Communication - Spring 2008

Teachers College • Columbia University

Schedule: Spring 2008
Wednesdays, 5:10 to 6:50 p.m.
308 Lewisohn Hall

MSTU4010 Spring 2008 Course Resources
Description and Requirements
Course Participants and Blogs
Suggestions and Feedback
Class Bibliography

NEWS AND UPDATES
Metropolis Assignment!

Assignment:

You are a curriculum developer and need to come up with a good assignment using the movie Metropolis and our weekly readings.

Requirements:

Your assignment must involve the production of a multimedia essay created out of and around the movie Metropolis, and our weekly readings. Students will use a special online tool called VITAL that allows for easy creation of clips ----

1/23
The Role of Historical Perspective
Required Readings

Calhoun, C., & Spivak, G. "Conceptual Foundations and Changing Realities"; Watch

Create Your Blog

1/30
Placing Contemporary Problems in a Historical Context
Required Readings

Harvey, "The New Imperialism", pp.1-42, 94-108, 169-182; Read

Parak Khanna, Waving Goodbye to hegemony,: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/magazine/27world-t.html?_r=1&ref=magazine&oref=slogin
Interview with David Harvey at Berkeley University: http://www.uctv.tv/search-details.asp?showID=8800
Supplemental Readings
Questions and Discussion

2/6
Ahistorical approaches to contemporary problems. Poverty, Genocide, and the Environment.
Required Readings

The Stern Review Executive Summary; Read
"The Bottom Billion", Required: pp. 3-13 and pp. 79-96; Recommended: pp. 157-192 Read, be sure to see these page fixes
Appadurai, Arjun. "Fear of Small Numbers", pp. 1-85 Read, be sure to see Appadurai Ch.1 fix
Jeff Sacks' lecture, introduction to the global classroom course on sustainable development: https://admin.acrobat.com/_a770334937/p71768697/

Supplemental Readings
Questions and Discussion

2/13
'The Information Society'
Required Readings

Dyson, E., Gilder, G., Keyworth, G., & Toffler, A. "Cyberspace and the American Dream",pp.31-41; Read
Castells, M. "An Introduction to the Information Age", pp.138-149; Read
Castells, M. "The Information City, The New Economy and The Network Society", pp.150-164; Read
Surowiecki, James, "Wisdom of Crowds", Listen
Lanier, J. "Digital Maoism: The Hazards of the New Online Collectivism"; Read

Supplemental Readings
Questions and Discussion

2/20
Theories I
Required Readings

Dewey, John, "The Public and its Problems", whole book [Buy]
"Metropolis", Directed by Fritz Lang; [Watch]

Supplemental Readings
Questions and Discussion

2/27
Required Readings

Benjamin, Walter; "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction", pp. 217-251. Recommended: Hannah Arendt's introduction. Read

Supplemental Readings
Questions and Discussion

3/5
Required Readings

Polanyi, "The Great Transformation", pp. 136-170; Read

Supplemental Readings
Questions and Discussion

3/12
Required Readings

Mills, C. Wright, "The Power Elite", pp.3-29, 269-297; Read

Supplemental Readings
Questions and Discussion

3/26
'Contemporary Exploration I'
Required Readings
Supplemental Readings
Questions and Discussion

4/2
Required Readings

Marcuse, Herbert, "One Dimensional Man", pp.1-55;

Read

New Yorker article, "Out of Print", by Eric Alterman

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/03/31/080331fa_fact_alterman

Supplemental Readings
Questions and Discussion

4/9
Required Readings

Barthes, Rolland, "Mythologies"; [Buy]

Read pp. 109-127 in "Myth Today", as well as "The World of Wrestling", "The 'Blue Blood' Cruise", "The Face of Garbo", "The Nautilus and the Drunken Boat", "The Brain of Einstein", and "Striptease"

Supplemental Readings
Questions and Discussion

4/16
No Class

4/23
Required Readings

Foucault, M., "Panopticism", pp.302-312; Read
Bourdieu, Pierre, "Reproduction", pp.177-210; Read (for some context, read the short preface and foreword pp.vii-xxvii)
Metropolis essay due

Supplemental Readings
Questions and Discussion

4/30
Required Readings

Habermas, J., "The Public Sphere", pp.350-365; Read
Papacharissi, Z., "The Virtual Sphere", pp.379-392; Read

Supplemental Readings
Questions and Discussion

5/7
'Contemporary Exploration II and Summary'
Required Readings
Supplemental Readings
Questions and Discussion

Schedule: Fall 2008
Wednesdays, 5:10 to 6:50 p.m.
308 Lewisohn Hall

9/x
Interrogation of the Present I: Introduction
Required Readings

Ernest Hemingway, "Indian Camp"; (Handout)
Johnson, Chalmers, Blowback, Sorrows of Empire, Nemesis

9/x
Interrogation of the Present II: Utopia or Dystopia
Required Readings

Dyson, Freeman "Our Biotech Future"; Read;
W.J.T. Mitchell, "Work of Art in an Age of Cybernetic Reproduction"; Read
Gray, John, "The World is Round"; Read
Friedman, Thomas, The World is Flat; Read

Questions and Discussion

9/x

Required Readings

Cass Sunstein, Infotopia: How Many Minds Produce Knowledge, Ch.1-3; Read
Eben Moglen, "The Dot Communist Manifesto"; Read
Lanier, J., "Digital Maoism: The Hazards of the New Online Collectivism"; Read

Questions and Discussion

9/x
Required Readings

Homer, The Iliad, Ch.1,9,22,24; Read
Hesiod, Theogony, pp. 53-82; Read
Havelock, Eric, Preface to Plato; (Handout).

Supplemental Readings
Questions and Discussion