Politics, Power, and the Media
Academic Year 2005/06
Teachers - Location - Office Hours and Contact Details - Time Table - Aims - Assessement - Preliminary Reading - Sessions & Readings - Download Syllabus
Teachers
Module Leader: Professor John Keane (with Giovanni
Navarria and Dr Simon Joss and Dr Mark
Harrison)
Location
Centre for the Study of Democracy,
32 Wells Street, Westminster Forum,
Monday, 6-9 pm, Starting 16 January 2006
Office Hours and Contacts
Office Hours
Tuesday 1-2 pm, by appointment
Tel: 020 7911 5000 ext. 7608
John Keane: jk@johnkeane.net
Giovanni Navarria: giovanninavarria@gmail.com
Time Table 2006
16 January
Welcome; Complex Democracy, Communicative Abundance and Bruno Latour’s Making Things Public23 January
Gutenberg’s World; Habermas on the Rise and Fall of the Public Sphere30 January
Public Service Broadcasting; Murdoch’s World6 February
Journalism Across Borders13 February
The Logic of Media Events: the case of the BBC and China (MH)20 February
The Internet Galaxy (GN)27 February
Government, Media, and Power in the Age of the Internet (GN)6 March
A New Politics? (GN)13 March
Threats to Complex Democracy20 March
Risk and Public Accountability (SJ)27 March
Freedom of Speech?3 April
Course summary
Aims
The aim of this course of seminars and discussions is to familiarise students with the growing political role in modern times of communications media such as newspapers, books, radio, television, and computers. Drawing upon the familiar thesis that the struggle to create a public sphere and to define and influence public opinion is a distinctive feature of modern European societies, the course highlights several different interpretations of the way in which communications media now envelop such bodies as governments, businesses, churches and political parties, as well as serve as means of forming and representing citizens' opinions and distributing power. The course examines the historical development of modern communications media, from the advent of print culture through to today’s digital and multi-media revolution. The course raises questions about why we study communications media and it introduces students to the works of such leading scholars as Bruno Latour, Marshall McLuhan, Jürgen Habermas, Stanley Fish and Manuel Castells. Special emphasis will be given to the twin concepts of public sphere and democracy, and to the actual and potential roles played by communications media in nurturing and sustaining - and undermining - democratic institutions.
Particular topics covered include the effects of print culture; early modern criticisms of absolute monarchy and struggles for publicity; the rise and decline of the public service broadcasting model; global media conglomerates, advertising and the revival of ‘freedom of choice’ as a central slogan of contemporary market liberalism; old and new forms of political accountability and government censorship; the Internet and other forms of networked communications; communicative abundance; new types of journalism; global publics; the meanings of ‘freedom of expression’; and the need for a new understanding of the vexed relationship between the media and power in complex democratic societies.
Assessement
Students are required to write one essay of around 5,000 words in length. The essay should be typed, with footnotes and a bibliography. The deadline for the essay is Thursday 6 April, 2006. Please note CSD’s regulations about plagiarism.
Preliminary Reading
Saramago, José: The Tale of the Unknown Island (The Harvill Press, London 1999)
* John Keane, The Media and Democracy (Blackwell 1999), introduction: here
* Bruno Latour, Making Things Public, introduction: here
* John Keane, Complex Democracy?: herePlease note that asterisked reading is compulsory. As far as possible, all of it is posted on the course blackboard: here. All other reading listed is available from either the University of Westminster library or the Internet and other London libraries, use of which is strongly encouraged.
Sessions & Readings
1. Introduction : Complex Democracy and Communicative Abundance
Seminar/Essay Topic : What are the principal effects of the growth of media-saturated societies?
Readings :
* Bruno Latour, Making Things Public , introduction here
* Manuel Castells, ‘The Culture of Real Virtuality', in The Rise of The Network Society (Blackwell , 1996), pp. 327-375. here
* John Keane, Public Life in the Era of Communicative Abundance here
* John Keane, Complex Democracy? here
John Keane, Whatever Happened to Democracy? (IPPR, London 2002; here)
Paul Starr, The Creation of the Media: Political Origins of Modern Communications
Horace Newcomb and Paul M. Hirsch, ‘Television as a Cultural Forum', in Horace Newcomb (ed.), Television : The Critical View , 5 th edition (Oxford University Press) pp. 503-515
Lincoln Dahlberg, ‘Democracy via cyberspace. Mapping the rhetorics and practices of three prominent camps', New Media and Society 3, 2 (2001), pp. 187-207
Nicholas Negroponte, Being Digital here
James Slevin, The Internet and Society
Joshua Gamson, ‘Why I Love Trash', Freaks Talk Back (The University of Chicago Press, 1998), pp. 3-26
Michael X. Delli Carpini and Bruce A. Williams, ‘Let Us Infotain You : Politics in the New Media Environment', from W. Lance Bennett and Robert M. Entman (eds.), Mediated Politics. Communication in the Future of Democracy ( Cambridge University Press, 2001), pp. 160-181
Kalle Lasn, ‘Introduction : Culture Jamming', Culture Jam (Quill, 1999), pp. xi-xvii
John Durham Peters, ‘A Squeeze of the Hand', Speaking Into The Air. A History of the Idea of Communication (The University of Chicago Press, 1999), pp. 263-271
W.J.T. Mitchell, ‘Representation', from Critical Terms for Literary Study (University of Chicago Press 1995), pp. 11-21
2. Gutenberg's World; Habermas on the Rise and Fall of the Public Sphere
Seminar/Essay Topic : How significant was the rise of print culture and invention of the printing press? Are the publics they enabled now in long-term decline?
Readings :
* Elizabeth Eisenstein, ‘Some Features of Print Culture' in The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe ( Cambridge 1983), pp. 41-64, 78-91
Patrick Collinson, The Reformation , chapter 3
Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, ‘The Journalism of Assertion', Warp Speed (The Century Foundation Press, 1999), pp. 1-9
Michael Schudson, ‘Three Hundred Years of the American Newspaper', from The Power of the News (Harvard University Press, 1995), pp. 37-52
George Steiner, ‘After the Book?', in On Difficulty and Other Essays (Oxford University Press 1978), pp. 186-203
John Keane, Tom Paine. A Political Life (Little Brown 1995), pp. 101-119
Henri-Jean Martin, The History and Power of Writing
* Jürgen Habermas, ‘The Public Sphere', New German Critique , 3 (1974). here
John Keane, ‘Structural Transformations of the Public Sphere', The Communication Review , volume 1, 1 (1995), pp 1-22 (and the following debate)
* John Keane, Public Life in the Era of Communicative Abundance here
* John B. Thompson, ‘The Theory of the Public Sphere : A Preliminary Assessment', from The Media and Modernity (Polity Press, 1995), pp. 69-75
Calhoun, Craig (ed.) Habermas and the Public Sphere
Keane, J. The Media and Democracy
Keane, J. Whatever Happened to Democracy? here
Habermas, J. Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere
Lippmann, Walter The Phantom Public
Hartley, John The Politics of Pictures. The Creation of the Public in the Age of Popular Media
Herman, E and McChesney, R The Global Media
Claude Fischer, ‘Personal Calls, Personal Meanings', from America Calling : A Social History of the Telephone to 1940 (University of California Press 1992)
3. Twentieth-Century Public Service Broadcasting
Seminar/Essay Topic : Does public service broadcasting still make a difference in such matters as programming, audiences and politics?
Readings :
Scannell, Paddy ‘Public Service Broadcasting: History of a Concept', in A Goodwin and G Whannel (eds.) Understanding Television .
* Scannell, Paddy ‘Public Service Broadcasting and modern public life', Media, Culture and Society , 11, 2, (1989), pp135-166.
Mulgan, Geoff ‘Television's Holy Grail: Seven Types of Quality.' in G. Mulgan (ed.) The Question of Quality . (pp 4-32).
Carey, J. Communication as Culture: Essays on Media and Society
* Keane, John The Media and Democracy , pp 116-127
Scannell, P. ‘Music for the Multitude? The Dilemmas of the BBC's Music Policy, 1923-1946'. Media Culture and Society , 3 (1082), 263-60.
Scannell, P and A Social History of British Broadcasting .
Cardiff , D.
Meyrowitz, Joshua No Sense of Place (Parts 1 and 5)
Lippmann, Walter The Phantom Public
Blumler, Jay (ed) Television and the Public Interest: Vulnerable Values in West European Broadcasting
Garnham, Nicholas ‘Media and the Public Sphere', in Peter Golding et.al. (eds.), Communicating Politics
Bondheim, Menahem News Over the Wires. The Telegraph and the Flow of Public Information in America , 1844-1897
BBC, The Future of Public Service Broadcasting ( London , 2004)
*‘Rupert Murdoch', http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Murdoch
4. Journalism Across Borders
Seminar/Essay Topic : ‘Global media cultivate passive global audiences who are taught to swoon, consume, and forget their own local culture'. Discuss.
Readings :
* Manuel Castells, ‘The Culture of Real Virtuality', in The Rise of The Network Society (Blackwell , 1996), pp. 327-375. here
John B. Thompson, ‘The Globalization of Communication', The Media and Modernity (Polity Press, 1995), pp. 149-178
* John Keane, Journalism and Democracy Across Borders here
Michael Ignatieff, ‘Is Nothing Sacred? The Ethics of Television', from The Warrior's Honor (Chatto and Windus1998), pp.9-33
Peter Golding, ‘Worldwide Wedge : Division and Contradiction in the Global Information Infrastructure', in Daya Kishan Thussu (ed.), Electronic Empires ( Arnold Press 1998), pp. 135-148
Meyrowitz, Joshua No Sense of Place (Oxford University Press, 1985)
De Sola Pool, I. Technologies of Freedom (Harvard University Press, London 1983)
De Sola Pool, I. (ed) Technologies without boundaries: on Telecommunications in a global age (Harvard University Press, 1990)
Hallin, Daniel We Keep America on Top of the World: Television Journalism and the Public Sphere
McLuhan, Marshall and The Global Village: transformations in world life and
* ‘Rupert Murdoch', Wikipedia Article: Here
5. How the Media Writes History and Makes Knowledge: the case of the BBC's ‘ China Week' (MH)
Seminar/Essay Topic : Drawing upon materials held in the CSD archives (available on request) and provided by other parts of the course, write an account of the BBC's ‘ China Week'.
* Reading Here
6. The Internet Galaxy (GN)
Seminar/Essay Topic : Discuss the claim of Manuel Castells that the Internet has the ‘ability to distribute the power of information throughout the entire realm of human activity' and that therefore ‘we have left the Gutenberg Galaxy and we have ‘now entered' a new world of communication: the Internet Galaxy.'
Readings :
*Manuel Castells, The Internet Galaxy , Oxford University Press, 2001, pp. 1-63; 116-187; 275-282
*Barry M. Leiner et al., A Brief History of the Internet, (Internet Society 2001) available online here or PDF back up here
*Terhi Rantanen "The message is the medium: An interview with Manuel Castells," Global Media and Communication , Volume 1(2): 135-147, 2005. here
* Manuel Castells, ‘The Information Technology Revolution' (pp 29-64) and ‘The Culture of Real Virtuality' (pp. 327-375), in The Rise of The Network Society ( Blackwell, 1996). here
* Manuel Castells, ‘Informationalism, Networks, and the Network Society: A Theoretical Blueprint' in Manuel Castells (Ed.) The Network Society: a cross-cultural perspective , Northampton , MA : Edward Elgar, 2004. here
* Phil Agre, ‘Real-Time Politics: The Internet and the Political Process', in The Information Society , 18: 3111-331, 2002. here
Marshall McLuhan, The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man .
Michael Margolis and David Resnick, ‘The Internet, Mass Media, and Public Opinion' (pp. 99-116) and ‘Democracy and Cyberspace: A Peek into the Future' (pp. 205-224) in Politics As Usual – The Cyberspace “Revolution” (Sage Publications Inc. 2000) here
Sara Bentivegna, ‘Politics and New Media' from Leah A. Lievrouw and Sonia Livingston (Eds.) Handbook of New Media (Sage Publications Inc. 2000) pp. 50-61.
Pippa Norris, ‘The Democratic Divide' in Digital Divide. Civic Engagement, Information Poverty, and the Internet Worldwide ( Cambridge University Press 2001) pp. 193-240. An electronic version is available online at Pippa Norris's official website: here
Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon, Where Wizards Stay Up Late. The Origins of the Internet.
Christopher D. Hunter. (2000). The Internet and the Public Sphere: Revitalization or Decay? Virginia Journal of Communication, 12, 93-127.
7. Government, Media, and Power in the Age of the Internet (GN)
Seminar/Essay Topic: To what extent is the Internet changing the balance of power between governments and their subjects?
Readings :
*Giovanni Navarria, ‘The Three Faces of Government in the Age of the Internet and the future of Activism within a condition of shared weakness'.EastBound, 2006, Vol. 1, Num. 1, pp: 124-152. here
*Rachel Silcock, ‘What is e–Government?', in Parliament Affairs , 54, no. 1 (January 2001): 88-101. here
Greg Walton, 2001, China's Golden Shield: Corporations and the Development of Surveillance Technology in the People's Republic of China, Report published by Rights & Democracy, International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development. Available at: here
Jane E. Fountain, Building the Virtual State: Information Technology and Institutional Change ( Washington , D.C. : Brookings Institution Press), 2001
Max Weber, ‘Bureaucracy', in H. H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills (eds.), From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology , London : Routledge
Michel Foucault, ‘Governmentality' in Graham Burchell, Colin Gordon and Peter Miller (eds) The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality , Hemel Hempstead : Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1991, pp. 87–104
Michel Foucault, 1978, The History of Sexuality – an Introduction Vol. 1 ,
Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison , NY: Vintage Books. Especially the section on Panopticism. An electronic version of this text is available online at the following address: http://cartome.org/foucault.htm
Mitchell Dean, 1999, Governmentality: power and rule in modern society
Pippa Norris, 2001, Digital Divide: Civic Engagement, Information Poverty and the Internet in Democratic Societies , New York : Cambridge University Press. Especially the 6 th chapter on e-governance. An electronic version is available online at Pippa Norris's official website: here.
Pippa Norris, 2003, ‘Deepening Democracy via E-Governance', contribution to the UN World Public Sector Report , the text of this chapter is available at Professor Norris's official website: here
Shanthi Kalathil, ‘Dot Com for Dictators', in Foreign Policy Magazine , March/April 2003, also available at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Web address: here
Martha McCaughey and Michael Ayers, Eds. Cyberactivism . Routledge, 2003.
Graham Meikle, Future Active: Media Activism and the Internet (Routledge, 2003),
* John Naughton, ‘Contested Space: The Internet and Global Civil Society', in in Helmut Anheier, Marlies Glasius, and Mary Kaldor (eds.), Global Civil Society 2001 , Oxford University Press, 2001. here
Stephen Coleman, The Network-Empowered Citizen - How people share civic knowledge online. Paper presented at Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) Seminar: “From Grass Roots to Networks: the role of social capital in political Participation”. Available at IPPR website: here
*Phil Agre, ‘Real-Time Politics: The Internet and the Political Process', in The Information Society , 18: 3111-331, 2002. here
Wellman B. and Haythornthwaite C. (eds.), 2004, The Internet in Everyday Life , Oxford : Blackwell Publishing. Especially: pp. 1-41.
8. A New Politics? (GN)
Seminar/Essay Topic: Is the Internet really changing the contemporary dynamics of political engagements, or is it just politics as usual?
Readings :
*Michael Margolis and David Resnick, ‘The Internet, Mass Media, and Public Opinion' (pp. 99-116) and ‘Democracy and Cyberspace: A Peek into the Future' (pp. 205-224) in Politics As Usual – The Cyberspace “Revolution” (Sage Publications Inc. 2000)
Martha McCaughey and Michael Ayers, Eds. Cyberactivism . Routledge, 2003. Especially the Introduction (1-21) and Chapter 3: Sandor Vegh, “Classifying Forms of Online Activism: the Case of Cyberprotests against the World Bank” (71-95)
Graham Meikle, Future Active: Media Activism and the Internet (Routledge, 2003),
Stephen Coleman, The Network-Empowered Citizen - How people share civic knowledge online. Paper presented at Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) Seminar: “From Grass Roots to Networks: the role of social capital in political Participation”. Available at IPPR website: here
Phil Agre, ‘Real-Time Politics: The Internet and the Political Process', in The Information Society , 18: 3111-331, 2002. here
Manuel Castells, ‘The Information Technology Revolution' (pp 29-64) and ‘The Culture of Real Virtuality' (pp. 327-375), in The Rise of The Network Society ( Blackwell, 1996).
John Naughton, ‘Contested Space: The Internet and Global Civil Society', in in Helmut Anheier, Marlies Glasius, and Mary Kaldor (eds.), Global Civil Society 2001 , Oxford University Press, 2001. here
Pippa Norris, ‘The Democratic Divide' in Digital Divide. Civic Engagement, Information Poverty, and the Internet Worldwide ( Cambridge University Press 2001) pp. 193-240. An electronic version is available online at Pippa Norris's official website: here
Stephen Coleman and John Gotze, Bowling Together: Online Public Engagement in Policy Deliberation, Hansard Society 2001, (the printed version is no longer available, but the report is available online at here
Dorothy E. Denning , Activism, Hacktivism, and Cyberterrorism: The Internet as a Tool for Influencing Foreign Policy , 1999. This text is available at: here
David Ronfeldt, John Arguilla, Graham E. Fuller and Melissa Fuller, The Zapatista Social Netwar in Mexico, 1998, Rand Corporation. The full text of this research is available at: here
Michael Cornfield, Politics Moves Online , (The Century Foundation Press) Especially pp. 1-22 and 97-122
Joe Tippi, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised : Democracy, the Internet, and the Overthrow of Everything (Reagan Books, 2004)
9 . Threats to Complex Democracy : New Approaches
Seminar/Essay Topic : Assess the claim by Bruno Latour that the struggle for publicity – ‘Dingpolitik' - is the central political priority of our times.
* Bruno Latour, Making Things Public , introduction
* John Keane, Complex Democracy?
* John Keane, Democracy : The Rule of Nobody?
Robert Dahl, On Democracy
* James Curran, What Democracy Requires of the Media here
John Durham Peters, ‘A Squeeze of the Hand', Speaking Into The Air. A History of the Idea of Communication (The University of Chicago Press, 1999), pp. 263-271
Schudson, Michael ‘Why Conversation is Not the Soul of Democracy', Critical Studies in Mass Communication , 14 (1997), pp1-13
Schudson, Michael The Good Citizen
* Michael Schudson, The Good Citizen, especially final sections. If the book is not available you can read the papers presented at the Seigenthaler Conference on Michael Schudson's The Good Citizen. Conference website here, Michael Schudson's paper here, John Keane's response here
W. Lance Bennet and Robert M Entman (eds.), Mediated Politics – Communication in the Future of Democracy
Bob Franklin, Packaging Politics
Nicholas Garnham, ‘The Media and the Public Sphere', in Peter Golding et. al. (eds.), Communicating Politics : mass communications and the political process
Cass Sunstein, Republic.com
Linz , Juan and The Breakdown of Democratic Regimes: Europe . pp A. Stepan (eds) 162-215
Huntington , Samuel P ‘Will More Countries Become Democratic?' Political Science Quarterly , 99 (Summer 1984), pp 209-214.
Friedland, Lewis ‘Electronic democracy and the new citizenship', Media, Culture and Society , volume 18 (1996), pp185-212
Dahl, Robert A Dilemmas of Pluralist Democracy .
Held, David Models of Democracy .
Fishkin, James The Voice of the People: Public Opinion and Democracy
Bobbio, Norberto The Future of Democracy , especially pp 79-97 (on invisible power)
*Keane, John ‘Democracy, Risks and Reversals' in The Media and Democracy . (Part 5).
Lippmann, Walter The Phantom Public
Dahl, Robert Democracy and its Critics .
Macpherson, C B The Life and Times of Liberal Democracy .
McLaughlin, Lisa ‘Feminism, the public sphere, media and democracy', Media, Culture and Society , volume 15, number 4 (October 1993)
Elshtain, Jean Bethke Democracy on Trial
10 . Public Accountability and the 'Third Transformation' of Democracy
Seminar/Essay Topic : How have science and technology contributed to the 'third historic transformation' (Dahl) of democracy? What challenges do new forms of governance – those that represent responses to this transformation - pose to public accountability?
Readings :
*Dahl, R. 1994. “A Democratic Dilemma System Effectiveness versus Citizen Participation.” in Political Science Quarterly , 10 (1): pp 23-34.
*Joss S. 2004. “Between Policy and Politics. Or: whatever do Weapons of Mass Destruction Have to Do with GM Crops? The UK 's GM Nation Public Debate as an Example of Participatory Governance.” In Maasen, S. and Weingart P. (eds), The 2003 Yearbook of the Sociology of Science
Grote, J.R. and Gbikp, B (eds). 2002. Participatory Governance, Political and Societal Implications
European Commission. 2001. European Governance – A White paper
European Commission. 2001 Towards a European Research Area
Grove-White, R. Macnaghten, P. and Wynne, B.200. Wising Up. The Public and New Technologies. A research report by the Centre for the Study of Environmental Change
Irwin, A. 1995. Citizen Science. A Study of People, Expertise and Sustainable Development
Sclove, R 1995. Democracy and Technology
11. Freedom of Speech?
Seminar/ Essay Topic: Why is Stanley Fish so hostile to the principle of freedom of speech? Are his objections coherent?
Readings :
* Fish, Stanley ‘There's No Such Thing as Free Speech ... and it's a Good Thing Too' , introduction
Fish, Stanley ‘Boutique Multiculturalism, or why Liberals are Incapable of thinking about Hate and Speech', Critical Inquiry 23 (Winter 1997)
Schauer, Frederick ‘The First Amendment as Ideology' William and Mary Law Review , 33, 3 (1992)
Dworkin, Ronald ‘The Coming Battles over Free Speech' New York Review of Books , June 11 1992 , p56
* Stanley Fish, ‘There is No Such Thing as Free Speech : An Interview with Stanley Fish', from the Australian Humanities Review (here)
John Keane, Vaclav Havel: A Political Tragedy in Six Acts (Basic Books, 2000), pp. 427 - 436
Kent Greenawalt, Fighting Words: Individuals, Communities, and Liberties of Speech (Princeton University Press 1995), pp. 47-64
12. Course Summary
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