Lahore University of Management Sciences POL 420 Media & Politics Spring 2010 Instructor: Mohammad Waseem Office Hours: TBA Office: 217 ext 8056 Email: waseem@lums.edu.pk (N.B: this course outline is tentative; more sessions will be added before it is finally delivered) Course description: The course deals with an extremely important yet relatively less visible connection between media and politics. In the contemporary world, media s power of making and shaping public profiles of political parties and leaders as well as the national agenda has been widely acknowledged. The purpose of this course is to apprise students of the conceptual and comparative research in the field of the close relationship between media on the one hand and the political discourse, voting patterns, and public response to official policies on the other. We shall also study this relationship in the context of Pakistan. Course objectives: 1. To develop consciousness about the nature and character of the changing forms of the print and electronic media; 2. To introduce students to the all-encompassing role of political communication in the perspective of the media s role in shaping public opinion as well as in the state s manipulation of the media for establishing its control; and 3. To look at the mode of operation of the media in Pakistan. Grading: Attendance 15% Quiz 20% Assignment 25% Final Exam 40% Session 1: Introduction: Media and Politics
Session 2: Media: Production and Distribution John B. Thompson, The Media and Modernity: A Social Theory of the Media, 1995, Cambridge, 44 80 Christopher Harper, Journalism in a Digital Age, in Democracy and New Media, edited by Henry Jenkins and David Thorburn, 2004, Massachusetts, 271 280 Session 3: Political Communication Everett M. Rogers, Theoretical Diversity in Political Communication, in Handbook of Political Communication Research, Edited by Lynda Lee Kaid, 2003, London, 3-16 Brian McNair, An Introduction to Political Communication, 1995, New York, 67-82 John Street, Mass Media, Politics and Democracy, 2001, New York, 145-162 Session 4: Press Effects Brian McNair, An Introduction to Political Communication, 1995, New York, 27 42 John Street, Mass Media, Politics and Democracy, 2001, New York, 80 99 Session 5: Media and Democracy John Street, Mass Media, Politics and Democracy, 2001, New York, 212 230 Sanford J. Ungar, The Role of a Free Press in Strengthening Democracy, in Democracy and the Mass Media, edited by Judith Lichtenberg, 1990, Cambridge, 368-399 Benjamin R. Barber, Which Technology and Which Democracy?, in Democracy and New Media, edited by Henry Jenkins and David Thorburn, 2004, Massachusetts, 33 49 Session 6: Media: The Agenda-Setting Role David H. Weaver, Thoughts on Agenda Setting, Framing, and Priming, Journal of Communication, 57 (2007), 142 147 Session 7: Media and Policy Makers Doris A. Graber and James Smith, Political Communication Faces the 21 st Century, Journal of Communication, 55 (2003), No. 3, 479 507 Session 8: Media and Foreign Policy
Douglas A. Van Belle, The Press and Foreign Policy, in Press Freedom and Global Politics, 2000, London, 25-45 Derek B. Miller, Toward a Theory of Media Pressure, Media Pressure on Foreign Policy, 2007, New York, 43 64 Session 9: The News Jan E. Leighly, The News Product and the Models of the Mass Media, in Mass Media and Politics, 2004, New York, 47 70 W. Lance Bennet, News: The Politics of Illusion, 2005, New York, 36-74 Session 10: Presentation of Class Assignments Session 11: Media Barons W. Lance Bennet, The Political Economy of News in News: The Politics of Illusion, Sixth Edition, 2005, New York, ch. 3, 74-112 Session 12: Control Over Media John Street, State Control and State Propoganda in Mass Media, Politics and Democracy, 2001, New York, 103 123 Noam Chomsky, Public Relations, Engineering Opinion and Representation as Reality, in Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propoganda, 2004, New York, 22 37 Session 13: Media in Western Societies Ralph Negrine, The Professionalisation of Political Communication in Europe, The Professionalization of Political Communication: Changing Media, Changing Europe Volume 3, Edited by R. Negrine, P. Mancini, C. Holtz-Bacha and S. Papathanassopoulos, 2007, Chicago, 27-45 David L. Swanson, Transnational Trends in Political Communication: Conventional Views and New Realities Comparing Political Communication: Theories, Cases and Challenges, edited by Frank Esser and Barbara Pfetsch, 2004, Cambridge, 45 62 Session 14: Media in Non-Western Societies Hedwig de Smaele, In the Name of Democracy: The Paradox of Democracy and Press Freedom in Post-Communist Russia, in Mass Media and Political Communication in New Democracies, Edited by Katrine Volmer, 2006, New York, 35-48
Silvio Waisbord, In Journalism We Trust?, in Mass Media and Political Communication in New Democracies, Edited by Katrine Volmer, 2006, New York, 64-77 Session 15: Global Media Regime John B. Thompson, The Globalization of Communication in The Media and Modernity: A Social Theory of the Media, 1995, Cambridge, 149 175 John Street, Dreamworlds: Gloabalization and the Webs of Power, in Mass Media, Politics and Democracy, 2001, New York, 163 181 Session 16: International Political Communication Ingrid Volkmer, Beyond the Global and the Local: Media Systems and Journalism in the Global Network Paradigm, Democracy and New Media, edited by Henry Jenkins and David Thorburn, 2004, Massachusetts, 309 330 Brian McNair, International Political Communication in An Introduction to Political Communication, 1995, New York, 169 199 Session 17: Media and the Internet Manual Castells, Prologue: The Net and the Self, in The Rise of the Network Society, 1996, Massachusetts, 1 25 Howard Rheingold, Smart Mobs: The Power of the Mobile Many, The Political Communication Reader, Edited by Ralph Negrine and James Stanyer, 2007, New York, 284 290 Tiffany Danitz and Warren P. Strobel, Networking Dissent: Cyber Activists Use the Internet to Promote Democracy in Burma, The Political Communication Reader, Edited by Ralph Negrine and James Stanyer, 2007, New York, 290 296 Session 18: Media in Pakistan: Political Discourse Rai Shakil Akhtar, Nature and Dynamics of Media Discourse, Media, Religion and Politics in Pakistan, 2000, Oxford, 78 98 Session 19: Media in Pakistan: Legal and Street Violence Zamir Niazi, Night of Regimentation, in Press in Chains, 1986, Karachi, 79 131 Zamir Niazi, The Shackles of Fear, The Press Under Siege, 1992, Karachi, 174 199