Mon, 12 Jan

Course Objectives

To cultivate a critical and scholarly approach to communication theories that address some aspect of persuasion, propaganda, and persuasive messages as all of these phenomena occur within amass mediated context.

Intended Audience

This class is intended only for Masters candidates pursuing a graduate degree in the Professional Communication program.

Course Policies

See course policies for more information. These policies are subject to change and not all of them may apply to this class.

Assignments

Paper #1 (100 points; due Wed 3 Mar)

For this 1250 – 2000 word (approximately 5 – 8 pages) argument-driven paper, you will develop a thesis regarding how persuasion takes place - or doesn’t take place - by analyzing a mediated text of your choosing and applying one or more of the theoretical approaches covered in class as a way to better understand the persuasive process taking or not taking place. The text may be any cultural artifact of your choosing – a film, an episode from a television series, a photograph, an advertisement, or something else negotiated with the instructor. Be certain to choose a text with which you are familiar and which you can knowledgeably analyze its techniques and textual strategies in a detailed, specific, and logical fashion. You may apply one or more of the theorists covered in the first half of the class: Carey, Milgram, Latour, Gramsci, Mouffe, Horkheimer, Adorno, Althusser, Barthes, or another theoretical approach negotiated with the instructor. For more information on general expectations regarding an argument-driven paper, see the course policies.

Paper #2 (200 points; due Wed 28 Apr)

For this 2000 – 2500 word (approximately 8 – 10 pages) argument-driven literature review, you will develop a clearly stated thesis that does the following: makes a claim regarding how one or more of the theoretical approaches covered in class gets used in subsequent academic scholarship to explain how persuasion takes place within a mediated context. You should start by selecting a theorist or set of theorists we have discussed in class, and do a simple keyword search to see how your selected theorist or theorists get invoked in which areas of the Communication discipline. Then, select a subset of articles that cluster around specific issues. For example, feminist scholars tend to use the work of Sigmund Freud in exposing the phallocentrism of culture. In research on the Internet and computer-mediated communication, Marshall McLuhan tends to be cited as an important influence on this field of scholarship. After narrowing your research, select 5-8 scholarly articles and/or books that cite your selected theorist or theorists in ways that you believe are representative, and use selected arguments derived from the work of these theorists to help you make your claim about how one or more of the theoretical approaches covered in class have been applied to explain how mediated persuasion takes place.

Group-Led Discussion (100 points; due Wed 28 Apr)

This will be an informal, group-led discussion of William J. Mitchell’s City of Bits. The class will be split into groups in advance of presentations on that day. Each group will be responsible for developing a list of 5-7 questions concerning a section of the book that are designed to generate discussion.

Scale

Tentative Course Schedule

This schedule is subject to change. Should there be a significant change in the schedule, you will receive advance notification and an opportunity to negotiate an agreed-upon compromise.

Course Objectives

To cultivate a critical and scholarly approach to communication theories that address some aspect of persuasion, propaganda, and persuasive messages as all of these phenomena occur within amass mediated context.

Intended Audience

This class is intended only for Masters candidates pursuing a graduate degree in the Professional Communication program.

Course Policies

See course policies for more information. These policies are subject to change and not all of them may apply to this class.

Assignments

Paper #1 (100 points; due Wed 3 Mar)

Paper #2 (200 points; due Wed 28 Apr)

Group-Led Discussion (100 points; due Wed 28 Apr)

Scale

Tentative Course Schedule