Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California
Communication (COMM) 630, Spring Semester 2001
The course will focus on the extension and discussion of required readings and student assignments and term papers. The syllabus provides a general outline and schedule for these readings, but this may need to be adjusted in response to such developments, as opportunities to hear from guest speakers, and the availability of readings.
1. Introduction (8 January)
Overview of the aims and requirements of this course, including an introduction to some basic issues, programs, and concepts, such as:
I will briefly introduce a proposal for a new research program on the 'e-society', which aims to focus on the restructuring of practices and institutions in the digital age.
Required Reading:
Course syllabus
Survey course readings, and overview PICT, VS? and eSociety Programs
Begin reading Petroski (1999)
Supplementary Readings:
Dutton (1996): xx-xxv, 1-16.
Wakeford, N.
(2000), 'New Media, New Methodologies: Studying the Web', pp. 31-41 in
Gauntlett, D. (ed.), Web.Studies: Rewiring Media Studies for the Digital Age
(London: Arnold).
2. The Social Impact of ICTs: Early and Contemporary Debate(15 January)
We will discuss early debate and literature on the social impacts of information and communication technologies, which at that time was focused on the impact of computers and telecommunications.
Required Reading:
Castells (2001): 1-8.
Dutton (1999): Preface and Chapters 1-2.
Supplementary Readings:
Mesthene, E. (1969), 'The Role of Technology in Society', reprinted in
Teich, A. H. (2000) (ed.), Technology and the Future, 8th Edition (Boston:
Bedford/St. Martin's).
Pool, Ithiel de Sola (1977), The Social Impact of the Telephone
(Cambridge, MA: MIT Press): 1-9 and passim.
3. The Information Society (22 January)
The class will discuss Daniel Bell's seminal work on the post-industrial society to raise key issues for him and for related debate on the concept of an 'information society'. How does it compare with Castell's notions of an informational society?
Required Reading:
Castells (2000): Prologue and Chapters 1-2
Dutton (1999): review 29-35.
Supplementary Reading:
Bell, D. (1999, orig. 1973), The Coming of Post-Industrial Society: A Venture
in Social Forecasting (New York: Basic Books).
Miles, I., 'The Information Society' in Dutton (1996): 37-52.
4. Critical Perspectives on the Information Society (29 January)
The information society represented a major challenge to accepted theory and research in such fields as sociology, anchored in conceptions of an industrial society. Debate over the existence or coming of an 'information society' has been lively and has generated a number of competing perspectives on the social and economic implications of ICTs.
Required Readings:
Castells (2000): Chapter 3.
Dutton (1999): review 1-46.
Supplementary Reading:
Freeman, C. (1996), 'The Two-Edged Nature of Technical Change', in Dutton (1996): 19-36.
Beniger, J. (1989), 'The Evolution of Control', in Forester, T. (1989) (ed.),
Computers in the Human Context (Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press).
Postman, N. "Technopoly: The Broken Defenses", pp. 13-25 in Teich (2000).
Hiltz, S. R., and Turoff, M. (1978), The Network Nation: Human Communication Via
Computers (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley).
5. Social Impacts: Reliance, Dependency, and Access (5 February)
Studies of the implications of ICTs have a long tradition, but are roundly criticized for not focusing attention on the social factors shaping the design as well as the impact of technology. Notwithstanding this criticism, the case can be made that technologies, like ICTs, make a difference, such as by shaping patterns of reliance and dependency (Rochlin 1997), globalization (Castells 2000) and tele-access (Dutton 1999). Are there biases to oral, written and electronic media of communication? Are electronic media inherently more democratic than older mass media of communication? We will look particularly at the biases attributed to ICTs.
Required Readings:
Castells (2000): 460-499.
Dutton (1999): 49-78.
Winner, L., 'Do Artifacts Have Politics?', pp. 150-167 in
Teich, A. H. (2000) (ed.), Technology and the Future, 8th Edition (Boston:
Bedford/St. Martin's).
Proposal for the e-Society
Recommended Readings:
de Sola Pool, I. (1983), Technologies of Freedom (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press): 1-22.
Innis, H. (1951), The Bias of Communication (Un. of Toronto Press): 33-61, 190-195.
Innis, H. (1972), Empire and Communications (Toronto: University of Toronto Press):
53-170.
McLuhan, M. (1994, orig. 1964), Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (Cambridge,
Massachusetts: The MIT Press): 3-21.
Rochlin, G. (1997), Trapped in the Net: the Unanticipated Consequences of Computerization
(Princeton: Princeton Un. Press): 1-73, and 210-218.
6. The Social Shaping of Technology (SST) (12 February)
Social scientists study the production or development of ICTs as well as its use and consumption. To what degree are social and political outcomes designed into technology? What factors shape their invention, design, development and diffusion? How can we study the actors, policies, and interests shaping technological change?
Required Readings:
Castells (2001): Chapters 1-2, pp. 9-63.
Dutton (1999): 79-109.
Petroski (1999), entire book.
Supplementary Readings:
MacKenzie, D., and Wajcman, J. (1988) (eds), The Social Shaping of Technology.
(Milton Keynes: Open Un. Press): 2-25.
Pinch, T., and Bijker, W. (1989), 'The Social Construction of Facts and Artifacts' in
Bijker, W. E., Hughes, T. P., and Pinch, T. (1989) (eds), The Social Construction of
Technological Systems (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press): 18-50.
Williams, R. and Edge, D. 'The Social Shaping of Technology' in Dutton (1996): 53-67.
Woolgar, S., 'Technologies as Cultural Artefacts' in Dutton (1996): 87-102.
7. Management: Productivity in Virtual and Network Organizations (19 February)
Are ICTs improving the productivity of organizations? Creating new kinds of organizations? Changing what organizations produce as well as how they do it?
Required Reading:
Castells (2001): Chapter 3, pp. 64-115.
Dutton (1999): 113-40.
Castells, M. (2000): Chapter 3, 163-215.
Recommended Reading:
Coombs and Hull, 'The Politics of IT in Organizations' in Dutton (1996): 159-76.
Freeman, C., 'Factory of the Future' in Dutton (1996): 123-41.
8. The Changing Nature of the Workplace: Who Does What and Where? (26 February)
As more interpersonal communication is mediated in networked organizations, how will the work, geography, and culture of the organization be reconfigured? Are particular cultures, genders, ages advantaged in the ICT intensive workplace?
Required Readings:
Castells, M. (2000): 216-354.
Dutton (1999): 141-69.
Castells (2001): Chapter 8, pp. 207-246.
Supplementary Readings:
Goddard and Richardson, 'Why Geography Will Still Matter: What Jobs Go Where?' in
Dutton (1996): 196-214.
Short, J., Williams, E., and Christie, B. (1976), The Social Psychology of
Telecommunications (New York: John Wiley).
Rochlin, G. 'Expert Operators and Critical Tasks' in Rochlin, G. I. (1997),
Trapped in the Net (Princeton: Princeton Un. Press): 108-30.
Webster, J., 'Revolution in the Office?' in Dutton (1996): 143-58.
9. Institutional Change in Politics and Goverance (5 March)
The reengineering of government and public services and political institutions have become a major focus of policy initiatives at many levels and around the world. Direct democracy is becoming a more accepted topic for experiments and policy initiatives, such as in electronic voting.
Required Reading:
Dutton (1999): 173-224.
Castells (2001): Chapter 5, pp. 137-187.
Further Supplementary Reading:
Bellamy, C., and Taylor, J. A. (1998), Governing in the Information Age (Buckingham:
Open University Press).
Raab et al., The Information Polity', in Dutton (1996): 283-299.
Taylor et al., 'Innovation in Public Service Delivery' in Dutton (1999): 265-282.
Tsagarousianou, R., Tambini, D., and Bryan, C. (1998) (eds), Cyberdemocracy:
Technology, Cities, and Civic Networks (London: Routledge).
NO CLASS (12 March)
10. Institutional Change in Education and Learning (19 March)
Education is perceived to be a key strategy for the development of an information society, as well as a major untapped market for the multimedia industry. What are the visions and realities in these arenas? USC provides a case in point. Are new media enabling challenges to traditional institutions and practices in higher education and learning?
Required Reading
Dutton (1999): 203-224.
Read any one article from iCS, Vol. 3, No. 4 (2000) on New Media in Higher Education and
Learning.
Further Supplementary Reading:
Noble, D. (2001), Digital Diploma Mills:
The Automation of Higher Educations (New York: Monthly
Review Press).
Dutton, W. H. and Loader, B. D. (2002, forthcoming)(eds),
Digital Academe:
New Media and Institutions in Higher Education and Learning (London:
Taylor & Francis/Routledge).
Gell and Cochrane, 'Learning and Education in an Information Society' in Dutton
(1996): 249-263.
11. Everyday Life: Wiring Households, and Communities (26 March)
The diffusion and implications of ICTs in the household have become increasingly central with the explosion of interest in such new technologies as cable and satellite, cellular telephony, and the Internet. Retrospective looks at the telephone, videotex, and other innovations might be instructive for looking ahead at emerging ICTs. In light many early failures, how can we explain the success of the Internet?
Required Reading:
Castells (2001): Chapter 4, pp. 116-136.
Castells, M. (2000): 407-59.
Dutton (1999): 227-256.
Recommended for Further Reading:
Hiltz, S. R., and Turoff, M. (1978), The Network Nation: Human Communication Via
Computers (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley).
Fischer, C. S. (1992), American Calling: A Social History of the Telephone to
1940 (Berkeley, CA: UC Press).
Wellman, B., and Gulia, M. (1999), 'Virtual Communities as Communities', pp. 167-94
in Smith, M. A., and Kollock, P. (eds), Communities in Cyberspace (New York:
Routledge).
12. The New Media: Competition, Concentration, Globalization? (2 April)
Institutional change within the communication industry is being widely forecast, usually with respect to its convergence around digital media that are inherently global in their reach. Will technical change bring major structural change to the communication industry? What has already occurred and what is on the horizon? How can this be studied?
Required Readings:
Castells, M. (2001): Chapter 7, pp. 188-206.
Dutton (1999): 257-82.
Castells, M. (2000): 355-406.
Recommended Readings:
Baer, W., 'Telecommunication Infrastructure Competition' in Dutton (1996): 353-370.
Dutton, W. H., Blumler, J. G., and Kraemer, K. L. (1987) (eds), Wired Cities: Shaping
the Future of Communications (Boston: G.K. Hall): 1-40.
Noll, A. M. (1997), Highway of Dreams: A Critical View Along the Information
Superhighway (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates).
Owen, B. (1999), The Internet Challenge to Television (Cambridge: Harvard University
Press).
13. Governing ICTs: An Ecology of Local and Global Policy Games (9 April)
ICT led industrial policy is being balanced with other policy goals in communication policy, and cultural policy. How to balance the push for economic development with other legitimate goals in an increasingly global context has become a central question for the policy community.
Required Reading:
Dutton (1999): 283-318.
Castells, M. (2000): 500-509.
Recommended Further Reading:
Dutton, et al., 'The Politics of Information and Communication Policy' in Dutton (1996):
387-405.
Gore, A., Jr. (1991), 'Infrastructure for the Global Village', Scientific American, 265
(Sept.): 108-11.
Kraemer and Dedrick, 'IT and Economic Development' in Dutton (1996):319-333.
Melody, W., 'The Strategic Value of Policy Research in the Information Economy' in
Dutton (1996): 303-317.
14. The eSociety (16 April)
General perspectives on restructuring institutions and practices in an electronic e-society. Review of major themes and concepts of the course.
Required Readings
Castells (2001): 275-282.
Castells (2000): 460-509.
Dutton (1999): 319-37.
15. Presentation of Term Papers (23 April)
Papers should be completed by the beginning of class. Each student should be prepared to present their paper within 10 minutes and to answer questions.
Final Examination: Book Reviews Due (30 April)