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January 27, 2007
Debate 2: War Photos in Media - Resources
Debate 2: Is it in the public interest for the media to publish photos or other visual media depicting war atrocities?
Susan D. Moeller. Compassion Fatigue: How the Media Sell Disease, Famine, War and Death. NY: Routledge, 1999. On Google Books
Susan Sontag. Redgarding the Pain of Others. NY: Picador, 2004. on Google Books and there is an excerpt here from The New Yorker, 2002, Looking at War.
Michael Griffin. Picturing America’s ‘War on Terrorism’ in Afghanistan and Iraq. Journalism, Vol. 5, No. 4, 381-402 (2004). Abstract and journal in CLUES.
Barbie Zelizer. Death in Wartime: Photographs and the "Other War" in Afghanistan. The Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics, Vol. 10, No. 3, 26-55 (2005). abstract and journal in CLUES.
W. Lance Bennett, Regina G Lawrence, Steven Livingston (2006) None Dare Call It Torture: Indexing and the Limits of Press Independence in the Abu Ghraib Scandal. Journal of Communication 56 (3), 467–485. abstract and journal in CLUES.
Allen Feldman. Abu Ghraib: Ceremonies of Nostalgia. Open Democracy, 2004.
Keith Tester. Reflections on the Abu Ghraib Photographs. Journal of Human Rights Volume 4, Number 1 / January-March 2005: 137 – 143.
Seymour M. Hersh. THE GRAY ZONE: How a secret Pentagon program came to Abu Ghraib. The New Yorker. May 24, 2005.
Joan Walsh. The Abu Ghraib files Salon Magazine.
Posted by shade at 06:18 PM | Comments (0)
CRTC Decision on Al Jazeera-Debate Resources
Hugh Miles. Al-Jazeera: The Inside Story Of The Arab News Channel That Is Challenging The West. Grove Press, 2005. on google books
Daniel Pipes and Charlotte West. (August 13, 2004).
Al-Jazeera in Al-Canada? FrontPageMagazine.com.
DeNeen L. Brown. (Monday, July 26, 2004). In Canada, Exceptions Are Rule for Al-Jazeera: Distributors Must Monitor, May Alter Programs. Washington Post Foreign Service: Page A13.
CAIR – Council on American-Islamic Relations Canada. (August 11, 2003). Submission to the CRTC on Al-Jazeera.
Aliaa I. Dakroury. (Fall 2005). Whose Right to Communicate: Al-Jazeera or CRTC? Global Media Journal.
Mark Bourrie. (July 20 2004). Yes Means no for al-Jazeera in Canada. Inter-Press News Agency.
Steve Gold. (March 2005). Our worst enemy? A second look at Al-Jazeera finds the network less baiting. Ryerson Review of Journalism.
Posted by shade at 06:11 PM | Comments (0)
Pinhead Politics?
PINHEAD POLITICS? FOX NEWS VERSUS THE CANADIAN REGULATORS
Leslie Regan Shade
May 31, 2004 – International Journal of Media and Cultural Politics Inaugural Issue 1(1)
Typically, The New York Times isn’t strong on presenting Canadian news to its readers – unlike the Canadian counterpart, The Globe and Mail, which features a daily diet of American news – politics and entertainment. In the last year The Times Canadian-focused articles included topics such as anti-smoking legislation in Nunavut, potential terrorist ties to Canada, acrimonious debates over border safety, the travails of aging boomers and seniors crossing the border to avail themselves of cheaper Canadian pharmaceuticals, legalized gay marriages, the decriminalization of marijuana, hockey, and sordid politics: a patronage scandal in the Liberal party, softwood lumber disputes under NAFTA, and the synergy between Prime Minister Martin and rock star Bono.
Certainly the palpable ideological differences between President George W. Bush and former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and now Paul Martin over the big social issues of the day – gay rights, the softening of marijuana laws, and Canada’s non-support for Bush’s war in Iraq received grudging commentary. But it wasn’t until April of this year that The Times revealed to its Sunday readers a spat between The Globe’s television reviewer, John Doyle, and Fox News pundit Bill O’Reilly over the Canadian Cable Television Association’s (CCTA) application to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) for authorization to offer the Fox News Channel to Canadian cable customers. The fiery barbs, as showcased in Doyle’s column in The Globe and on O’Reilly’s show ‘The O’Reilly Factor’ illustrated a “cultural divide” (Kraus 2004: WK-7).
Doyle, April 19th: “Beauty. Bring it on, I say. We’re all in need of a good laugh. The barking-mad Fox News Channel is something that most Canadians have only heard about. It’s time we saw it for ourselves and made up our own minds about the phenomenon. We’ll find out if this Bill O’Reilly fella is as stupendously pompous and preening as he appears to be in the rare clips we see of Fox News.”
Doyle, describing Fox News as “kind of live theatre of the airwaves, with right-wing pundits playing journalists in an ongoing soap opera,” was featured in O’Reilly’s ‘The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day’ segment, which dismissed The Globe as “a leftist outfit”: “Hey you pinheads up there, I may be pompous, but at least I’m honest.” (Doyle, April 21).
Doyle was besieged with e-mails and letters from O’Reilly fans: “I lost count of the number of times I was called ‘an a*hole’. It was at least 43 times, anyway…I was also called a Canadian numerous times, as if that were an automatic and withering insult” (Doyle, April 21). O’Reilly shot back that a viewer’s claim that “in Canada the CBC is known as ‘the Communist Broadcasting Corporation’” (Doyle, April 23).
Hilarious lambasting aside, the issues that Doyle vs. O’Reilly raises are central to the politics and policies of Canadian media today: the question over foreign ownership of the media, the illegal satellite market, and the regulatory practices of the CRTC.
Consumer’s Choice?
CCTA’s application to the CRTC for authorization to offer the Fox News Channel was made in mid-April after a previous application to carry Fox and other bundled U.S. cable services, including HBO and ESPN, was rejected by the CRTC less than a year before. The CRTC’s rationale was that Canadian channels already show much of the programming anyway, and allowing new cable entrants would only create competition with existing domestic services (Adams 2004: R3).
Citing “clear demands from our customers for this service,” CCTA President Michael Hennessy, in his April filing to the CRTC, argued that “the addition of popular services like Fox News Channel provides Canadian digital cable customers with access to more choice when selecting their information source” (CCTA 2004). This increased consumer choice, they further argued, maximizes competitive benefits for the Canadian broadcasting system. Not explicitly mentioned is the desire to lure Canadians into purchasing new digital television hardware and services, a potentially lucrative market.
The issue is not whether Fox News – owned by News Corporation’s Rupert Murdoch- should be allowed to buy Canadian cable stations, but whether the service should be allowed to be carried by a Canadian service. Canadians who wish to watch Fox News can do so via several illegal satellite services. Nonetheless, creating a niche for a foreign (and some would argue, American) player opens up the debate about foreign ownership, which is currently capped at 46.8%. One of the recommendations in a 2003 Parliamentary Committee report for Canadian Heritage on the status and future of the Canadian broadcasting industry, was to restrain foreign ownership in broadcasting and telecommunication services. “Members of all parties but the Canadian Alliance agreed than any loosening of Canadian ownership rules for media would be a perilous step,” the authors of the report wrote, and, “once foreign companies are allowed to take control, the chances of Canadians ever reclaiming this vital cultural space will be small indeed” (Raboy and Taras 2004: 64).
Muddying the Airwaves: The Grey Market
Also at issue for the CCTA, a member of the Coalition Against Satellite Signal Theft, is their urge to curb the increase in illegal satellite dishes, estimated to be between 520,000 to 700,00, with an estimated loss of $400M Cdn to the satellite and cable industry, artists, and actors.
The market of Canadians paying the full subscription cost to receive U.S. satellite TV is known as the grey market. For many Canadians, the attraction of grey-market services are the sheer number of channels and packages not available on Canadian services, including sports and ethnic and foreign programming – and here, Fox News.
Bell ExpressVu, the largest Canadian satellite provider, pursued the Canadian vendors of U.S. satellite equipment to the Supreme Court which, in 2002, found in its favor. The Court ruled that since Canadian companies had purchased the rights to distribute U.S. programming in Canada, it was illegal for Canadians to purchase the same programming from American suppliers. In order for Canadians to legally subscribe to satellite services, the Supreme Court ruled that they must instead subscribe to one of two lawful distributors: the Canadian Bell ExpressVu or Star Choice Communications Inc.
CRTC Bashing
I find it astounding that we put up with this. Iraq has a freer market for news than we do in Canada. I can't figure out why we can't make this an issue. The CRTC should be disbanded.
--Posted by: Kevin at November 8, 2003 02:31 PM
The CRTC, an independent agency responsible for regulating broadcasting and telecommunications by reporting to Parliament through Canadian Heritage, has as their motto “Communications in the Public Interest.” Throughout the 1990s, as media and telecom deregulation became the mantra and norm for western countries, buffeted by the heady winds of neoliberalism, CRTC decisions were attacked or applauded by various stakeholders. Depending on your political affiliation or point of view, CRTC decisions either increased cross-media ownership or stifled competition, created new venues for foreign owners or lessened Canadian content and sovereignty, increased consumer choice or muted the public interest.
Canadians typically aligned with more conservative or libertarian views would love to see the CRTC abolished, or at least greatly diminished in its powers. A typical complaint about the CRTC is that its regulatory powers are equated with censorship, as was expressed in a Globe op-ed concerning the Fox Affair; the CRTC is “deathly afraid of conservative cultural competition, and they are using the state, through the CRTC, to deny Canadians the right to choose” (Love, 2004, A17).
Picking on Fox?
Fallows (2003) argues that the Murdoch version of the press – that it is basically a business like any other – has, particularly under Michael Copps’ FCC, been touted as the model for media ownership and autonomy. This ‘market rules’ model contrasts with the conception that the press should serve the public trust and uphold the public interest.
Murdoch’s News Corporation and Murdoch himself are not without controversy. As one of the largest media companies in the world, with 2003 revenues at $17.4B (USD), News Corporation’s holdings include the Fox Broadcasting Company (34 U.S. television stations); satellite properties (DirecTV, BskyB, which carries specialty cable stations, including Fox News Channel, Fox Movie Channel, National Geographic Channel, and miscellaneous sports channels); film properties (20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight Pictures, Fox Television Studios); newspapers (The New York Post, in the UK five, including The Sunday Times, The Times, and The Sun, as well as 20 in Australia); magazines (including The Weekly Standard, TV Guide); books (HarperCollins Publishers which includes 23 distinct imprints, the HarperCollins Children’s Book Group); and other non-media properties (including sports teams – LA Dodgers, La King, LA Lakers, Fox Interactive, the Staples Center).
Murdoch is himself known as a savvy businessman who supports conservative political causes and whose global reach “will ultimately harm the interests of those seeking greater political and social justice, let alone quality news and entertainment programming” (Chester, 2003). FAIR – (Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting) calls Fox News “The Most Biased Name in News…an extraordinary right-wing tilt” (see http://www.fair.org/reports/fox.html). And Hart (2003: 12) describes the O’Reilly ‘brand’ as “an all-spin zone, where the host absurdly denies the show’s conservative political slant and “facts” are manipulated in order to win arguments against O’Reilly’s opponents.”
Whether or not the CRTC will allow the CCTA to bring Fox News to Canadian cable subscribers is not yet known. Those that applaud bringing Fox News into Canada who also claim that CRTC reticence is because of Liberal party wishes to protect Canadians from ‘conservative debate’ could heed the words of one editorial letter writer to The Globe: “if the current state of U.S. political discourse is the result of watching Fox News, then bravo to the CRTC” (Martin 2004: A18).
References
Adams, J. (2004), TV Group Wants Fox in its Stable. The Globe and Mail, April 16, 2004, R3.
Canadian Cable Television Association. (2004), Cable Industry Applies to Carry Fox News Channel [press release], April 15, 2004. Available online at URL: http://ww.ccta.ca
Chester, J. (2003), Murdoch’s Extended Reach, The Nation, July 10, 2003. URL: http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml%3Fi=20030721&s=chester
Doyle, J. (2004), Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Fox? Certainly Not Us, The Globe and Mail, April 19, 2004, R2.
Doyle, J. (2004), Fox News. Not Here Yet, But Already Hilarious, The Globe and Mail, April 21, 2004, R2.
Doyle, J. (2004), Curling, Canadian Tire, and Other Commie Plots, The Globe and Mail, April 23, 2004, R2.
Fallows, J. (2003), The Age of Murdoch, The Atlantic Monthly, September 2003), 82-98.
Hart, P. (2003), The Oh Really Factor? Unspinning Fox News Channel’s Bill O’Reilly, NY, Seven Stories Press.
Kraus, C. (2004), When a Canadian Insults Fox News, Them’s [Expletive] Fighting Words! The New York Times, April 25, 2004, WK-7.
Love, R. (2004), Canadian’s Shouldn’t Be Denied Fox News, The Globe and Mail, April 28, 2004, A17.
Martin, D.J. (2004), Fox Hunting [letter to the editor], The Globe and Mail, April 29, 2004, A18.
Raboy, M. and D. Taras. (2004), The Politics of Neglect of Canadian Broadcasting Policy. Policy Options, March 2004, 63-68.
Posted by shade at 06:06 PM | Comments (0)
Debate: CRTC Decision on Fox News - Resources
CBC Archives. Ruling the Airwaves. The CRTC and Canadian Content.
CBC (November 18, 2004). CRTC Approves Fox News.
CCTA. (November 18, 2004). Fox News: Cable Industry Pleased with CRTC Decision.
Parliamentary debate on Hansard, November 25 2004.
Focus on the Family support, 2004.
David Akin’s blog, November 18, 2004.
Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB). (August 16 2005). CRTC should not reward Fox.
FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting). (July 2, 2001). The Most Biased Name in News: Fox News Channel's Extraordinary Right-Wing Tilt.
Posted by shade at 06:02 PM | Comments (0)
January 20, 2007
CBC Radio Series on SPIN
A new CBC radio series on Spin can be found here : A Series about Spin, the Spinners and the Spun by Ira Basen for CBC Radio The Sunday Edition...
Posted by shade at 02:25 PM | Comments (0)
Notes on Cultural Studies
Posted by shade at 02:21 PM | Comments (0)
Notes on Admin v Critical Research
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Notes on Political Economy
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January 09, 2007
COMS 326-Winter 2007
Course outline attached, and also pasted in below:
COMS 326
Media Institutions and Policies
Winter 2007
Tuesdays 1:15 - 4:00
CJ 5.301
Professor Leslie Regan Shade
Concordia University
Department of Communication Studies
Office: CJ 4.407
lshade@alcor.concordia.ca
Tel: 514-848-2424 x2550
Office Hours: Tuesdays, 12-1; 4-5, or by appointment
COURSE OBJECTIVES
Calendar description: “This course introduces students to the analysis of the institutional, political, and economic forces that have shaped the development of media during the twentieth century. Attention is given to the ownership structures, corporate practices, and state policy interventions affecting media institutions in both the public and private sectors. A particular focus is given to the interrelations between Cultural, Multicultural, and Communication Policy interventions.”
Specific objectives of this course will be to:
Introduce students to critical (e.g., political economic and policy) perspectives within communication studies, both historical and theoretical
Encourage students to ask basic questions about the multi-faceted nature of media institutions and policies, including a range of communication technologies and specific policy initiatives and issues
Allow students to develop a critical perspective and apply this through the development of research and critical writing skills
Readings
Paul Attallah and Leslie Regan Shade. (2006) Mediascapes: New Patterns in Canadian Communication, 2nd ed. (Toronto: Thomson Nelson).
--available for purchase at the Loyola Bookstore.
Other readings will be available via CLUES, the Learning Centre (LC) or online at the course blog, http://808.pariso.com
ASSIGNMENTS & GRADING
Course participation: (10%)
Students are expected to come to class on a weekly basis and be prepared to participate in interactive discussions and debates on the weekly topic and course materials. Attendance is required. Please notify me in advance if you must miss a class, and if you are ill.
Cultural Sovereignty Essay: (15%). Due January 30th
Explain why cultural sovereignty does or does not matter in the Canadian context, referring specifically to the chapters in Mediascapes that we will discuss January 30: Shade, Bélanger, Beaty, Attallah/Foster. (750 word essay).
Class Policy Debate Presentation: (15%)
There are 8 debates on various media policy issues that are identified throughout the course. Each student will be responsible for taking one of the sides in one identified policy debate.
Debate Rules:
Each presenter will make an opening statement of their position, arguments, and solution. (5 minutes)
Each presenter will then ask their opponent 2 questions (5 minutes each for response).
Each presenter will make a closing statement (3-5 minutes)
The debate will then be opened up to the rest of the class.
Students should be prepared in advance and may consult a written text.
Policy Analysis: (20%) Due on or before March 27th
Students will take one of the identified media policy issues and provide a brief analysis of the issue. You may choose to do this on the policy issue you are debating. In this paper you will:
--provide an overview of the issue/case: description, context
--provide a brief examination of the stakeholders and their position(s)
--provide an argument as to the importance of the issue/case to media policy
Length is 500-750 words only.
Literature Review: (40%). Bibliography due March 6. Final paper due April 10.
A literature review reviews secondary source material on a particular subject, issue, or theory. It provides a critical assessment of the literature, and provides a useful summary of scholarly work, in terms of the research questions asked, theoretical point of view, and methodological considerations.
Students are asked to write one literature reviews of 3000 words. You will be taking one or several of the weekly themes and surveying some relevant scholarly articles, books, and other sources that are applicable to your research topic. Use the readings for the weekly theme you choose, plus identify no less than 5 and no more than 8 other articles, books, or other sources located in the Concordia University library.
Please consult the UCSC Guide on writing literature reviews:
University of California Santa Cruz, How to Write a Literature Review.
Another useful guide is: > University of Wisconsin Writing Center, Writer's Handbook: Academic Writing: Reviews of Literature, 2001.
The Concordia University Library has some excellent resource guides.
Citation guidelines can be found here.
Plagiarism will be taken seriously. Look at the Undergraduate Calendar Code of Conduct.
COMS 326 – WEEKLY SCHEDULE
Week 1: January 9
Introduction
--what are theoretical entry points that we can use to explore media institutions and policy?
--what is required of me in this course? What are topics you’d like to explore?
Week 2: January 16
Looking at communication studies and media policy from a critical lens
Readings
Mediascapes: Introduction, Hamilton (Considering Critical Communication Studies in Canada), Kinahan (From British Invasions to American Influences: Cultural Studies in Canada)
Week 3: January 23
Considering audiences
Readings
Mediascapes: Attallah (The Audience), Elliott (Sipping Starbucks: (Re)Considering Communicative Media)
Mark Phillips. The Global Disney Audiences Project: Disney Across Cultures, p. 31-61 in Dazzled by Disney? The Global Disney Audiences Project, ed. Janet Wasko, Mark Phillips, Eileen R. Meehan. London: Leicester University Press, 2001. (LC)
Due in class next week! Explain why cultural sovereignty does or does not matter in the Canadian context, referring specifically to the chapters in Mediascapes that we will discuss January 30: Shade, Bélanger, Beaty, Attallah/Foster. 750 word essay.
Week 4: January 30
The Canadian mediascape & notions of cultural sovereignty and identity
Readings
Mediascapes: Shade (O Canada: Media (De)convergence, Concentration and Culture) , Bélanger (Radio in Canada), Beaty (The Film Industry in Canada) , Attallah/Foster (Television in Canada)
Take-home essay due in class for discussion.
Week 5: February 6
Recent Canadian broadcasting policy controversies
Readings
Bart Beaty and Rebecca Sullivan. (2006). Chapter One, Regulation, pp. 27-65 in Canadian Television Today. Calgary: University of Calgary Press. (LC)
CRTC. (July 15, 2004). Broadcasting Public Notice 2004-15. Requests to add Al Jazeera to the lists of eligible services for distribution on a digital basis.
CRTC (November 18, 2004). Broadcasting Public Notice CRTC 2004-88. Revised lists of eligible satellite services. (approval of Fox News)
Debate 1: Do you support or disagree with the CRTC decision on Fox News and/or on Al Jazeera?
Week 6: February 13
Politics and ethics in the mediascape
Readings
Mediascapes: Rose/Kiss (Boundaries Blurred: The Mass Media and Politics in a Hyper-Media Age)
Dannagal G. Young and Russell M. Tisinger. (2006).Dispelling Late-Night Myths: News Consumption among Late-Night Comedy Viewers and the Predictors of Exposure to Various Late-Night Shows. The Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics 11: 113-134. (CLUES)
Susan Sontag. (May 23, 2004). Regarding the Torture of Others. The New York Times Magazine.
Debate 2: Is it in the public interest for the media to publish photos or other visual media depicting war atrocities?
--FEBRUARY 20 WINTER BREAK—
Week 7: February 27
Children’s media culture & policy
Readings
Mediascapes: Saunders (Good Kids/Bad Kids), Greenberg/Wilson (Youth Violence, Moral Panic, and the Canadian Media)s
Sonia Livingstone and Andrea Millwood Hargrave. (2006). Harmful to Children? Drawing Conclusions from Empirical Research on Media Effects, pp. 21-48 in Regulation, Awareness, Empowerment: Young People and Harmful Media Content in the Digital Age, ed. Ulla Carlsson. Götenborg, Sweden: Nordicom/The International Clearinghouse on Children, Youth and Media. (LC)
Debate 3: Should there be media regulation for content that could be harmful or offensive to children? (examples can include broadcasting media or the internet)
Week 8: March 6
Gender in the mediascape
Readings
Mediascapes: Sullivan (Women and the Media)
Carolyn M. Byerly. (2004). A Feminist Analysis of Media Concentration, Presented at Network of Women in Media, Bandra, India, 13 February.
Debate 4: Is it important that women be involved in the media industries as owners and creators?
Week 9: March 13
Race in the mediascape
Readings
Mediascapes: Jiwani (Race(ing) the Nation: Media and Minorities), Roth (First People’s Television in Canada’s North)
Andrew Mitrovica. (December/January 2007). Hear No Evil, Write No Lies (The Maher Arar Case in the Canadian media). The Walrus: 37-42. (LC)
Debate 5: What is the media’s responsibility in portraying and reporting on visible minorities and/or First Peoples in Canada?
Week 10: March 20
New media and privacy
Readings
Mediascapes: Scatamburlo-D’Annibale/Boin (New Media), Steeves (Privacy and New Media.
Stephen Coleman. (2006). E-mail, Terrorism and the Right to Privacy. Ethics and Information Technology 8:17-27. (CLUES)
Debate 6: Should Canada have a privacy rights charter?
Week 11: March 27
Intellectual property debates
Readings
Mediascapes: Laba (‘Pirates’, Peers, and Popular Music), Downes (Intellectual Property and Copyright in the Global Economy.
Laura J. Murray. (2005). Copyright Talk: Patterns and Pitfalls in Canadian Policy Discourses, in In the Public Interest: The Future of Canadian Copyright Law, ed. Michael Geist.
See also CIPPIC’s website.
Debate 7: Should file-sharing (of music, films, etc.) be regulated?
Week 12: April 3
Globalization and the ‘Information Society’
Readings
Mediascapes: Karim (Globalization, Transnational Communication, and Diaspora)
World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), Tunis Commitment and Tunis Agenda for the Information Society, November 2005.
Charles Kenny (2006), Chapter 1, “Will the Internet Save the World?” in Overselling the Web? Development and the Internet, Lynn Rienner Pubs.
Debate 8: Should ICTs be seen as a viable tool of development for developing countries?
Week 13: April 10
Alternative media
Readings
Mediascapes: Skinner (Alternative Media)
Andrea Langlois. (2005). How open is open? The politics of open publishing in Autonomous Media: Activating Resistance and Dissent, ed. Andrea Langlois and Frédéric Dubois. Montreal: Cumulus Press. (LC)
Literature Review due. Submit in class or email to me at professor.shade@gmail.com
Posted by shade at 03:57 PM | Comments (0)