ZUR350 Making News

Faculty of Social Studies
Spring 2008
Extent and Intensity
1/1. 4 credit(s). Type of Completion: z (credit).
Teacher(s)
PhDr. Mgr. Zdeněk Havlíček (lecturer)
Timetable
Mon 14:00–15:40 AVC
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is offered to students of any study field.
Course objectives (in Czech)
The course is built around reading and discussing important and essential texts dealing with the fundamental principles of making news. The course starts with discussing the current state of research into news-making and then continues through the topics of producing the news, examining the news content and news effects, and eventually to the contexts of news making.
Syllabus (in Czech)
  • Session 1 – Course introduction (18 February) Introducing the course and the credit requirements. Selecting presentation and essay topics. Session 2 – Research into news making and studying media (25 February) Gouldner, A. W. The communications revolution: news, public and ideology. In McQuail, D. Mass Communication Theory Reader. Sage 2002, pp. 80 – 89. Hall, S. The Television Discourse; encoding and decoding. In McQuail, D. Mass Communication Theory Reader. Sage 2002, pp. 302 – 308. Hartley, J. Understanding News. Methuen, 1982. (pp. 11 – 37, Reading the news) Session 3 – Producing the news I (news content) (3 March) Hartley, J. Understanding News. Methuen, 1982. (pp. 38 – 62, News and society) Tuchman, G. Making news: time and typifications. In McQuail, D. Mass Communication Theory Reader. Sage 2002, pp. 260 – 269. Session 4 – Producing the news II (selecting the news) (10 March) Hartley, J. Understanding News. Methuen, 1982. (pp. 75 – 86, Selection and construction) Holland, P. The Politics of the smile. “Soft news” and the sexualisation of the popular press. In Carter, C., Branston, G., Allan, S. (eds.) News, Gender and Power. Routledge 1998, pp. 17 – 32. Shoemaker, P. A New Gatekeeping Model. In McQuail, D. Mass Communication Theory Reader. Sage 2002, pp. 253 – 259. Session 5 – Producing the news III (news-making organisation and its routines) (17 March) Jacobs, R. N. Producing the news, producing the crisis: narrativity, television and news work. Media, Culture & Society 1996. Vol. 18, pp. 373 – 397. Boyd-Barret, O., Rantanen, T. Theorizing the news agencie. In McQuail, D. Mass Communication Theory Reader. Sage 2002, pp. 215 – 221. Session 6 – News contents I (the news as a story and myth) (24 March) Barthes, R Rhetoric of the image. In McQuail, D. Mass Communication Theory Reader. Sage 2002, pp. 289 – 297. Brants, K. Who's Afraid of Infotainment? European Journal of Communication 1998. Vol. 13; pp. 315 – 335. Session 7 – News contents II (access to the news) (31 March) McNair, B. From control to chaos: towards a new sociology of journalism. Media, Culture & Society 2003. Vol. 25, pp. 547 – 555. Roth, A. L. Who makes the news? Description of television news interviewees' public personae. Media, Culture & Society 1998. Vol. 20, pp. 79 – 107. Session 8 – News contents III (representations and stereotypes) (7 April) Brookes, R., Holbrook, B. “Mad cows and Englishmen”: Gender implications of news reporting on the British beef crisis. In Carter, C., Branston, G., Allan, S.: News, Gender and Power. Routledge, 1998, pp. 174 – 185. Dryer, R. Stereotyping. In Durham, M. G., Kellner, D. M. (eds.) Media and Cultural Studies. Blackwell Publishing, 2006, pp. 353 – 365. Pickering, M. Stereotyping. The Politics of Representation. Palgrave 2001. (pp. 1 – 21, The Concept of the Stereotype). Session 9 – News effects I (disseminating the news) (14 April) Hartley, J. Understanding News. Methuen, 1982. (pp. 130 – 137, Producing the news: for ourselves) Grabe, M. E., Kamhawi, R. Hard Wired for Negative News? Gender Differences in Processing Broadcast News. Communication Research 2006. Vol. 33; 346 – 369. Session 10 – News effects II (agenda-setting function) (21 April) Dearing, J. W., Rogers, E. M.: Agenda-setting. Sage, 1996. (pp. 88 – 100, Studying the Agenda-Setting Process) McCombs, M. Setting the Agenda. The Mass Media and Public Opinion. Polity Press 2004. (pp. 36 – 52, How Agenda Setting Works) Session 11 – News effects III (meanings of the news) (28 April) Grabe, M. E., Lang, A., Zhao, X. News Content and Form: Implications for Memory and Audience Evaluations Communication Research 2003. Vol. 30; pp. 387 – 413. Wartella, E., Olivarez, A., Jennings, N. Children and television violence in the United States. In McQuail, D. Mass Communication Theory Reader. Sage 2002, pp. 398 – 405. Carter, C. When the “extraordinary” becomes “ordinary”: Everyday news of sexual violence. In Carter, C., Branston, G., Allan, S. (eds.) News, Gender and Power. Routledge 1998, pp. 219 – 232. Session 12 – News-making context I (news as an economic product) (5 May) Hirsch, P. M. Globalization of Mass Media Ownership: Implications and Effects. Communication Research 1992. Vol. 19; pp. 677 – 681. McManus, J. H. Does serving the market conflict with serving the public? In McQuail, D. Mass Communication Theory Reader. Sage 2002, pp. 270 – 275. McManus, J. H. What Kind of Commodity is News? Communication Research 1992. Vol. 19; pp. 787 – 805. Session 13 – News-making context II (ideology of the news) (12 May) Hall, S. What is this “Black” in Black Popular Culture? In Guins, R., Cruz O. Z. (eds.) Popular Culture. Sage 2005, pp. 285 – 293. Hartley, J. Understanding News. Methuen, 1982. (pp. 138 – 152, Consuming Interest) Williamson, J. Meaning and ideology. In McQuail, D. Mass Communication Theory Reader. Sage 2002, pp. 298 – 301. Session 14 – Credit test (19 May)
Assessment methods (in Czech)
The classes are intended as seminars. This means that students' work consists of reading required texts, active participation in discussions, and preparing a presentation on a selected topic. The students will also be asked to write a short formal essay expanding the topic the opted for their presentation. At the end of the course, the students are expected to sit for a credit test.
Language of instruction
English
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2009, Spring 2010, Spring 2011.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2008, recent)
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