COMMS 604 - Historical Research Methods (Fall 2012)

242 BRMB on Mondays from 10:00 am - 12:30 pm Professor: Dr. Dale Cressman Ofce Phone: 801-422-1686 Ofce Location: 360 BRMB Email: cressman@byu.edu

Description
In-depth investigation of the history of mass media, including the study of historical research methods. During Fall 2012, we will examine media history during 1963. The major project of this course will be a research paper on an aspect of 1963 as it relates to media history. Student work may contribute to a larger project, a book-length year study of 1963.

Texts and Materials

Item Vendor Price (new) Price (used)

HISTORICAL METHODS IN COMMUNICATIONS 3E Required BYU $29.95 $22.50 Bookstore by W, SLOAN, Edition 3 ISBN: 9781885219381

Learning Outcomes
History and Research Outcome 1 - To learn research and interviewing skills. Assignments will require researching material and/or conducting interviews. Outcome 2 - To develop judgment and critical thinking skills. The main assignment will require an assessment of historical events. Students will examine and compare media accounts with other media accounts and with original source documents. Outcome 3 - To understand signicant principles of journalism and mass communications. Discussions will center aroudn an analysis of historical trends and philosophies to understand journalistic and communications principles.

Participation Policy
As in all graduate seminars, you simply must attend and fully participate. Your classmates benet from your contributions and you will benet from theirs. Excessive absences and/or tardies will negatively impact your grade.

This syllabus and schedule updates can be found at learningsuite.byu.edu

Assignment Descriptions
Prospectus and presentation
Due: Monday, Sep 24 at 10:00 am Students will write a one-page, double-spaced prospectus that answers the following questions: Which of the provided research topics did you choose? How will you collect information? What type of historical research methodology will you use? What are your anticipated primary and secondary sources? How will this project make a contribution to our eld? This prospectus will be presented in class. One point is deducted for each day the assignment is late.

Prospectus revision and lit review

Due: Monday, Oct 08 Revise rst draft of prospectus and add a literature review. One point deducted for each day late.

Paper in progress
Due: Monday, Oct 22 A paper in progress is an unnished work that indicates the potential of the nished product. Students will briey present their ndings in class. Two points deducted for each day late.

Draft paper
Due: Monday, Nov 19 Final draft of paper submitted for professor's feedback. Submit online. From here on, the paper should be formatted in Chicago Style. Two points deducted for each day late.

Final paper
Due: Monday, Dec 03 Students may decide to submit for conference presentation or publication with or without the professor as a co-author. (Lead author will be determined based on the amount of work undertaken by student or professor in the nal product.) Work that students present or publish will be cited by the professor in book project. Work that students choose not to present or publish may be used in the book project, in which case the faculty author will acknowledge students' contributions. 5 points deducted for each day late.

Point Breakdown
Assignments Project Prospectus and presentation Prospectus revision and lit review Paper in progress Draft paper Final paper Participation Percent of Grade 90% 10% 10% 20% 20% 30% 10%

This syllabus and schedule updates can be found at learningsuite.byu.edu

Schedule
Date M - Aug 27 M - Sep 03 M - Sep 10 M - Sep 17 M - Sep 24 M - Oct 01 M - Oct 08 M - Oct 15 M - Oct 22 Topic/Activity Introductions; discuss syllabus, assignments; Why history? Primary sources; Discuss Chapter 3 Readings Assignments Please note: This is a good faith effort to describe our learning activities this semester. The schedule may need to be changed and reading assignments may be added. Please regularly monitor the schedule in Learning Suite.

Labor Day Holiday Discuss research project and options; Students will select topics from provided Read chapters 1-4 list. Library: Primary sources Presentation of prospectus and group feedback. Further discusion of archival research; discussion of oral history. TBA Read: Chapter 8-9 Read: Chapter 5-7

Prospectus and presentation

Prospectus revision and lit review

M - Oct 29

TBA Read: Times Squaretimes_sq.pdf Peer review papers in progress. Students bring papers for other classmates to Paper in progress review and provide feedback. We'll trouble shoot and problem solve. Read: W. Joseph Campbell, "1897: Discuss year studies. W. Joseph American Journalism's Exceptional Campbell (via Skype) Year,"Journalism History 29(4), Winter 2004.Pending in electronic reserve Read: Donald G. Godfrey, "Adapting Historical Citations to APA Style,"Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media 49(4), 2005, pp. 544-547. TBA Read: "The Rules of Citing: Footnotes and Bibliography," in Jacques Barzun and Henry F. Graff,The Modern Researcher 6ed (Thompson-Wadsworth, 2005).Pending in electronic reserves.

M - Nov 05

Th - Nov 08 Mormon Media Studies Symposium - Your attendance is not required, but you are encouraged to take advantage of this opportunity. You can attend for free. F - Nov 09 M - Nov 12 M - Nov 19 M - Nov 26 No class meeting: Dr. Cressman is out of town. Groups give brief presentation on papers and conclusions Drafts returned; discussion on general Read: Dale Cressman, "Exploring strengths and weaknesses. Biography."ch13.pdfDownload Submit nal paper with corrections and improvements. Discussion on contributing to the knowledge of the eld through the Read: Chapter 10 submission of manuscripts to conferences and journals. Final Meeting: Return papers (What did we learn?) 242 BRMB 11:00am - 2:00pm Draft paper

M - Dec 03

Final paper

M - Dec 10

This syllabus and schedule updates can be found at learningsuite.byu.edu

About Your Professor

My research interest is journalism history and I've published in the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, American Journalism, and Journalism History. I've written about the National Football League's rst full season on network television, network television news coverage of space ight, New York City newspaper buildings, and the assassination of John F. Kennedy. I'm currently working on articles related to the Nixon administration's relations with ABC TV News, and 1963 as the pivotal year for the development of network television news. I'm also writing a book-length biography of Elmer W. Lower, best known as President of ABC News. As you can probably tell, I'm really into history--so this is my favorite class to teach! I've worked as a television news producer in South Bend, Indiana; as an Executive Producer in Waco, Texas and Salt Lake City; as a Managing Editor in Green Bay, Wisconsin; and as a line-up editor at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. I was a chief liaison ofcer for the Host Broadcaster during the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Olympic Games. In 1995, I won an Emmy for producing the television documentary "Russia: Hidden Memory." I've also worked as a newspaper reporter, at the StarPhoenix in Saskatchewan. Before rst coming to BYU in 1993, I was an assistant professor and news director at Lyndon State College in Vermont. I was an assistant teaching professor at Brigham Young University and news director of KBYU TV and FM between 1993 and 1996. I left BYU to work on a PhD, which I completed in 2003. Before returning to BYU in 2000, I taught at Utah State University for three years. I've served as a division chair and convention chair for the Broadcast Education Association and am currently Historian of the American Journalism Historians Association. I serve on the editorial boards for three academic journals and I serve in the BYU Department of Communications as Associate Chair with responsibility for undergraduate studies. My wife is Rebecca (shes also a broadcaster; you can hear her on FM100.3 in Salt Lake City) and we have sons and a Goldendoodle dog.

University Policies Honor Code

In keeping with the principles of the BYU Honor Code, students are expected to be honest in all of their academic work. Academic honesty means, most fundamentally, that any work you present as your own must in fact be your own work and not that of another. Violations of this principle may result in a failing grade in the course and additional disciplinary action by the university. Students are also expected to adhere to the Dress and Grooming Standards. Adherence demonstrates respect for yourself and others and ensures an effective learning and working environment. It is the university's expectation, and my own expectation in class, that each student will abide by all Honor Code standards. Please call the Honor Code Ofce at 422-2847 if you have questions about those standards.

Sexual Harassment
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits sex discrimination against any participant in an educational program or activity that receives federal funds. The act is intended to eliminate sex discrimination in education and pertains to admissions, academic and athletic programs, and university-sponsored activities. Title IX also prohibits sexual harassment of students by university employees, other students, and visitors to campus. If you encounter sexual harassment or gender-based discrimination, please talk to your professor or contact one of the following: the Title IX Coordinator at 801-422-2130; the Honor Code Ofce at 801-422-2847; the Equal Employment Ofce at 801-422-5895; or Ethics Point at http:// www.ethicspoint.com, or 1-888-238-1062 (24-hours).

This syllabus and schedule updates can be found at learningsuite.byu.edu

Student Disability
Brigham Young University is committed to providing a working and learning atmosphere that reasonably accommodates qualied persons with disabilities. If you have any disability which may impair your ability to complete this course successfully, please contact the University Accessibility Center (UAC), 2170 WSC or 422-2767. Reasonable academic accommodations are reviewed for all students who have qualied, documented disabilities. The UAC can also assess students for learning, attention, and emotional concerns. Services are coordinated with the student and instructor by the UAC. If you need assistance or if you feel you have been unlawfully discriminated against on the basis of disability, you may seek resolution through established grievance policy and procedures by contacting the Equal Employment Ofce at 422-5895, D-285 ASB.

Academic Honesty
The rst injunction of the Honor Code is the call to "be honest." Students come to the university not only to improve their minds, gain knowledge, and develop skills that will assist them in their life's work, but also to build character. "President David O. McKay taught that character is the highest aim of education" (The Aims of a BYU Education, p.6). It is the purpose of the BYU Academic Honesty Policy to assist in fullling that aim. BYU students should seek to be totally honest in their dealings with others. They should complete their own work and be evaluated based upon that work. They should avoid academic dishonesty and misconduct in all its forms, including but not limited to plagiarism, fabrication or falsication, cheating, and other academic misconduct.

Devotional Attendance
Brigham Young University's devotional and forum assemblies are an important part of your BYU experience. President Cecil O. Samuelson said, "We have special and enlightening series of devotional and forum assemblies...that will complement, supplement, and enrich what will also be a very productive period in your classrooms, laboratories, and libraries. We look forward to being with you each Tuesday...and hope that you will regularly attend and bring your friends and associates with you...A large part of what constitutes the unique 'BYU experience' is found in these gatherings where the Spirit has been invited and where we have the opportunity to discuss and consider things of ultimate worth and importance that are not afforded to the academic community on almost any other campus" (from the address "The Legacy of Learning", 30 August, 2005). Your attendance at each forum and devotional is strongly encouraged.

Plagiarism
Intentional plagiarism is a form of intellectual theft that violates widely recognized principles of academic integrity as well as the Honor Code. Such plagiarism may subject the student to appropriate disciplinary action administered through the university Honor Code Ofce, in addition to academic sanctions that may be applied by an instructor. Inadvertent plagiarism, which may not be a violation of the Honor Code, is nevertheless a form of intellectual carelessness that is unacceptable in the academic community. Plagiarism of any kind is completely contrary to the established practices of higher education where all members of the university are expected to acknowledge the original intellectual work of others that is included in their own work. In some cases, plagiarism may also involve violations of copyright law. Intentional Plagiarism-Intentional plagiarism is the deliberate act of representing the words, ideas, or data of another as one's own without providing proper attribution to the author through

This syllabus and schedule updates can be found at learningsuite.byu.edu

quotation, reference, or footnote. Inadvertent Plagiarism-Inadvertent plagiarism involves the inappropriate, but non-deliberate, use of another's words, ideas, or data without proper attribution. Inadvertent plagiarism usually results from an ignorant failure to follow established rules for documenting sources or from simply not being sufciently careful in research and writing. Although not a violation of the Honor Code, inadvertent plagiarism is a form of academic misconduct for which an instructor can impose appropriate academic sanctions. Students who are in doubt as to whether they are providing proper attribution have the responsibility to consult with their instructor and obtain guidance. Examples of plagiarism include: Direct Plagiarism-The verbatim copying of an original source without acknowledging the source. Paraphrased Plagiarism-The paraphrasing, without acknowledgement, of ideas from another that the reader might mistake for the author's own. Plagiarism Mosaic-The borrowing of words, ideas, or data from an original source and blending this original material with one's own without acknowledging the source. Insufcient Acknowledgement-The partial or incomplete attribution of words, ideas, or data from an original source. Plagiarism may occur with respect to unpublished as well as published material. Copying another student's work and submitting it as one's own individual work without proper attribution is a serious form of plagiarism.

Respectful Environment
"Sadly, from time to time, we do hear reports of those who are at best insensitive and at worst insulting in their comments to and about others... We hear derogatory and sometimes even defamatory comments about those with different political, athletic, or ethnic views or experiences. Such behavior is completely out of place at BYU, and I enlist the aid of all to monitor carefully and, if necessary, correct any such that might occur here, however inadvertent or unintentional. "I worry particularly about demeaning comments made about the career or major choices of women or men either directly or about members of the BYU community generally. We must remember that personal agency is a fundamental principle and that none of us has the right or option to criticize the lawful choices of another." President Cecil O. Samuelson, Annual University Conference, August 24, 2010 "Occasionally, we ... hear reports that our female faculty feel disrespected, especially by students, for choosing to work at BYU, even though each one has been approved by the BYU Board of Trustees. Brothers and sisters, these things ought not to be. Not here. Not at a university that shares a constitution with the School of the Prophets." Vice President John S. Tanner, Annual University Conference, August 24, 2010

This syllabus and schedule updates can be found at learningsuite.byu.edu