1

History 240 Introduction to Media History SUNY Geneseo: Spring 2016

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 4:00-5:15 PM
Sturges 8
I. Instructor
Professor Todd M. Goehle
Office: Sturges 3B
Office Hours: Tuesdays 2:30-3:30 PM, 5:30-6:30 PM;
Thursdays 2:30-3:30 PM, and by appointment
Email: Goehle@geneseo.edu

II. Purpose of the Syllabus

The syllabus will provide students with an overview
of the course, an outline of course expectations, and
a tentative schedule. In other words, the syllabus will
serve as a contract for the semester, informing
students of their responsibilities. Additionally, note
that the syllabus employs a number of hyperlinks.
While I will provide you with a paper copy of the
syllabus, in order to more easily access these links,
you may wish to use the syllabus through
myCourses. In addition to announcements in class,
all updates or changes will be made to the syllabus
located in myCourses.
Science, Industry and Business Library: General
Collection, The New York Public Library.
"Overland, Indianapolis, Ind., U.S.A. [Front
cover]." New York Public Library Digital Collections.
Accessed January 14, 2016.
http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47d
e-07f1-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

III. Course Description and Course Learning Objectives

The course will provide students with an overview of the important issues and developments surrounding
the history of media and communication. The course will also introduce students to a number of the
historiographical, methodological, and frankly moral pitfalls that emerge when studying and writing media
history. To prepare ourselves for these latter issues, the course will initially examine the ways in which
historians have attempted to make sense of media and media technology. Specifically, we will explore a
series of critical questions concerning mans relationship with media and media technology that will shape
the general direction of the course. Through class discussions, the first written assignment, and an in-class
screening of David Cronenbergs controversial 1983 film, Videodrome, students will also reflect upon their
own relationship with media and media technologies.
So, once we have critically explored concepts about media technology and mans relationship with it, our
real work can begin. In particular, following our in-class viewing of Videodrome, we will closely read
Pettegrees The Invention of News to better understand the revolutionary, macro-level changes brought about
by both the printing press and improved circuits of communication in medieval and early modern Europe.

2
Conversely, Carlo Ginzburgs The Cheese and the Worms will allow us to gain micro-level insights into how
mechanical print led ordinary individuals to question established truths and to challenge traditional
sources of authority including the nobility and the church. In summation then, the first portion of the
semester explores the ways in which media and communication technologies were used as vehicles to
challenge social, political, and cultural hierarches in the early modern world.
While the majority of our work stems from European case studies (after all, I am a media historian of
Germany and the course counts as European Core for the major), the course will by no means be
Eurocentric, and we will direct a great deal of attention towards examining how media technologies
functioned in broader global systems of exchange, economy, and power. Such a perspective will prove
especially important throughout the middle portion of the course, wherein we will examine the tensions
underpinning cultural contact, economic expansion, and the new media and communication technologies of
the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (ie. steam, railways, telegraphs, lithographs, postcards, photography,
and more). Indeed, your second written assignment will ask you to address the lengths in which Western
civilizations (whatever these ideas mean; we will certainly problematize these ideas throughout the
semester) were able to consolidate their power through the media and communication technologies. As a
result, students will explore larger issues of Empire, Race, Gender, Dissent, and Global Capital.
In the last section of the course, we will return to perhaps more familiar matters, in particular the emergence
of twentieth century mass media and mass culture. While the class will once again examine these topics from
a global perspective, attention will be directed to the role of mass media in both the relatively weak Weimar
and the authoritarian Nazi Regimes of Germany. For this focus, we will study two Fritz Langs science
fiction classic Metropolis (1927) and Veit Harlans racist spectacle Kolberg (1945) through the lens of Corey
Ross Media and the Making of Modern Germany. The class will also address the rise of television by closely
examining the ways in which communist authorities used the new medium to consolidate and solidify
control in post-Prague Spring Czechoslovakia.

General Research Division, The New York Public Library. "Chiyo-no-matsubara, a Celebrated Pine Grove in Kysh,
with a Passing Train." New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed January 14, 2016.
http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47d9-83cb-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

As a result of these topics, the class will analyze a variety of secondary sources -such as monographs and
peer reviewed articles- as well as primary sources, including speeches, government documents, posters,
photographs, broadsheets, paintings, newspapers, postcards, music, television, and film. Due to the range of
content under study, the course will employ and cultivate an interdisciplinary method, not only utilizing
approaches from history but also borrowing concepts from the fields of philosophy, visual and cultural
studies, art history, sociology, and communication. Additionally, to stimulate active engagement, the course
will mix lectures, class debate, small group discussion, and at times free writes and primary source analysis.
Since the class will largely be taught in a seminar style, it is imperative that you come to class prepared
with questions and comments about the assigned materials.

Please Note: The class is admittedly reading intensive for a 200-level course. The assignments take this
emphasis into account (for example, you will not be asked to submit a traditional research paper). So too
will the way in which I teach the course and run each session. Together, I hope to foster a stimulating and
thought provoking semester.

IV. Required Materials

Bren, Paulina. The Greengrocer and His Television; The Culture Of Communism After The 1968 Prague Spring. Ithaca:
Cornell University Press, 2010. ISBN: 0801476429
Briggs, Asa and Peter Burke. A Social History of the Media: From Gutenberg to the Internet. New York: Polity
Press, Third Edition, 2010. ISBN: 0745644953
Chaudhary, Zahid. Afterimage of Empire: Photography in Nineteenth-Century India. Minneapolis: University of
Minnesota press, 2012. ISBN: 0816677492
Ginzburg, Carlo. The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of A Sixteenth-Century Miller. Translated by John and
Anne C. Tedeschi. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press Reprint Edition, 2013. ISBN:
1421409887
Pettegree, Andrew. The Invention of News: How The World Came To Know About Itself. New Haven: Yale
University Press, 2014. ISBN: 9780300179088
Ross, Corey. Media and the Making of Modern Germany: Mass Communications, Society, and Politics from The Empire.
Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2010. ISBN: 0199583862
Availability of Required Texts
1. The assigned texts can be purchased locally at the campus bookstore. New and used copies of the
assigned texts -often at discounted prices- can also be found at www.amazon.com; www.half.ebay.com; and
www.alibris.com.
2. Additional materials, including peer reviewed articles and documents are available via myCourses.
3. NOTE: Student is responsible for obtaining the CORRECT versions of a book, when indicated. Failure
to do so could result in confusion (where translations may be a factor) or just plain being lost during
discussions due to pagination differences.

V. Assignments
A. Map Quiz
(2 February 2016)
B. Midterm Exam
(3 March 2016)
C. Final Exam
(9 May 2016)
D. First Response Paper
(9 February 2016)
E. Second Response Paper
(7 April 2016)
F. Participation and Quizzes
(Every Class)

5%
20%
20%
15%
25%
15%

A. Map Quiz (2 February 2016) (5%)

For this assignment, you will need to identify thirty locations in ten minutes. For the map quiz, each
geographical location will be given a number. You will then be asked to place the number in the appropriate
location. For the map quiz, you will be given a double-sided piece of paper. On one side of the paper, there
will be a blank map of Europe. On the other side of the paper, there will be a blank map of the World.
Please place the European Locations on the blank map of Europe and the Non-European Locations on the
blank map of the World. For a copy of the maps used on the exam, please consult the last page of the
syllabus.
Egypt
India
China
Indian Ocean
Baghdad
Strait of Malacca
Columbia
Great Britain
London
France

Paris
Bruges
Spain
Venice
Rome
Germany
Berlin
Hamburg
Czechoslovakia
Prague

Russia/Soviet Union
Moscow
The Mediterranean Sea
Ottoman Empire
Constantinople/Istanbul
Manchester
Tierra del Fuego
Japan
Black Sea
Vienna

B. One Midterm Examination (3 March 2016) (20%)

For the Midterm Examination, students will be tested on content from 4 February Pre-Columbus News
and Communication Circuits in Europe to 1 March Communication and the Age of Revolutions. During
the exam, students will select and complete three of four Identifications and one of two Essay
Questions within 75 Minutes. Blue books will be provided for you. A quality Identification response should
consist of 5-6 complex sentences, or roughly a full blue book page in length. The response should provide
the who, what, where, why, when, and how of the Identification as well as the significance of the
Identification for the course. Identifications can be ideas, individuals, dates, and/or locations from course
readings, discussions, and student presentations. The Essay Questions will ask you to make an argument
citing evidence/examples from lecture and assigned materials. To receive full credit, your essay must have an

5
introduction, a strong thesis statement, clear body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Please Note: I will provide
the class with study sheets approximately 1 to 2 weeks before the exam.
For the Midterm Examination, a single Identification Response will count for 15% of the Total Grade
(Altogether: 45% of the Total Grade) and an Essay Response will count for 55% of the Total Grade.

C. One Final Examination (9 May 2016) (20%)

For the Final Examination, students will be tested on content from 31 March Cinema and the Emergence
of Mass Culture to 3 May The Greengrocer and his TV: Media and Control under the Iron Curtain.
During the exam, students will select and complete three of four Identifications and one of two Essay
Questions. Blue books will be provided for you. A quality Identification response should consist of 5-6
complex sentences, or roughly a full blue book page in length. The response should provide the who, what,
where, why, when, and how of the Identification as well as the significance of the Identification for the
course. Identifications can be ideas, individuals, dates, and/or locations from course readings, discussions,
and student presentations. The Essay Questions will ask you to make an argument citing
evidence/examples from lecture and assigned materials. To receive full credit, your essay must have an
introduction, a strong thesis statement, clear body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Please Note: I will provide
the class with study sheets approximately 1 to 2 weeks before the exam.
In the Midterm Examination, a single Identification Response will count for 15% of the Total Grade
(Altogether: 45% of the Total Grade) and an Essay Response will count for 55% of the Total Grade.

D. First Response Paper (9 February 2016) (15%)

To study and to write media history effectively, I firmly believe that the historian must first explore ones
own relationship with media. Writing history, after all, is a process. In the spirit of these claims, the first
response paper will ask you to write a 4 to 5 page analysis (roughly 1000 to 1250 words) about your
relationship with media, whether it be social, artistic, or some combination.
Sidebar: I argue that critically exploring and developing your views about a subject is
essential to studying and to writing any type of history. If you are interested in learning more
about this viewpoint, or the ways in which our contemporary politics and personal
worldviews shape the writing of the past, then consult E.H Carrs excellent essay, Carr, E.H.
The Historian and his Facts. In What is History? The George Macaulay Trevelyan Lectures
Delivered in the University of Cambridge, JanuaryMarch 1961, by E.H. Carr, 3-36. New York:
Alfred A. Knopf, 1963. The essay can be found on MyCourses.

You are free to write on any topic and to respond in any manner that you deem appropriate (ie, maybe you
wish or need to incorporate photographs, powerpoints, links, etc. into your essay), provided that you make
an argument that analyzes the ways in which you engage with media. The assignment will assess your
ability to explore critically course content, to consider the methodological issues surrounding the
writing about media, to construct an original argument, and to support an argument through
research.

6
***Remember, there is not a correct answer to this assignment! Be creative! Push boundaries! Challenge
yourself!
Please note, there are a number of caveats and/or requirements for the first response paper:
1) Your response must have a thesis. The thesis must be contestable or able to be argued against and
must provide a roadmap for the rest of your paper. We will discuss how to construct an effective thesis
statement throughout the semester. Still, if you would like to get a head-start on developing and/or
perfecting this critical skill, consult the following website, as I will use it as the standard for determining
effective thesis statements: Thesis Statements. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Writing Center.
http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/thesis-statements/. (Accessed 5 January 2016).
2) Your response must use and incorporate at a minimum 3 of the 8 assigned course materials from
21 January Ideas about Media and Media History I: Basic Theories until 2 February Ideas about Media
and Media History IV: The Videodrome. To reiterate, these materials are:
a) Briggs and Burke, A Social History of the Media, 1-12, 237-251, 263-290.
b) Pettegree, The Invention of News, 1-95, 167-181.
c) Poe, Marshall T. A History of Communications: Media and Society from the Evolution of Speech to the Internet. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2010. (1-7).
d) Watching Each Other: Foucaults Panopticon and Confessional in Social Media. Digital-a-Rae (blog). Posted May
3, 2014. https://digitalarae.wordpress.com/2014/05/03/watching-each-other-foucaults-panopticon-and-confessionalin-social-media/.
e) Jurgeson, Nathan. David Cronenbergs Masterpiece Videodrome was a Technology Prophecy. OmniReboot.
Modified July 15, 2014. http://omnireboot.com/2014/david-cronenberg-videodrome-technology-prophecy/.
f) mywebcowtube. Marshall McLuhan Full Lecture: The Medium is the Message - 1977- Part 1 of 3. Filmed June
27, 1977. Youtube Video. 14:22. Posted August 9, 2011. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImaH51F4HBw.

Watch 0:00 to 11:54.

g) cinematographos. Cronenberg on Cronenberg. Youtube Video. 1:27:45. Posted April 29, 2013.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UZPGhZRA9U. Watch 13:00-23:45.
h) Videodrome. Directed by David Cronenberg. 1983. New York: Criterion, 2010. DVD.

Image from Videodrome. Directed by David Cronenberg. 1983. New York: Criterion, 2010. DVD.

3) Your response must incorporate, at an absolute minimum, two materials from outside the
course. These materials can be anything: peer-reviewed articles and books; films; youtube; your own online
media sites such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Youtube, etc.; whatever you deem necessary to
develop and to support your argument.
4) Your response must be well-written and cited to Chicago-Turabian Format. For more on the
writing requirements of this assignment (or any writing assignment for this course), please consult the
section of the syllabus entitled General Guidelines and Suggestions for the Writing Assignments.
***Additionally, a few suggestions/notes/comments about the assignment:
Note #1: I realize that not all of you are comfortable with such an open-ended assignment. If you desire
additional structure, there are a number of ways to obtain it, in particular, raise your questions and concerns
in class; visit my office hours; send me e-mails, notes, etc.; or participate in the course discussion on
piazza.com (more on this in Note #3).
Note #2: Additionally, when developing your project, you might wish to consider the following questions:
-How does media shape your behavior or perspective? Knowingly? Unknowingly?
-How does your behavior shape your media use/intake?
-Why do you use the media you use? Why do you choose some forms of media over others?
-How do you use media? When? Where?
-What is media?
-How does media represent your identity? Project your identity?
-How do you present yourself online? Is it authentic? Is it accurate?
-How do you see your presence online? What are you like there? Do you identify with your Facebook
profile, Twitter account, or any internet profile?

Note #3: To foster a more inclusive and productive learning community, I will create a discussion section
on piazza.com, a site that allows us to post and to respond to content. Extra credit will be given to those
people who 1) post their own ideas or views about the project AND 2) provide feedback for others ideas.
Think of this as exemplifying McLuhans Global Village thesis (more on this idea in the coming weeks).

This paper is what you make of it. If you desire to write a conventional paper, write a conventional

paper. If you desire to write a paper that explores yourself, write a paper that explores yourself. Whatever
course you decide, the response paper will prepare you for the varied and often times difficult questions that
the class will tackle this semester.

E. Second Response Paper (7 April 2016) (25%)

The second response paper requires you to write a 5 to 7 page analysis (roughly 1250 to 1500 words) that
explores whether the media and communication technologies developed from roughly 1750 to 1900
solidified Western hegemony across the globe. The assignment will assess your ability to think
critically about course content, to construct an original argument, and to support an argument
through research. Remember, there is not a correct answer to this assignment, especially if you engage
critically with our course readings and uncover evidence from the New York Public Library (more on this in
a minute)! Push boundaries! Challenge yourself! As the class reads course content and gets closer to the

8
assignment due date, we will brainstorm and discuss the assignment further.
So, please note, similar to the first response paper, there are a number of caveats and/or requirements for
the second response paper:
1) Your response must have a thesis. The thesis must be contestable or able to be argued against and
must provide a roadmap for the rest of your paper. We will discuss how to construct an effective thesis
statement throughout the semester. Still, if you would like to get a head-start on developing and/or
perfecting this critical skill, consult the following website, as I will use it as the standard for determining
effective thesis statements: Thesis Statements. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Writing Center.
http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/thesis-statements/. (Accessed 5 January 2016).
2) Your response must use and incorporate at a minimum 4 of the 11 following assigned course

materials:

a) Ballantyne, Tony and Antoinette Burton. Remaking the World. In Empires and the Reach of the Global, 1870-1945,
by Tony Ballantyne and Antoinette Burton, 79-130. Boston: Harvard University Press, 2014.
b) Bektas, Yakup. The Sultans Messenger: Cultural Constructions of Ottoman Telegraphy, 1847-1880. Technology
and Culture, Volume 41, Number 4, October 2000, pp. 669-696.
c) Bleichmar, Daniella. Visible Empire: Scientific Expeditions and Visual Culture in the Hispanic Enlightenment,
Postcolonial Studies, vol. 12 no. 9 (2009): 44166.
d) Briggs and Burke, A Social History of the Media, 161-164.
e) elik, Zeynep. Framing the Colony: Houses of Algeria Photographed. Art History 27:4 (2004), 616-626.
f) Chaudhary, 1-27, 73-90, 94-104, 152-171, 176-187.
g) Captain Cook, Act I The First Voyage. Princeton University Library. John Delaney, ed. Accessed January 3, 2013.
http://libweb5.princeton.edu/visual_materials/maps/websites/pacific/cook1/cook1.html.
h) Engels, Frederick. The Great Towns: Condition of the Working Class in England. In The Norton Anthology of
English Literature, Volume II, edited by Stephen Greenblatt and el., 1702-1710. New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 2012.
i) Gandhi, M.K. Civilization and The Condition of Railways. In Hind Swaraj and Other Writings, edited by Anthony
J. Parel, 33-40, 45-48. Cambridge, Cambridge Texts in Modern Politics, 2012
j) Landau, Paul. Empires of the Visual: Photography and Colonial Administration in Africa. In Images and Empires:
Visuality in Colonial and Postcolonial Africa, edited by Paul Landau and Deborah Kaspin, 141-171. Berkley:
University of California Press, 2002.
k) Pang, Laikwan. The pictorial turn: realism, modernity and China's print culture in the late nineteenth century.
Visual Studies 20:1 (2005), 16-36.

3) Your response must incorporate, at an absolute minimum, two materials from the New York
Public Library Digital Commons. Recently, the New York Public Library digitalized almost 700,000
archival documents in its collection. The collection can be found here: http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/.
Not only is the digitalized collection one of the largest in all of the world, it is also entirely free to the
public! Photographs. Postcards. Letters. Government Documents. Maps. You can find pretty much
everything here. While this collection will become an essential one for anyone studying and writing
American History in the department, the Digital Commons is truly a global resource, as it includes
documents that originate from and pertain to pretty much any and all locations across the world. To provide
you an introductory sense of the collections varied offerings, I have copied and pasted a number of the

9
collections documents throughout the syllabus. So, for the assignment, you will need to research your topic
in the NYPL archive and incorporate two of its documents into your response paper. Text. Postcard. Map.
Photograph. The Medium(s) selected are up to you. Obviously, the documents selected will depend and vary
upon the direction of your response. And as the class gets closer to the due date, I will provide some
possible search words and headings to help hone your work. But still, I encourage you all to spend some
time playing with the collection. I hope that you enjoy this assignment and this archive in particular.
4) Your response must be well-written and cited to Chicago-Turabian Format. For more on the
writing requirements of this assignment (or any writing assignment for this course), please consult the
section of the syllabus entitled General Guidelines and Suggestions for the Writing Assignments.

Additional Guidelines for Written

Assignments:
Composition: A quality paper will have a thesis
statement, body paragraphs consisting of your
analysis and evidence, and then your conclusion.
Additionally, a quality paper should be wellwritten. Organization and style are just as
important as content, an idea that we will discuss
throughout the semester. Each Response Paper has
a fixed word count/total. Do not exceed these
word counts/totals. While the word counts/totals
are very reasonable, do not think that this is an
easy task it is NOT that simple. You must focus
on a topic and get into it very quickly. You must
think about your words and your wording. You
must excise all unnecessary phrasing. Concision is
necessary! Editing is a necessity!
Grading Guidelines/Assessments: In
summation, the Grading Guidelines/Assessments
for all written assignments are as follows:

The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints

and Photographs: Photography Collection,
The New York Public Library. "Cole
Christians, aboriginal, Chota Nagpoor." New
York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed
January 14, 2016.
http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d
47dc-a06b-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

Thesis/Analysis/Originality
Evidence:
Organization/Clarity/Quality of Writing:
Formatting and Following Directions:
For additional insights, please consult the
appropriate rubric found in MyCourses.

Formatting: Properly Formatted Papers will have ALL of the following:

1) Times New Roman or Garamond, 12 size font.
2) Doubled-Spaced paragraphs with 1 Inch Margins
3) Page Numbers

30%
30%
30%
10%

10
4) Titles. Note: Cover pages are not required (save a tree), but titles are required. Titles are particularly
important, since they attract the readers attention and identify the topic of the essay. Make them interesting
and informative! Papers without a title will lose valuable points since we, your readers, will have to try to
figure out what your paper is about.
5) A Bibliography
5) Formal Footnotes or Endnotes. NO PARENTHETICAL CITATIONS. To this Point:
Citations: All sources, published, unpublished, internet, etc., as well as your choice of footnotes or
endnotes must be properly cited according to the Chicago-Turabian Manual of Style. Failure to follow proper
citation guidelines will result in a reduced grade. Once Again, Parenthetical Citations will not be accepted.
Copies of the various manuals are available at the Milne Library reference desk. The Purdue University
Online Writing Lab has also created a useful online website. See:
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/717/1/

Plagiarism: Do not plagiarize. Plagiarism will result in Automatic Failure of the Assignment and possible
College sanctions. http://www.geneseo.edu/dean_office/dishonesty. The College Catalogue defines
plagiarism as the following:
Plagiarism is the representation of someone else's words or ideas as one's own, or the arrangement of someone else's material(s)
as one's own. Such misrepresentation may be sufficient grounds for a student's receiving a grade of E for the paper or
presentation involved or may result in an E being assigned as the final grade for the course.
If you have any questions regarding the issue of plagiarism, please visit the Colleges policy on plagiarism
and academic dishonesty http://www.geneseo.edu/dean_office/dishonesty, schedule an appointment with
a reference librarian at Milne, raise questions in class, or see me during office hours. Additionally, consult
the UNCCHs handout concerning plagiarism.
Writing Resources and Assistance: Additional writing assistance can be found on campus at the Writing
and Learning Center. Although members of the Center will typically not proofread your papers, they will

11
help you organize your thoughts, develop your ideas, and construct your thesis statements. Take advantage
of this great resource! The Geneseo writing guide is at: http://writingguide.geneseo.edu for all of your
grammar and writing needs.
Outlines, thesis statements, and introductory paragraphs can be e-mailed to the instructors as late as 9:00
PM the night before the assigned due date. Feel free to stop by either of our office hours for feedback or
consultation as well.
Additionally, for those of you seeking writing and/or style advice, please use the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hills (UNCCH) excellent online writing site, http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/.
Specifically, you might find the handouts available via the handout link on the website especially useful.
Throughout the semester as well, we might direct you to specific handouts in order to address writing
issues or concerns.
Other useful Websites and Resources:
Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL): http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/
An excellent resource for college level writers, OWL provides detailed explanations and examples for any
written assignment that you might encounter during your college career. OWL also provides useful websites
for creating effective resumes and cover letters.
SUNY Geneseo myCourses:
This service will serve as our main resource repository for the semester. Here you can find assigned articles,
grade assessments, peer review sheets, etc. There might also be times when we have open class forums and
reviews online through myCourses.
Twitter: @Goe_Course_Info
This twitter handle is an additional course resource for you. Here I will post course updates and provide
links to stories that I think the course might find useful and/or interesting. It also provides you with an
additional medium for contacting me or communicating with other students in the course.
Grades: Late papers will be marked down half a letter grade for each class day it is overdue. Late papers can
be submitted with no penalty provided there is a legitimate excuse. Legitimate excuses, such as medical
treatment, severe illness, and/or a death in the family must be documented. Legitimate excuses do not
include vacations, computer problems, hangovers, or work due for another class.

12

The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public
Library. "James Cook." New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed January 14, 2016.
http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47df-2c9d-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

F. Attendance, Participation, and Quizzes (15%)

While the course does not require attendance per say, to ensure the success of the class, it is paramount that
you attend each session and actively participate in our activities and assignments.
Why is active participation important?
Throughout the semester, we will be collectively working through a series of questions related to classassigned materials. Interpreting Media History and developing the skills needed to analyze and to write
effectively at the college level will be a collaborative effort driven by group discussion, debate, and
reflection. I ask that you attend class, participate in discussions, do short in-class writing assignments, and be
a good audience for others. I believe that you need to attend every class because every person has something
valuable to contribute to any discussion. Discussions take place every day. I expect everyone to be ready to
contribute findings so that we can have conversation about many different ideas.
What does active participation mean?
1. raise questions and concerns related to readings, films, discussions, and lectures.
2. contribute effort and thought to class exercises, which will include reading assignments, brainstorms, brief
free-writes, as well as group and general class discussions.
3. conduct yourself in a professional manner. Professionalism means that you come to class on time, turn
your cell phone off, respect opposing points of view that may contrast with your own, and exhibit general
civility.
What is not active participation?
1. simply attending class. Its that simple. Come to class prepared and ready to contribute!
Active participation will be assessed according to these standards. Assessment will also be based not simply
on quantity but also quality of in-class participation. Course exercises are designed to target, reinforce,
and/or refine student strengths, whether written, oral, or visual. Such an approach promotes a comfortable

13
and respectful learning environment and allows the student to gain experience and develop confidence in
any number of critical reasoning skills.

The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public
Library. "French revolution to ruler of France, 1794-1799" New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed
January 14, 2016. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/6d1df996-97d9-f6b6-e040-e00a18063a3f

Quiz Policy: Quizzes will be given in class if the instructor believes the students have not come prepared to
class.
Bottom Line: There will be times in the semester when you will become frustrated with the readings.
Perhaps you may not understand a passage or a concept. All that I ask is that you try your best to prepare
the days readings, raise questions if you have them, and actively participate in class.

Tentative Schedule
19 January

First Class

21 January
Ideas about Media and Media History I: Basic Theories
a) Carr, E.H.. The Historian and his Facts. In What is History? The George Macaulay Trevelyan Lectures Delivered in the
University of Cambridge, JanuaryMarch 1961, by E.H. Carr, 3-36. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1963
b) Poe, Marshall T. A History of Communications: Media and Society from the Evolution of Speech to the Internet. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2010. (1-7).
26 January
Ideas about Media and Media History II: Media and Me
a) Briggs and Burke, A Social History of the Media, 237-251, 263-290.
b) Watching Each Other: Foucaults Panopticon and Confessional in Social Media. Digital-a-Rae (blog). Posted May
3, 2014. https://digitalarae.wordpress.com/2014/05/03/watching-each-other-foucaults-panopticon-and-confessionalin-social-media/.
28 January
Ideas about Media and Media History III: The Videodrome
a) Jurgeson, Nathan. David Cronenbergs Masterpiece Videodrome was a Technology Prophecy. OmniReboot.
Modified July 15, 2014. http://omnireboot.com/2014/david-cronenberg-videodrome-technology-prophecy/.
In-Class Screening: Videodrome. Directed by David Cronenberg. 1983. New York: Criterion, 2010. DVD.

14
2 February
Ideas about Media and Media History IV: The Videodrome
a) mywebcowtube. Marshall McLuhan Full Lecture: The Medium is the Message - 1977- Part 1 of 3. Filmed June
27, 1977. Youtube Video. 14:22. Posted August 9, 2011. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImaH51F4HBw.

Watch 0:00 to 11:54.

b) cinematographos. Cronenberg on Cronenberg. Youtube Video. 1:27:45. Posted April 29, 2013.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UZPGhZRA9U. Watch 13:00-23:45.
c) Start Pettegree, The Invention of News, 1-95, 167-181.
Map Quiz
4 February:
Pre-Columbus News and Communication Circuits in Europe
a) Finish Pettegree, The Invention of News, 1-95, 167-181.
b) Start Ginzburg, The Cheese and the Worms, all.
9 February:
Print and Reformation in Europe
a) Continue Ginzburg, The Cheese and the Worms, all.
b) Bedell, John. Wickiana: Broadsheets of the Sixteenth Century. Bensozia (blog). Posted May 10, 2014.
http://benedante.blogspot.com/2014/05/wickiana-broadsheets-of-sixteenth.html.
Paper Due
11 February:
Communication and Contact in the World System
a) Ali Reis, Sidi. Mirat ul Memalik (The Mirror of Countries). 1557. Internet Modern History Sourcebook. Paul Halsall,
ed. Accessed 6 January 2015. http://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/source/16CSidi1.asp.
b) Continue Ginzburg, The Cheese and the Worms, all
16 February:
A Man and his thoughts in the Sixteenth Century
b) Finish Ginzburg, The Cheese and the Worms, all
18 February:
Newspapers and the Enlightenment
a) Pettegree, The Invention of News, 181-207, 251-307.
23 February:
Publics and Communication
a) Pettegree, The Invention of the News, 230-248.
b) A brief description of the excellent vertues of that sober and wholesome drink, called coffee, and its incomparable
effects in preventing or curing most diseases incident to humane bodies. Printed for Paul Greenwood, and are to be
sold at the sign of the Coffee-Mill and Tobacco Roll in Cloath-fair West-Smithfield who selleth the best arabian
coffee-powder and chocolate, made in cake or in roll, after the Spanish fashion, &c. 1674. Early English Books Online.
Accessed January 2, 2016.
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/B01780.0001.001/1:1?firstpubl1=1470;firstpubl2=1700;rgn=div1;sort=occur;sub
view=detail;type=simple;view=fulltext;q1=coffee+house.
c) The coffee house or News-mongers Hall. In which is shewn their several sorts of passions, containing news from
all our neighbour nations. A poem. Printed by Edward Crowch for Thomas Vere, at the Angel with our New-gate.
1672. Early English Books Online. Accessed January 2, 2016.
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/B02251.0001.001/1:1?firstpubl1=1470;firstpubl2=1700;rgn=div1;sort=occur;sub
view=detail;type=simple;view=fulltext;q1=coffee+house (Accessed 2 January 2016)
25 February
Enlightenment, Exploration, and Media
a) Bleichmar, Daniella. Visible Empire: Scientific Expeditions and Visual Culture in the Hispanic Enlightenment,
Postcolonial Studies, vol. 12 no. 9 (2009): 44166.
b) Captain Cook, Act I The First Voyage. Princeton University Library. John Delaney, ed. Accessed January 3, 2013.
http://libweb5.princeton.edu/visual_materials/maps/websites/pacific/cook1/cook1.html.
1 March:
Communication and the Age of Revolutions
a) Pettegree, The Invention of the News, 326-345.

15
b) Songs of the Revolution. Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, Exploring the French Revolution: Roy Rosenzweig Center for History
and New Media. Accessed January 2, 2016. http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/chap11a.html.
3 March:

Midterm Examination

General Research Division, The New York Public Library. "The German colonial claim." New York Public Library
Digital Collections. Accessed January 14, 2016. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47db-d9f3-a3d9e040-e00a18064a99
8 March:
Industrialization and its Effects
a) Briggs and Burke, A Social History of the Media, 91-112, 121-160.
b) Engels, Frederick. The Great Towns: Condition of the Working Class in England. In The Norton Anthology of
English Literature, Volume II, edited by Stephen Greenblatt and el., 1702-1710. New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 2012.
33-40, 45-48.
10 March:
Communication, Technology, and Empire I
a) Ballantyne, Tony and Antoinette Burton. Remaking the World. In Empires and the Reach of the Global, 1870-1945,
by Tony Ballantyne and Antoinette Burton, 79-130. Boston: Harvard University Press, 2014.
b) Gandhi, M.K. Civilization and The Condition of Railways. In Hind Swaraj and Other Writings, edited by Anthony
J. Parel, 33-40, 45-48. Cambridge, Cambridge Texts in Modern Politics, 2012.
c) Start Chaudhary, 1-27, 73-90, 94-104, 152-171, 176-187.
22 March:
Communication, Technology, and Empire II
a) Bektas, Yakup. The Sultans Messenger: Cultural Constructions of Ottoman Telegraphy, 1847-1880. Technology and
Culture, Volume 41, Number 4, October 2000, pp. 669-696.
b) Pang, Laikwan. The pictorial turn: realism, modernity and China's print culture in the late nineteenth century.
Visual Studies 20:1 (2005), 16-36.
c) Start Chaudhary, 1-27, 73-90, 94-104, 152-171, 176-187.
24 March
Photography, Empire, and Perception I
a) Briggs and Burke, A Social History of the Media, 161-164.
b) Landau, Paul. Empires of the Visual: Photography and Colonial Administration in Africa. In Images and
Empires: Visuality in Colonial and Postcolonial Africa, edited by Paul Landau and Deborah Kaspin, 141-171. Berkley:
University of California Press, 2002.

16
c) elik, Zeynep. Framing the Colony: Houses of Algeria Photographed. Art History 27:4 (2004), 616-626.
d) Continue Chaudhary, 1-27, 73-90, 94-104, 152-171, 176-187.
29 March:
Photography, Empire, and Perception II
a) Finish Chaudhary, 1-27, 73-90, 94-104, 152-171, 176-187.
31 March:
Cinema and the Emergence of Mass Culture
a) Briggs and Burke, 160-171, 179-196.
b) Start Ross, Media and the Making of Modern Germany, 1-57, 119-187.
In-Class Screening: Metropolis. Directed by Fritz Lang. 1927. New York: Kino Lober Films, 2010. DVD.
5 April:
Cinema and the Emergence of Mass Culture
b) Continue Ross, Media and the Making of Modern Germany, 1-57, 119-187.
In-Class Screening: Metropolis. Directed by Fritz Lang. 1927. New York: Kino Lober Films, 2010. DVD.
7 April:
Cinema and the Emergence of Mass Culture
a) Continue Ross, Media and the Making of Modern Germany, 1-57, 119-187.
In-Class Screening: Metropolis. Directed by Fritz Lang. 1927. New York: Kino Lober Films, 2010. DVD.
Paper Due
12 April:
Discussion of Metropolis, Mass Culture, Weimar Republic
a) Finish Ross, Media and the Making of Modern Germany, 1-57, 119-187.
14 April:
Totalitarianism and Modern Life
a) Start Ross, Media and the Making of Modern Germany, 263-379.
b) Trotsky, Leon. Vodka, the Church, and the Cinema. 1923. Seventeen Moments in Soviet History: Michigan State
University. Accessed January 3, 2016. http://soviethistory.msu.edu/1924-2/socialist-cinema/socialist-cinematexts/trotsky-on-vodka-the-church-and-the-cinema/.

17

Schomburg General Research and Reference Division, The New York Public Library. "Fonctionnaire des postes et
tlgraphes charg de la pose d'une ligne tlgraphique, avec son matriel et ses porteurs." New York Public
Library Digital Collections. Accessed January 14, 2016. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e0-bc95a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
19 April:
Great Day: No Class
a) Continue Ross, Media and the Making of Modern Germany, 263-379.
b) Borrow Kolberg. Directed Veit Harlan. 1945. Chicago: International Historical Films Inc., 2013. DVD.
21 April:
Mass Media under National Socialism
a) Finish Ross, Media and the Making of Modern Germany, 263-379.
b) Finish Kolberg. Directed Veit Harlan. 1945. Chicago: International Historical Films Inc., 2013. DVD.
23 April:
Television and the Globe I
a) Briggs and Burke, 211-222.
b) Start Bren, The Greengrocer and his TV, all.
28 April:
Television and the Globe II
a) Start Bren, The Greengrocer and his TV, all.
3 May:
The Greengrocer and his TV: Media and Control under the Iron Curtain
a) Start Bren, The Greengrocer and his TV, all.
9 May:

Exam 3:30-6:00

18

Schomburg General Research and Reference Division, The New York Public Library. "Racial and Linguistic Map of
Africa." New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed January 14, 2016.
http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47dd-e3af-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

19

20