A History of Media in the United States

A new class at Berkeley City College, Spring 2007!

Welcome Spring semester, 2007, Berkeley students! There are many links on the blog that may (or may not) prove useful to you! Feel free to browse around and I'll make mention or send e mails when there may be posts/issues of particular interest for class. There's much to cover on selected topics...and away we go!

Books can be had from Revolution Books on Channing and Telegraph. Course texts include:

1) McChesney, Robert. The Problem of the Media: U.S. Communication Politics in the 21st Century
2) Phillips, Peter. Censored 2007: The Top 25 Censored Stories
3) Snow, Nancy. Information War: American Propaganda, Free Speech, and Opinion Control Since 9-11

Here are some links to course author sites:

Free Press Media Reform

Speaking Truth to Power

Project Censored

Snow Machine

Some sites of interest I am involved with include those from my 1/7/07 post on this site. Also, of course, several links to the right of the page...more to come (and all included in class handouts which include links from far left to right on media issues and commentators). Remember, we'll be meeting 1/27, 2/24, 3/10, 3/24, 4/21, and 5/5. Looking forward!

I'd like to digress for a moment. Below are some additional links from a wide variety of angles on media and history- history of media, history and media, and media technology and its impact upon politics, culture, and society. Even though the course, History 46E, focuses on media and its relation to democratic institutions and the public from past to present, there are interesting approaches to using new media to better understand and teach about the past and forge into the future as well. Our interests for the course are different than the links below pursue, as we'll use more of a sociological history of media and its impact on self governance and the importance of a free press in democratic culture. However, here are some interesting examples we won't have much time to deal with that pertain more to media technology and its historical development...just fun fast food for thought. So, the course is NOT about a history of media technology...just a clarification. Still, these may be of interest to some.

Media History

The International Association for Media and History

History of Media Technology

Media Initiatives in History

Epic film

Media History Journal

Of course, there are many other links in the syllabus we WILL be using...Here's to a great term! Check again for updates! And more tangents...

Cheers!

MSH