Women's Studies 6500: Women and Communication Studies

Summer, 1996

Ellen Balka

Part 1: Background: Theories of Communication

Week 1: May 15 Introduction to Communications Studies

McPhail, T.L. and McPhail, B.M. (1990). Communication: The Canadian experience. Toronto: Copp-Clark, Pittman. Part 1: Introduction to mass communication theory. (Ch. 1: Communication: A survey of its basic elements; ch. 2: Five concepts of mass communication; ch. 3: Culture and communication: The Canadian perspective. (p. 1-82).

Week 2- May 22 Theories about Communication cont.

Anderson, J.A. and Meyer, T.P. (1988). Mediated communication: A social action perspective. Newbury Park: Sage. Chapter 1 (The nature of communication p.13-50) and Chapter 2 (Thoughts on the mediated communication industry p.51-88).

de la Haye, Y. (Ed.). (1980). Marx and Engels on the means of communication. On the role of the means of communication in the modification of social relations, the creation of a 'new type' of person, the advent of competition, and the destruction of traditional forms of community. New York: ig/immrc. (p. 95-122).

Week 3- May 29 Introduction to Women's Communication

Coates, J. & Cameron, D. (Eds.). (1988). Women in their speech communities. Essex: Longman. (Introduction).

Cameron, D. (1989). Beyond alienation: an intergenerational approach to women and language. In J. Corner and J. Hawthorn (Eds.). Communication studies: An introductory reader. New York: Routledge, Chapman and Hall.

Kramarae, C. (1988). Preface. In C. Kramarae (Ed.), Technology and women's voices: Keeping in touch. (ix-xi). Routledge & Kegan Paul: New York.

Todd, A.D. & Fisher, S. (Eds.). (1988). Introduction: Theories of gender, theories of discourse. In A.D. Todd & S. Fisher, (Eds.), Gender and discourse: The power of talk (pp. 1-18). New Jersey: Ablex.

Week 4- June 5 Feminist Media Studies

van Zoonen, L. (1994). Feminist media studies. Sage: Newbury Park, CA. (Chapters 1-5)

Week 5- Feminist Media Studies cont.

van Zoonen, L. (1994). Feminist media studies. Sage: Newbury Park, CA. (Chapters 6-9)

Week 6 - June 12-- Paper 1 Due

Part 2: Theoretical / Methodological Issues

Week 7.-June 19 Analysis of communicative events

Aitchison, J. (1989) Defining language. In J. Corner and J. Hawthorn (Eds.). Communication studies: An introductory reader. New York: Routledge, Chapman and Hall. (pp. 29-34).

Balka, E. (1991). Selections from Womantalk goes on-line: The use of computer networks for feminist social change. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Simon Fraser University. (pp. 92-117).

Luria, A.R. (1989). Cultural factors in human perception. In J. Corner and J. Hawthorn (Eds.). Communication studies: An introductory reader. New York: Routledge, Chapman and Hall. (pp. 129-132).

Painter, D.S. (1980). Lesbian humor as a normalization device. In C.L. Berryman & V.A. Eman, (Eds.). Communication, language and sex: Proceedings of the first annual conference (pp.132-147). Rowley, MA.: Newbury House Publishers.

Saville-Troike, M. (1989). The analysis of communicative events. In J. Corner and J. Hawthorn (Eds.). Communication studies: An introductory reader. New York: Routledge, Chapman and Hall. (pp. 19-28).

Week 8- June 26 Analysis of communicative events cont.

Carragee, K.M. (1990). Interpretive media study and interpretive social science. Critical studies in mass communication vol. 7 #2 (81-96).

Efron, D. (1989). Historical changes in gestural behaviour. In J. Corner and J. Hawthorn (Eds.). Communication studies: An introductory reader. New York: Routledge, Chapman and Hall. (pp. 148-150).

Kress, G. The structures of speech and writing. In J. Corner and J. Hawthorn (Eds.). Communication studies: An introductory reader. New York: Routledge, Chapman and Hall. (pp. 85-93).

Nichols, B. (1989). The analysis of representational images. In J. Corner and J. Hawthorn (Eds.). Communication studies: An introductory reader. New York: Routledge, Chapman and Hall. (45-50).

van Zoonen, L. (1995). Gender, representation and the media. In Downing, J., Mohammadi, A. and Sreberny-Mohammadi, A. (Eds.). Questioning the media: A critical introduction. Sage: Newbury Park CA.

Week 9-July 3 --Smith's work on discourse analysis

Iser, W. (1989). Interaction between text and reader. In J. Corner and J. Hawthorn (Eds.). Communication studies: An introductory reader. New York: Routledge, Chapman and Hall. (pp. 160-164).

Smith, D. (1990). Femininity as discourse. In D. Smith, Texts, facts and femininity: Exploring the relations of ruling (pp. 159-208). London: Routledge.

Smith, D. (1990). Textually mediated social organization. In D. Smith, Texts, facts and femininity: Exploring the relations of ruling (pp. 209-224). London: Routledge.

Part 3: Topical Issues

Week 10- July 10

Feminist theory about the nature of information technology (additional readings to be supplied by students).

van Zoonen, L. (1992). Feminist theory and information technology. Media, culture and society, vol. 14. pp. 9-29.

Week 11- July 17

Contemporary Marxian interpretations of communication studies technology (additional readings to be supplied by students).

Week 12- July 24

Wrap up and discussion of unresolved issues for final paper.

August 7- Final Paper Due.

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Course Requirements:

Theoretical paper that addresses content of part 1 and student's topic 30%

Final Paper in student's research area 50%

Class Participation and preparation 20%