MCC.UE.1306 TRANSNATIONAL MEDIA FLOWS
New York University
Department of Media, Culture, and Communication
DESCRIPTION AND READINGS
Course Description:
This class examines the intersecting dynamics of media genres and geo-linguistic cultural
markets in the configuration of global and regional media flows. It looks in particular at the
way media genres travel and how their circulation raises issues about the cultural power of
certain media narratives in specific historical, political and social conditions of consumption.
We will examine the battle for national, regional, and global media markets as a struggle for the
“legitimate” cultural and political view of the world expressed through information (news),
scientific discourse (documentaries), and popular culture (films, telenovelas, reality television,
music) to understand the complex global flow of television programs and films.
Learner Objectives:
--Define the defining characteristics of specific media genres
--Outline the particular global and regional flows of specific media genres
--Demonstrate the consequences of particular media flows on definitions of local and regional
culture
--Analyze broader power relations evident in how media genres and forms flow transnationally
--Critique concepts of authentic and legitimate culture in relation to the global, regional, and
local meanings of specific media genres and products
Articles:
Required readings will be available on the class site.
Video materials:
There will be required A/V materials for you to listen to/watch prior to coming to class. These
will be made available on the web or through the class site, when possible; or they will require
that you to listen/to watch them in the Avery Fisher Center at the Bobst Library.
EXPECTATIONS & GRADING
Leading class discussions 10%
• You will be asked to lead a class discussion twice during the semester. Your guidance will
be base on reading responses and the questions posted in the class forum. Print them and
bring them to class and start a vivid discussion with your peers about the central ideas of
the readings. Clarifying the main argument, its theoretical contribution as well as its
possible weakness will be part of the task.
Class Participation = 10%
• You are expected to complete the assigned reading before each class and to participate
actively in all class discussions.
• Your participation grade is based on presence, punctuality, quantity and quality of in-class
participation. You are expected to come to class prepared and to discuss the readings
critically.
Reaction papers = 20%
• You are expected to write a critical response to the readings assigned for the class. At the
end of the semester you should have written a total of ten responses for the reading assigned
on ten different class days. You can choose freely which classes you are interested in
writing a response to; however the due d ate of the submission will be the very day on
which the class is given. You must turn in your response before we discuss the text in class.
These need not be long, but should address the following questions: What is the author’s
principal argument and methodology? What kinds of sources support those arguments?
What is their objective (what are they arguing against), How does their work fin in relation
to other readings? Finally, what is your reaction to the author’s work? Do you agree with
the basic premises, assumptions and methodologies? Why or why not? Think about these
papers as reading journals.
3 Short Papers = 30%
• You will be required to write three short papers on the separate sections of the course.
These three papers will be guided critiques of media flows and the industrial and cultural
dynamic of media genres. In these papers you should show an in-depth involvement with
the issues addressed, and the capacity for building your reflections upon the readings.
• Papers should be typed, double-spaced, stapled and 4-6 pages in length.
• If you want to email me your papers, you need to do it before 1:00 pm on the day they are
due.
• Due Dates:
• Short paper 1: February 20th
• Short paper 2: March 20th
• Short paper 3: April 24th
Final Paper / Project = 30%
• Each of you will also prepare an original research paper on a topic of your choice. I need to
approve your final project, and for that reason you need to make an appointment to talk
about it with me before April 24. You are expected to prepared a proposal, and present a
project to the rest of the class at least twice during the semester. Feel free to come see me to
discuss your ideas.
• The final papers should be typed, double-space, stapled and 8-12 pages long.
• Due date: May 17, 2013
• I recommend that you purchase at least one style manual which will help to improve the
organization and composition of your written work, and help ensure proper citation of
sources. There is a handy edition that you can carry by Hacker, D. (2004). A pocket style
manual. Boston, New York: Bedford/ St. Martin’s.
Students with disabilities
• Students with special needs, either with physical and/or learning disabilities, should register
with the Moses Center for Students with Disabilities at 212-998=4980, 240 Greene street,
www.nyu.edu/csd.
Religious observances
• Students with religious observances that may interfere with the class schedule need to see
me at the beginning of the semester to talk about your schedule.
Academic dishonesty and plagiarism
• “Academic integrity is the guiding principle for all that you do […] you violate the
principle when you: cheat on an exam; submit the same work for two different courses
without prior permission from your professors; receive help on a take home courses without
prior permission from your professors; or plagiarize. You plagiarize when, without proper
attribution, you do any of the following: copy verbatim from a book, article, or others
media, download documents from the Internet; purchase documents; paraphrase or restate
someone else’s facts, analysis, and/or conclusions” (See School of Education Bulletin,
2004-6, p. 174)
• Cheating or plagiarism will not be tolerated under any circumstance and will result in a
failure of the assignment and possible failure of this class
Grading
• Late papers and assignments will be graded down 5 points for every day late. Papers and
assignments will not be accepted once they are more than 5 days late and will automatically
result in a grade of F (0%).
• Participation in class is required, based on the completion of readings / video assignments
before class. Your grade will decrease by a full point for every two classes you miss (i.e.
from B to B-). You must notify me in advance if you are going to miss a class or a deadline,
and you will need a legitimate excuse.
SCHEDULE
Week I.
Mon. January 28: Introduction to class
Globalization and Media
Wed, January 30: New debates on media flows
Sparks, C. (2005). The problem of globalization. Global Media and Communication 1(1), pp
20-23.
Chan, J. (2005). Global media and the dialectics of the global. Global Media and
Communication 1(1), pp. 24-28.
Chalaby, J. (2005). From internationalization to transnationalization. Global Media and
Communication 1(1), pp. 28-33.
Hegde, R. (2005). Disciplinary spaces and globalization: a postcolonial unsettling. Global
Media and Communication 1(1), pp. 59-62.
Week II.
Mon. February 4: The global cultural economy
Appadurai, A. (2005) “Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy,” In
Modernity at large. Cultural dimensions of globalization (pp. 41-55). Minneapolis, MN:
Minnesota Press
Wed. February 6: The global vs the regional – Political economy vs cultural studies
Schiller, H. (1991). “Not Yet the Post-Imperialist Era," Critical Studies in Mass Communication 8, pp.
13-28.
Straubhaar, J. (1991). “Beyond Media Imperialism: Asymmetrical Interdependence and Cultural
Proximity," Critical Studies in Mass Communication 8, 1-11.
Week III.
Mon. February 11: Mapping media flows
Kishan, D. (2007). Mapping media flow and counter-flow. In D. Kissan (Ed.). Media on the
Move: Global Flow and Contra-Flow (pp. 10-20). Oxon; New York: Routledge
Nederveen Pieterse, J. (2009). Representing the rise of the rest as threat. Media and global
divides. Global Media and Communication 5(2), pp. 221-237
Recommended:
C . Lee Harrington and Denise D. Bielby (2005). Flow, Home, and Media Pleasures. The
Journal of Popular Culture, Vol. 38, No. 5
Wed. February 13: Media capitals and geo-linguistic markets
Sinclair, J. (2004). Geo-linguistic region as global space. The case of Latin America. In R.
Allen and A. Hill (Eds.). The television studies reader. pp. 130-138, London and New
York: Routledge
Curtin, M. (200). Media Capital: Towards the Study of Spatial Flows. International Journal of
Cultural Studies 6; 202
Week IV.
Mon. February 18: President’s Day
No classes
Wed. February 20: The U.S. as global media power 1
Hoskins, C., & Mirus, R. (1988). “Reasons for the U.S. dominance of the international trade in
television programs.” Media, culture and society 10, pp. 499-515.
Hoskins, C. and McFayden, S. (1991). “The U.S. Competitive Advantage in the Global
Television Market: Is it Sustainable in the new Broadcasting Environment,” Canadian
Journal of Communication 16, pp. 207-224.
Paper 1: “The mapping of media flows and counter flows and the global presence of the U.S.
media” February 20th
Week V.
Mon. February 25: Global Hollywood
Wasko, J. (2008). Financing and production: Creating the Hollywood film commodity. In P.
McDonald and J. Wasco (Eds.). The Contemporary Hollywood film industry (pp. 43-62). Malden,
MA: Blackwell Publishing.
Drake, P. (2008). Distribution and marketing in contemporary Hollywood. In P. McDonald and J.
Wasco (Eds.). The Contemporary Hollywood film industry (pp. 63-82). Malden, MA: Blackwell
Publishing.
Wed. February 27: Global Hollywood 2
Meehan, E. (2008). Ancillary markets – Television: From challenge to safe haven. In P. McDonald and
J. Wasco (Eds.). The Contemporary Hollywood film industry (pp. 106-120). Malden, MA:
Blackwell Publishing.
Trumpbour, J. (2008). Hollywood and the world: Export or die. In P. McDonald and J. Wasco (Eds.).
The Contemporary Hollywood film industry (pp. 209-220). Malden, MA: Blackwell
Publishing.
Week VI.
Mon. March 4: The global television marketplace
Havens, T. (2006). Studying global television merchants, In Global television marketplace (pp.
1-11). London, UK: British Film Institute.
C. Lee Harrington and Denise D. Bielby (2005). Global Television Distribution Implications of
TV “Traveling” for Viewers, Fans, and Texts. American Behavioral Scientist, Vol. 48
No. 7, 902-920
Wed. March 6: Culture and economics in international television trade
Havens, T. (2002). “It’s still a white world out there”: the interplay of culture and economics in
international television trade. Critical Studies in Media Communication 19(4), 377-397
Bielby, D. and Harrington L. (2008). The continued relevance of genre. In Global TV exporting
television and culture in the global market. New York and London: New York
University Press
Week VII.
Mon. March 11: Media regions: East Asia, South Asia and the Middle East
Shi, A.(2005). The taming of the shrew: global media in a Chinese perspective. Global Media
and Communication 1(1), pp. 33-36.
Sabry, T. (2005). What is ‘global’ about Arab media? Global Media and Communication 1(1),
pp 41-46.
Sundaram, R. (2005). Media globalization: an Indian perspective. Global Media and
Communication 1(1), pp. 55-58.
Wed. March 13: Media regions: Europe, Latin America and Africa
Papathanassopoulos, S. (2005). Europe: an exemplary landscape for comprehending
globalization. Global Media and Communication 1(1), pp. 46-50
Mano, W. (2005). Exploring the African view of the global. Global Media and Communication
1(1), pp. 50-55.
La Pastina, A. (2005). Up the Amazon without a paddle: developing nations and globalization.
Global Media and Communication 1(1), pp. 36-41
Week VIII.
Mon. March 18: Spring Break
Wed. March 20: Spring Break
Week IX.
Mon. March 25: Film flows 1: Bollywood
Govil, N. (2007). Bollywood and the friction of global mobility. In D. Kissan (Ed.). Media on
the Move: Global Flow and Contra-Flow (pp. 76-89). Oxon; New York: Routledge
Heather, T. (2004). Bollywood vs Hollywood. In F. Lechner, and J. Boli, (Eds.), The
globalization reader. Malden, U.S.; Oxford, UK; Victoria, Australia: Blackwell
Publishing.
Recommended:
Rajadhyaksha, A. “The Bollywoodization of the Indian Cinema…” in Kavoori and
Punathambekar, Global Bollywood, NYU Press, 2008
Wed. March 27: Film flows 2: Nollywood and the Hong Kong Cinema
Marston, S., Woodward, K. & Jones, J. P. (2007). III_Flattening Ontologies of Globalization:
The Nollywood Case. Globalizations March 2007, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 45–63
Kar, L. (2001). An overview of Hong Kong Cinema new wave, In E. Yau, (Ed.). At full speed.
Hong Kong Cinema a borderless world. Minneapolis, MA: University of Minnesota
Press.
Paper 2: “The dynamics of the international media trade and the world regions” March 31th
Week X.
Mon. April 1: News 1: Agencies and news the world informational order
Boyd-Barrett, O. (2000) Constructing the global, constructing the local: News agencies represent the world. In A. Malek and Kavoori, A. (Eds.). The global dynamics of news:
studies in international news coverage and news (pp. 299-322). Connecticut: Ablex
Publishing Corporation.
Paterson, C. (2011). Moving the world’s news. In The international television news agencies.
The world from London (pp. 1-20). New York, NY: Peter Lang.
Rai, M. and Cottle, S. (2007). Global mediations. On the changing ecology of satellite
television news. Global Media and Communication 3(1), pp. 51-78
Wed. April 3: News 2: The battle for information: CNN, BBC, Aljazeera, and Telesur
Miladi, N. (2003). Mapping the Al-Jazeera phenomenon. In D. Kishan and D. Freedman (Eds.).
War and the Media. London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi: Sage Publications Ltd.
Barkho, L (nd). The Arabic Aljazeera Vs Britain’s BBC and America’s CNN: who does
journalism right? Media Management and Transformation Centre. Jönköping
International Business School
Burch, S. (2007). Telesur and the new agenda for Latin American integration
Burch Global Media and Communication. 3: 227-232\
Recommended:
Naomi Sakr (2007). Challenger or lackey? The politics of news of Al-Jazeera, In D. Kishan
Thusu (Ed.). Media on the move. Global flow and contra-flow. London and New York:
Routledge.
El-nawawy, M. (2006). US public diplomacy in the Arab world: The news credibility of Radio
Sawa and Television Alhurra in five countries. Global Media and Communication 2(2),
pp. 183-203
Week XI.
Mon. April 8: Telenovelas 1
The centrality of telenovelas in Latin America’s everyday life: Past tendencies, current
knowledge and future research. Global Media 5, 359
Wilkinson, K. (2003). Language and difference in the telenovelas trade. Global Media Journal.
2(2)
Wed. April 10: Telenovelas 2
Rego, C. and La Pastina, A. (2007). Brazil and the globalization of telenovelas. In D. Kissan
(Ed.). Media on the Move: Global Flow and Contra-Flow (pp. 89--104). Oxon; New
York: Routledge
Denise D. Bielby and C. Lee Harrington (2005). Opening America?: The Telenovela-ization of
U.S. Soap Operas. Television New Media 6; 383
Recommended:
Mato, D. (2005). The transnationalization of the telenovela industry, territorial references, and
the production of markets and representations of transnational identities. Television and
New Media, 6(4), 423-444.
Week XII.
Mon. April 15: Documentaries
Selznik, B. (2008). Global Truths: Documentaries for the world. In Global Television. Coproducing culture pp. 146-175. Philadelpia, PA: Temple University Press.
Magombe, V. (2006). Africa lives on the BBC. Global Media and Communication 2(1), pp.
119-123
Recommended:
Chatterjee, R. (2008). The story of India with Michael Wood: BBC television series
(BBC/PBS: 2007). Global Media and Communication 4(3), pp. 369-373.
Wed. April 17: Music and video-clips
Banks, J. (1997/. MTV and the Globalization of Popular Culture. Gazette 59 (1), pp. 43-60
Fung, A. (2006). ‘Think globally, act locally.’China’s rendezvous with MTV. Global Media
and Communication 2(1), pp. 71-88
Juluri, V. (2002). “Music television and the invention of youth culture in India.” Television and
New Media, 3(4), 367-386.
Recommended:
Schulz, D. (2003). Music vides and the effeminate vices of urban culture in Mali. In T. Miller,
(Ed.), Television. Critical concepts in media and cultural studies (pp. 157-184). New
York: Routledge.
Week XIII.
Mon. April 22: Formats 1: TV formats market
Moran, A. and Keane, M. (2006). Cultural Power in International TV Format Markets.
Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies. Vol. 20, No. 1, pp. 71–86
Waisbord, S. (2004). “McTV: Understanding the Global Popularity of Television Formats.”
Television & New Media 5(4), pp. 359-383
Recommended:
Moran, A. (2006). Understanding the TV program format. In Understanding the global TV
format (pp. 19-29). Portland Oregon: Intellect Books.
Wed. April 24: Formats 2: Reality television
Krady, M. (2007). Reality television, politics and the democratization of the Arab world. In I.
Blankson, and P. Murphy, (2007). Negotiating democracy. Media transformation in
emergent democracies. Albany, NY: State University of New York.
Campanella, B. (2009). Big brother in Brazil. Global Media and Communication 5(1), pp. 137140
Paper 3: “The cultural power and the power of culture in media genres” April 24th
Week XIV.
Mon. April 29: Adaptations and localization 1
Chan, J. M. (2002). “Disneyfing and globalizing the Chinese legend Mulan: A study of
transculturation.” In J. M. Chan & B. T. McIntyre (Eds.), In search of boundaries:
Communication, nation-states and cultural identities (pp. 225-248). Westport, Conn.:
Ablex Pub
Piñón, J. (2011). “Ugly Betty and the emergence of Latina/o producers as cultural translators”
Communication Theory 21(4), 392-412
Wed. May 1: Adaptation and localization 2
Iwabuchi, Koichi (2002). Recentering globalization: Popular culture and Japanese
transnationalism. Durham: Duke University Press.
Ch. 1. “Taking Japanization seriously: cultural globalization reconsidered,” pp. 23-50
Straubhaar, J. (2005). Adapting U.S. Transnational television channels to a complex world:
From cultural imperialism from localization to hybridization. In J. Chalaby (Ed.),
Transnational television worldwide. Towards a new media order. (1 ed., pp. 216 - 253).
New York, London: I. B. Tauris.
Week XV.
Mon. May 6: Diasporas and media 1
Amezaga, A. (2007). Geolinguistic Regions and Diasporas in the Age of Satellite Television.
International Communication Gazette 69 (3), pp. 239-261
Sakr, N. (2008). Diversity and diaspora. Arab communities and satellite communication in
Europe. Global Media and Communication 4(3), pp. 277-300
Recommended:
Clifford, J. (1994). Diasporas. Cultural Anthropology. 9(3), 302-338
Wed. May 8: Diasporas and media 2
Sinclair, J. (2009). Minorities, media, marketing and marginalization. Global Media and
Communication 5(2), pp. 177-196
Leeuw, S. and Rydin, I. (2007). Diasporic Mediated Spaces. In O. Bailey, M. Georgiou & R.
Harindranath (Ed.), Transnational lives and the media. Re-imagining diaspora (pp. 175194). Basingstoke, England and New York: Palgrave MacMillan
Recommended:
Georgiou, M. (2006). Diasporas, Identity and the media. Diasporic transnationalism and
mediated spaces. Cresskill, New Jersey: Hampton Press.
Week XVI.
Mon. May 13: Presentations
Individual project’s presentations
Final Paper due