7/14/05
COURSE SYLLABUS FALL 2005
6:30 PM THURSDAY
INSTRUCTOR:
Emeritus Professor of Communication Studies
Office: SH 255W
Telephone home: 696-2806
E-mail: denman@marshall.edu or wdenmanwv@yahoo.com
Office Hours: Thursday 5:00 – 6:30 p.m.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: (catalog description)
Investigation of the functions, ethics, responsibilities and social impact of oral communication in periods of social unrest.
MULTICULTURAL STATUS: This course fulfills the multicultural requirement of the Marshall Plan.
CREDITS: 3 HOURS; PR: CMM 103, or 104H, or 207, or 213 (or permission).
COURSE PHILOSOPHY AND THEMES: This course is an exploration of how American citizens have, both historically and contemporaneously, communicated their needs and desires about the kinds of social, political, and legal society they wish to live in. Social protest, as a form of human behavior, has been part of the American scene since before the American Revolution, itself an ultimate form of protest. It is the view of this course that social protest, and social movements, grow out of and represent the beliefs, attitudes, and values of those who engage in protest. The ways in which those beliefs, attitudes, and values are communicated, with what force, to what ends, and with what effect, is the focus of this course. Illustrations and examples will be drawn from a number of historical and contemporary social movements including:
--the women’s rights movement of the 19th and early 20th centuries, and the women’s
liberation movement of today
--the various labor struggles of the last two centuries
--the civil-rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s
--the anti-Vietnam war movement of the 1960s and 1970s
--the conservative or “right-wing” movements or counter-movements
--the gay-rights movement
--the reproductive rights movement
--and the current environmental rights movement.
CMM 307 SYLLABUS FALL 2005 2
TEXT INFORMATION:
Persuasion and Social Movements, 4th Edition. Charles J. Stewart, Craig Allen Smith, and Robert E. Denton, Jr., Waveland Press, Inc.
DESIRED LEARNER OBJECTIVES: By the end of the course students should
1. be able to describe the role of social movements in American life;
2. be able to explain how beliefs, attitudes and values shape people’s responses to problems in society;
3. be able to discuss the nature of rights in a democratic society, and explore the legitimate differences accommodated by the concept of rights;
4. be able to discuss the role of power in a society, and analyze the ways in which the power to repress can be challenged through communication;
5. be able to describe the specific ways in which citizens use various methods of communication as they attempt to shape the nature of society and the government of the United States;
6. understand the impact of language as a tool of communication, and be able to express his or her own ideas in language that is not only effective, but gender and culture inclusive;
7. Be able to analyze social movements as communication phenomena.
EVALUATION ASSESSMENT METHODS:
Achievement of the course objectives will be assessed and evaluated in the following manner:
Required written work including, but not limited to, the following:
a. Short "Response Essays" to the various readings and viewings of the course.
b. Participation in class group discussions.
c. A research/literature report on a movement presented orally to class.
A detailed assignment sheet will be handed out later.
d. A term/research paper on some aspect of a social movement studied in the
course. A detailed assignment sheet will be handed out later.
GRADING POLICY:
Grades will be determined in the following way:
1. The "Response Essays" will be worth 20 points apiece with points deducted according to the degree to which the work does not meet the criteria of the assignment.
2. Class group discussions will be worth 5 points.
3. The research/literature report will be worth 100 hundred points.
4. The research paper will be worth 100 points. Both this and the research/literature report will be graded on a scale of 90-100=A, 80-89=B, 70-79=C, etc.
CMM 307 SYLLABUS FALL 2005 3
POLICY STATEMENT:
Due dates for all work will be established either by the schedule attached to the syllabus or as the course progresses. Students will be expected to meet due dates; work not turned in on time will be penalized. Excused absences will be handled according to university policy as in the current catalog.
This course depends a great deal on student interaction in class sessions particularly as we watch videos and discuss readings. Missing these discussions limits the value of the course for you. It is anticipated that every effort will be made to keep up with the readings and attend class.
COURSE OUTLINE:
I. The nature of beliefs, attitudes and values, and their role in human behavior.
A. The work of Milton Rokeach on the centrality of values in belief systems.
B. Values as a basis for social unrest and social movements.
II. The nature of “rights” in a democratic society.
A. Natural rights and constitutional rights.
B. Conflicts over rights as a basis for social protest.
III. The nature of social movements and their role in society.
A. Social movements as a collective response to some problem in society.
B. Examining social movements from a social systems perspective.
C. Examining social movements as a communication phenomenon.
D. The social movement as an expression of beliefs, attitudes and values.
IV. The life cycle of social movements.
A. How movements develop, grow, maintain themselves, deteriorate, and die.
B. The role of leadership in movements.
C. The strategies of social movements.
D. The strategies of opposition to movements.
V. Communication elements in a movement.
A. Persuasive elements in movements.
B. Symbolic elements and movements; language, music, and physical action.
C. The role of the mass media.
VI. Conclusions that can be drawn about social movements in contemporary American life.
CMM 307 SYLLABUS FALL 2005 4
PARTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY:
The following will be used to provide material for lectures, discussions, and additional reading assignments or for the research/literature reports.
Payne, Charles M. I’ve Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the
Mississippi Freedom Struggle, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.
Clark, E. Culpepper. The Schoolhouse Door: Segregation’s Last Stand at the University
of Alabama. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
Karst, Kenneth L. Belonging to America: Equal Citizenship and the Constitution. New
Haven: Yale University Press, 1989.
Newton, David E. Gay and Lesbian Rights: a Reference Handbook. Santa Barbara,
California: ABC-CLIO. 1994.
Weisbrot, Robert. Freedom Bound: A History of America’s Civil Rights Movement. New
York: W. W. Norton, 1990.
Darsey, James. The Prophetic Tradition and Radical Rhetoric in America. New York:
New York University Press, 1997.
Holt, Len. The Summer That Didn’t End: The Story of the Mississippi Civil Rights
Project of 1964. New York: Da Capo Press, 1992.
Tarrow, Sidney. Power in Movement: Social Movements, Collective Action, and Politics.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Jasper, James M. the Art of Moral Protest: Culture, Biography, and Creativity in Social
Movements. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997.
Diamond, Sara. Roads to Dominion: Right-Wing Movements and Political Power in the
United States. New York: Guilford Press, 1995.
Killingsworth, M. Jimmie and Jacqueline S. Palmer. Ecospeak: Rhetoric and
Environmental Politics in America. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1992.
Rubin, Charles T. The Green Crusade: Rethinking the Roots of Environmentalism.
Lanham, Maryland: Bowman and Littlefield, 1998.
Scheffer, Victor B. The Shaping of Environmentalism in America. Seattle: University of
Washington Press, 1991.
Calloway, Carolyn and John Louis Lucaites, ed. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the
Sermonic Power of Public Discourse. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of
Alabama Press, 1993.
Cone, James H. Martin & Malcolm & America: A Dream or A Nightmare. Maryknoll,
New York: Orbis Books, 1992.
Windt, Theodore Otto, Jr. Presidents and Protesters: Political Rhetoric in the 1960s.
Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1990.
Solinger, Rickie, ed. Abortion Wars: A Half-Century of Struggle, 1950-2000. Berkeley,
California: University of California Press, 1998.
CMM 307 COMMUNICATION IN SOCIAL MOVEMENTS FALL 2005
SEMESTER SCHEDULE
R 25 Introduction to course, syllabus. Discussion of belief systems and material from
Rokeach.
Assignment: Chapters one and two in Persuasion and Social Movements (hereafter PSM); Human Rights computer search exercise.
SEPTEMBER
R 1 Human rights discussion. Discussion of Chapters one and two of the text.
Assignment: Chapter 3 in PSM.
Short Writing: “I Would Go to Jail For . . .”
R 8 Discussion of the “I Would Go to Jail For” writing.
Video: “Eyes on the Prize”.
Discussion: Persuasive functions of social movements.
Assignment: Chapters 6 and 14 in PSM.
R 15 Discussion of the life cycle of movements, resisting social movements, the rhetoric of agitation and control.
Video: “Eyes on the Prize”.
Assignment: Chapter 4 of PSM.
R 22 Discussion of personal needs and social movements.
Video: “Eyes on the Prize”.
Assignment: Chapter 5 in PSM
Assignment: Research/Literature report
R 29 Discussion of personal needs and movements, leadership in movements. (chapters
4 and 5 of PSM).
Video: “Eyes on the Prize”
Assignment: Chapters 7, 8 and 9 in PSM
OCTOBER
R 6 Discussion of identification and polarization/slogans, song etc. in movements.
Video: Malcolm X
Assignment: Chapters 10 and 11 in PSM.
CMM 307 SEMESTER SCHEDULE FALL 2005
R 13 Discussion of argument in movements: political arguments and arguments from
Narrative vision.
Video: Chicago, 1968
Assignment: Chapters 12 and 13 in PSM.
R 20 Further discussion of argument in movements: transcendence and conspiracy.
Term papers assigned
R 27 First Research/Literature reports
NOVEMBER
R 10 Third research/literature reports
R 17 NO CLASS – Dr. Denman at a conference.
R 24 Thanksgiving holiday
DECEMBER
R 1 Fourth research/literature reports if necessary. Consultations on term papers
R 8 FINAL EXAMINATION SESSION – term papers due.