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International Communication COMM 5620/6620 - 002

Dr. Sean Lawson

Email: lawson.sean2005+INTLCOMM@gmail.com 1 Phone: 801-585-7127

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/COMM5620

Class meets: Tuesday/Thursday, 12:25PM – 1:45PM, BEH S 102

Office hours: By appointment

Teaching Assistant: Gina Bacon Email: gina.bacon@utah.edu

**After you have read through this syllabus carefully, please go to WebCT and fill in the Syllabus Understanding and Agreement Form. Due date: 19 January 2010.

Late penalty: 5% reduction in overall course grade (i.e. one half letter grade) for not competing the form by the due date.**

Overview & Objectives This course will explore the impact of communication on international affairs with a particular emphasis on the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in shaping international politics and security. For the first time in human history, we now live in an age of instant, global communication that is enabled to a great degree by the rapid development of electronic ICTs over the last century. This course will provide students with a strong historical and theoretical grounding for thinking about some of the impacts that these changes have had on the conduct of international politics and economics, as well as the quest for international health and security. At the conclusion of this course, students will have a strong grasp of the following topics:

• Various theoretical approaches to the study of technological development and international communication;

• The historical and technological foundations of the “information revolution”; • The impacts of ICTs upon the quest for peace and the conduct of war; • The impacts of ICTs upon the global economy and the global distribution of

wealth;

1 Only email sent to this address will be answered. See Course Communication Support section under Policies at the end of this document for more detail on course email policies and procedures.

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• The opportunities and challenges that ICTs pose to the spread of freedom and democracy worldwide;

• The global health impacts of ICTs; and • The construction of international politics and security as communicative

processes.

Required Readings Required text (available for purchase at the Campus Store):

• Hanson, Elizabeth C. (2008) The Information Revolution and World Politics (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield).

All other required readings will be available as electronic documents via WebCT, in a folder labeled “Readings” available on the course home screen. Readings should be completed prior to the class session for which they were assigned. Some weeks have more reading than others, so be aware and plan ahead. You are responsible for completing all of the assigned reading each week. Content from weekly readings, as well as course lectures, will serve as the foundation for course exams.

Exams & Grading Your course grade will be determined by your performance on three regular exams, a cumulative final exam, and your attendance of course lectures. Exams will consist of a combination of essay, short answer, multiple choice, and true/false questions. To succeed on the exams, you will need to attend and take notes on course lectures, as well as complete all of the assigned readings. We will hold a review session before each exam to help you in your preparation. Taking an Exam: Exams will be given online, via WebCT. Each exam will be available during regularly scheduled class time on the day that it is given and ONLY DURING THAT TIME. On an exam day, instead of coming to class, you will login to the course WebCT page from a home or campus computer, navigate to and then complete the exam. You will only have the allotted class time (1 hr 20 mins) to take the exam. Exams and attendance will make up the following percentages of your overall course grade:

• Exam 1 – 15% • Exam 2 – 15% • Exam 3 – 15% • Final Exam – 35%

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• Attendance – 20%

Weekly Schedule Introduction and Overview The Information Revolution 1/12 - Introduction to the Course 1/14 - Overview of Course Content Reading:

• Hanson, Ch. 1 Historical and Theoretical Background Communication, Technology, and Social Change 1/19 - Communication as/and Culture Reading:

• "Introduction" and "A Cultural Approach to Communication," in James W. Carey, Communication as Culture: Essays on Media and Society (Routledge, 2008).

1/21 - Technology, Change, and Society: Determinism Reading:

• "Code is Law" in Lawrence Lessig, Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace (Basic Books, 2000)

• Marx, Leo (1997) 'Technology: The Emergence of a Dangerous

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Concept', Social Research 64(3): 965-88. 1/26 - Technology, Change, and Society: Constructivism & Beyond Reading:

• "The Nature of Technology," in R. Volti, Society and technological change. (New York: St Martin's Press, 1995)

• Pinch and Bijker, "The Social Construction of Facts and Artifacts: Or How the Sociology of Science and the Sociology of Technology Might Benefit Each Other," in Wiebe Bijker, Thomas P. Hughes, and Trevor Pinch, The Social Construction of Technological Systems: New Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology (The MIT Press, 1989).

The Origins of the Information Revolution 1/28 - Printing: The First Technology of Mass, Global Communication Reading:

• Hanson, Ch. 2, pgs 13-17 • Chpt 11, "Printing" in R. Volti, Society and technological change.

New York: St (Martin's Press, 1995). 2/2 - Electronic Communication at a Distance Reading:

• Hanson, Ch. 2, pgs 17-45 • Chpt 19, "The Telephone Takes Command," in David Crowley and

Paul Heyer, Communication in History: Technology, Culture, Society, 5th ed. (Allyn & Bacon, 2006)

• Chpt 27, "Wireless World," in David Crowley and Paul Heyer, Communication in History: Technology, Culture, Society, 5th ed. (Allyn & Bacon, 2006)

• Chpt 28, "Early Radio," in David Crowley and Paul Heyer, Communication in History: Technology, Culture, Society, 5th ed. (Allyn & Bacon, 2006)

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2/4 - Ideological Readings of the New Communication Technologies Reading:

• Pike, Robert & Dwayne Winseck (2004) 'The Politics of Global Media Reform, 1907-23', Media, Culture & Society 26(5): 643-75.

• MacDougall, Robert (2006) 'The Wire Devils: Pulp Thrillers, the Telephone, and Action At a Distance in the Wiring of a Nation', American Quarterly 58: 715-41.

• RECOMMENDED - "Technology and Ideology: The Case of the Telegraph," in James W. Carey, Communication as Culture: Essays on Media and Society (Routledge, 1989)

The Globalization of Communication 2/9 - The New, New Communication Technologies Reading:

• Hanson, Ch. 3 • Ch. 1, "Lessons from the History of the Internet," in Castells, M.

(2001) The Internet Galaxy : Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society (Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press).

• RECOMMENDED - "The New Communication Technologies" in Ithiel de Sola Pool, Technologies without Boundaries: On Telecommunications in a Global Age (Harvard University Press, 1990)

2/11 - Theories of Information Revolution and International Communication Reading:

• Ch. 2, "Approaches to Theorizing International Communication," in Thussu, D. K. (2006) International Communication: Continuity and Change (London: Hodder Arnold).

• RECOMMENDED - Chpt 1, "From Mass Media Revolution to Electronic Revolution," in Ithiel de Sola Pool, Technologies without Boundaries: On Telecommunications in a Global Age (Harvard

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University Press, 1990). • RECOMMENDED - Chpt 3, "Crumbling Walls of Distance," in Ithiel

de Sola Pool, Technologies without Boundaries: On Telecommunications in a Global Age (Harvard University Press, 1990).

• RECOMMENDED - Chpt 5, "Talking and Thinking Among People and Machines," in Ithiel de Sola Pool, Technologies without Boundaries: On Telecommunications in a Global Age (Harvard University Press, 1990).

2/16 - Exam Review Session 2/18 - Test 1 Communication, Technology, and International Affairs War and Peace in the Information Age 2/23 - Revolution in Military Affairs Reading:

• Hanson, Ch. 4 • Cohen, Eliot A. (1996) 'A Revolution in Warfare', Foreign Affairs

75(2): 37-54. • William Perry, "Perry on Precision Strike,"Air Force Magazine (April

1997), http://www.airforce-magazine.com/MagazineArchive/Pages/1997/April%201997/0497perry.aspx.

• Part I and II (pgs 1-10) of Andrew F Krepinevich Jr. ,The Military-Technical Revolution: A Preliminary Assessment(Washington, D.C.: Office of Net Assessment, Department of Defense, 1992).

2/25 - Terrorism and Global Communication Reading:

• Michele Zanini and Sean Edwards, "The Networking of Terror in the Information Age," in Networks and Netwars: The Future of Terror,

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Crime, and Militancy(RAND Corporation, 2002), 29-60; http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1382/MR1382.ch2.pdf

• Lia, Brynjar. 'Al-Qaeda Online: Understanding Jihadist Internet Infrastructure', Janes Intelligence Review (2 December 2005).

• 304th MI Bn OSINT Team. 'Sample Overview: Al Qaida-Like Mobile Discussions & Potential Creative Uses', 304th MI Bn Periodic Newsletter (16 October 2008). (File is “Army Terrorist Twitter Report.pdf”)

• Rossmiller, Shannon (2007) 'My Cyber Counter-Jihad: How a Montana Woman Broke New Counterterrorism Ground', MIDDLE EAST QUARTERLY Summer: 43-48; http://www.meforum.org/1711/my-cyber-counter-jihad

3/2 - Softwar, Perception Management, and Public Diplomacy 2.0 Reading:

• Chuck De Caro, "Operationalizing SOFTWAR," inAlan D. Campen and Douglas H. Dearth, Cyberwar 2.0: Myths, Mysteries & Reality (AFCEA International Press, 1998).

• "Strategic ambiguity, communication, and public diplomacy in an uncertain world: principles and practices" in Corman, S. R., A. Trethewey & H. L. Goodall (2008) Weapons of Mass Persuasion: Strategic Communication to Combat Violent Extremism (New York: Peter Lang).

• "Communication and media strategy in the jihadi war of ideas" in Corman, S. R., A. Trethewey & H. L. Goodall (2008) Weapons of Mass Persuasion: Strategic Communication to Combat Violent Extremism (New York: Peter Lang).

• Dauber, C. E. (2009) 'The Truth is Out There: Responding to Insurgent Disinformation and Deception Operations', Military Review January-February: 13-24.

3/4 - Cyberwars and Cell Wars: Telecom Infrastructure as Target and Battlefield Reading:

• Clarke, Richard (2009) 'War From Cybersapce', The National

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Interest October/November; http://www.nationalinterest.org/Article.aspx?id=22340

• Lewis, James A. (2009) 'The 'Korean' Cyber Attacks and Their Implications for Cyber Conflict'; http://csis.org/files/publication/091023_Korean_Cyber_Attacks_and_Their_Implications_for_Cyber_Conflict.pdf

• Harris, Shane. 'The Cyberwar Plan', National Journal (14 November 2009): http://www.nationaljournal.com/njmagazine/print_friendly.php?ID=cs_20091114_3145.

• Clark, Wesley K. & Peter L. Levin (2009) 'Securing the Informatiion Highway', Foreign Affairs 88(6).

• Denning, Dorothy (2009) 'Barriers to Entry: Are They Lower for Cyber Warfare?', IO Journal 1(1): 6-10.

• Fitsanakis, Joseph & Ian Allen (2009) 'Cell Wars: The Changing Landscape of Communications Intelligence', RIEAS Research Paper 131.

The Information Revolution, the Global Economy, and the Distribution of Wealth 3/9 - The New Economy Reading:

• Hanson, Ch. 5 • W. Brian Arthur, “Increasing returns and the new world of business,”

Harvard Business Review, (July-August 1996). • RECOMMENDED - “e-Business and the New Economy” in Manuel

Castells, The Internet Galaxy: Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society (Oxford University Press, USA, 2003).

3/11 - Work/Play in the New Economy Reading:

• Hector Postigo, “From Pong to Planet Quake: Post-Industrial Transitions from Leisure to Work,”Information, Communication &

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Society 6, no. 4 (2003). • Hector Postigo, “Emerging Sources of Labor on the Internet: The

Case of America Online Volunteers,”International Review of Social History 48, no. 11 (2003): 205-223.

• Eric Raymond, “The Cathedral and the Bazaar,”First Monday 3, no. 3 (1998), http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue3_3/raymond/.

• Tim O'Reilly, “What Is Web 2.0,”O'Reilly, September 30, 2005, http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html

3/17 - The Digital Divide Reading:

• Chpt 1, "The Digital Divide," and Chpt 2, "Understanding the Digital Divide," in Pippa Norris,Digital Divide: Civic Engagement, Information Poverty, and the Internet Worldwide (Cambridge University Press, 2001).

3/18 - Exam Review Session 3/30 - Test 2 Global Communication and the Nation-State 4/1 - The Decline of the State? Reading:

• Hanson, Ch. 6 • Mathews, Jessica T. (1997) 'Power Shift', Foreign Affairs 76(1): 50-

66. • Keohane, Robert O. & Joseph S. Nye (1998) 'Power and

Interdependence in the Information Age', Foreign Affairs 77(5): 81-94.

• Krasner, Stephen D. (2001) 'Sovereignty', Foreign Policy January/February: 20-29.

4/6 - Internet Filtering and Censorship

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Reading:

• Robert Faris and Nart Villeneuve, "Measuring Global Internet Filtering," in Deibert, R. (2008) Access Denied : The Practice and Policy of Global Internet Filtering (Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press).

• Jonathan Zittrain and John Palfrey, "Internet Filtering: The Politics and Mechanisms of Control," in Deibert, R. (2008) Access Denied : The Practice and Policy of Global Internet Filtering (Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press).

4/8 - Resistance and Protest Reading:

• Richard Kahn and Douglas Kellner, “New Media and Internet Activism: From the ‘Battle of Seattle’ to Blogging,” New Media & Society6, no. 1 (2004): 87-95.

• Carafano, James Jay. 'All a Twitter: How Social Networking Shaped Iran's Election Protests', Heritage Foundation Backgrounder, No. 2300 (20 July 2009): http://www.heritage.org/Research/InternetandTechnology/bg2300.cfm.

One of the following:

• Tiffany Danitz and Warren P. Strobel, "Networking Dissent: Cyber Activists Use the Internet to Promote Democracy in Burma," in Networks and Netwars: The Future of Terror, Crime, and Militancy(RAND Corporation, 2002): 129-169; http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1382/MR1382.ch5.pdf

• Svetlana V Kulikova and David D Perlmutter, “Blogging Down the Dictator?: The Kyrgyz Revolution and Samizdat Websites,”International Communication Gazette 69, no. 1 (2007): 29-50.

Other Issues and Approaches 4/13 - Environment and Health: The Problem of E-waste

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Reading:

• BAN and SVTC. 2002. "Exporting Harm: The High-Tech Trashing of Asia". Seattle and San Jose: Basel Action Network and Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, February 25, 2002. Available: http://www.ban.org/E-waste/technotrashfinalcomp.pdf

4/15 - Rhetorical Approaches to International Security Reading:

• Dauber, Cori Elizabeth (2001) 'The Shot Seen 'Round the World: The Impact of the Images of Mogadishu on American Military Operations', Rhetoric & Public Affairs 4(4): 653-87.

• Mitchell, Gordon R. (2000) 'Placebo Defense: Operation Desert Mirage? The Rhetoric of Patriot Missile Accuracy in the 1991 Persian Gulf War', Quarterly Journal of Speech 86(2): 121-45.

• Ch. 2, "Security Analysis: Conceptual Apparatus," in Buzan, B., O. Wæver & J. d. Wilde (1998) Security : A New Framework for Analysis (Boulder, Colo: Lynne Rienner Pub).

4/20 - Exam Review Session 4/22 - Test 3 4/27 - Course wrap-up 4/30 – 10:30 AM – 12:30 AM – Final Exam

Policies

Course Communication Support Communication outside of class will be channeled through email. When you fill out the Syllabus Understanding and Agreement form acknowledging that you have read and understood this syllabus, please enter your preferred email address to be used to contact you in this course. We will use email frequently to share important course information and I expect that you will both be able to receive those emails and read them. Please send

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course-related email to the address listed at the top of this syllabus (i.e. lawson.sean2005+INTLCOMM@gmail.com). ONLY COURSE-RELATED EMAIL SENT TO THAT ADDRESS WILL BE ANSWERED. I have set up an auto-reply for all mail sent to this address that will send you a confirmation that you message was received. If you do not receive an automatic confirmation reply, then your message was not received and will not be answered. Course news and updates will be posted to the course Twitter feed available at http://www.twitter.com/COMM5620. If you have a Twitter account, you can follow @COMM5620 to see the updates. Otherwise, the updates will be viewable in WebCT. A text message alert system is also available for this course. To sign up to receive the alerts, please visit the course WebCT page and use the embedded widget at the bottom of the page. Text message alerts will only be used in the event of a last minute class cancellation or other important, last-minute event. You will NOT be spammed with junk text messages. Text message alerts will be cross-posted to the course Twitter feed and, if possible, will be emailed.

Disability Accommodation The University of Utah seeks to provide equal access to its programs, services and activities for people with disabilities. If you will need accommodations in the class, reasonable prior notice needs to be given to the Center for Disability Services, 162 Olpin Union Building, 581-5020 (V/TDD). CDS will work with you and the instructor to make arrangements for accommodations. All written information in this course can be made available in alternative format with prior notification to the Center for Disability Services.

Content Accommodation The University recognizes that students’ sincerely-held core beliefs may make it difficult for students to fulfill some requirements of some courses or majors. It is the student’s obligation to determine, before the last day to drop courses without penalty, when course requirements conflict with the student’s sincerely-held core beliefs. If there is such a conflict, the student should consider dropping the class. A student who finds this solution impracticable may request a content accommodation from the instructor. Though the University provides, through this policy, a process by which a student may make such a request, the policy does not oblige the instructor to grant the request, except in those cases when a denial would be arbitrary and capricious or illegal.

Attendance

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The student handbook states: You [the student] may not attend a University course unless you are officially registered and your name appears on the class roll. The University expects regular attendance at all class meetings. You are not automatically dropped from your classes if you do not attend. You must officially drop your classes by the published deadline in the academic calendar to avoid a "W" on your record. You are responsible for satisfying the entire range of academic objectives, requirements and prerequisites as defined by the instructor. If you miss the first 2 class meetings, or if you have not taken the appropriate requisites, you may be required to withdraw from the course. <http://www.acs.utah.edu/sched/handbook/attend.htm>

Extensions, Incompletes, and Extra Credit In general, the policy in this course is that extensions will not be given for assignment or exam due dates. You will know the due dates for all assignments and exams from the beginning of the course and should plan accordingly to get your assignments/exam turned in/completed on time. If you are absent from class to participate in officially sanctioned University activities (e.g. band, debate, student government, intercollegiate athletics), religious obligations, or with instructor's approval, you should make arrangements to turn your work in ahead of the assigned deadline. Extensions will only be granted in the case of documented cases of personal or family illness, a death in the family, or some other serious circumstance. If you believe that you have such a circumstance, please contact me immediately and we can discuss the possibility of an extension. An Incomplete will only be given for work not completed due to circumstances beyond your control. Additionally, you must be passing the course and have completed at least 80% of the required coursework to be eligible for an Incomplete. If you feel that you have met these criteria, please contact me and we will discuss the possibility of an Incomplete, as well as what would be required for you to see a successful outcome in the course. For more on the university's policy on Incompletes, see http://www.acs.utah.edu/sched/handbook/grpolicy.htm. Finally, extra credit assignments will not be given under any circumstances, and certainly not in lieu of a missed regular assignment. Your grade will based solely upon your completion of the assignments identified in this syllabus and quality of your work on those assignments.

Academic Honesty

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It is expected that your work will be your own or, in the case of group exercises and projects, the original work of you and assigned members of your group. Cases of plagiarism and/or any other form of cheating will be dealt with severely, either with failure on the assignment in question or failure for the entire courses depending upon the particular circumstances. The university's definition of plagiarism is as follows:

“Plagiarism” means the intentional unacknowledged use or incorporation of any other person's work in, or as a basis for, one's own work offered for academic consideration or credit or for public presentation. Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to, representing as one's own, without attribution, any other individual’s words, phrasing, ideas, sequence of ideas, information or any other mode or content of expression.

Ultimately, it is your responsibility to read and understand the university policy on student academic conduct (see http://www.admin.utah.edu/ppmanual/8/8-10.html). As they say in legal proceedings, "Ignorance is no excuse before the law."

WebCT Students sometimes have difficulty understanding how WebCT works, and sometimes students find that their personal computers, home Internet connections, or preferred Web browsers have difficulty working with WebCT. Additionally, WebCT is sometimes quirky and can have problems. Figuring out how you will use WebCT to suit your needs is entirely your responsibility. Be persistent when faced with a technical problem—try again before giving up. Visit the university’s library to use a WebCT-friendly computer. Also, WebCT has an extensive "Help" function, you can find many discussion forums dedicated to troubleshooting in WebCT through a Google search, and the university’s TACC office (http://tacc.utah.edu) exists to help you with WebCT issues. The instructor is your very last resort for WebCT troubleshooting.