Instructor: William Dutton
Professor Dutton has studied the politics of communication technology and policy from a cross-national comparative perspective since the early 1980s and has worked and taught in Britain, first as a Fulbright scholar and then as director of the UK's Programme on Information and Communication Technologies. His book entitled Wired Cities (G. K. Hall, 1987) provided a comparative look at the development of cable television in the United States, Britain, France, Germany, and Japan. He co-edited a new book, entitled The Social Shaping of Information Highways: European and American Roads to the Information Society, with colleagues in the UK and Germany.
Purpose: This course teaches students how to think comparatively about the international ecology of games shaping the future of communication policy and practice.
Objective: Cross-national and regional differences in politics, policy, and practice are a source of opportunities and problems for communication. This course tries to provide a general understanding of major cross-national variations in communication politics and public policy that will help students make sense of particular problems and issues.
Content: This course focuses on the politics of communication industries and public policy. The class will introduce you to cross-national trends in the politics of broadcasting, cable and satellite, telecommunications, new media, and industrial policy. In addition, students will look in more depth at particular case studies, such as public service broadcasting, the wired nation, and the information superhighway, to see how a comparative political perspective can create a unique vantage point for policy and practice.
Teaching Methods: The seminar involves lectures, discussion, and presentations by students, which are based on comparative research. Simple exercises are used to show students the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to comparative study. Students will collaborate on the construction of a course Web page that identifies sites useful for keeping track of developments in communication industries, policy, and practice round the world.
Grading: Students are required to participate in two collaborative group exercises in comparative communications (one involving the use of aggregate data, another the use of the Internet); write a term paper, and take a final examination over the course material.
Career Relevance: Graduates of the Annenberg School need to have an international perspective on developments in communication policy and practice. Knowledge about how other nations and industries have approached similar problems and issues can make you more insightful about your own nation or industry and more effective in your career. Whether your field is entertainment, telecommunications, management, or law and policy, you are likely to be working in an increasingly global arena that requires a sensitivity to international differences. To course syllabus