Class Schedule

Week 1: Overview Jan. 15

Week 2: Introduction to Digital Archives Jan. 22

Reading: “Archives in Context and As Context,” Kate Theimer, Journal of Digital Humanities.

Daniel J. Cohen and Roy Rosenzweig, Digital History: A Guide to Gathering, Preserving, and Presenting the Past on the Web, “Introduction”; Ch. 1: “Exploring the History Web”; Ch. 3: “Becoming Digital: Preparing Historical Materials for the Web.”

Week 3: The Information Society Jan 27 & 29

First primary source analysis/blog assignment given Due Monday, Feb. 3

Reading: “The Idea of an Information Society,” in Frank Webster, ed., Theories of the Information Society (London: Routledge, 2006).

Marshall McLuhan, selection from The Gutenberg Galaxy (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2011).

Week 4: Is the Digital “New?” Continuities and Discontinuities in the Culture of Information Feb. 3 & 5

Reading: Selections from: Alex Wright, Glut: Mastering Information Through the Ages (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2008).

Lev Manovich, “Database as a Genre of New Media,” AI and Society.

Marshall Poe, “The Internet Changes Nothing,” History News Network, 28, 2010.

Week 5: History of Newspapers in the US Feb. 10 & 12

Second primary source analysis/blog assignment given Due Mon., Feb. 17

Reading: Selections from: Christopher B. Daly, Covering the Nation: A Narrative History of a Nation’s Journalism (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2012). Pgs. 56-66 and Pgs. 112-150

Week 6: Diversity in Historic Print Media and Its Audiences Feb 17 & 19

Reading: Selections from: David Paul Nord, Communities of Journalism: A History of American Newspapers and Their Readers (Urbana-Champlain: University of Illinois Press, 2006).

Week 7: Journalism as an Economic Force Feb 24 & 26

Reading: Selections from: Gerald Baldasty, The Commercialization of the News in the Nineteenth Century (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1993). Chapter 3 Chapter 6 (short conclusion)

Week 8: News and Politics Mar. 2 & 4

Selections from: Paul Starr, The Creation of the Media: Political Origins of Modern Communications (New York: Basic Books, 2005).

Week 9: Spring Break

Week 10: The History of Journalism in an International Context Mar. 16 & 18

Third primary source analysis/blog assignment given Due Mon., Mar. 23

Reading: Selections from: Anthony Smith, The Newspaper: An International History (London: Thames and Hudson Ltd., 1983).

Week 11: Media as Social and Cultural Practice from a Sociological Perspective Mar. 23 & 25

Reading: Selections from: Michael Schudson, Discovering the News: A Social History of American Newspapers (New York: Basic Books, 1981).

Week 12: Digital History Projects Mar. 30 & Apr. 1

Week 13: Modern Journalism History/Digital History Projects: The Texas Slavery Project Apr. 6 & 8 Submit a blog post analyzing an article/news feature of your choice and say something about your process finding sources/navigating databases. See “Assignments” section above for more details, 350 words.

Reading: “Examples of Collaborative Digital Humanities Projects,” Lisa Spiro, Digital Scholarship in the Humanities.

“Building New Windows into Digitized Newspapers,” Andrew J. Torget and Jon Christensen, Journal of Digital Humanities.

“Mapping Texts: Visualizing American Historical Newspapers,” Andrew J. Torget and Jon Christensen, Journal of Digital Humanities.

Week 14: Digital History Projects: Coded Racism in Toledo Journalism/Class Project Presentations Apr. 13 & 15 Send me your 3-page project overview. See “Assignments” section above for more details

Reading: Timothy Messer-Kruse, “Racial Proxies in Daily News: A Case Study of the Use of Directional Euphemisms,” Digital Humanities Quarterly.

Week 15: Anticipating the Future of Digital History/Class Project Presentations Apr. 20 & 22

Reading: “The Pasts and Futures of Digital History,” Edward L. Ayers, History News (2001).

Christine L. Borgman, “The Digital Future is Now: A Call to Action for the Humanities” Digital Humanities Quarterly.

Week 16: “Digitization and Its Discontents” Apr. 27 – LAST DAY OF CLASS – Come ready to give a short overview of your project and have at least a little of your digital presentation to share on the screen while you talk (fine if only an intro section). Say what it’s about, what news media you are using, maybe something interesting/surprising you’ve found.

Anthony Grafton, “Future Reading: Digitization and Its Discontents,” The New Yorker, 2007.

Roy Rosenzweig, “Digital Archives are a Gift of Wisdom to be Used Wisely,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, 2005.

Week 17: Finals Week April 29-May 6

Complete and submit final research project during finals week

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