Global Media; Guest Lecture (Group Discussions Continue)

•   Granham, “Contribution to a Political Economy of Mass Communication” (MCS)

•   Barber, Consumed (Handout)

•   Bobos in Paradise (Handout)

•   Welles, “Citizen Kane”

Questions to Consider in Week 11

Compulsive shopping speaks to new forms of market coercion that are difficult to discern, let alone contend with, because they allow us to feel free even as we yield gently to their subtle bottom-up compulsion. What’s the big deal?

Western society does not reward second-place finishers and reminds us that vanity, appearance, money, and power are signifiers of success. As long as you are a commodity and have fiscal value that can be capitalized upon, there seems to be two set of rules. Is this just a byproduct of living in a capitalistic society with values that permeate or even dominate other cultural sensibilities?