This class will be taught, self-consciously, simultaneous to and in conversation with the lead up to the 2008 presidential election. As such, we will critically engage the problems, but also the possibilities, of democracy, particularly as practiced in the United States. Specifically, we will be interested in the notion that a healthy democracy is predicated on, as the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution underscores, freedom of speech and freedom of the press. These ideals suggest that a thriving democracy necessarily relies on diverse critical debate and discussion, an informed populace, and a press ostensibly “free.” Yet, to what degree, when media networks are increasingly conglomerated and corporatized, do people have the ability to access and think critically through a diverse body of information? How might we imagine a truly informed populace in the first decades of the new millennium? To help us consider these questions we will be engaging a broad set of readings that will develop in dialogue with theories regarding the “public sphere,” as developed by Jurgen Habermas, as well as critiques of the mass-media, associated with the Frankfurt School and more contemporary “culture jammers.” Part of this inquiry will consider the history of mass-media communications, ultimately leading to a consideration of the internet and the emergence of “blog” culture. This final model for information dissemination gestures at technologies that may disrupt the potentially homogenizing work of the “culture industry.”

As this is an advanced composition class, we will consider our own writing practices in relation to our discussion of the “public sphere,” and emphasize the writing process as practicing a democratic dialectic.

Readings may include, but not be limited to, work from Horkheimer and Adorno, Habermas, Guy Debord, Kalle Lasn, Douglas Rushkoff, Stephen Duncombe. Most readings will be available in a course reader. There may be an additional text or two at the University Bookstore.

This class will be organized as a seminar. As such, we should be prepared for a committed, compassionate and respectful engagement with our readings and each other. Assignments will creatively emphasize the writing process. There will be both a group project and final projects.