COURSES
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SIS 140 Introduction to Cross-Cultural Communication
Examines the impact of culture on perception, thought patterns, values, and beliefs in order to better understand the behavior of individuals in different cultures. Specific concerns include cross-cultural conflict and negotiation; the relationship between dominant cultures and subcultures; the issues of race, gender, and class in various societies; and the dynamics of cross-cultural adjustment.
SIS 340 Foundations of International Communication
The sociology, psychology, and anthropology relevant to the transmission of ideas, perceptions, and feelings between and within cultures. Communication models, perceptions theories, cultural contacts, technological change, public opinion, propaganda, and logic system.
SIS 341 Intercultural Communication
The primary focus of this course is on the dynamics of intercultural communication as it relates to interpersonal interactions across cultural boundaries. The course looks at cultural differences in verbal and nonverbal communication patterns, interpersonal relationship development, and intercultural adaptation processes.
SIS 349 Selected Topics in International Communication
Cross-cultural problems of communication, research techniques in international communication, and the role of the media in cross-cultural communication.
News Media & Foreign Policy
The role of the news media and its impact on the foreign policy decision-making process, and the role they play as a channel of communication within the foreign policy establishment. Provides students with insight into the position of news media, especially the "elite" media within the international communication discipline.
Information Society, Developing Countries, and Human Rights
This course examines the emerging international political framework for participation of developing countries in the information society in terms of the human rights, political, cultural, and economic implications of the global information infrastructure.
Issues in Culture and Communication
Examines contemporary debates about culture and communication, with a focus on identity and culture.
HNRS 302 Honors Colloquium
Arab Television and Intercultural Relations
This course explores the role of Arab satellite television in intercultural relations in the wake of 9/11, analyzing it as a public space where a variety of forces cultural, economic, religious, political, ideological compete for visibility, legitimacy and power. After a brief survey of the historical development of Arab television, the course focuses on the ways in which Arab television provides a forum for debate on current issues such as Arab-Western relations, the role of women and youth in Arab societies, political reform, censorship, human rights, religion in public life, etc. Also explored is how entertainment programs (reality TV, music videos, drama series) provoke Arab region-wide debates on these same issues. In lectures, discussions, and viewing of Arab television material, consideration is given to ownership, programming, professional codes and industry practices, regulation, market pressures, audience profiles and cultural identities. Note: open only to students in the University Honors program.
Communication & Development
From the internet to cell phones, information-related technologies possess implications for development. This colloquium uses case and systems analysis to explore emerging and often controversial communication and development trends and issues at the local, national, regional, and global levels. Students research and write individual cases, using concepts from class and readings.
Envisioning the Future of World Politics: Social/Science/Fiction
This course proceeds from a pair of linked observations: 1) social science is a human endeavor which promises to elucidate social reality in such a way as to make it comprehensible, and, 2) science fiction is part of a human literary endeavor in which authors explore the relationships between characters, technology, and the physical world through the fantastic setting in which the events of the work are situated. Both genres aim to explore the contours of the future, and to elucidate complex issues by means of deliberate analytical oversimplification. This suggests the potential for a dialogue, or at least an intriguing set of contrasts. Is social science a form of science fiction? Is science fiction a form of social science? We will explore these issues by reading illustrative works from both genres.
SENIOR SEMINARS
SIS 400.006: Knowledge Power
Understanding the role of knowledge in the globalized economy of the Information Age is critical to the study of international relations. This course focuses on the political economy and security aspects of knowledge, with emphasis on changing global and domestic norms for intellectual property, information, and privacy.
SIS 496. Terrorism and the Media
Modern terrorism relies on the mass media for publicity, recognition, psychological impact, political achievements and other purposes. This course examines the relationships between modern terrorists and the mass media, how terrorists use the media, the recent presence of terrorists on the Internet and the threat of cyberterrorism, how democracies can respond to the challenge, and the social and political cost of various measures.
SIS 496: Role of Information Technology, Society and Politics in China’s Transformation
China's meteoric economic and technological rise demands explanation. This course will assess China's technological development in light of existing explanations of development drawn from the fields of economics, political science and sociology. The course will pay particular attention to the consideration of technical factors, such as the role of information technology, in China's industrial and technological development, but will place these factors in China's political, social and international context.
SIS 496: Culture & Communication in Southeast Asia
This course examines the historical and contemporary conceptualizations, practices, institutions and structures that are shaped by and that shape the relationship between culture and communication in Southeast Asia. We will analyze the changing relationship as manifested within contexts of capitalist industrialization. Among the issues covered are the Asian values debate, material consumption and identity construction, and transnational migration. A key objective is to construct interdisciplinary frameworks that offer more complete and complex pictures of social forces, structures, and processes within and beyond the state that are shaped by and that shape culture-communication relationship.
SIS 496: Digital Revolution and Global Communication
The objective of this course is to provide students with the knowledge skills, and ability to understand the linkage between advances in information/computing technologies with the globalization of electronic communications. The course will cover the convergence of technological developments that contribute to the worldwide availability of digitized information. Standards, rules, and the global governance of communications and information technologies will be evaluated in their technological context. Topics for intensive examination will include technological influences on international policy issues to include cryptography, communications security, and digital rights management.
SIS 496: Terrorism and the Media
Modern terrorism relies on the mass media for publicity, recognition, psychological impact, political achievements and other purposes. This course examines the relationships between modern terrorists and the mass media, how terrorists use the media, the recent presence of terrorists on the Internet and the threat of cyberterrorism, how democracies can respond to the challenge, and the social and political cost of various measures.
SIS 496: Strategic Communications, Intelligence and National Security
The objective of this course is to explore in detail the rising importance of communications factors in international relations as a strategic instrument of foreign policy and as a source of international conflict. The course will concentrate on strategic intelligence collection, including the growth of intelligence gathering technologies, information-based military operations, cyber security and vulnerabilities, and the interaction of communications with transnational actors. The course will also explore the current national structures of intelligence systems and decision-making processes, the role of so-called “information operations,” and basic principles in the modern, network communications basis for the command and control of military forces. Also included will be a comparative examination of specific cases where communications have been a major factor in either an escalation or de-escalation of hostilities.
SIS 496: Public Diplomacy & International Communication: America’s Dialogue with the World
The course is designed to analyze the substance and tools of American public diplomacy both as it is carried out by official government entities and by non-official or quasi-official actors on the international scene. The course will review the history of public diplomacy over the last half century and the new dynamics imposed by post-Cold War globalization and accelerating technological change. Students will explore the tension between the use of public diplomacy to promote American values and specific foreign policies and to understand the tools available to public diplomats. Specifically, the course will examine the use of radio, TV, the internet, exchange programs and cultural/artistic programming and will seek to evaluate the relative effectiveness of each.
SIS 496: Tourism in an Electronically Mediated World
This course will examine the relationship between culture, communication and the political economy of tourism. Among the key topics to be covered are the emergence of "pleasure" trips in the colonial era, the expansion of the middle classes and mass vacations, late 20th century adoption of tourism as a development strategy, and the role of ICTs in tourism development.. Students will be asked to critically examine the genesis of different modes of tourism, e.g., ecotourism, ethnotourism and sex tourism in various regions of the world.
SIS 496: Media, Culture and Politics in the Arab World
Since September 11, 2001, Arab media has become an important issue for scholars and policy makers throughout the world. Most of the attention has however focused on Al-Jazeera, neglecting a vibrant pan-Arab media scene which includes more than 140 satellite television channels in addition to newspapers, radio stations, and blogs, vying for the attention of nearly 200 million Arabic-speakers. This course is an in-depth look at media and politics in the Arab world, providing a historical context to current developments in addition to detailed analysis of the role of television news and talk-shows, reality television, newspaper op-eds, political cartoons, blogs and mobile phones in Arab politics. Major themes will include democratization, freedom of speech, women and youth, politics and popular culture, Arab Western relations and US Arabic-language public diplomacy. This course will make extensive use of audio-visual and print primary materials and guest speakers.
SIS 496: Communication, Culture & Change
From institutional innovations to public-private partnerships, the last decade has seen extraordinary change in the field of international affairs and international communication. This professional practicum addresses change in the context of communication and culture. Using case studies and teamwork, students link theory to practice in understanding, crafting, and implementing change in cross-cultural perspective.
SIS 496: The Global Knowledge Economy
A society’s knowledge system is a critical determinant of its future development and prosperity, including the capacity to contribute to the global knowledge economy of the 21st century. The course explores effective strategies for societies to enhance their knowledge sector growth based on comparison of knowledge and innovation policies and practices in India, China, Japan, South Korea, the United States and the European Union. A range of knowledge society indicators are explored for comparative assessment, such as: national and international laws and policies for the knowledge sector, investment in research and development, intellectual property rights, knowledge and educational institutions, political and economic structures, knowledge traditions and cultural practices, information technology networks, information & knowledge industries, social networks for information sharing, and knowledge transfers between research institutions and local economic environments.
SIS 496: Foreign Media & Public Opinion in Europe, Asia and the Middle East
This course examines the changing nature and rising influence of foreign media organizations in shaping domestic and international public opinion, especially with respect to the conduct of foreign policy and resulting implications for geopolitics and international order. Students will examine and compare the role of media and public opinion in the Middle East, European Union, Eastern Europe, South Asia, among other regions of the world. The course targets recurrent patterns in foreign media and international journalism that carry geopolitical significance in areas such as global terrorism, nuclear proliferation, civil and ethnic conflict, religious extremism, globalization and global trade, civilizational tensions, and attitudes toward the United States and its allies. Cross-national comparison of new directions in foreign public opinion in these areas is explored.
SIS 496: International Communication & Intercultural Aspects of Negotiation & Conflict
Many of the theories and methods of negotiation fail to consider how culture impacts the process and outcome of intercultural interactions, especially during a crisis situation. The reason for this oversight is perhaps because many of the traditional theories and approaches were developed by psychologists who assume that all humans are basically similar or by communications experts who failed to consider the international and intercultural aspects of discourse between people of different cultural backgrounds. An intercultural perspective to negotiation begins with the assumption that people of different cultures view conflict and engage in discourse in numerous ways. This course will be very interdisciplinary and applied with consideration of various case studies in intercultural negotiation and conflict.
SIS 496: Health Communication in Developing Countries
A semester-length course on communication for health would build on the topics presented in the Skills Institute. It would add four additional areas: 1) an examination of policies for communication for health and development, including public/private sector incentives, 2) an analysis of the relationships of communication for health with print and broadcast media, including community media, 4) information technologies development in health communication, and 3) journalist training and ethics for health communication.
SIS 496: Globalization and Information, Communication & Development
The Globalization Seminar is an advanced graduate seminar, developed and conducted in a virtual global classroom. It is an initiative of the Collaboratory on Technology Enhanced Learning Communities (Cotelco) at the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University. The seminar consists of thirteen weekly seminar sessions and involves participants registered at up to six universities (three in South Africa and three in the United States), as well as others participating in the seminar from around the world. The seminar is designed to contribute to the Web-based Information Science Education (WISE) Consortium. Students at American University participate in the seminar as part of the international communications and international development IC concentration and specialization. Seminar participants are drawn from the University of Michigan, the University of Fort Hare, American University, Howard University, the University of Pretoria, the University of the West Indies in Trinidad & Tobago, the Kigali Institute of Technology in Rwanda, and Makerere University in Uganda. Students collaborate across international borders and cross-cultural boundaries to explore the role of communication and information technologies in the development process.
SIS 496 Globalization & Culture
Using a balanced mix of readings, lectures, debate, presentations, videos and special events, we will examine different conceptualizations of globalization and culture. Focusing on the role of media and information technologies in fostering socio-cultural change, this course examines mediated intercultural relations a variety of historical and geographical contexts. In doing so, we will ground theoretical formulations in exemplars and case studies, often including the use of audio or video material. Though the course focuses on media and information technologies, arts, crafts, tourism, and music are also among the cultural dimensions of globalization that will be covered. Our approach will be interdisciplinary in perspective and global in outlook, grounded in the Division of International Communication?s focus on the role of communication in the global order, but relevant to students pursuing a various majors and with diverse interests.
SIS 496: International Community
Can there be community at levels beyond the sovereign territorial state? What would such communities look like, and how would their dynamics be similar to or different from communities of other sizes and compositions? Does it make sense to refer to such communities as "civilizations," as "transnational civil societies," as "supranational organizations," or as something altogether different? What about global community -- is this a real possibility or an idealistic pipe-dream? And how would one know whether such a trans-state community, however one chooses to conceptualize it, actually existed and had an actual impact on global politics? This course will address these and related questions through a rigorous program of seminar discussions, methodological workshops, and site visits, all of which are designed to provoke serious and systematic reflection -- both empirical and ethical -- about the notion of international community.
SIS 528: The Role of Information Technology, Society and Politics in China’s Transformation
China's meteoric economic and technological rise demands explanation. This course will assess China's technological development in light of existing explanations of development drawn from the fields of economics, political science and sociology. The course will pay particular attention to the consideration of technical factors, such as the role of information technology, in China's industrial and technological development, but will place these factors in China's political, social and international context.
SIS 528: Culture & Communication in Southeast Asia
This course examines the historical and contemporary conceptualizations, practices, institutions and structures that are shaped by and that shape the relationship between culture and communication in Southeast Asia. We will analyze the changing relationship as manifested within contexts of capitalist industrialization. Among the issues covered are the Asian values debate, material consumption and identity construction, and transnational migration. A key objective is to construct interdisciplinary frameworks that offer more complete and complex pictures of social forces, structures, and processes within and beyond the state that are shaped by and that shape culture-communication relationship.
SIS 528: Digital Revolution and Global Communication
The objective of this course is to provide students with the knowledge skills, and ability to understand the linkage between advances in information/computing technologies with the globalization of electronic communications. The course will cover the convergence of technological developments that contribute to the worldwide availability of digitized information. Standards, rules, and the global governance of communications and information technologies will be evaluated in their technological context. Topics for intensive examination will include technological influences on international policy issues to include cryptography, communications security, and digital rights management.
SIS 528: Strategic Communications, Intelligence and National Security
The objective of this course is to explore in detail the rising importance of communications factors in international relations as a strategic instrument of foreign policy and as a source of international conflict. The course will concentrate on strategic intelligence collection, including the growth of intelligence gathering technologies, information-based military operations, cyber security and vulnerabilities, and the interaction of communications with transnational actors. The course will also explore the current national structures of intelligence systems and decision-making processes, the role of so-called “information operations,” and basic principles in the modern, network communications basis for the command and control of military forces. Also included will be a comparative examination of specific cases where communications have been a major factor in either an escalation or de-escalation of hostilities.
SIS 528: International Community
Can there be community at levels beyond the sovereign territorial state? What would such communities look like, and how would their dynamics be similar to or different from communities of other sizes and compositions? Does it make sense to refer to such communities as "civilizations," as "transnational civil societies," as "supranational organizations," or as something altogether different? What about global community -- is this a real possibility or an idealistic pipe-dream? And how would one know whether such a trans-state community, however one chooses to conceptualize it, actually existed and had an actual impact on global politics? This course will address these and related questions through a rigorous program of seminar discussions, methodological workshops, and site visits, all of which are designed to provoke serious and systematic reflection -- both empirical and ethical -- about the notion of international community.
SIS 528: International Communication & Public Diplomacy
This course explores the historical role of public diplomacy in foreign affairs, as well as its growing importance in international relations and geopolitics in the information age of the twenty-first century.