FRS 004 — Sec. 012 — (2 units) — CRN 73096 — M 2:10-4:00pm — 245 AOB IV
Industrial Tourism—How We Sell Travel and Places

Instructor: John Theobald, Department of Communication, College of Letters and Science
Description: The theme of the proposed FRS is the selling of tourism in the American and change. The primary focus will be the development of western tourism; however, other cases will be included in this year’s seminar. As a communication-related seminar, the focus will be on how tourism is advertised, framed, and explained. A range of topics will be explored, including 20th Century tourism campaigns and present day campaigns. Participants in the proposed seminar will become acquainted with a brief history of 20th century and contemporary development of tourism in the American West and will learn to analyze the selling of particular places, including places with which they are familiar. The primary goal of the seminar will be to enhance students' ability to apply their own observations of marketing developments in a western geographical context. In previous years, the seminar has focused on the American West. This year’s seminar will expand the geographical scope and incorporate new themes, such as “ecotourism” and “tourism and New Orleans after Katrina.” My objective is to facilitate freshmen students in the development of analyses that explain how many of our favorite places became and continue to become commodities.

Format: The general design is 1) brief lecture/video/ discussion, 2) small group projects and presentation, and 3) paper research and writing. The first part of the course is designed to introduce students to the subject. The small group part is designed to encourage students to analyze issues associated with the subject. The paper will be an independent case study focusing on a particular geographical area with a substantial tourist economy. The course begins with a series of brief lectures, audio-visual segments, and discussion. Students will read selections from such writers as Edward Abbey, Hal Rothman, and the writers of the Canyon Country Zephyr and High Country News. Four weeks into the seminar, students will begin working in small groups to produce an analysis of an issue area consistent with the theme of industrial tourism. The last few course meetings will be devoted to discussion of students’ individual analyses leading toward course papers. Students will acquire materials unique to their own research and present them to the class for discussion. Grading: The course will be graded Pass/No Pass. There will be two grade components to the course that will be equally weighted. They will include: 1) a participation grade that will be based on regular class contributions and, in particular, presentation of small group individual research work, and 2) a course paper that will be 7-10 pages in length (or 12-15 pages if co-authored).

About the Instructor: John Theobald is Lecturer in the Department of Communication, where he has been on the faculty since 1991. His primary course offerings include The Media Industry, News Policies and Practices, Media Analysis, and Media Effects. These courses include many themes, among them: media ownership, social consequences of technology, globalization, media and global security, news bias, journalism practices, commercial effects of contemporary media, media and ecological systems, and a range of politically-related themes. Recent research interests include college orientation for high school students, ecological communication campaigns, and the selling of the tourism industry in the western United States. John has been a frequent commentator on media-related issues for print, radio, and television news agencies. He studied at UCLA, San Diego State University, and the University of Texas at Austin.