POL 351 - Topics: Political Communication and Media (1)

The media plays a powerful role in US democracy, and this course considers the degree to which Americans’ political opinions and actions are influenced by the media and other political communication, as well as the effects of the media on the policymaking process.Topics to be covered include the history of the mass media, recent trends in the media, theories of media effects, the implications for politics of changes in media (like the rise of the Internet, social media, and partisan news), the ways in which the news shapes the public’s perceptions of the political world, campaign communication, how the media affect the manner in which public officials govern, and the general role of the media in the democratic process. In this class, you’ll propose, design, and execute your own political communication survey experiment to explore these effects yourself.
(Social Science)