Course Syllabus

Communication Studies 463

Communication and Political Representation: 2016 Election Edition

Syllabus, Fall 2016

Instructor: Prof. Stuart Soroka, Office Rm. 5338 North Quad, ssoroka@umich.edu.

Outline: It is hard to imagine modern representative democracy without communication technology, and particularly without mass media.  This class looks at some of the roles that communications technology and mass media play in citizen-government relations.  It focuses on the link between mass media, media technologies and distributions of political power; ideas related to mass media as a Fourth Estate, holding Governments accountable to citizens; biases in political news coverage; and the need for mass media to help produce informed democratic citizens.  Discussions focus on where mass media succeed and fail, and on the consequences of media performance for political decision-making and the functioning of representative democracy.

That is the normal focus of the course, at least. Fall 2016 is unlikely to be normal.  This term the class will focus on many of the same issues in communication and representation, but with a particular focus on the ongoing (and soon to be complete) U.S. election campaign.  Class assignments, and readings, are adjusted accordingly.

Course Design: This capstone course is intended to provide a forum for soon-to-graduate students to apply what they’ve learned in their time here, especially through the Communication Studies curriculum, to a series of complex issues or problems. Leadership of the capstone course is shared by students, and I act as a facilitator guiding students towards interesting discussions and projects on issues of current concern in political communications.

The small-class design means that students are able to take part in conversation easily; the class is a good venue to practice public speaking, and debate. It also offers a glimpse of what coursework is like in graduate school; and our readings are not drawn from textbooks – they are for the most part empirically-oriented research articles from academic journals. Most of our time will be taken with collective discussion and analysis of the assigned readings, and debate about the issues therein. Students will play a central role in class preparation and in the content and progress of discussions.

Classes revolve around the assigned readings, which students are required to read in preparation for each class, with an eye toward identifying themes and generating questions and comments for discussion. There will be times when, as a class, we want to use online resources in seminar; otherwise, laptops and cell phones are not allowed in class.

Reading Material: All course readings will be made available on Canvas – this way everything is easily accessible, and reading is easily completed before every class.   There is one required paper that must be read for every class.  Some classes, there are supplementary readings that are not required but will be useful for those interested in the topic, relevant for our discussion, and can be used in assignments.  This material will be circulated through Discussions on Canvas.

Note that I have assigned no readings yet after the election.  This is to allow some flexibility, to see how the election campaign plays out.  I will add readings for Nov 15 - Dec 1 once the election is complete.  These readings will deal with issues that have come up in the election -- we'll use them to interpret, and better understand, what we've seen.  This online syllabus will be updated accordingly.

Course Requirements: Grades are based on the following:

Blog posts (60%): Every student must submit a 250 to 400-word blog on either Tuesday or Thursday, every week of term beginning September 12^th.  Blogs are submitted through Canvas, and are related to the current weeks’ readings.  Blogs can simply review the readings, outlining their central arguments; they can also link to other related academic work, or current events, and discuss how that work relates to what we are currently reading.  Students can select which day each week they would like to submit a blog, and this can vary week to week, based on interest in readings, or other commitments.  In short, submit one blog a week, one of the days we have class.  Students needn’t indicate when they want to submit – they simply prepare and submit a blog on a Tuesday before class (about Tuesday’s reading), or on a Thursday before class (about Thursday’s reading.  (There will be one or two break weeks during which blogs needn’t be submitted.  These will be announced during the term.)  No late blogs are accepted – blogs must be submitted by noon before class starts, or students receive no credit.  Blogs are graded on a five-point scale: not submitted (0%), submitted but inadequate (40%), adequate (60%), interesting (80%), and excellent (100%).  Blogs are available only to the instructor; but with students’ permission, I will make some exemplary blogs available to the class through the term.

Post-election analysis presentations (15%): Usually, all students have to make one 15 to 20-minute presentation on a political communications-related issue that you find interesting. This can be an issue we deal with in class; it can also be another, related issue.  This year, you're going to do this, but focusing on some aspect of the recent election.  You should identify a topic midway through the term, and think about how best to present it.  You will need to pull together some literature related to your subject, and then make and present a slide show on that topic. These will be presented in the final weeks of class.

Class participation (25%): A small seminar class is highly dependent on student participation. You are expected to come to class with readings completed, and with some ideas about those readings. Each class will begin with a few students’ thoughts on the day’s readings – be prepared.  Your participation in class discussion, and in particular your insights on weekly readings, are the focus of this grade.

Further details on assignments will be made available in class.  

This syllabus is subject to change, based on student interest and course progress. Click here for a Statement on Students with Disabilities, Statement on Academic Misconduct, or Statement on Sexual Misconduct.

Schedule

Sept 6: Introductions (to the course)

Sept 8: Introductions (to the election)

Media Technology & Political Power

Sept 13. Jeffrey B. Abramson, F. Christopher Arterton and Gary R. Orren. 1988. “The New Media and Democratic Values” in The Electronic Commonwealth: The Impact of New Media Technologies on Democratic Politics (New York: Basic Books Inc.) 

Sept 15. W. Lance Bennett. 1997. "Cracking the News Code: Some Rules that Journalists Live By," in Shanto Iyengar and Richard Reeves, eds., Do the Media Govern? Politicians, Voters, and Reporters in America (Thousand Oaks CA: Sage).

Selected Impact(s) of 'New' Media

Sept 20. Colin Sparks. “The Internet and the Global Public Sphere,” in W. Lance Bennett and Robert M. Entman, Mediated Politics: Communication in the Future of Democracy (New York: Cambridge University Press).

Sept 23. W. Russell Neuman. “The Impact of the New Media,” in W. Lance Bennett and Robert M. Entman, Mediated Politics: Communication in the Future of Democracy (New York: Cambridge University Press).

Sept 27. Marcus Prior. 2005. “News vs Entertainment: How Increasing Media Choice Widens Gaps in Political Knowledge and Turnout.” American Journal of Political Science 49(3): 577-592

Sept 29. Ann Crigler, Marion Just, Lauren Hume, Jesse Mills and Parker Hevron. 2012. "YouTube and TV Advertising Campaigns: Obama versus McCain in 2008," in Richard L. Fox and Jennier M. Ramos, eds. iPolitics (New York: Cambridge University Press).

Problems in News-Making

Oct 4. Joshua Meyrowitz. 1994. “The (Almost) Invisible Candidate: A Case Study of News Judgment as Political Censorship,” in M. Aldridge and N. Hewitt, eds., Controlling Broadcasting (Manchester: Manchester University Press):93-107.

Oct 6. Daniel J. Boorstin. 1975. “From News Gathering to News Making: A Flood of Pseudo-Events.” Chapter 1 in The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America (New York: Athenueum): 7-45. 

Oct 11. John Geer. 2012. “The News Media and Rise of Negativity in Presidential Campaigns.” PS: Political Science and Politics 45(3): 422-427.

Oct 13.  Stuart Soroka and Stephen McAdams. 2015. "News, Politics and Negativity." Political Communication 32: 1-22..

Infotainment

Oct 20. Michael X. Delli Carpini and Bruce A Williams. 2001. "Let Us Infotain You: Politics in the New Media Environment," in W. Lance Bennett and Robert M. Entman, Mediated Politics: Communication in the Future of Democracy (New York: Cambridge University Press). 

Oct 25. John Street. 2004. “Celebrity Politicians: Popular Culture and Political Representation.” British Journal of Politics and International Relations 6: 435-452.

Partisan Bias       

Oct 27. Johanna Dunaway. 2013. “Media Ownership and Story Tone in Campaign News Coverage.” American Politics Research 41: 24-53.

Nov 1. Matthew A. Baum and Tim Groeling. 2008. “New Media and the Polarization of American Political Discourse.” Political Communication 25: 345-365.

The Election

Nov 8. Election Day Discussion 

Election Wrap-Up: Selected Topics in Communication and Representation

Nov 15.

Nov 17.

Nov 22.

Nov 29.

Dec 1.

Presentations

Dec 6. Presentations

Dec 8 Presentations 

Dec 13 Presentations