Media and Government

Catalog description

This course examines the relationship between politics, governance, and news media, and provides a foundation for understanding media's role in public policy. COMM 407A Media and Government (3) The course is designed to broaden, inform, and empower thinking about media influence on the ways people think about issues and how that influences public policy choices. The course will also analyze the various ways in which elected officials seek to craft messages and manipulate media to encourage support for policy agendas and initiatives. Through the process of examining the relationship between these powerful forces, students will gain critical thinking skills that will better prepare them to consume and create media and to function as citizens in American democracy. This course will examine the symbiotic relationship between politics, governance, and media, particularly news media, and will provide a foundation of classic media theory combined with new thinking on media's role in public policy formation and its impact on the larger society. The course will emphasize the importance of political narratives, how they are constructed and communicated and also how they influence elections and public policy choices. Primary sources will provide diverse perspectives on the many questions that will emerge from readings and discussions. This course is only offered as part of the Washington, D.C. Program.