Media, Politics, and Civic Life

Catalog description

Social-level and political theories of the relationships between media and public; media influences on public opinion; social pressure on the media; political communications. COMM 413W Media, Politics, and Civic Life (3) This course is designed to explore the complex and dynamic relationships among the media, public, and government. These relationships are examined through the lenses of sociological and political theories regarding the nature and process of mass communication. The central questions answered in the course are: "How do the media influence the public, its opinions, and social and political behavior?" and "How does the public - through social pressures, and political constraints - influence media performance and content?" Special attention is paid to modes of inquiry in communication research, social functions and control of the media, social construction of reality, political communication, and public opinion. The goals of the course are to introduce students majoring in professional areas of communications to theoretical frameworks that help explain media practices, advance the understanding of the communication research literature for Media Studies majors, and develop skills of all students to be informed and critical consumers of the media. The course is required of Media Studies majors and is a communications elective for the Journalism and Telecommunications majors, the Corporate Communications and Journalism options in Communications, and the Media Studies minor.