Mass Media and Politics

Catalog description

Study of mass media as institutions and the effects of the mass media on politics, public policy, and citizens. COMM 430 Mass Media and Politics (3) In Mass Media and Politics, we address issues and relations of the political realm, the media institutions, and the public sphere. Particular attention is dedicated to the influence of and coverage by both the domestic and international news media. In addition, we also examine topics such as bias in the media, women and politics, political campaigns, and advertising, ideology and hegemony, and cultural representations in the media. Of importance are notions of how and why mass media influences the national political debate, as well as what mass media exports in terms of culture and what this means to the political reality of other nations. The discussion of these issues is often couched in terms of technologies, especially emerging and traditional mass media technology systems such as convergence technologies, the World Wide Web, television, radio, and newspapers. Prerequisite: COMM 251 .