Political Communication

Catalog description

An exploration of the interdisciplinary field of political communication, looking at how media, political elites, and citizens interact. The course approaches political communication from both normative and empirical perspectives. The course begins with discussions on normative models for how political communication should contribute to democratic citizenship and governance. Students will then examine the deviations, limitations, and distractions of those normative ideals in practice across different contexts. The roles of various forms of communication will be examined in the US and international political processes. Course content explores macro perspectives on culture, ideology, and political economy; organizational models of news production and deliberation; and micro approaches in the political psychology of media use and cognition.