111 - 120 of 130 results for: COMM

Focus is on topics such as the roles and responsibilities of journalists, news as a genre of popular literature, the nexus between press and state, and journalism's commitment to political participation.

Topics include the theoretical construct of person identity, the evolution of that construct given the advent of virtual environments, and methodological approaches to understanding virtual human representation. Prerequisite: PhD student or consent of instructor.

Limited to Ph.D. students. Advanced topics in press ethics and responsibility. Prerequisite: 231 or consent of instructor.

This course examines the theory and practice of deliberative democracy and engages both in a dialogue with critics. Can a democracy which emphasizes people thinking and talking together on the basis of good information be made practical in the modern age? What kinds of distortions arise when people try to discuss politics or policy together? The course draws on ideas of deliberation from Madison and Mill to Rawls and Habermas as well as criticisms from the jury literature, from the psychology of group processes and from the most recent normative and empirical literature on deliberative forums. Deliberative Polling, its applications, defenders and critics, both normative and empirical, will provide a key case for discussion.

The social and psychological processes involved in asking and answering questions via questionnaires for the social sciences; optimizing questionnaire design; open versus closed questions; rating versus ranking; rating scale length and point labeling; acquiescence response bias; don't-know response options; response choice order effects; question order effects; social desirability response bias; attitude and behavior recall; and introspective accounts of the causes of thoughts and actions.

New media technologies are transforming how people create and consume information. In this course, we study journalism as an organized field of practice to examine what digital technologies change -- and what they don't change -- about production, diffusion, and reception of news around the globe. The course will cover topics such as changing professional boundaries in a networked environment; the decentralization of news production with social media platforms; the changes in editorial judgement related to automation; the construction of algorithmic audiences; and the promises and challenges associated with data journalism. Moving beyond simplistic analyses of the internet as a universal explanation for all changes in journalism, this course explores how new technologies interact with existing practices, representations, and institutions.

Does information help autocrats and dictators stay in power? Or does information help topple authoritarian regimes? This course will examine how authoritarian regimes try to control information through surveillance, propaganda, and censorship, what influences the effectiveness of these information control measures, and how changes in technology (Internet, social media, mobile) affect the dynamics of information control.

An overview of research in political communication with particular reference to work on the impact of the mass media on public opinion and voting behavior. Limited to Ph.D. students. Prerequisite: 260 or consent of instructor.

Combined with LAW 7036 (formerly Law 577). This course is intended to give students a basic understanding of the themes in the legal regulation of elections and politics. We will cover all the major Supreme Court cases on topics of voting rights, reapportionment/redistricting, ballot access, regulation of political parties, campaign finance, and the 2000 presidential election controversy. The course pays particular attention to competing political philosophies and empirical assumptions that underlie the Court's reasoning while still focusing on the cases as litigation tools used to serve political ends. Elements used in grading: Class participation and one day take home final exam. ( POLISCI 327C; LAW 577)