It’s a presidential election year, so the presidency is up for grabs, along with control of the U.S. House and Senate, plus numerous governorships and state assemblies.  Learn about the many roles of communication in politics, and especially in political campaigns, in the summer course COM 380/580: Communication in Politics. We will consider the role of electronic media such as television and radio, but also Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, blogs, email and other, newer forms of communication. We will also look into the politics of dissent—groups like the Tea Party and the Occupy movement. The format of the class is seminar/discussion; additionally, each student will keep up with a single political blog or website, reporting regularly on it, and writing a short paper analyzing its coverage of the upcoming general election.

The class begins on Tuesday, June 5 and will conclude Thursday, July 26. There will be a break in class sessions around the July 4th holiday. The syllabus (including the texts) for the course can be found here.