Time Schedule:
Walter Lance Bennett
COM 597
Seattle Campus
Class description
Description: This course explores the ways in which political communication processes and media systems enhance or inhibit citizen action and democratic governance. The aim is to understand current issues facing citizens and media systems in American, comparative, and international contexts. Topics include: changing conceptions of citizenship, uses of news and communication campaigns in shaping public opinion, new repertoires of political action, new citizen information channels, media regulatory policy, global media concentration, and media activism, among others. Overview of Main Topics: I. The Public Sphere: Citizen Autonomy, Public Discourse, and Democracy II. Information and Power: Changing Citizenship, Information, and Democracy III. Citizen Information and Public Opinion IV. News and Governing V. Changing Repertoires of Citizen Action: New Information Channels VI. Commercialization of Media Systems VII. Comparative Media Systems and Democracy VIII. Designing Communication Policy for Democracy IX. Contesting Media Power: Global Media Corporations and the Grass Roots
Student learning goals
General method of instruction
Recommended preparation
Texts: The main texts are: W. Lance Bennett and Robert M. Entman, eds., Mediated Politics: Communication in the Future of Democracy. Cambridge University Press, 2001; Bruce Bimber, Information and American Democracy: Technology in the Evolution of Power. Cambridge University Press, 2003; Robert W. McChesney, The Problem of the Media: U.S. Communication Politics in the 21st Century. Monthly Review Press, 2004; Daniel C. Hallin and Paolo Mancini, Comparing Media Systems: Three Models of Media and Politics. Cambridge University Press, 2004; C. Edwin Baker, Media, Markets, and Democracy. Cambridge University Press, 2002. In addition, there will be a reading packet, along with articles and manuscripts circulated electronically by the instructor.
Class assignments and grading
Assignments/Grading: Assignments include two 12 - 15 pages synthesis papers that identify key issues and research questions from readings and seminar discussions. Each paper will propose a broad research question that cuts across the readings, and each paper will develop a preliminary research strategy for investigating that question. The first paper is due at the end of week 5, and the second paper is due at the end of week 10. The second paper may revisit earlier ideas in light of later readings. A preliminary overview of the course (subject to some revision between now and September) follows: Readings include a broad survey of classic and contemporary works from communication, political science, and sociology, including 5 texts and a number of shorter published and unpublished (preview) works from leading scholars in the field. Various research approaches will also be explored.
