2020-21 Academic Catalog

Crosslisted with POSC 203.  How does political advertising influence the electorate? How does political advertising influence our understanding of policy proposals? Election ads along with the 6-second "sound bite" are now among the major forms of political communication in modern democracies. Add to these forms a battery of visual "arguments" seen in news media, film, and paid ads aimed at persuading us to adopt various policy positions. We will study how ads are created and "work" from the standpoint of political psychology and film analysis. Our policy focus for 2016 will be on climate change and the 2016 general election. Students enrolled in the 303 version will conduct more extensive analysis of data for their seminar papers.