| Kommentar |
In these times of disinformation, rightwing mobilization, pandemic, and so on, the study of political communication is more relevant than ever. This course offers a sampling of perspectives on political communication in order to critically assess orders and disorders in contemporary media ecologies. I refer to “sampling” rather than “an overview” of perspectives because virtually no institution is out of bounds in the study of political communication. We will focus on core concepts, issues, and methods of analysis that shed light on the evolving relations between media and other political institutions in settings with some semblance of democracy. This means balancing seminal texts with contemporary ones, theoretical readings with empirical ones, and sociological pieces with ones drawn from cognitive psychology, computational science, and journalism. It also means leveraging what we know about communication dynamics in one setting (e.g., face-to-face in a newsroom, in the US) to better understand them in a different setting (e.g., online in a Facebook group, in Germany), and vice versa. The course is designed to 1) build foundational knowledge of the structures, processes, characteristics, and effects of political communication, and 2) ground these understandings in empirical research and current contexts. Throughout the semester we will talk about contemporary issues in political communication and in its study, especially those having to do with the rise of digital platforms, the proliferation of disinformation and uncivil discourse, and the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The course will be conducted in English. |
