Course description
This course considers the degree to which Americans' political opinions and actions are influenced by the mass media and the influence that public opinion and the mass media, in turn, have on public policy. Topics to be covered include the history of the mass media, recent trends in the media, theories of attitude formation and change, the nature of news, the implications for political communication of changes in media (the rise of the internet, social media, and partisan media), the ways in which the news shapes the public's perceptions of the political world, campaign communication, how the media and public opinion affect the manner in which public officials govern, and the general role of the media and public opinion in the democratic process.
