GVPT379K

How does media shape political socialization and belief formation? How do entertainment and news genres differ in how they cover politics? And how have digital and streaming media reshaped who produces political meaning, and how citizens encounter it? This course examines how American political life ideology, partisanship, political behavior, and identity is represented, contested, and produced through popular media. Rather than treating media as a passive mirror of political reality, students will learn to analyze podcasts, music, streaming television, social media, and news coverage as sites where political meaning is actively constructed. The course draws primarily on political communication and political behavior research, with select modules incorporating race and ethnicity as a case study in how political identity and ideology are represented and mobilized through media.