"The Press & the Political Process" - Freshman Seminar

Instructors

• Lawrence L Stuelpnagel

Meeting Info

• Kresge Centennial Hall 4-416 - TuTh 3:30PM - 4:50PM

Overview of class

• Presidents and presidential candidates often claim that the press is either "liberal" or "conservative." But many factors drive what the public receives as news. Those factors include: the economics of the business; information biases that come from striving to be "objective;" work routines by journalists; and the need to tell a story in a simple fashion so that readers and viewers can easily understand the subject.

Teaching Method

• Lecture & Discussion

Evaluation Method

• Your grade will be determined by your class participation (25%) and by your performance in three written papers (75%). Those papers will include a two-to-three page Op-Ed opinion piece that is carefully researched and footnoted, a five page book review, and a ten to twelve page final term paper. In all of your work I want you to take a point of view. Do not simply recite factual data. Take a position. You can rewrite your Op-Ed and book review for a higher grade, but they are due at the next class period from when you first receive them back. I will look at first drafts of materials to offer suggestion for improvement.

Class Materials (Required)

• There are two textbooks for the class, News: The Politics of Illusion, ninth edition, by W. Lance Bennett, and The Political Science Student Writer's Manual, seventh edition by Gregory M. Scott and Stephen Garrison

Enrollment Requirements

• Enrollment Requirements: Reserved for Freshmen and Sophomores
  Add Consent: Department Consent Required
  

Current as of 05/03/13 01:04:16 PM

2013 Northwestern University Full Site