2013 Pol Com Syllabus - Department of Politics, New York University

Shorter assignments will be given weekly to analyze political speeches, political ads, the
content and the tone of coverage of political events, with the aim of understanding the
perspective of both the audience and the communicators. This fall the NYC mayoral
campaign will offer many opportunities for analysis. The assignments will be discussed
in class.
Grading:
Participation, including short weekly assignments: 25%
Three longer assignments: 25% each
Readings:
Most of the reading material is available online or in the Bobst Library Electronic
Journals database. I will provide copies of chapters from books. I suggest you buy the
following:
Gladstone, Brooke and Josh Neufeld. 2011. The Influencing Machine: Brooke Gladstone
on the Media. Norton and Company.
Polman, Linda. 2010. The Crisis Caravan. What’s Wrong with Humanitarian Aid?
Metropolitan.
Westen, Drew. 2007. The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of
the Nation. Public Affairs.
Course Schedule:
I. Introduction to the Course
Scenes from Wag the Dog (Barry Levinson 1998) or “how to create a virtual war as
damage control strategy.”