syllabus - The Owen Graduate School of Management - Vanderbilt ...

HUMANITIES 161 

Mass Mediated Politics: 

Images and Issues 

Fall 2008, Vanderbilt University 

Wednesdays, 3:10–6:00 pm 

Wilson Hall 126 

PROFESSORS (bios at bottom of syllabus) 

Bruce Barry 

John M. Sloop 

Professor of Management and Sociology 

Professor of Communication Studies 

Office: 307 Management Hall (OGSM) 

Office: 311 Kirkland Hall 

Phone: 615-322-3489 Phone: 615-343-3141 

Email: bruce.barry@vanderbilt.edu 

Email: john.m.sloop@vanderbilt.edu 

TA: Adam Wilsman, Dept. of History 

Office: Buttrick 4-32 | Phone: 716-725-5974 | Email: adam.r.wilsman@vanderbilt.edu 

OVERVIEW 

Humanities 161 is an interdisciplinary, team-taught course in the College of Arts and Science that is 

built around changing contemporary topics each time it is offered. In Fall 2008, the course will focus 

on political and social discourse during and surrounding the (ongoing) election cycle and presidential 

campaign. The class is intended as a vehicle for careful thought about the ways in which political 

issues become salient and important through mass mediated news and information channels, the 

ways those issues are represented, and the variety of ways in which citizens receive and interpret the 

news. In the process of examining these aspects of media and communication, we will take up a 

variety of contemporary political issues—foreign policy, economics, social issues, and so forth—as 

they are raised in the campaign discourse of 2008. 

The course is structured around recurrent themes that mark the landscape of contemporary political 

discourse, including such topics as media bias, campaign advertising, polling, debates, technology, 

among others. Readings and assignment deliverables will aim rhetorical, political, and sociological 

lenses at these and other elements of the campaign and election landscape. There will be a number 

of guest speakers—academics who study these processes as well as professionals who live them. 

The course will be significantly driven by the events that occur during the semester as the 2008 

general election approaches. These events will prompt questions like these: 

• What political issues become important in campaign discourse? 

• What world and national events force issues to become important? 

• How are these events and issues represented in media and candidate discourse? 

• What do these representations say about the health of democratic processes? 

In short, we are interested in politics in the mass mediated age: how do issues become “important,” 

how are issues (and groups of people) represented once they become important, and how can we, as 

citizens, shape those discussions?

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READINGS/WEBSITE 

There are two texts for the course, available at the Vanderbilt Bookstore: 

• S. Iyengar and J. McGrady, Media Politics: A Citizen's Guide. New York: W.W.Norton, 2007. 

• R. J. Semiatin (Ed.), Compaigns on the Cutting Edge. Washington: CQ Press, 2008. 

A website for the course, http://www2.owen.vanderbilt.edu/bruce.barry/hum161/, contains a dayby-day 

course outline and a downloadable version of this syllabus. Many readings for this course are 

online, with links to them appearing on the website. Two things to to know about online readings: 

[1] Many online readings are accessed through online services to which Vanderbilt subscribes 

for use by the university community. When accessing these articles, you may be asked to 

authenticate your status as a Vanderbilt user (with VUNet ID and password). 

[2] Adobe Reader is needed for some readings; the HUM 161 website has a download link. 

We may add new links to relevant articles or materials as we go; we’ll alert you when that occurs. 

In the event of differences between this syllabus and the website, always assume the website is correct! 

DELIVERABLES/GRADE WEIGHTS 

Papers (80% of course grade) 

There are four required papers, two of which are individual deliverables, and two of which are group 

efforts. One of the group papers (the final one) will also involve a classroom presentation. To pass 

the course you must complete all four assignments. Below are brief descriptions of each; more 

detailed assignment descriptions are available on the HUM 161 website. Paper length guidelines are 

given here as word counts (to avoid the ambiguities of margins, spacing and font sizes). 

(Be sure to consult policies and guidelines for written deliverables below.) 

[1] Personal Media Essay: Individual assignment. Describe and analyze your own consumption of 

media for news and politics. What are your habits of media consumption, and why? How do your 

habits and choices affect the quality of information you receive? This essay should be a mixture of 

description, analysis, and reflection. 

Weight: 10%. 

Length:

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[3] Campaign Debate Analysis: Individual assignment. Assess and critique press coverage of one 

of the televised debates involving the presidential or vice-presidential candidates. Watch the debate, 

consume the post-debate spin/coverage/commentary through multiple media channels, and then 

write a critical assessment of how the debate is filtered through and constructed by press accounts. 

Eligible debates: 

· The first presidential debate (Friday, September 26 at 8:00 pm CT). 

· The vice-presidential debate (Thursday, October 2 at 8:00 pm CT). 

· The second presidential debate (Tuesday, October 7 at 8:00 pm CT). 

· Weight: 15% 

· Length: ~1000 words 

· Due: Monday, October 13 at 4:00 pm 

[4] Issue Paper: Group assignment. In a group of 3-4 students, you will analyze in depth the 

landscape of political discourse on a major issue in the 2008 campaign. Your goals are to define the 

issue as it exists as an element in presidential, state, and/or local races; explain how the issue falls on 

either side of party, candidate, interest group, and/or constituency divides; discuss how issue 

discourse is constructed and influenced by press coverage and media commentary; and explore how 

public policy going forward past the election might be affected by how the issue played out during 

the 2008 campaign season. 

· Weight: 40% (30% paper; 10% presentation) 

· Length: ~2500 words of text 

· Paper Due: Monday, November 17 at 4:00 pm 

· Presentation: In class on November 12 or November 19 

Class Participation (20% of course grade) 

The essence of this course is what we do in class; accordingly, we put substantial weight in grading 

on in-class participation. It is essential that you come to class prepared to participate in discussions 

and raise questions of professors, speakers, and classmates. The quality of your class participation is 

more important than quantity, although some of the latter is necessary to gauge the former. Good 

contributions to class discussion are perceptive, relevant, and focused — they respond to the current 

flow of the discussion, and enhance it. 

Participation is, of course, not possible without attendance. We expect you to attend and be 

prepared for every class. You can expect that absences will have a non-trivial effect on your 

participation (and by extention, course) grade. 

CLASSROOM POLICIES 

Attendance: As a course oriented around discussion and speakers, the experience of HUM 161 is 

focused on the in-class experience. Accordingly, attendance and participation are expected, and lack 

of these will harm your grade. Also, as a once-weekly class, missing a class means missing an entire 

week. 

Promptness: If you are more than 10 minutes late to class we will assume that you are absent on 

that day. This absence will count toward the class participation policy discussed in the grade section.

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The same applies to leaving class more than 15 minutes early. Each week we will take a short break 

somewhere around the half-way point of the class meeting. Please return from breaks on time. 

Personal Electronic Devices: Cell phones, PDAs, and other personal digital devices must be 

silenced or turned off during class. (Not set to “vibrate” – completely silenced or off). Interruptions 

by sounds made by personal communication technologies are unacceptable. Ringtones that are 

excerpts of famous presidential campaign speeches from the past are almost acceptable, but not. 

Laptops: Laptop use during class is acceptable only for taking notes on what is happening during 

class or for consulting materials directly associated with what is happening during class. Use of 

laptops during class for other purposes is unacceptable. Laptop use is never acceptable when a guest 

speaker has the floor. We reserve the right to set offending laptops on fire during class. 

Guest Speakers: This class will feature a number of guest speakers, both academics and 

practitioners. We expect students will follow basic principles of common courtesy for speakers, who 

are giving generously of their time to be with us. This includes on-time arrival, strict adherence to 

policies above regarding personal devices, attentiveness and thoughtful participation (speakers will 

always take questions), and of course, laughing appropriately at their lame jokes. 

WRITTEN DELIVERABLE POLICIES 

Format: Please be sure that papers turned in for this course have the following characteristics: 

• Double spaced, margins ≥1” all around, font size ≥ 11 pt., pages numbered. 

• Printed out as hardcopy only! No electronic submissions, please. 

• Your name on a separate cover sheet, and nowhere else. 

• Stapled upper left corner; no other fancy or frilly (or non-frilly) binding methods. 

• Appropriate sourcing (see below). 

• Prose styling so elegant and articulate it brings us to tears. 

• Turned in to BB’s faculty mailbox, third floor of the OGSM building. 

Sources: You are expected to cite appropriately the work of others consulted in the preparation of 

written deliverables. Use footnotes (or endnotes), following the approach and format defined in the 

Chicago Manual of Style. This web page offers a handy quick guide to footnote formats for different 

kinds of sources you might use: http://library.williams.edu/citing/styles/chicago1.php. 

Deadlines: Late deliverables drop a a full grade for each 12 hours period the deliverable goes 

unsubmitted beyond the deadline (e.g., 36 hours late turns an A paper into a D.) 

WRITTEN DELIVERABLE CRITERIA 

Papers written for this course should be articulate, organized, logical, and appropriately supported. 

Here’s what we look for: 

• Your analysis should be thesis-driven, which is to say it should be clear to the reader 

what point you are making. Strive to justify your claims and arguments using relevant 

readings and other sources.

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• Your analysis should be specific, with the rationale behind positions taken or refuted clear 

and unmistakeable. Minimize the possibility that the reader will think "I wonder why he/she 

thinks this..." Don't assume much on the part of the reader. 

• Value the quality of your own ideas. Bring in your own creative thinking when possible. 

Avoid superficial attempts to simply transplant ideas from one context to another. 

• Incorporate the implications of your analysis. Go beyond the obvious to consider 

relevant tradeoffs. What if your assumptions are wrong? 

• Pay attention to style. Papers should be thoughtfully organized, with main points clear, 

and the flow of argument easy to discern. Errors of spelling, grammar, and syntax are 

unwelcome. Sources should be explicit and appropriately cited (either footnotes or endnotes 

are okay). Turn in a clean, clear, readable paper. Please. 

KEY DATES 

Friday, September 5: (Individual) Personal Media Essay due at 4:00 pm 

Friday, September 26: (Group) Film Paper due at 4:00 pm 

Monday, October 13: (Individual) Campaign Debate Analysis due at 4:00 pm 

Monday, November 17: (Group) Issue Paper due at 4:00 pm 

November 12 or November 19: Group Issue Presentation in Class (your date TBA) 

THE HONOR CODE 

Students are bound by the Vanderbilt Honor System for all work in this course. Specifically, for all 

written work, use appropriate citations (in some consistent format) to identify contributions to 

arguments and analyses that draw on the work of others. We expect students to adhere to accepted 

rules and conventions regarding plagiarism in academic writing. To this end, we assume that students 

are acquainted with the section of the Vanderbilt Student Handbook (Chapter 2) addressing “The 

Honor Code Applied to Preparation of Papers,” which can be found here: 

http://www.vanderbilt.edu/student_handbook/Honor_System.htm. We also encourage students to 

review the discussion titled “What is plagiarism, and how can I avoid it?” that appears at the 

Vanderbilt Honor Council’s Web site: http://www.vanderbilt.edu/HonorCouncil/plag.php. 

ACCOMMODATIONS 

Persons with a disability requesting reasonable accommodations should arrange for us to receive 

early in the course an official letter from Vanderbilt’s Opportunity Development Center explaining 

specific needs. If you anticipate absence or request accommodation due to religious observance, 

please let us know by the second week of class.

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Schedule of Class Meetings and Assignments 

Aug. 27 

Course Introduction / Nature of Media 

Read/texts: · Media Politics, pp. 1-16 

· Campaigns on the Cutting Edge, pp. 3-9 

Read/online: “How Dumbing Down the News Nurtures Terrorists” 

Sept. 3 

Parties and Conventions 

Guest: Wendell Rawls, Jr. (Pulitzer Prize winning reporter and editor) 



Read/online: “The Concept of Politics in Contemporary U.S. Journalism” 

“An Unconventional Idea” 

Issue: Foreign Policy (online articles) 

► Paper #1 is due on Friday, Sept. 5 at 4:00 pm. 

Sept. 10 

Advertising and Polling 

Guest: Bill Fletcher (CEO of FRCR, a political media consultancy) 


· Campaigns on the Cutting Edge, pp. 27-47, 69-84. 

Read/online: · “In Praise of Negative Campaigning” 

· “Shooting to Win; Do Attack Ads Work?...” 

· “When Voters Lie” 

· “Cell Phones and the 2008 Vote: An Update” 

Issue: Economic/Fiscal Policy (online articles) 

Sept. 17 

Campaign Strategy 

Guest: Roy Neel (political strategist; former senior White House aide) 

Read/texts: · Media Politics, pp. 237-269. 

· Campaigns on the Cutting Edge, pp. 85-102. 

Read/online: · “The Framing Wars” 

Issue: 

Energy/Environment (online articles)

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Sept. 24 

Online Politics/Netroots 

Guests: Lowell Feld and Nate Wilcox (authors, Netroots Rising) 

Read/texts: · Campaigns on the Cutting Edge, pp. 10-26; 48-66; 137-154 

Read/online: · “Drafting an American Hero” 

· “Blogging Between the Lines” 

Issue: Science and Technology (online articles) 

► Paper #2 is due on Friday, Sept. 26 at 4:00 pm. 

Oct. 1 

The Business of News 

Guest: Ann McDaniel (Vice President, The Washington Post Company) 

Read/texts: Media Politics, pp. 17-60 and 105-125 

Read/online: · “News Flash: Readers Have NOT Left the Building” 

· “Don’t Panic” 

Campaign Debates 

Guest: Larry Woods (political advisor and debate consultant) 


Read/online: · “Rhetorical Questions” 

· “Campaign Trail Veterans for Truth” 

Issue: Political Reform (online articles) 

Oct. 8 

The Message and the Media / Narratives and Bias 

Guests: Andrea Saul (Director of Media Affairs, McCain 2008) 

Bill Kovach (former NYT bureau chief and AJC editor) 


Read/online: · “A Newsroom Hero (journalist Bill Kovach)” 

· “Guns on the Brain” 

· “In Study, Evidence of Liberal-bias Bias.” 

· “Media Bias Is Real, Finds UCLA Political Scientist.” 

· “Flawed UCLA-led study on media's ‘liberal bias.’” 

Issue: Immigration (online articles) 

► Paper #3 is due on Monday, Oct. 13 at 4:00 pm.

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Oct. 15 

Religion and Politics 

► Today is a joint class with DIV 3401/LAW 736 (“Religion, Politics, and Social Issues”) 

Read/online: 

· “Running on Faith” 

· “How the Democrats Got Religion” 

· “A Difficult Marriage…” 

· “U.S. Religious Landscape Survey” 

The Campaign Trail 

Guests: Fernando Suarez (Producer, CNN) 

Eloise Harper (Producer, ABC News) 


Read/online: · “Election ’08: The Primaries” 

Browse: Links related to today’s guest speakers 

Oct. 22 

Managing the Press 

Guests: Hon. Karl Dean (Mayor of Nashville, Tennessee) 

Beth Fortune (Interim Vice Chancellor of Media Relations, VU) 



Read/online: “Off Target” 

Issue: Justice/Crime/Courts (online articles) 

Oct. 29 

Interest Groups 

Guest: Rep. Jim Cooper (Member of the U.S. House of Representatives) 



Read/online: “The Federalist Papers: #10” 

Issue: Health Care (online articles) 

Nov. 5 

The Day After 

Read: The election coverage of your choice. 

Issue: Race/Gender (online articles)

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Nov. 12 

TV and Politics: State of Play and Future Directions 

Guest: Sam Feist (CNN Political Director and Senior Executive Producer) 

Read/online: · “State of the News Media 2008” report excerpts. 

· “Mainstream Media Finally Pounce…” 

· “The Most Trusted Man in America?” 

Student Group Presentations 

► Paper #4 is due on Monday, Nov. 17 at 4:00 pm. 

Nov. 19 

Think Globally Politick Locally 

Guests: Pete Kotz (Editor, Nashville Scene) 

Clint Brewer (Executive Editor, The City Paper) 

Pat Nolan (Host, Inside Politics, WTVF-TV) 

Read/online: · “The Changing Newsroom” 

· “Local TV Content: A Day in the Life” 

Browse: Links related to today’s guest speakers 

Student Group Presentations 

Dec. 3 

Democracy 

Read/texts: · Campaigns on the Cutting Edge, pp. 175-206. 

Read/online: · “Found in (My)Space” 

· “The Threats From Within” 

FACULTY BIOS 

Bruce Barry, Professor of Management and Sociology, has published numerous research articles on 

the topics of social influence, communication, negotiation, and the psychology of justice, and most 

recently a book on the First Amendment and the workplace. He teaches courses in the Owen School 

exploring power, influence, negotiation, political behavior, and public policy issues at the intersection 

of business and society. He has also taught a sociology seminar on media, technology, and culture. 

Barry is also a contributing writer and blogger on politics and media for the Nashville Scene 

(pithinthewind.com). 

John M. Sloop, Professor of Communication Studies and Associate Dean for Undergraduate 

Academic Affairs in the College of Arts and Science, teaches courses that focus on the rhetoric of the 

mass media (i.e., courses that deal with how ideas, including politics, are represented through mass 

media outlets). His research agenda has produced three books, each of which deal with mass 

mediated representations of a variety of issues, including criminal justice, gender, and immigration. 

Sloop is currently editor of the journal Communication and Critical Cultural Studies. He blogs at 

xark.typepad.com.

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