POLITICAL COMMUNICATION

Political Science 829. Fall 2008. T 1:20-3:15, Ogg Room on the 4th floor of North Hall Associate Professor Katherine Cramer Walsh 221 North Hall kwalsh2@ wisc.edu 265-3679 Office hours: Thurs 12-2 pm and by appointment
Mailbox: In the lounge across the hall from 110 North Hall. (Enter the door closest to the Lincoln statue. The lounge will be on your right. Once you enter that room, faculty mailboxes are to the left.)

PURPOSE OF THE COURSE: The purpose of this course is to expose you to the history, core concepts, predominant theories, current major topics of research, and methodological tools that will help you conduct research at the frontier of this field. We will focus on debates that have emerged in the top political science journals and top political science academic presses within the past 15 years, reading those works as well as some of the classics on which they are based. This course takes an expansive definition of political communication to focus on such topics as deliberation and political conversation as well as topics more directly related to mass media. The concentration of this course is on political communication in the American context. This field is interdisciplinary, involving political scientists and scholars of mass communication, agricultural journalism, psychology, and sociology. There is a political communications section within the American Political Science Association (APSA). Although the American Political Science Review (APSR), the American Journal of Political Science (AJPS), and the Journal of Politics (JOP) publish political communications work regularly, there are several more specific publications as well: Public Opinion Quarterly, Political Psychology and especially Political Communication. In addition to the APSA, the Midwest Political Science Association, American Association for Public Opinion Research, the Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research, the International Communication Association, and the International Society of Political Psychology are also relevant professional associations. REQUIREMENTS: You will each write a set of one-page reaction papers, a term paper proposal, and a term paper. The term paper is due Wednesday, December 17. This will be either a thorough research design which includes a thorough literature review or a report of original research that takes the form of a journal article. Your choice to pursue either a research paper or a research design should be driven by your familiarity with the literature in the area in which you wish to pursue research. You will all be responsible for a thorough understanding of the literature on the topic of your choosing and for formulating a question that is important. That is, your papers should ask a question that addresses a gap

2 in existing literature and whose answer would contribute to scholarship and the broader public. If you can formulate such a question and collect data within the first month or so of class, I strongly encourage you to write a research paper. Otherwise, invest your time in writing a research design paper. The papers should be a concise and focused 17 to 20 pages. A 2-3 page proposal is due September 30th. Here are some potential sources of data to use in research papers or to identify as the sources you would use if you are writing a research design. The Wisconsin Advertising Project: http:// www.polisci.wisc.edu/tvadvertising The Lear Center Local News Archive is a unique, searchable, free, online video archive that provides an unprecedented nationwide look at the campaign information Americans received from local television news. Created in collaboration with the UW NewsLab. http://tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/ Interuniversity Consortium of Political and Social Researcharchive of data from thousands of survey studies spanning a wealth of topics. The UW is a consortium member, so access to the data is free (NES data included here): http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/index.html The Political Communication Lab at Stanford: http://pcl.stanford.edu/ National Election Studiespresidential and congressional election year national opinion data: http://www.umich.edu/~nes/ Pew Center for People and the Press: http://www.people-press.org/ Social Science Data Analysis Network: http://www.ssdan.net// Poll results: Gallup polls: http://www.gallup.com/ Roper polls: http://www.roper.com/ Polling the Nations database available through the UW Library web site

If you choose to write a research paper, you are responsible for 4 one-page reaction papers. If you choose to write a research design, you are responsible for 6 reaction papers. You may choose which weeks you write these papers, though I encourage you to spread them throughout the course of the term. On the weeks that you write a paper, it is due via email to the class email list (polisci829-1-f08@lists.wisc.edu) by noon on the Monday before class. These papers should be reflections and/or critiques on a selection of the weeks readings. By critique, I mean an analysis of the claims, evidence, or methods, which can include praise as well as criticism. The best papers take the following form: They have a brief introduction that identifies a key argument or claim mentioned or implied in the weeks readings. The body of the paper then gives a careful and thorough analysis of the evidence the weeks readings have on this point. This is followed by your reading of this evidence in light of other research, and a rigorous analysis of current

3 events. In other words, the papers focus on one point, ransack the weeks readings for all the details and evidence they have to offer on this point, and include your own original insight. Citing specific pages is encouraged. These papers will be graded. Even if you are auditing the class, I strongly encourage you to write six of these papers. We will take turns leading the seminar discussions. For roughly the first half of class, I will give a mini-lecture, and then lead discussion. For the second half of class, one of you will lead the discussion. You will sign up for a class to lead on the second day of class. GRADING: I will only give an incomplete for this course under rare circumstances. Your grade will depend on your performance on the short papers (25%), your participation in class discussions including the day you lead discussion (quality of participation weighted by volume of participation, to count as another 25%), and the term paper (50%). I will grade on an A, A-, B+, B, B- , C+ etc. basis, even though final grades are assigned on an A, AB, B, BC, C basis. COURSE MATERIALS: The following books are required for the course and are available at Underground Textbook Exchange which is located at 664 State Street (251-4444). These books are also available in the reserve room at College Library. Most of the readings not found in one of the required texts are available through the UW Library system (use the Find-It button on the UW Library home page to locate the pdf files. Heres the web link for the find-it tool: http://sfx.wisconsin.edu/wisc/cgi/core/citation-linker.cgi?rft.genre=journal. Entering the journal title, year and start page usually gets you to the pdf right away). The remaining readings (those not available electronically through the library) are available as a course pack for purchase from Bobs Copy Shop at 616 University between Lake and Frances St. (257-4536). (This is the Bobs Copy Shop on the East end of campus, not the one near Union South.). These are marked with a * in the calendar below. (Recommended readings are not included in the course pack, except for the first days reading.) Cook, Timothy E. 2005. Governing with the News: The News Media as a Political Institution, 2nd edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Zaller, John R. 1992. The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Prior, Markus. 2007. Post-Broadcast Democracy: How Media Choice Increases Inequality in Political Involvement and Polarizes Elections. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CALENDAR 9/2 1. INTRODUCTION 9/9

4
PRIMARY ELECTION. If you are a U.S. citizen, go vote! If you are not registered, you can register at the polls. Bring proof of residence showing your name and address. Acceptable proof includes: a Wisconsin drivers license, a check cashing card, a rental contract, a bank statement or a utility bill. (If you have none of these, it is still possible to register at the poll. See the link below or ask me for details.) You will also need to provide your social security number or your Wisconsin drivers license number. Photo id is not necessary. For info on the candidates, how to vote and polling locations, see the links at http://www.ci.madison.wi.us/clerk/index.html.

2. THE PLACE OF COMMUNICATION IN DEMOCRACY : FOCUS ON CITIZEN DELIBERATION **Sign up to lead one session of class today. *Calhoun, Craig. 1992. Introduction: Habermas and the Public Sphere. In Calhoun (ed.) Habermas and the Public Sphere. Cambridge: MIT Press. Delli Carpini, Michael X., Fay Lomax Cook, and Lawrence R. Jacobs. Public Deliberation, Discursive Participation, and Citizen Engagement: A Review of the Empirical Literature. Annual Review of Political Science 7 (2004): 315-44. Wessler, Hartmut. 2008. Investigating Deliberativeness Comparatively. Political Communication 25 (1): 1-22. John Gastil, Laura W. Black, and Kara Moscovitz. 2008. Ideology, Attitude Change, and Deliberation in Small Face-to-Face Groups. Political Communication 25 (1): 23-46. Sanders, Lynn M. 1997. Against Deliberation. Political Theory 25: 347-76. Recommended: Schudson, Michael. 1997. Why Conversation is Not the Soul of Democracy. Critical Studies in Mass Communication. 14: 297-309. Ryfe, David M. (2002). The Practice of Deliberative Democracy: A Study of Sixteen Organizations. Political Communication, 16, Habermas, Jurgen. 1962 [1991]. The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. 9/16 3. THE POLITICS AND INSTITUTIONS OF NEWS PRODUCTION Cook, Timothy E. 2005. Governing with the News: The News Media as a Political Institution, 2nd edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Recommended: Eliasoph, Nina. 1988. Routines and the Making of Oppositional News. Critical Studies in Mass Communication. 5: 313-334. Ryfe, David Michael. 2006. Special Issue: New Institutionalism and the News, Political Communication. Volume 23, Number 2. 9/23 4. THE ELITE-DRIVEN MODEL OF OPINION FORMATION Zaller, John R. 1992. The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion. Cambridge. Recommended

5 Lee, Taeku. 2002. Mobilizing Public Opinion: Black Insurgency and Racial Attitudes in the Civil Rights Era. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 9/30 5. MASS MEDIA BIAS DUE: Short (2-3 pages) term paper proposal. Include question you are addressing, a brief overview of previous research relevant to your question, and an explanation of why the question is important for the advance of scholarship. Dalton, Russell J., Paul A. Beck, and Robert Huckfeldt. 1998. "Partisan Cues and the Media: Information Flows in the 1992 Presidential Election." American Political Science Review 92(1): 111-126. Druckman, James N. and Michael Parkin. 2005. The Impact of Media Bias: How Editorial Slant Affects Voters. Journal of Politics 67 (4): 1030-1049. Danielian, Lucig H. and Benjamin I. Page. 1994. The Heavenly Chorus: Interest Group Voices on TV News. American Journal of Political Science, 38 (4): 1056-1078. Althaus, Scott. 2003. When News Norms Collide, Follow the Lead: New Evidence for Press Independence. Political Communication 20 (4): 381-414. Gilens, Martin and Craig Hertzman. 2000. Corporate Ownership and News Bias: Newspaper Coverage of the 1996 Telecommunications Act. Journal of Politics 62(2): 369-386. 10/7 6. WHO GETS THE NEWS AND WHAT DO WE LEARN? Prior, Markus. 2007. Post-Broadcast Democracy: How Media Choice Increases Inequality in Political Involvement and Polarizes Elections. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Recommended: Delli Carpini, Michael X. and Scott Keeter. 1996. What Americans Know About Politics and Why it Matters. New Haven: Yale. 10/13 7. THE TRANSMISSION OF POLITICAL INFORMATION WITHIN SOCIAL NETWORKS *Berelson, Bernard R., Paul F. Lazarsfeld and William N. McPhee. 1954. Voting: A Study of Opinion Formation in a Presidential Campaign. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. The Social and Historical Background: Elmira and the 1948 Election, Social Process: Small Groups and Political Discussion. Stoker, Laura and M. Kent Jennings. 1995. Life-Cycle Transitions and Political Participation: The Case of Marriage. American Political Science Review 89 (2): 421-433. Huckfeldt, Robert, Paul Allen Beck, Russell J. Dalton, and Jeffrey Levine. 1995. Political Environments, Cohesive Social Groups, and the Communication of Public Opinion. American Journal of Political Science (39) 4: 1025-1054. Mutz, Diana C., and Paul S. Martin. 2001. "Facilitating Communication across Lines of Political Difference: The Role of Mass Media." American Political Science Review 95 (1) 97-114.

6 Huckfeldt, Robert. 2007. Unanimity, Discord and the Communication of Public Opinion. American Journal of Political Science 51 (4): 978-995. Recommended: Huckfeldt, Robert and John Sprague. 1995. Citizens, Politics, and Social Communication: Information and Influence in an Election Campaign. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lazarsfeld, Paul F., Bernard Berelson and Hazel Gaudet. 1944. The Peoples Choice: How the Voter Makes up his Mind in a Presidential Campaign. 2nd ed. New York: Columbia University Press. Granovetter, Mark. 1973. The Strength of Weak Ties. American Journal of Sociology 78: 1360-1380. 10/21 8. THE EFFECT OF MASS MEDIA ON POLITICAL ATTITUDES Erbring, Lutz, Edie N. Goldenberg, and Arthur H. Miller. 1980. Front-Page News and Real-World Cues: A New Look at Agenda-Setting by the Media. American Journal of Political Science 24: 16-49. Althaus, Scott L. and Young Mie Kim. 2006. Priming Effects in Complex Information Environments: Reassessing the Impact of News Discourse on Presidential Approval. Journal of Politics 68 (4): 960-976. Bartels, Larry M. 1993. Messages Received: The Political Impact of Media Exposure. The American Political Science Review (87) 2: 267-285. Mutz, Diana C. and Byron Reeves. 2005. The New Videomalaise: Effects of Televised Incivility on Political Trust. American Political Science Review 99 (1): 1-15. Brader, Ted. 2005. Striking a Responsive Chord: How Political Ads Motivate and Persuade Voters by Appealing to Emotions. American Journal of Political Science 49(2):388. Recommended: Iyengar, Shanto and Donald R. Kinder. 1987. News That Matters: Television and American Public Opinion. Chicago: University of Chicago. Krosnick, Jon A. and Donald R. Kinder. 1990. Altering the Foundations of Support for the President Through Priming. APSR 84: 497-513. Graber, Doris A. 1988. Processing the News: How People Tame the Information Tide 2nd ed. New York: Longman.

10/28 9. FRAMING Entman, Robert M. 1993. Framing. Journal of Communication 43 (Fall): 51-58. Nelson, Thomas E., Rosalee A. Clawson, and Zoe M. Oxley. 1997. "Media Framing of a Civil Liberties Conflict and Its Effect on Tolerance." American Political Science Review 91 (3): 567-583.

7 Lee, Nam-Jin, Douglas McLeod, and Dhavan V. Shah. 2008. Framing Policy Debates: Issue Dualism, Journalistic Frames, and Opinions on Controversial Policy Issues. Communication Research. Augustavailable online. Dennis Chong and James N. Druckman. 2007. Framing Public Opinion in Competitive Democracies. American Political Science Review101(4): 637-655. Druckman, Jamie N. and Kjersten R. Nelson. 2003. Framing and Deliberation: How Citizens Conversations Limit Elite Influence. American Journal of Political Science 47 (726-745). Recommended: Gamson, William A. 1992. Talking Politics. New York: Cambridge. Lakoff, George. 2002. Moral Politics, 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Chaps 1-2, 7-9.

11/4
GENERAL ELECTION. Go vote! See 9/9 above for registration information.

10. MASS MEDIA AND ELECTION CAMPAIGNS *Bartels, Larry. 1988. Presidential Primaries and the Dynamics of Public Choice. Chs 3, 4, 8 and 12. Schaffner, Brian F. 2005. Priming Gender: Campaigning on Women's Issues in U.S. Senate Elections. American Journal of Political Science 49(4): 803-817. Baum, Matthew A. 2005. Talking the Vote: Why Presidential Candidates Hit the Talk Show Circuit. American Journal of Political Science 49 (2): 213-234. Exchange on campaign ads and turnout: Krasno, Jonathan S. and Donald P. Green. 2008. Do Televised Presidential Ads Increase Voter Turnout? Evidence from a Natural Experiment. Journal of Politics 70 (1): 245-261. Franz, Michael M., Paul Freedman, Ken Goldstein, and Travis N. Ridout. 2008. Understanding the Effect of Political Advertising on Voter Turnout: A Response to Krasno and Green. JOP 70(1): 262-268. Krasno and Green. 2008. Response to Franz, Freedman, Goldstein and Ridout. JOP 70(1): 269-271. Hetherington, Marc J. 1996. The Media's Role in Forming Voters' National Economic Evaluations in 1992. American Journal of Political Science (40) 2: 372-395. Jackson, John E. 1983. Election Night Reporting and Voter Turnout. American Journal of Political Science (27) 4: 615-635. Recommended: Just, Marion R., Ann N. Crigler, Dean E. Alger, Timothy E. Cook, Montague Kern and Darrell M. West. 1996. Crosstalk: Citizens, Candidates, and the Media in a Presidential Campaign. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

11/11 11. MASS MEDIA AND THE PICTURES IN OUR HEADS

8 *Lippman, Walter. 1922. Public Opinion. New York: Free Press. Stereotypes, and Stereotypes as Defense. Mutz, Diana and Joe Soss. 1997. Reading Public Opinion: The Influence of News Coverage on Perceptions of Public Sentiment. Public Opinion Quarterly 61: 431-451. Mutz, Diana C. 2007. Effects of In-Your-Face Television Discourse on Perceptions of a Legitimate Opposition. American Political Science Review 101 (4): 621-635. Valentino, Nicholas A., Vincent L. Hutchings, and Ismail K. White. 2002. Cues that Matter: How Political Ads Prime Racial Attitudes During Campaigns.American Political Science Review 96:75-90. Huber, Gregory A. and John S. Lapinski. 2006. The Race Card Revisited: Assessing Racial Priming in Policy Contexts. American Journal of Political Science 50(2): 421-440. Gilens, Martin. 1996. Race and Poverty in America: Public Misperceptions and the American News Media. Public Opinion Quarterly 60(4) 515-541. Recommended: Mutz, Diana. 1998. Impersonal Influence: How Perceptions of Mass Collectives Affect Political Attitudes. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 11/18 12. THE ORIGINS, CONTENT AND EFFECT OF POLITICAL CONVERSATION *Walsh, Katherine Cramer. 2004. Talking about Politics: Informal Groups and Social Identity in American Life. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Chaps 4 and 5. *Gamson, William A. Media Discourse as a Framing Resource. 1996. In Ann Crigler (ed.) The Psychology of Political Communication. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Kim, Joohan, Robert O. Wyatt and Elihu Katz. 1999. News, Talk, Opinion, Participation: The Part Played by Conversation in Deliberative Democracy. Political Communication. 16 (4): 361-385. Stromer-Galley, Jennifer. 2000. On-line Interaction and Why Candidates Avoid It. Journal of Communication 50 (4): 111-132. Gans, Herbert J. 2007. Everyday News, Newsworkers, and Professional Journalism. Political Communication 24 (2): 161-166. Recommended: Eliasoph, Nina. 1998. Avoiding Politics: How Americans Produce Apathy in Everyday Life. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Schudson, Michael. 1997. Why Conversation is Not the Soul of Democracy. Critical Studies in Mass Communication. 14: 297-309.

11/25 13. INTERGROUP COMMUNICATION AND ITS EFFECTS

9 Price, Vincent, Joseph N. Cappella, and Lilach Nir. 2002. Does Disagreement Contribute to More Deliberative Opinion? Political Communication 19(1): 95112. Scheufele, Dietram A., Matthew C. Nisbet, Dominique Brossard, et al. 2004. Social Structure and Citizenship: Examining the Impacts of Social Setting, Network Heterogeneity, and Informational Variables on Political Participation. Political Communication 21(3): 315 338. Mutz, Diana C. 2002. The Consequences of Cross-Cutting Networks for Political Participation. American Journal of Political Science 46(4): 838-855. Huckfeldt, Robert. Kenichi Ikeda, and Franz Urban Pappi. 2005. Patterns of Disagreement in Democratic Politics: Comparing Germany, Japan, and the United States. American Journal of Political Science 49(3): 497-514. Walsh, Katherine Cramer. 2007. Talking about Race: Community Dialogues and the Politics of Difference. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Recommended: Mutz, Diana C. 2006. Hearing the Other Side: Deliberative versus Participatory Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Varshney, Ashutosh. 2001. Ethnic Conflict and Civil Society: India and Beyond. World Politics 53(3): 362-398. Welch, Susan, Lee Sigelman, Timothy Bledsoe, and Michael Combs. 2001. Race and Place: Race Relations in an American City. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 12/2 14. MASS MEDIA, COMMUNICATION, AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT Putnam, Robert. 1995. Tuning In, Tuning Out: The Strange Disappearance of Social Capital in America. PS: Political Science and Politics 28(4): 664-683. Shah, Dhavan. 1998. Civic Engagement, Interpersonal Trust, and Television Use: An Individual Level Assessment of Social Capital. Political Psychology 19: 469496. Mcleod, Jack, Dietram .A. Scheufele and Patricia Moy 1999. Community, Communication, and Participation: The Role of Mass Media and Interpersonal Discussion in Local Political Participation. Political Communication 16(3): 315336. Gastil, John, E. Pierre Deess, Phil Weiser. 2002 Civic Awakening in the Jury Room: A Test of the Connection between Jury Deliberation and Political Participation. Journal of Politics 64 (2): 585-595. Martin, Paul S. 2008. The Mass Media as Sentinel: Why Bad News About Issues is Good News for Participation. Political Communication 25 (2): 180-193. Xenos, Michael A., and Patricia Moy. 2007. "Direct and Differential Effects of the Internet on Political and Civic Engagement." Journal of Communication 57 (4): 704-718. Recommended:

10 Norris, Pippa. 2000. A Virtuous Circle: Political Communications in Postindustrialist Societies. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 12/9 15. FOREIGN POLICY AND MASS MEDIA Due: Brief research presentations. (Length to be determined by number of participants in the seminar). Davidson, W. Phillips. 1963. Political Communication as an Instrument of Foreign Policy. Public Opinion Quarterly 27 (1): 28-36. Baum, Matthew A. 2002. Sex, Lies, and War: How Soft News Brings Foreign Policy to the Inattentive Public. APSR 96 (1): 91-110. Rottinghaus, Brandon. 2008. Presidential Leadership on Foreign Policy, Opinion Polling, and the Possible Limits of Crafted Talk. Political Communication 25 (2): 138-157. TERM PAPERS DUE Wednesday, December 17 to my mailbox by 5pm.