Overview of Course

This course will investigate the interaction between news media, audiences, and strategic political communicators in the United States as well as internationally. Students will also investigate the ways that technology and the compression of space and time in the 21st century have impacted international affairs, foreign policy, diplomacy, and the media.

Students in this class will also explore global media systems by engaging in a comparative study of the media in various Semester at Sea countries. Students will identify and discuss the political, economic, and social factors that influence the production and export of media content, as well as the effects of mass media on culture and politics.

Other topics of interest covered in this course are the role of alternative and social media in effecting social change around the world. Students will investigate social change movements on social media, as well as through citizen journalism – from historical revolutions to community radio in Africa, to the 2011 Arab Spring and the #metoo movement, to political satire (Jon Stewart and Bassam Yousef from Egypt).

Finally, this course will address the use of government propaganda throughout history, especially from countries will visit (i.e. Vietnam War, Egyptian Revolution, WWI and WWII, North/South Korean conflict).