Date:
6/28/2011
Contact: Registrar’s Office at 575.562.2175
PORTALES--With the 2012 presidential election heating up, Eastern New Mexico University is offering a timely course during its second four-week session, beginning July 5, titled “Power Games: Politics and Media.”
The three-credit course is an interdisciplinary analysis of the relationship between politics and the media. It ties political science and communications together and gives students the opportunity to learn about the way the world is being shaped.
Power Games will be offered in two separate sections. One, Political Science 330, will be taught by long-time political science professor Sue Strickler. The other, Communication 330, will be taught by the newest addition to the Department of Communicative Arts and Sciences, Amanda Gatchet.
The difference in the course content between the sections will be minimal. It is cross-listed between communications and political science so that those needing credit in either will have an option.
With the current trends in media and its interdependent relationship with politics, this course allows students to gain an understanding of how politics and media work.
“This course provides an overview of the media’s role in American political life,” said Gatchet. “In doing so, we will focus on several broad themes: the relationship between the media and government; the process of news making and how it shapes the content of political news; the effects of the media on public opinion and voting behavior; and critical changes to the media environment currently taking place.
“We will pay special attention to the content of the news we encounter daily—health care reform, Obama’s birth certificate, protests in Libya and Egypt, the rise of the Tea Party Movement, or Congressman Weiner’s unfortunate tweets.”
Gatchet says the course will be helpful because, “The traditional college demographic, young people ages 18-24, have historically stayed away from the polls and typically don’t watch or read what would be considered traditional news. This course is important because it asks students to read the news, pay attention to the political world around them, and think critically about the types of mediated messages we get every day.”
President Obama is the first president of the United States to use email in the White House, according to Gatchet. “Studies have shown that young people are more likely to get their political news from television shows like The Daily Show and the Colbert Report. Celebrities like Donald Trump can dominate political news agendas. All of these things have an important and immediate impact on how we understand the political world and the role of the media in that world,” she says.
For more information on signing up for the course, call the ENMU Registrar’s Office at 575.562.2175.