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Southern Utah University
Southern Utah University
Fall Semester 2026

Media and Politics

POLS 4100-01

Course: POLS 4100-01
Credits: 3
Term: Fall Semester 2026
Department: PSCJ
CRN: 31657

Course Description

An examination of specific issues and topics in political science such as social choice theory, American political thought, ethics and politics, and public policy. This course will vary in substantive content and may be repeated for credit. (As Needed) [Graded (Standard Letter)] Repeatable for Add’l Credit? Yes - Total Credits: 6 Registration Restriction(s): None

Required Texts

NA

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the semester students will be able to:
  •  Identify key changes in the news media environment over the 20th and 21st centuries in  the U.S., and the world, and their consequences.
  •   Understand key debates surrounding the relationship between soft news, media effects, media biases, social media, partisan media, and misinformation and democratic politics. 
  •  Identify gaps in understanding in current literature and generate research questions on topics related to media & politics
  •  Synthesize existing research on media & politics and/or craft research designs that can shed light on existing debates in media & politics.

Course Requirements

Each week the course will flow as such:

  • Monday: Professor Lectures to the class
  • Wednesday: Two Students will present scholarly research to the class
  • Friday: The class as a whole take a deep dive into one scholarly research article, through class discussion

Attendance and participation-- 25% of final grade

To assess participation grades, I look for significant evidence that you are doing more than simply coming to class and passively waiting for the material to sink in.  It is important to note that good attendance is a necessary but not sufficient condition for getting an A for participation.  I keep track of who is attending and who participates in discussions.  I understand that some people do not like to speak in public.  For those people, I view office hour visits and emailed questions/comments related course material as reasonable substitutes for participation in class.  Indeed, office hour visits often represent greater commitment to the course than other forms of participation.

A note on attendance:  I do take attendance BUT I do not take points off for individual absences.  Nor do I care why you miss any one class.  If you just feel like you can’t handle school some day and want to go play or stay home and curl up in a ball, that’s fine with me.  That said, I do pay close attention to the overall pattern of attendance.  If you miss many classes and then show up with a doctor’s note for one of them, I will still focus on the large number of absences that were not excused.  I do take long term commitments that cannot be avoided into account.  So if you have a known issue that will cause numerous absences, let me know at the beginning of class so we can work out a way to deal with the potential conflicts.  Here are some examples of the kinds of issues that might warrant this:  health problems, varsity sports, military obligations, etc

Attendance and Participation Rubric
A – Student attends almost every class while consistently demonstrating that he or she has completed and understands the assigned readings by participating in class discussion meaningfully.
B – Student only attends most class meetings while completing all readings and actively participating in a meaningful way.
C – Student attends almost every class but regularly fails to demonstrate completion of readings or participate in any meaningful way.
D – Student only attends most class meetings and regularly fails to demonstrate completion of readings or participate in any meaningful way.
F – Student regularly arrives late or misses class entirely, does not complete assigned readings, does not engage in class discussion meaningfully, or is disruptive or disrespectful.

Regular Class Presentations--25% of final grade

Weekly, we will have two-four students present scholarly research to the class. Students will be given at least one week's notice for their presentation. It is the student's responsibility to inform the instructor if they cannot attend a class date before presentations are assigned for that week.

These presentations are expected to be 15 minutes long, with about 10 minutes for Q&A.

50% of final grade--you decide

You may write a short response paper (about a page or two) to the assigned reading for that week. These will be due on Thursday, before we discuss the readings in class. Each response paper is worth 5% of your grade.

You may do a book review (about two to three pages) over a list of pre-selected scholarly books. Each book review you do is worth 15% of your final grade. If you wish to do a short presentation of the book, that is worth an additional 5% of your grade.

A (non-comprehensive) list of acceptable books is below: 

  • Roberts, Margaret. Censored: distraction and diversion inside China's Great Firewall. Princeton University Press, 2018.
  • Settle, Jaime E. Frenemies: How social media polarizes America. Cambridge University Press, 2018.
  • Hopkins, Daniel J. The increasingly United States: How and why American political behavior nationalized. University of Chicago Press, 2018.
  • Albertson, Bethany, and Shana Kushner Gadarian. Anxious politics: Democratic citizenship in a threatening world. Cambridge University Press, 2015.
  • Arora, Maneesh. Parties and Prejudice: The Normalization of Antiminority Rhetoric in US Politics. University of Chicago Press, 2025.
  • Levendusky, Matthew. Our common bonds: Using what Americans share to help bridge the partisan divide. University of Chicago Press, 2023.
  • Kathryn Cramer Brownell. 24/7 Politics: Cable Television and the Fragmenting of America from Watergate to Fox News, Princeton University Press, 2023
  • Kim, Eunji. The American Mirage: How Reality TV Upholds the Myth of Meritocracy. Princeton University Press (2025)
  • Feldstein, Steven. The rise of digital repression: How technology is reshaping power, politics, and resistance. Oxford University Press, 2021.
  • Krupnikov, Yanna, and John Barry Ryan. The other divide. Cambridge University Press, 2022.
  • Han, Rongbin. Contesting cyberspace in China: Online expression and authoritarian resilience. Columbia University Press, 2018.
  • Young, Dannagal Goldthwaite. Wrong: How media, politics, and identity drive our appetite for misinformation. JHU Press, 2023.

You may also write a research paper (alone or with your classmates) for 50% of your grade. For the paper to be worth 50% of your grade, you must aim to complete a paper similar to what we're reading in class. The elements required are:

  • Propose a research question
  • Propose a hypothesis
  • Argue a theory
  • Design a study
  • Complete a research study 
  • Give a presentation to the class showing your results

Finally, for 25% of your grade, you can write a literature review, where you simply go deeper into any of the topics, describe the major themes and debates in the literature. 

You can mix and match these assignments as much as you want. You can write 10 response papers. You can write one literature review, one book review with presentation, and one response paper. You can do 2 literature reviews. 


Course Outline

  • Week 1--Introduction
    • Bennett, W. Lance, and Shanto Iyengar. "A new era of minimal effects? The changing foundations of political communication." Journal of communication 58, no. 4 (2008): 707-731.
    • McCombs, Maxwell E., and Donald L. Shaw. "The agenda-setting function of mass media." Public opinion quarterly 36, no. 2 (1972): 176-187.

  • Week 2--Changing Media Environment in the US
    • Darr, Joshua P., Matthew P. Hitt, and Johanna L. Dunaway. "Newspaper closures polarize voting behavior." Journal of Communication 68, no. 6 (2018): 1007-1028.
    • Moskowitz, Daniel J. "Local news, information, and the nationalization of US elections." American Political Science Review 115, no. 1 (2021): 114-129.
    • Peterson, Erik. "Paper cuts: How reporting resources affect political news coverage." American Journal of Political Science 65, no. 2 (2021): 443-459.

  • Week 3--Media Effects
    • Gentzkow, Matthew. "Television and voter turnout." The Quarterly Journal of Economics 121, no. 3 (2006): 931-972.
    • Iyengar, Shanto, and Kyu S. Hahn. "Red media, blue media: Evidence of ideological selectivity in media use." Journal of communication 59, no. 1 (2009): 19-39.
    • Guriev, Sergei, Nikita Melnikov, and Ekaterina Zhuravskaya. "3g internet and confidence in government." The Quarterly Journal of Economics 136, no. 4 (2021): 2533-2613.

  • Week 4--Political Campaigns
    • Gerber, Alan S., James G. Gimpel, Donald P. Green, and Daron R. Shaw. "How large and long-lasting are the persuasive effects of televised campaign ads? Results from a randomized field experiment." American Political Science Review 105, no. 1 (2011): 135-150.
    • Allcott, Hunt, Matthew Gentzkow, Ro’ee Levy, Adriana Crespo-Tenorio, Natasha Dumas, Winter Mason, Devra Moehler et al. "The effects of political advertising on Facebook and Instagram before the 2020 US election." Nature Human Behaviour (2026): 1-12.
    • Sides, John, Lynn Vavreck, and Christopher Warshaw. "The effect of television advertising in United States elections." American Political Science Review 116, no. 2 (2022): 702-718.

  • Week 5--Media Bias
    • Hassell, Hans JG, John B. Holbein, and Matthew R. Miles. "There is no liberal media bias in which news stories political journalists choose to cover." Science advances 6, no. 14 (2020): eaay9344
    • Niven, David. "Objective evidence on media bias: Newspaper coverage of congressional party switchers." Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 80, no. 2 (2003): 311-326.
    • Peisakhin, Leonid, and Arturas Rozenas. "Electoral effects of biased media: Russian television in Ukraine." American journal of political science 62, no. 3 (2018): 535-550.

  • Week 6--Polarization
    • Martin, Gregory J., and Ali Yurukoglu. "Bias in cable news: Persuasion and polarization." American Economic Review 107, no. 9 (2017): 2565-2599.
    • Levy, Ro’ee. "Social media, news consumption, and polarization: Evidence from a field experiment." American economic review 111, no. 3 (2021): 831-870.
    • Guess, Andrew M., Neil Malhotra, Jennifer Pan, Pablo Barberá, Hunt Allcott, Taylor Brown, Adriana Crespo-Tenorio et al. "Reshares on social media amplify political news but do not detectably affect beliefs or opinions." Science 381, no. 6656 (2023): 404-408.

  • Week 7--Selective Exposure
    • Messing, Solomon, and Sean J. Westwood. "Selective exposure in the age of social media: Endorsements trump partisan source affiliation when selecting news online." Communication research 41, no. 8 (2014): 1042-1063.
    • Guess, Andrew M. "(Almost) everything in moderation: new evidence on Americans' online media diets." American Journal of Political Science 65, no. 4 (2021): 1007-1022.
    • Barberá, Pablo, John T. Jost, Jonathan Nagler, Joshua A. Tucker, and Richard Bonneau. "Tweeting from left to right: Is online political communication more than an echo chamber?." Psychological science 26, no. 10 (2015): 1531-1542.

  • Week 8--Internet and Social Media 1
    • Yilmaz, Ihsan, Shahram Akbarzadeh, Namig Abbasov, and Galib Bashirov. "The double-edged sword: Political engagement on social media and its impact on democracy support in authoritarian regimes." Political Research Quarterly 78, no. 2 (2025): 419-436.
    • King, Gary, Jennifer Pan, and Margaret E. Roberts. "How censorship in China allows government criticism but silences collective expression." American political science Review 107, no. 2 (2013): 326-343.
    • Stukal, Denis, Sergey Sanovich, Richard Bonneau, and Joshua A. Tucker. "Why botter: How pro-government bots fight opposition in Russia." American political science review 116, no. 3 (2022): 843-857.

  • Week 9--Internet and Social Media 2
    • Allcott, Hunt, Luca Braghieri, Sarah Eichmeyer, and Matthew Gentzkow. "The welfare effects of social media." American economic review 110, no. 3 (2020): 629-676.
    • Boxell, Levi, Matthew Gentzkow, and Jesse M. Shapiro. "Greater Internet use is not associated with faster growth in political polarization among US demographic groups." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 114, no. 40 (2017): 10612-10617.
    • Bail, Christopher A., Lisa P. Argyle, Taylor W. Brown, John P. Bumpus, Haohan Chen, MB Fallin Hunzaker, Jaemin Lee, Marcus Mann, Friedolin Merhout, and Alexander Volfovsky. "Exposure to opposing views on social media can increase political polarization." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 115, no. 37 (2018): 9216-9221.
    • Aridor, Guy, Rafael Jiménez-Durán, Ro’ee Levy, and Lena Song. "The economics of social media." Journal of Economic Literature 62, no. 4 (2024): 1422-1474.
    • Jost, John T., Pablo Barberá, Richard Bonneau, Melanie Langer, Megan Metzger, Jonathan Nagler, Joanna Sterling, and Joshua A. Tucker. "How social media facilitates political protest: Information, motivation, and social networks." Political psychology 39 (2018): 85-118.

  • Week 10--Media and Propaganda 1
    • Allcott, Hunt, and Matthew Gentzkow. "Social media and fake news in the 2016 election." Journal of economic perspectives 31, no. 2 (2017): 211-236.
    • Huang, Haifeng. "Propaganda as signaling." Comparative Politics 47, no. 4 (2015): 419-444.
    • Cantoni, Davide, David Y. Yang, Noam Yuchtman, and Y. Jane Zhang. "Protests as strategic games: experimental evidence from Hong Kong's antiauthoritarian movement." The Quarterly Journal of Economics 134, no. 2 (2019): 1021-1077.

  • Week 11--Media and Propaganda 2
    • Pan, Jennifer, and Alexandra A. Siegel. "How Saudi crackdowns fail to silence online dissent." American Political Science Review 114, no. 1 (2020): 109-125.
    • Esberg, Jane. "Censorship as reward: Evidence from pop culture censorship in Chile." American Political Science Review 114, no. 3 (2020): 821-836.
    • Guriev, Sergei, and Daniel Treisman. "Informational autocrats." Journal of economic perspectives 33, no. 4 (2019): 100-127.
    • Xu, Xu. "To repress or to co‐opt? Authoritarian control in the age of digital surveillance." American Journal of Political Science 65, no. 2 (2021): 309-325.
    • Repnikova, Maria, and Kecheng Fang. "Authoritarian participatory persuasion 2.0: Netizens as thought work collaborators in China." Journal of Contemporary China 27, no. 113 (2018): 763-779.

  • Week 12--Prejudice
    • Kim, Eunji. "Entertaining beliefs in economic mobility." American Journal of Political Science 67, no. 1 (2023): 39-54.
    • Müller, Karsten, and Carlo Schwarz. "Fanning the flames of hate: Social media and hate crime." Journal of the European Economic Association 19, no. 4 (2021): 2131-2167.
    • Bailard, Catie Snow, Matthew H. Graham, Kimberly Gross, Ethan Porter, and Rebekah Tromble. "Combating hateful attitudes and online browsing behavior: The case of antisemitism." Journal of Experimental Political Science 11, no. 3 (2024): 300-313.

  • Week 13 and 14--Any additional paper presentations

Instructor's policies on late assignments and/or makeup work

Given that students are able to choose which assignments they wish to turn in, late work will not be accepted. 

Attendance Policy

Consistent, on time attendance is expected

AI Policy

Generative artificial intelligence tools—software that creates new text, images, computer code, audio, video, and other content—have become widely available and pose new threats to academic integrity.  You may not use generative AI tools on assignments in this course. Generative AI tools are typically trained on limited and pre-existing datasets that may be out of date and are designed to produce content that appears to be written by a human. As a result, work produced using generative AI is considered plagiarism and will often produce potentially outdated and inaccurate work that is not your own. If you use generative AI tools to complete assignments in this course, in ways that I have not explicitly authorized, this will be considered a violation of the academic integrity policy and there will be consequences appropriate to your specific case. These include getting a zero on the assignment, and possibly failing the class. Please act with integrity, for the sake of both your personal character and your academic record. 


ADA Statement

Students with medical, psychological, learning, or other disabilities desiring academic adjustments, accommodations, or auxiliary aids will need to contact the Disability Resource Center, located in Room 206F of the Sharwan Smith Center or by phone at (435) 865-8042. The Disability Resource Center determines eligibility for and authorizes the provision of services.

If your instructor requires attendance, you may need to seek an ADA accommodation to request an exception to this attendance policy. Please contact the Disability Resource Center to determine what, if any, ADA accommodations are reasonable and appropriate.

Academic Credit

According to the federal definition of a Carnegie credit hour: A credit hour of work is the equivalent of approximately 60 minutes of class time or independent study work. A minimum of 45 hours of work by each student is required for each unit of credit. Credit is earned only when course requirements are met. One (1) credit hour is equivalent to 15 contact hours of lecture, discussion, testing, evaluation, or seminar, as well as 30 hours of student homework. An equivalent amount of work is expected for laboratory work, internships, practica, studio, and other academic work leading to the awarding of credit hours. Credit granted for individual courses, labs, or studio classes ranges from 0.5 to 15 credit hours per semester.

Academic Freedom

SUU is operated for the common good of the greater community it serves. The common good depends upon the free search for truth and its free exposition. Academic Freedom is the right of faculty to study, discuss, investigate, teach, and publish. Academic Freedom is essential to these purposes and applies to both teaching and research.

Academic Freedom in the realm of teaching is fundamental for the protection of the rights of the faculty member and of you, the student, with respect to the free pursuit of learning and discovery. Faculty members possess the right to full freedom in the classroom in discussing their subjects. They may present any controversial material relevant to their courses and their intended learning outcomes, but they shall take care not to introduce into their teaching controversial materials which have no relation to the subject being taught or the intended learning outcomes for the course.

As such, students enrolled in any course at SUU may encounter topics, perspectives, and ideas that are unfamiliar or controversial, with the educational intent of providing a meaningful learning environment that fosters your growth and development. These parameters related to Academic Freedom are included in SUU Policy 6.6.

Academic Misconduct

Scholastic honesty is expected of all students. Dishonesty will not be tolerated and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent (see SUU Policy 6.33). You are expected to have read and understood the current SUU student conduct code (SUU Policy 11.2) regarding student responsibilities and rights, the intellectual property policy (SUU Policy 5.52), information about procedures, and what constitutes acceptable behavior.

Please Note: The use of websites or services that sell essays is a violation of these policies; likewise, the use of websites or services that provide answers to assignments, quizzes, or tests is also a violation of these policies. Regarding the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), you should check with your individual course instructor.

Emergency Management Statement

In case of an emergency, the University's Emergency Notification System (ENS) will be activated. Students are encouraged to maintain updated contact information using the link on the homepage of the mySUU portal. In addition, students are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the Emergency Response Protocols posted in each classroom. Detailed information about the University's emergency management plan can be found at https://www.suu.edu/emergency.

HEOA Compliance Statement

For a full set of Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) compliance statements, please visit https://www.suu.edu/heoa. The sharing of copyrighted material through peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing, except as provided under U.S. copyright law, is prohibited by law; additional information can be found at https://my.suu.edu/help/article/1096/heoa-compliance-plan.

You are also expected to comply with policies regarding intellectual property (SUU Policy 5.52) and copyright (SUU Policy 5.54).

Mandatory Reporting

University policy (SUU Policy 5.60) requires instructors to report disclosures received from students that indicate they have been subjected to sexual misconduct/harassment. The University defines sexual harassment consistent with Federal Regulations (34 C.F.R. Part 106, Subpart D) to include quid pro quo, hostile environment harassment, sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence, and stalking. When students communicate this information to an instructor in-person, by email, or within writing assignments, the instructor will report that to the Title IX Coordinator to ensure students receive support from the Title IX Office. A reporting form is available at https://cm.maxient.com/reportingform.php?SouthernUtahUniv

Non-Discrimination Statement

SUU is committed to fostering an inclusive community of lifelong learners and believes our university's encompassing of different views, beliefs, and identities makes us stronger, more innovative, and better prepared for the global society.

SUU does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, citizenship, sex (including sex discrimination and sexual harassment), sexual orientation, gender identity, age, ancestry, disability status, pregnancy, pregnancy-related conditions, genetic information, military status, veteran status, or other bases protected by applicable law in employment, treatment, admission, access to educational programs and activities, or other University benefits or services.

SUU strives to cultivate a campus environment that encourages freedom of expression from diverse viewpoints. We encourage all to dialogue within a spirit of respect, civility, and decency.

For additional information on non-discrimination, please see SUU Policy 5.27 and/or visit https://www.suu.edu/nondiscrimination.

Pregnancy

Students who are or become pregnant during this course may receive reasonable modifications to facilitate continued access and participation in the course. Pregnancy and related conditions are broadly defined to include pregnancy, childbirth, termination of pregnancy, lactation, related medical conditions, and recovery. To obtain reasonable modifications, please make a request to title9@suu.edu. To learn more visit: https://www.suu.edu/titleix/pregnancy.html.

Disclaimer Statement

Information contained in this syllabus, other than the grading, late assignments, makeup work, and attendance policies, may be subject to change with advance notice, as deemed appropriate by the instructor.