11332 - Political Communication

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, students: will know the political and institutional 'environment' where communication strategies and techniques are adopted; will be able to interpret them with special focus on European and US electoral campaigns; will be able to analyze the role of mass media within the public sphere and their influence on citizens' opinions; will be informed about the main features of online political communication.

Course contents

Topics covered will be: definition and illustration of the field of political communication; the relationship between political systems and media systems; political language; political marketing; new media and politics.

Readings/Bibliography

Campus D., Comunicazione politica: le nuove frontiere, Roma Bari, Laterza, 2008, (all chapters except n.6)

Chapters 1, 6, 9, 11 Sage Handbook of Political Communication (edited by M.Scammell e H. Semetko), Sage, 2012.

Mazzoleni, G. e W. Shultz (1999), Mediatization of Politics: A Challenge for Democracy?, in «Political Communication», 16, 247-261

Aalberg, T., Esser, F., Reinemann, C., DE Vreese e Stromback, J., Populist political communication in Europe, Taylor e Francis, 2016, chapters n. 27 "Populist Actors as Communicators or Political Actors as Populist Communicators" by J.Stanyer, S.Salgado e J.Stroback and n. 28 "Populism and the Media", by F. Esser, A. Stepinska, D.Hopmann

Teaching methods

Teaching lectures and invited speakers

Assessment methods

Written text with open- ended questions and multiple choices.

Students attending classes (minimum 14 classes attended) and enrolled during the first 2 weeks of the course could make presentations. This will give them a bonus to be added to the final grade (more details will be given at the beginning of the course).

Office hours

See the website of Donatella Campus