Ferruh Yılmaz
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Public Opinion and the Media
COSF 175, Winter 2007
Tuesday/Thursday 5:00-6:20 pm, HSS 1305
Instructor: Ferruh YilmazNote: This syllabus is subject to change. Please consult the on-line version for any updates
Course Description
Polls are important for the democratic system. Governments are elected for a certain periods of time, and public opinion polls are often seen as the necessary tools for governments and public officials to measure the public's pulse in the period between elections and to address their policy concerns. For generations of citizens who grew up with opinion polls, the notion of public opinion is seen a naturally existing phenomenon. But what actually is public opinion? Is there such thing as public opinion in the first place? The purpose of this course is to critically examine the ways in which public opinion is measured, constructed and used in politics.Readings
Book: Lewis, Justin (2001) Constructing Public Opinion. New York : Columbia University Press, 2001. (Available at Groundworks)Articles are available as electronic files at the library's electronic reserves. There will also be a hard copy of all assigned articles in the class box in the mailing room.
Course requirements
The most important requirement is to complete all of the readings assigned before class begins. Comprehension of the arguments is crucial to your success in this course One quiz will be given every week to ensure that students read the assigned articles and book chapters and paid attention to videos. The quizzes will be graded as a part of participation.80 % attendance is required to pass the course.
Plagiarism is a serious offence and you will fail the class if you copy others' work wholly or partly without appropriate reference.
Course evaluation
20 % for class participation (quizzes and general participation in class discussions)Midterm: 30 %. The midterm will cover the basic concepts introduced in the first half of the course and will be an in-class test.
Final exam: 50 %. Final exam is a take-home research paper (8-10 pages) on a relevant topic. Guidelines for the research paper will be passed out separately sometime after mid-term and we will be discussing potential topics in the last week of the course. The final paper is due on March 22, 10 pm (official exam time).
WEEK ONE: Public Opinion – Introduction and A brief history
1. Tuesday, January 9 : Introduction
The meanings of Public Opinion in Glynn, C., Herbst, S., O”Keefe, and Shapiro, R., Public Opinion. Boulder: Westview Press, 1999.
2. Thursday, January 11: A history of public opinion
Historical Tensions in the Concept of Public Opinion by John Durham Peters in T. Glasser and C. Salmon (eds): Public Opinion and the Communication of Consent. New York : Guilford Press, 1995.
The History of Public Opinion in Glynn, C., Herbst, S., O”Keefe, and Shapiro, R., Public Opinion. Boulder : Westview Press, 1999.
WEEK TWO: Public Opinion Today
3. Tuesday, January 16: Public Opinion Today
The Industry of Public Opinion by Peter Miller in T. Glasser and C. Salmon (eds): Public Opinion and the Communication of Consent. New York : Guilford Press, 1995
The Politics of Polling and the Limits of Consent. In T. Glasser and C. Salmon (eds): Public Opinion and the Communication of Consent. New York : Guilford Press.
4. Thursday, January 18: Methods – a historical view
Recap
Methods for Studying Public Opinion in Glynn, C., Herbst, S., O”Keefe, and Shapiro, R., Public Opinion. Boulder : Westview Press, 1999
WEEK THREE: Methods & Problems
5. Tuesday, January 23: Doing surveys
Class activity: designing questionnaires
Doing Social Surveys by Clive Seale and Paul Filmer in Seale, C. (ed): Researching Society and Culture. Thousand Oaks , CA : Sage, 1998
6. Thursday, January 25: Problems – 1
Contemporary Public Opinion by Susan Herbst, in Numbered Voices: How Opinion Polling Has Shaped American Politics, Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 1993.
Public Opinion and Public Opinion Polling by Herbert Blumer, American Sociological Review, Vol. 13, No. 5, 1948.
Public Opinion Does Not Exit by Pierre Bourdieu in in A. Mattelart and S. Siegelaub (eds): Communication and Class Struggle. New York : International General, 1979.
WEEK FOUR: Problems with measuring opinions and attitudes
7. Tuesday, January 30: Problems – 2
Report back on the questionnaires and discuss in class
Unfolding Discourse Analysis by Jonathan Potter and Margaret Wetherell in Discourse and Social Psychology. Beyond Attitudes and Behaviour. Thousand Oaks , CA : Sage, 1987.
8. Thursday, February 1: Problems - 3
Manufacturing Individual Opinions: market research focus groups and the discursive psychology of evaluation by Puchta, Claudia, and Potter, Jonathan. British Journal of Social Psychology, 41, 2002.
WEEK FIVE: Politics of public opinion – public opinion as a political tool
9. Tuesday, February 6: Public opinion polls as a political tool
Recap
Why numbers matter and why we should be suspicious of them by Justin Lewis (Ch. 1) in Constructing Public Opinion, New York : Columbia University Press, 2001.
Who's in and who's out: Public Opinion Polls as a Cultural Form by Justin Lewis (Ch. 2) in Constructing Public Opinion, New York : Columbia University Press, 2001.
10. Thursday, February 8
Mid-term in class
WEEK SIX: Influences on public opinion - 1
11. Tuesday, February 13: Elite influence
Discussion of mid-term
Elite Leadership of Mass Opinion by John Zaller in In Bennet, Lance W., and Paletz, David L. (eds): Taken by Storm: the media, public opinion, and U.S. foreign policy in the Gulf war. Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 1994.
12. Thursday, February 15: Media influence: agenda-setting, priming and framing
I Make A Crime Wave in The Autobiography of Lincoln Steffens. New York : Harcourt, Brace and Company.
News Coverage of the Gulf Crisis and Public Opinion. A Study of Agenda-Setting, Priming, and Framing by Shanto Iyengar and Adam Simon in Bennet, Lance W., and Paletz, David L. (eds): Taken by Storm: the media, public opinion, and U.S. foreign policy in the Gulf war. Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 1994
The News Media and the Pictures in Our Heads by Maxwell McCombs and George Estrada in Iyengar, Shanto, and Reeves, Richard (eds.): Do The Media Govern? Politicians, Voters, and Reporters in America . Tousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1997.
WEEK SEVEN: Influences on public opinion - 2
13. Tuesday, February 20: Media influence – case studies
Framing Responsibility for Political Issues: the case of poverty by Shanto Iyengar in Shanto, and Reeves, Richard (eds.): Do The Media Govern? Politicians, Voters, and Reporters in America . Tousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1997.
Modern Racism and Images of Blacks in Local Television News by Robert Entman in Shanto, and Reeves, Richard (eds.): Do The Media Govern? Politicians, Voters, and Reporters in America . Tousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1997.
Framing U.S. Coverage of International News: Contrasts in Narratives of the KAL and Iran Air Incidents by Robert Entman. Journal of Communication, 41:4, 1991.
14. Thursday, February 22: Uses of public opinion
Suppressing dissent: The Media Representation of Public Opinion by Justin Lewis (Ch. 3) in Constructing Public Opinion, New York : Columbia University Press, 2001.
Getting the Right Response? Media Influence on Public Opinion by Justin Lewis ( Ch. 4) in Constructing Public Opinion, New York : Columbia University Press, 2001.
WEEK EIGHT: Public opinion and the concept of ideology
15. Tuesday, February 27: Ideological influences on public opinion
Recap
The Social History of a ‘Moral Panic' by Stuart Hall, Chas Crticher, Tony Jefferson, John Clarke and Brian Roberts in Policing the Crisis. Mugging, the State and Law and Order. London : Macmillan, 1978.
16. Thursday, March 1: Ideological environment and public opinion
The Media, the war in Vietnam , and political support. A critique of the thesis of oppositional media by Daniel Hallin in We keep America on top of the world : television journalism and the public sphere. New York : Routledge, 1994.
When the Facts Didn't Speak for Themselves. The Holocaust in the New York Times, 1939-1945 by Laurel Leff. Press/Politics 5 (2).
WEEK NINE – Ideology, public opinion and war
17. Tuesday, March 5 – The ideology of assumptions
What are opinions and where do they come from? by Justin Lewis ( Ch. 5) in Constructing Public Opinion, New York : Columbia University Press, 2001.
The Ideology of Assumptions by Justin Lewis ( Ch. 6) in Constructing Public Opinion, New York : Columbia University Press, 2001.
18. Thursday, March 7: War, the media and public opinion
Misperceptions, the media and the Iraq war. The PIPA/Knowledge Networks Poll. October 2, 2003 .
None Dare Call It Torture: Indexing and the Limits of Press Independence in the Abu Ghraib Scandal by W. Lance Benett, Regina G. Lawrence, and Steven Livingston. Journal of Communication 56, 2006.
WEEK TEN: Public Opinion and the Military
19. Tuesday, March 13
Final paper – discussion
Flickering the Embers of Consent: Public Opinion and the Military Industrial Complex by Justin Lewis (Ch. 7) in Constructing Public Opinion, New York : Columbia University Press, 2001.
10. Thursday, March 15
Selling Unrepresentative Democracy by Justin Lewis ( Ch. 8) in Constructing Public Opinion, New York : Columbia University Press, 2001.
Final exam: Thursday, March 22, 7-10 pm .
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