Naturally, I may be unavailable for a few days around that time. I will make arrangements for another senior graduate student in the political science program to take the class for a day if necessary. Elections are just the most obvious examples of the continual battles that occur within the political spectrum. It's often easy to block policy, either during decision-making or implementation. The real trick is forging a coalition of interests strong enough to make policy happen despite those who wish to block it.
History is full of examples of the effect of the media on politics.
At either end of this course segment, we' ll watch a film that portrays interactions between the media and public opinion. In between, we'll look at three films which try to convey an explicit political message to their audiences. Frank Capra 123m Paper assignment 1 due at the beginning of class. Lastly, a more subtle set of themes. Ivan Reitman 110m Paper assignment 2 due at the beginning of class.