Social media has fundamentally changed American politics. Or has it? In this capstone seminar, students will critically evaluate the role that social media plays in American politics today. Students will read, critique, and synthesize cutting-edge research on social media and politics from a number of academic disciplines, including political science, psychology, and communication, among others. Alongside academic research, students will examine perspectives from other voices in our political system, including journalists, pundits, opinion writers, data scientists, and politicians. Students will read, watch, and listen to these perspectives on a number of topics in American politics, such as polarization, misinformation, political participation, extremism, violence, representation, and political knowledge. Students will carefully consider ethics, both in research using social media data and in real world applications. Students will demonstrate their mastery of the course material through written assignments, in-depth class discussions, and an original research project that includes a quantitative analysis of social media data.
Course Attributes:
