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    Harvard Government 90fj Syllabus

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    This document outlines the syllabus for a political science course on political persuasion taught at Harvard University. The course will be held on Mondays from 2-4pm and will explore topics such as conceptualizing and measuring persuasion, receiver factors, source factors, message factors, and channel factors. Students will read required texts on political persuasion and attitude change. Grades will be based on seminar participation, writing assignments, and a final paper of 15-20 pages due at the end of the semester on a topic related to political persuasion. A tentative schedule lists the readings and topics to be covered each week.

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    Harvard Government 90fj Syllabus

    Uploaded by

    J
    317 views4 pages
    This document outlines the syllabus for a political science course on political persuasion taught at Harvard University. The course will be held on Mondays from 2-4pm and will explore topics such as conceptualizing and measuring persuasion, receiver factors, source factors, message factors, and channel factors. Students will read required texts on political persuasion and attitude change. Grades will be based on seminar participation, writing assignments, and a final paper of 15-20 pages due at the end of the semester on a topic related to political persuasion. A tentative schedule lists the readings and topics to be covered each week.

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    Political Persuasion

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    This document outlines the syllabus for a political science course on political persuasion taught at Harvard University. The course will be held on Mondays from 2-4pm and will explore topics such as conceptualizing and measuring persuasion, receiver factors, source factors, message factors, and channel factors. Students will read required texts on political persuasion and attitude change. Grades will be based on seminar participation, writing assignments, and a final paper of 15-20 pages due at the end of the semester on a topic related to political persuasion. A tentative schedule lists the readings and topics to be covered each week.

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    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    317 views4 pages

    Harvard Government 90fj Syllabus

    Uploaded by

    J
    This document outlines the syllabus for a political science course on political persuasion taught at Harvard University. The course will be held on Mondays from 2-4pm and will explore topics such as conceptualizing and measuring persuasion, receiver factors, source factors, message factors, and channel factors. Students will read required texts on political persuasion and attitude change. Grades will be based on seminar participation, writing assignments, and a final paper of 15-20 pages due at the end of the semester on a topic related to political persuasion. A tentative schedule lists the readings and topics to be covered each week.

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    of 4

    Political Persuasion: Government 90fj

    Fall 2007
    Professor D. Sunshine Hillygus

    Class Meeting: Mondays, 2-4pm CGIS Knafel N050


    Office: 306 CGIS North Building (1737 Cambridge Street)
    OH: Thursdays, 11-12
    Phone: (617) 496-4220
    Email: [email protected]

    Required Readings
    The following books are required purchases (and should be available at the Coop)
     Diana C. Mutz, Paul M. Sniderman, Richard A. Brody (eds.). 1996. Political Persuasion and
    Attitude Change. Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press.
     John Zaller. 1992. The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion. Cambridge Univ. Press
     Tali Mendelberg. 2001. The Race Card: Campaign Strategy, Implicit Messages, and the
    Norm of Equality, Princeton University Press

    In addition to the required texts, a sourcebook is available for purchase at Gnomon Copy on
    Mass Ave. and additional required readings may be found on the course website.

    Grading
    Grades will be earned on the basis of seminar participation (30%), writing assignments (30%),
    and a final paper (40%). For the research paper, students will be allowed to pick a topic of their
    choosing related to any aspect of political persuasion. The final paper (15-20 pages, double-
    spaced, 12-point font) is due January 11 at 5:00 pm.

    To encourage careful reading and reflection, students must generate at least 3 written questions
    on the weekly readings. These questions should be emailed to me by midnight on Sunday
    (Questions should be in the text of the messages, not sent as attachments.). These questions
    should try to clarify, challenge, expand, or otherwise synthesize the material for the week.
    Additionally, for each class, one student will be expected to help lead class discussion by
    presenting a brief critical analysis of the recommended reading (and how it relates to the
    readings) and another student must present a “real world” example of the persuasive concepts
    covered in that day’s readings. These efforts will be part of the seminar participation grade.

    1
    Tentative Course Schedule
    September 17 Introduction

    September 24 Overview: Persuasion in Politics


     Selections from Mass Communication and American Social Thought
     Perloff, “Political Campaign Persuasion and its Discontents,” in The Persuasion
    Handbook
     Campbell, The American Campaign, Chapter 2
     Jones, “You Can Predict the 2004 Presidential Election (Maybe!)”

    October 1 Conceptualizing and Measuring Persuasion


     Aristotle, On Rhetoric, Chapters 1-3, Book 1
     McGuire, “Persuasion,” in George Miller (ed), Influence
     “Political Persuasion: The Birth of a Field of Study,” in Political Persuasion and
    Attitude Change
     Perloff, The Dynamics of Persuasion, Chapters 3,5
     Henry Brady, Richard Johnston, John Sides. “The Study of Campaigns.” In Henry Brady
    and Richard Johnston (eds.), Capturing Campaign Effects

    October 8 Columbus Day

    October 15 Receiver Factors


     Converse, “Information Flow and the Stability of Partisan Attitudes,” Public Opinion
    Quarterly
     McGraw and Hubbard. “Some of the people some of the time: Individual differences in
    acceptance of political accounts,” in Political Persuasion and Attitude Change
     Taber and Lodge. “Motivated Skepticism in the Evaluation of Political Beliefs,”
    American Journal of Political Science
     Hillygus and Shields, The Persuadable Voter, Chapters 1-2

    October 22 Source Factors


     Perloff. The Dynamics of Persuasion, Chapter 6
     Lazarsfeld, Berelson, and Gaudet, The People's Choice, Chapter 16
     Kernell, Sam. excerpt Going Public
     Kuklinski and Hurley.“It’s A Matter Of Interpretation,” in Political Persuasion and
    Attitude Change
     Beck, “The Social Calculus of Voting: Interpersonal, Media, and Organizational
    Influences on Presidential Choices,” American Political Science Review

    October 29 Message Factors


     Perloff. The Dynamics of Persuasion, Chapter 7
     Ansolabehere and Iyengar. “The Craft of Political Advertising,” in Political Persuasion
    and Attitude Change.
     Cobb and Kuklinski. “Changing Minds: Political Arguments and Political Persuasion”
     Nabi et al., “All Joking Aside,” Communication Monographs

    2
     Jamieson. Everything you think you know about politics, Part II (+)
    Recommended: Ansolabehere and Iyengar. Going Negative excerpt in Quill Magazine

    November 5 More about Message: Issue Content of Campaigns


     Petrocik, “Issue Ownership in Presidential Campaigns,” American Journal of Political
    Science
     Sides, “The Origins of Campaign Agendas,” British Journal of Political Science
     Sigelman and Buell “Avoidance or Engagement? Issue Convergence in U.S. Presidential
    Campaigns, 1960-2000,” American Journal of Political Science
     Hillygus and Shields, The Persuadable Voter, Chapter 6
     Paper Proposals Due

    November 12 Veteran’s Day

    November 19 Channel Factors


     McLuhan, “Technology and Political Change” excerpt, In Mass Communication and
    American Social Thought
     Kaid, “The effects of Political Information in the 2000 Presidential Campaign” American
    Behavioral Scientist
     Gerber and Green, “The Effects of Canvassing, Telephone Calls, and Direct Mail on
    Voter Turnout: A Field Experiment,” American Political Science Review
     Brader, “Striking a Responsive Chord: How Political Ads Motivate and Persuade Voters
    by Appealing to Emotions,” American Journal of Political Science
     Chaiken and Eagly, “Communication modality as a determinant persuasion: the role of
    communicator salience,” Journal of personality and social psychology

    November 26 More about the Message, continued


     Mendelberg, The Race Card, Chap 1, 4-6
     Bethany Anderson, “Dog-whistle Politics, Coded Communication and Religious
    Appeals”
     Newspaper articles about microtargeting

    December 4 More about the Source: Media Bias


     Lippmann, “Newspapers”
     Jamieson. Everything you know about politics, pg 187-195
     Patterson. Out of Order, Chapters 1-2
     Pew Report, “Misperceptions, The Media, and the Iraq War”
     Groseclose and Milyo, “A Measure of Media Bias”
     Miller and Krosnick, “News Media Impact on the Ingredients of Presidential
    Evaluations,” in Political Persuasion and Attitude Change

    December 10 Model of Attitude Change


     John Zaller. 1992. The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion, Chaps 1-3, 8-10

    December 17 Wrap-up: Who Influences Whom in American Politics?

    3
     Zaller, The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion, Chapter 12
     Verba, “The Citizen as Respondent: Sample Surveys and American Democracy.”
    American Political Science Review
     Jacobs and Shapiro, Politicians Don’t Pander, Chapters 1-2

    Jan 11: Final paper due in my mailbox at 5:00 pm

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