Classes

Research Course: Contested Truths in Social Conflict: Alternative Facts and Conspiracy Theories

Semester: 

Spring

Offered: 

2022

In many contemporary societies, conspiracy theories and belief in “alternative facts” have recently experienced a worrisome renaissance. Exploiting the affordances of contemporary social media and populist political discourse, it seems, large swaths of the population have begun to reject conventional truths and collectively assert their own, “alternative” beliefs. But is this really so?

Quantitative Text Analysis (MA)

Semester: 

Spring

Offered: 

2022

In our contemporary world, virtually every part of life involves digital texts: Whether we read for our studies or just a cookbook, write work emails, use entertainment media or communicate with our friends, and even when we order stuff online or leave that scathing review on yelp, texts contain immense amounts of information that may be of interest for social scientific research. In this class, we learn how to recover that information from large bodies of text, using quantitative textual analysis.

Making News: Pluralistic Journalism in New and Old Media (BA)

Semester: 

Spring

Offered: 

2022

The ongoing transformation of the media landscape is accompanied by both big hopes and big fears for democratic debates. Online enthusiasts argue that networked online and social media may enable truly inclusive democratic debates, where professional news media have been criticized for privileging few, selected elite viewpoints. Inversely, critics have warned of echo-chambers, resulting in a fragmentation and polarization of debates, and a loss of quality in public discourse.

Global Protest Communication (MA)

Semester: 

Fall

Offered: 

2021

Public communication as a means to mobilize support is a necessary prerequisite for any kind of political change: Both in democracies and in authoritarian systems, political innovations usually originate in social movements and groups that are distant from political power. To affect politics, these groups need to campaign in public, rally their supporters, and strategically insert their ideas into the political debate. This course investigates both the opportunity structures that shape the possibilities for political activism, and the strategies and tactics used in communicating protest.

Propaganda Revisited: Political persuasion in social conflicts (MA)

Semester: 

Fall

Offered: 

2021

Conflictual public debates live from the competition of plural actors over ideas and arguments. In their efforts to rally support for their specific positions, each actor employs a wide range of persuasive strategies. However, some forms of political persuasion cross the line between legitimate democratic debate and propaganda: Exploiting their communication power, as well as certain cultural, sociological and cognitive biases, they try to overpower competing claims and establish a monopoly on defining the situation.

Propaganda! Origins & Developments (BA)

Semester: 

Fall

Offered: 

2021

Conflicts and wars are not won on the battle field alone: Also the public struggle over the prerogative of interpretation plays an instrumental part in determining the fate of political and violent conflict. Unlike legitimate means of political controversy, propaganda seeks to mobilize supporters, discredit and demoralize opponents by excluding the possibility of legitimate dissent, resorting to anti-pluralist strategies.

Foundations of Internet Research: The Age of Global Communication (MA)

Semester: 

Fall

Offered: 

2019

This course deals with a range of aspects of internet research – theoretical, practical, ethical, and more. It takes two main approaches, as well as an approach that combines the two. The first looks at how the internet can be used as a research tool. How can data collected through the internet help us understand the world around us? This includes the use of search engines, online databases, and other digitally-generated resources, such as the discussion pages for Wikipedia articles, hyperlinks, and Facebook profiles.

Analyzing Networked Communication (MA)

Semester: 

Spring

Offered: 

2018

Most communication is networked, and has been long before the advent of social media. However, much of communication research conceptualizes communication primarily in an interpersonal or mass-media context. In this class, we apply a network perspective upon communication: We examine what insights arise from analyzing interactive communication within its networked context, and assess how an appraisal of audiences’ networked communication links helps us reformulate existing theories of mass communication in a networked fashion.