HYPE AND HUCKSTERS:
MEDIA CAMPAIGNS AS POPULAR CULTURE

Fall,  2002

Faculty:            Dr. Susan Fiksdal (Lab. II, 2447, Mail Stop Lab II, Phone 867-6329,

                        fiksdals@evergreen.edu)  Office hours by appointment.

.....................  Dr. Virginia Hill (Sem.3119, Mail Stop Sem 3127, Phone 867-6597,

                        hillg@evergreen.edu)  Office hours by appointment.

Program Overview for Fall

Our program focuses on systematic efforts to persuade the public in political and commercial arenas.  As we study such campaigns, we will address the overall objective of understanding the interplay of public relations, marketing, advertising, discourse, ideology and the media and applying that understanding in collaborative work. This work includes seminar discussions, workshops, campaign participation, research projects and creating your own campaign.

Specific learning objectives for fall quarter:

     By the end of fall quarter, students should be able:   

1.      To demonstrate basic understanding of how public campaigns are planned and executed

2.      To identify characteristics of successful campaigns

3.      To identify and assess marketing elements, such as target audiences, positioning, segmentation, and media utilization as they interact in campaigns, as well as values, ideology and context

4.      To analyze and apply basic discourse concepts used in public campaigns, particularly framing, metaphor, referential devices and poetics

5.      To develop,  through collaboration with teammates, effective skills for generating ideas, researching campaigns, synthesizing ideas and presenting findings

6.      To illustrate the ability to conduct Internet research and to make professional PowerPoint presentations

7.      To demonstrate basic skill at web design by creating a web home page that will link to our program website.

Work for the quarter:

1.      Seminar preparation.  You will carefully read the assigned text and write a seminar paper due at the first seminar in which the text is discussed.

2.      Media watch.  You will regularly read a distinguished national newspaper.

3.      Case study presentation.  In groups of five you will present one case study analysis to the class, using the case study packets available in the bookstore, and each of you will individually write an analysis of one case study.

4.      Case study evaluation.  You will write a brief evaluation of each presentation you observe.

5.      Campaign participation.  You will choose a political campaign which has a local office and volunteer at least 40 hours prior to Election Day, November 5, 2002.

6.      Examination.  You will complete a 12-page take-home essay exam.

7.      Research project.  With one other student you will research a non-political campaign and present this research at the end of the quarter in a professional PowerPoint presentation.  Each of you will produced a polished paper in APA format due the second week of winter quarter (January 16, 2003). (Students leaving the program after fall quarter will be expected to complete this paper before quarter’s end.)

8.      Program web page. You will create your own web page and link it to our program home page.

Covenant:

We will collaborate using civil, academic discourse and will arrive at each class in a timely manner.  Assigned work must be submitted on time; there is no provision for late or incomplete work except in grave circumstances.  Students must attend all class sessions and activities.  In the event illness or personal emergency forces absence, students must notify their faculty sponsor in advance.  At most, two days can be missed each quarter; these cannot be days of your presentations.  Credit may be reduced or denied for unsatisfactory work, missed classes or unfulfilled assignments.  By registering in this program, you agree to this covenant.       

Books and Materials:

Barnum, Phineas T. The Life of P.T. Barnum, Written by Himself

Cook, Guy. The Discourse of Advertising (2^nd Edition)

Gladwell, Malcolm.  The Tipping Point

Lakoff, Robin. Talking Power

Jamieson, Kathleen. Everything You Think You Know About Politics…and Why you’re Wrong       

Jowett, Garth, and Victoria O’Donnell.  Propaganda and Persuasion (3^rd Edition)

McChesney, Robert. Rich Media, Poor Democracy

McGinniss, Joe. The Selling of the President

Machiavelli, N. The Prince                  

Matalin, Mary, and James Carville. All’s Fair: Love, War, and Running for President

Selections from Newman, Bruce. The Marketing of the President

Other brief, topical articles as assigned

Case studies from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government:

            “Helms-Hunt Senate Race” (A) (B) (C) (D)

            “Jesse Helms v. Harvey Gantt”

            “John Marttila and Campaign Management”

            “An Openly Gay Man in Politics:  The Story of Michael Duffy”

            “Against All Odds:  The Campaign in Congress for Japanese American Redress”

            “Privacy and Publicity:  The Senate Confirmation of Justice Clarence Thomas”

A distinguished national daily newspaper (Internet edition is acceptable)

Class Schedule:

Tuesday                                  Thursday

9:00-11:00      Seminar                                    Seminar

(Lib. 2204 or 2221)                 (Lib. 2204 or 2221)

12:30-2:30      Group Meetings                        Computer Wkshp

(LCC 1007B)                          (GCC Lab) (Wks 1-4)

Discourse Analysis Wkshp

(LCC 1007B) (Wks 5-9)

2:30-4:30        Case Study Class                     Presentations,Videos

(Lib. 1612)                               (Lib. 1308)

*There will be some adjustments in the lunch hour on Thursday to acccomodate the computer workshops.

Assignment Details:

Seminar Preparation

Microthemes

Microthemes are truly micro. We ask that you write one page (or less).  The purpose is to help you work on your own ideas prior to seminar.  Bring your paper to seminar as your “ticket” to the first discussion on each text.  For the first 10 minutes, we will pass these around and read them.  It is not important that each person read everyone’s microtheme. 

Please try to introduce an idea from someone else’s paper before introducing your own idea. Faculty will collect all these and read them, writing a minimal comment about the idea on the paper.

Types of Microthemes:

You should try each of these formats at  leastonce in the quarter:

Summary Microtheme.  Find the main points and supporting evidence and discard the detail.  The  point is to “hear” the author’s ideas—not interject your own, or distort an idea you may not like.  Identifying all the main points is key, as is indicating their relationship to each other.

Thesis Microtheme. Develop your own thesis statements based on the reading, and provide at least three pieces of evidence from the text to support that thesis.

Quote Microtheme.  Begin your essay with a quote that captures a crucial point, and provide at least three reasons why the quote is important.  Use quotes that are eloquent.

Campaign participation

This will be discussed in class.  Note well that on election day students are expected to submit a signed document from an official in the campaign on which they have worked, certifying that they have contributed a total of 40 hours.

Case Study Assignments

Case studies that focus on various aspects of public campaigns are available at the bookstore in packets.  You will need all the case studies in the packet.  We will spend two weeks discussing the lengthy Helms-Hunt Senate Race case, which appears in four parts (A,B, C,and D).  This will provide a foundation both for in-class group presentations and for term paper research. 

Students will work in groups of five to prepare in-class presentations of one case.  Each group should make a 30-minute presentation of their case.  This professional-quality, fully illustrated analysis, using PowerPoint and other media, must cover the following:

1.      The focus of the campaign, including relevant information not available in the written case

2.      Political considerations shaping the campaign, such as key issues, key players, political "debts", and political interests

3.      Non-political contextual forces constraining the campaign

4.      The campaign strategy, including marketing elements, financing, and discourse elements

5.      A critique of the campaign, including a proposal for improvement.

Two groups of students will present each case. Following the two presentations, class members will provide written evaluations of both the analyses and the presentational aspects of each.  Class discussion will follow.

Each student is expected to prepare a written two-page analysis of one case other than the one they are presenting in class, addressing elements 1-4 above.  In summary, in addition to reading all case studies closely, students will be responsible for the following: one group presentation,  one case write-up, and brief, written evaluations (done in class) of all the presentations.

Web Page Design

Throughout the last two weeks of the quarter, students are expected to work on the program home page, with individual pieces prepared by December 3 and the page complete by  December 10.  This assignment will be discussed in class.

 

Research Paper and Presentation

A significant portion of student effort this quarter should be devoted to research on a campaign other than a political campaign.  This research should yield a paper of 15 to 20 pages, fully documented using APA style, with a bibliography of no fewer than twelve entries, four of which should be books other than program texts.  A paper based solely on Internet research is not acceptable. While your topic may dictate that you use books exclusively, other sources could include articles from the Internet, print periodicals, interviews and pamphlets.  Although the polished paper is due the second week of winter term, the research must be completed in fall quarter and presented to the class in a formal, fully illustrated professional presentation.

To enrich our class presentations, each student should pair with another to work on a research topic. (Note: while the class presentations will be done in pairs, the resulting research papers will be individual efforts.) Choose whatever public or private sector campaign interests you, provided you have good reason to believe that information on the campaign is reasonably available.  You must choose a campaign, rather than a social movement.  Campaigns are planned efforts at change, and one can identify the persons or organizations responsible; social movements spring from less identifiable sources.  While aspects of  social movements may be planned, as a whole they are not.  Examples of  student research topics from a prior year can be found at last year’s Changing Minds, Changing Course website, in the College’s web pages.  In choosing a topic, you might pursue a relatively recent effort, such as William Bennett et al's campaign to censor rap lyrics, or the campaign to reduce the incidence of e-coli infection.  Some students might decide to look at a campaign long past, such as the British propaganda campaign gainst American 'neutrality' in the early days of World War II or the campaign for prohibition of alcohol at the early part of the last century.  Product advertising campaigns, such as the launch of Windows 95, are good topics, as well.  You are cautioned to avoid campaigns that are so recent in origin that little information is readily available about them. The paper should have a thesis, and it must fully describe the campaign, expliticitly using the ten divisions for propaganda analysis listed on page 280 of Jowett and O’Donnell’s text.

The presentation you make to the class in fall term should address these elements, as well, though at the time of the presentation you may not have fully developed your thesis, making the presentation more descriptive than argumentative.

Since this research is so central to our work this fall, and since an in-class presentation can only capsulize the research, any students who anticipate leaving the program after fall term should be aware that they will have to submit a finished paper before receiving credit for fall.  Such papers are due December 5.

Schedule of Activities:

Week               Tuesday                                  Thursday

Wk 1   AM      Introduction                               Seminar: Barnum

10/1

PM       Case study orientation                Workshop: PowerPoint

Video: Mer. of  Cool

Wk 2   AM      Seminar: J&O’D                       Seminar: J&O’D

10/8

PM       Case Groups Meet                    Workshop:  Internet Research

Case Analysis: Helms-               Discourse Analysis

Hunt A & B                              (Hand in statement of research topic)

Wk 3   AM      Seminar: McGinniss                   Seminar: Jamieson, Pts I & II

10/15

PM       Case Groups Meet                    Workshop: Web Page Design

Case Analysis: Helms-                Video: The Political Education of Maggie

Hunt C & D                              Lauterer

(Preliminary bibliography due)

Wk 4   AM      Seminar: Jamieson                     Seminar: Matalin/Carville

10/22

PM       Case Groups Meet                    Workshop: Web Page Design II

Video: The War Room                Case Pres.: Helms-Gantt

Wk 5   AM      Seminar: Matalin/                      Seminar: Lakoff, Chs. 1-3

10/29                Carville Remainder

PM       Guest speaker                           Workshop: Discourse Analysis

Case Pres.: Marttila                   Case Pres: Michael Duffy

Wk 6   AM      Seminar: Lakoff,                        No Class

11/5                  Remainder                                Work on Exam

PM       Reports on Election Work

Case Pres.: Clarence Thomas

Exam Distributed

Wk 7   AM      No AM class                            Seminar : Machiavelli

11/12

Exam Due at 2:30 p.m.              Discourse Analysis

Video: Bob Roberts                   Case Pres: Japanese Redress

Wk 8   AM      Seminar: Gladwell                      Seminar: Gladwell

11/19

PM       Discourse Analysis                    Research Presentations (4 pairs)

Guest Speaker

11/26                THANKSGIVING BREAK

Wk 9   AM      Seminar: McChesney                 Research Presentations (2 pairs)

12/3

PM       Research Presentations              Research Presentations (4 Pairs)

(4 pairs)                                    Web Pg. Contribution due

Wk 10 AM      Research Presentations              Research Presentations (2 pairs)

12/10                (2 pairs)

PM       Research Presentations               Research Presentations (4 pairs)

(4 pairs)

12/17               EVALUATION WEEK