12037 Democracy and Mass Communication 1

Credits: 3 graduate credits in Democracy Studies / Communication and Culture

Prerequisites: Two of the following: Democracy: An Interdisciplinary Approach, Israeli Democracy: Selected Issues, Contemporary Democratic Theories, and exemption from bibliographic assignments on computer searches in the “Alef” catalog and databases.

The course is based on a reader edited by Anat First, Paul Frosh and David Levin.

The permeation of media into the political sphere has made the two inseparable. As a result, every discussion about democracy must take media roles and influences into consideration. The analysis of the relations between media and the political, economic, social and cultural spheres in liberal western democracies exposes a complexity that affects the nature of democracy. The course examines the relations between democracy and media from two aspects: first employing variables that relate to definitions of democracy and then using those that define the communication process.

Topics: Media and democracy; Media, audience and the public sphere; Journalism and democracy; Democracy, media and capitalism; The democratic nature of media; Democracy, the nation and globalization.

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1Students may write a seminar paper in this course, although it is not required.