The purpose of this seminar is to understand the evolution of media systems in the Western world and how it relates to core aspects of democratic politics. We will trace the evolution of the media environment from the appearance of the radio to broadcast TV, to cable and satellite TV, to the Internet and the spreading of new media; and study how these developments impact voters, political parties, and elections.

The first block of the seminar discusses this historical evolution using classical texts and key studies. The second block then turns to several more specific topics, including the categorization of different media systems, media bias, media and political polarization, the political effects of social media platforms, traditional campaigning and campaigning in the era of big data, as well as fake news and fact-checking, and the mediatization of democratic politics more broadly.