| Dozent/in |
Dr. Wiebke Drews |
| Veranstaltungsart |
Masterseminar |
| Code |
HS221393 |
| Semester |
Herbstsemester 2022 |
| Durchführender Fachbereich |
Politikwissenschaft |
| Studienstufe |
Master |
| Termin/e |
Mo, 26.09.2022, 12:15 - 14:00 Uhr, HS 5 (Einführungsveranstaltung)
Fr, 04.11.2022, 09:30 - 17:00 Uhr, 4.B47 (Terminierung 1)
Sa, 05.11.2022, 09:30 - 17:00 Uhr, 4.B47 (Terminierung 1)
Fr, 02.12.2022, 09:30 - 17:00 Uhr, 4.B47 (Terminierung 2)
Sa, 03.12.2022, 09:30 - 16:30 Uhr, 4.B47 |
| Weitere Daten |
1. Introduction: Pre-1989 background and communist legacies;
2. Democratisation and democratic erosion;
3. Corruption, clientelism and state capture;
4. Electoral issues, voting behaviour and civic engagement;
5. Nationalism, identity politics and the mobilisation of the far-right;
6. The EU’s role in the region’s post-communist transformation;
7. Russia’s past, present, and future role in the region. |
| Umfang |
2 Semesterwochenstunden |
| Turnus |
Blockveranstaltung |
| Inhalt |
Digital and social media are quasi omnipresent and extremely intertwined with our daily lives. Every day, 500 million Tweets and 4.3 million Facebook posts are published as well as 4 million hours of YouTube content uploaded. Such platforms do not only change our communication behavior in the private sphere. They have severe impacts on basic democratic processes and established power relations between parties, politicians, and citizens. In order to disentangle these impacts, the seminar focuses on three thematic blocks: political participation, political expressions and electoral campaigning. Political Participation The mobilization and coordination of political participation and protest activities is increasingly done using digital tools and social media. Demanding less resources, and with a certain degree of autonomy and anonymity, citizens can network and get in contact easily. This raises questions on the genuineness and inclusivity of online political participation, especially when compared to offline activities.
Can tiny acts of political participation with a mouse click, electronic signature or a simple retweet be considered as being genuine political participation? When do digital tools and social media mobilize former passive or excluded citizens to participate politically? When do they hamper engagement?
(Concepts: collective action, tiny acts, mobilization vs. reinforcement, slacktivism, clicktivism, digital divide)
Political Expressions The second part of this seminar examines political communication on social media in more depth. More specifically, we are looking into online political expressions and deliberation. Oftentimes, the latter is criticized for lacking depth and truth, referring to notions such as “fake news”, “echo chambers” and “filter bubbles”.
What do these concepts entail? How is the actual discursive quality on the web? How extreme or polarized are the opinions we encounter online?
(Concepts: e-expressive acts, echo chambers, filter bubbles, fake news, cyber-polarization, mis- & disinformation)
Electoral Campaigning The third focus of this seminar is the role social media play in modern electoral campaigning. Social media and digital tools allow political parties and candidates to circumvent the traditional mass media and get in touch with their constituency directly, publish on and discuss policy proposals as well as news and campaign events. The salience of topics and issues can thereby be raised directly.
To what extent do parties and politicians make use of social media during campaigns? Which platforms do they use and for what purposes? Are there differences in political campaigning on- and offline?
Campaigning has also been significantly impacted by so-called “Big Data” and computational methods.
To what extent do parties and candidates harvest big data on social media and analyze preferences of voters? Which consequences do these new forms of “electioneering” have for voting behavior?
(Concepts: digital campaigning, normalization vs. equalization, platform affordances, Big Data, electioneering, micro targeting)
Based on examples from the US-American and European context, the seminar enables students to critically reflect upon the questions just raised. Students gain insights into the constantly changing social media landscape and its consequences for political behavior and communication. Students learn the tools to analyze and interpret the consequences of the political usage of social media.
|
| Lernziele |
- Good working knowledge in English
- After taking the seminar, students will be able to:
A. Knowledge and Understanding
- give a knowledgeable account of issues, theories and research connecting digital media, political communication and democracy;
- describe limits and opportunities of political expressions and participation online as well as digital strategies used by political parties and citizens during political campaigns;
- explain how social media platforms are influencing contemporary democratic processes with real-world empirical examples.
B. Competence and skills
- interpret and critically review scholarly work on social media, political communication, and democracy;
- present, orally and in writing, how the knowledge gained from the course can inform future research designs.
|
| Voraussetzungen |
Good working knowledge in English |
| Sprache |
Englisch |
| Anmeldung |
Open for advanced BA-students in Political Science. In case of too many interested students, priority is given to MA-students. |
| Leistungsnachweis |
1. Reading the mandatory literature
2. Submitting two response papers
3. Individual presentation of a social media research question
4. Active participation
5. Voluntarily: Essay (graded) / 4
|
| Abschlussform / Credits |
Active participation, Essay (graded) / / 4 Credits
|
| Hinweise |
Studienschwerpunkt: Politische Kommunikation |
| Hörer-/innen |
Nein |
| Kontakt |
wiebke.drews@unibw.de |
| Material |
Will be distributed via OLAT a month prior to the class. |
| Literatur |
Will be distributed via OLAT a month prior to the class. |