"Not the Odds But The Stakes” - How Our News Media Fail Democracy

This course will examine how our political press has been increasingly failing our democracy, why that is so important and what, possibly, could be done about it. Our jumping off point will be the work of Jay Rosen, journalism professor at NYU and press critic who has authored the PressThink blog for twenty years.

We will focus on political news, and more narrowly on political news as presented by our most respected so-called mainstream media. Our goal is to understand how most political coverage contributes little or nothing to creating the informed electorate which is essential to a functioning democracy.

The class format will be some presentation, a lot of discussion (lively I hope!) and some homework. You will be asked to bring in media examples of various common frames for presenting political information after we have discussed them. If you are interested in U.S. politics, this course should be of great relevance - and you will likely never view political news quite the same again.

Classes will run for six weeks, with each class lasting about 90 minutes including a brief break time.

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Instructor: Trudy Miller

Trudy Miller has been interested in politics for all of her adult life. More recently she was heavily involved in both campaign and advocacy activities in Maine. She has no formal training in journalism but has been fascinated by coverage of the political media for about fifteen years.