32501
Advanced Seminar
WiSe 22/23: Democracy, Disinformation, and Deception
Curd Benjamin Knüpfer
Information for students
THE CLASS WILL TAKE PLACE IN HYBRID FORMAT, MEANING THAT STUDENTS HAVE THE OPTION OF PARTICPATING VIA WEBEX OR IN PERSON (MASKED).
Comments
This BA-level seminar will examine the ways in which democratic forms of governance might be susceptible to disinformation campaigns. We will examine the ways in which public deliberation processes and inclusive media formats also enable willful forms of mass deception by political elites or organized interests.
Select readings will delineate various concepts such as misinformation, disinformation, propaganda, and PR. Other readings will provide historical and contemporary examples for how such (dis)information campaigns may play out. The US will be the primary case study here, but we will also look at other democratic systems as well as digitally enabled, transnational information environments. Finally, we will address how democratic societies can develop forms of resilience against the spread of misperception. To do so, we will consider the roles journalism, academia, and pluralistic public spheres might play in limiting the spread and effects of disinformation.
Besides gaining historical and theoretical insights, the main learning goal of this seminar is to familiarize students with the task of methodically reading, summarizing, and discussing scholarly texts as well as analytical concepts. To do so, students will be expected to carefully study and prepare all of the required reading materials. Additionally, they will be asked to take part in group-work wherein they will be asked to present a secondary text in specific week. These presentations will follow a set structure provided by the instructor. In the early classes, students will also need to self-select into small working groups to coordinate and collectively complete these participation tasks. Students seeking to obtain full credit will be asked to write response papers throughout the semester and complete a take-home exam in essay form within the first week of the semester break.
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16 Class schedule
Regular appointments
Fri, 2022-10-21 16:00 - 18:00
Fri, 2022-10-28 16:00 - 18:00
Fri, 2022-11-04 16:00 - 18:00
Fri, 2022-11-11 16:00 - 18:00
Fri, 2022-11-18 16:00 - 18:00
Fri, 2022-11-25 16:00 - 18:00
Fri, 2022-12-02 16:00 - 18:00
Fri, 2022-12-09 16:00 - 18:00
Fri, 2022-12-16 16:00 - 18:00
Fri, 2023-01-06 16:00 - 18:00
Fri, 2023-01-13 16:00 - 18:00
Fri, 2023-01-20 16:00 - 18:00
Fri, 2023-01-27 16:00 - 18:00
Fri, 2023-02-03 16:00 - 18:00
Fri, 2023-02-10 16:00 - 18:00
Fri, 2023-02-17 16:00 - 18:00