PSCI 100 (Section 03) Lying, Deceit, and Manipulation in Political Campaigns (Not offered 1999-2000)
Most people nowadays don't have much good to say about campaigns and campaigners
in America. Candidates now depend on television over face-to-face campaigning
and exploit sophisticated marketing techniques to sell themselves; the news
media and the voters, in turn, expect that candidates will engage in ambiguity,
evading the issues and mudslinging. But do lying, deceit and manipulation
characterize American political campaigns? How different is today's campaign
from those in the past? Do candidates talk more or less about issues? If
less, what do they spend their time communicating, and how? In television
and ads, do the visuals overwhelm the words, and images obliterate ideas?
Is that a problem if issues are not the bottom line for voters? And is there
a good way to distinguish lies from truth, deceit from honesty and manipulation
from open-ness in campaigns necessarily marked by rhetoric, ideals and symbolism?
This course investigates these questions using the ongoing 2000 presidential
campaign as its laboratory. By examining the ads, debates, speeches and photo
opportunities of the candidates, we can assess: the role of issues alongside
symbols, myth and ritual in political communication; differences and similarities
in political ads and commercial ads; what happens to campaigns, voting and
politics when marketing techniques become central; and possible remedies
against lying, deceit and manipulation. Requirements: several short analyses
of 2000 campaign communications; and one longer paper on the techniques and
possible effects of one presidential campaign.
No prerequisites.