Electronic News and Public Affairs

Extract

This annotated syllabus provides suggestions for college professors who are interested in developing a one-semester course that examines the influence of the news and other public affairs programming provided by the Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN) on the formation of the public's opinions about salient issues of national interest.

An earlier version of this syllabus was used for advanced undergraduates and graduate students (with an additional reading list and bi-weekly seminar meetings) in a department of communication as a component of their academic preparation in theories of media criticism, performance and “effects,” including social responsibility in the news media, media construction of social reality and agenda-setting by the press. This course met twice weekly for one and one-quarter hours.