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BA § 5 (1) 9.b PS Political Communication and Electoral Analysis - Introductory Level  (2/ 5)

Students acquire the ability to demonstrate and explain the behaviour of voters, political parties and the media in democracies theory-driven and with empirical findings. They know how to explain the function of political communication and the logics of media-centred democracy.

The course explores how citizens vote, why they vote the way they do, and how electoral campaigns shape their choices. Students will be introduced to the methods of studying voting behaviour empirically, learn about sociological, psychological, and institutional theories of voting behaviour as well as their empirical tests, and investigate when and how political communication and the media are able to influence citizens’ electoral choice. The methods to study voting behaviour empirically include opinion polling and data collection from official vote returns. The empirical tests of the various theories of voting come from observational survey research as well as survey, field, and laboratory experimental work. Students will acquire a basic understanding of these methods as well as learn how to assess findings based on them. Students will apply their newly developed understanding of voting behaviour and political communication to developing a campaign strategy and material. 

Very basic introduction to polling, survey sampling, quantitative data analysis, and experimental methods to enable the evaluation of empirical findings in the literature. 

Take-home exam (40%), group project (design of electoral campaign and material, 60%)

Norris, Pippa. 2000. A Virtuous Circle: Political Communications in Postindustrial Societies. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Merrill III, Samuel, Samuel Merrill, and Bernard Grofman. 1999. A unified theory of voting: Directional and proximity spatial models. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Cox, W. Gary. 1997. Making Votes Count. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

successful completion of the module according to § 5 Para 1 No 1