POLT 283 - Persuasion, Polling & the People’s Choice

FC SSCI

4 credits
Every four years, the process of selecting a president unfolds. Candidates craft strategies to build momentum and win support; reporters, pundits and citizens spread information and data across multiple media; and voters try to make sense of it all before casting their ballot. This class studies the fascinating chaos of American presidential campaigns. Using historical examples and scholarly research, we cover campaign strategy, information dissemination, and the psychology of voting behavior with the goal of better understanding how Americans experience presidential campaigns and how they engaged with the 2020 campaign in particular.