Gerald R. Shuster’s Political Communication course is designed to encourage students to play a more interactive role in the class.
The course addresses how politicians and their campaign strategists integrate the basic concepts of communication and rhetoric into their campaigns. Another important objective is to demonstrate how officials, elected or appointed, use these same concepts and theories to reassure their constituencies and, thereby, maintain their positions.
Although students are expected to have a solid background in communication and rhetoric and the course is not lecture focused, the first few classes begin with lectures reviewing basic communication and rhetorical concepts and theories. These lectures not only serve as a review, but also highlight how the concepts and theories are integrated into an actual political campaign.
Following the initial lectures, the focus shifts to active learning with students embarking on innovative, challenging projects and assignments and, in some classes, interacting with high profile guest speakers. The most important class assignment requires students to spend a minimum of 15 hours working on-site with a campaign of the students’ choice or working on-site with a legitimate, registered community activist organization.
Guest speakers are selected to represent a broad range of political ideologies to allow students a better opportunity to select a campaign for their on-site assignment with a candidate or with a cause more closely aligned with their own political ideology. This allows the student selection process to be devoid of partisan influence— real or perceived—on the part of the instructor.
At the conclusion of their 15 hours of campaign work, students must submit a documented evaluation of the experience and signed documentation certifying their service. The certification, however, is almost unnecessary because students become so thoroughly involved in the assignment that many continue with the campaign well beyond the mandated 15 hours.
Additionally, as students’ campaign experience unfolds on-site, ongoing, in-class discussions analyze candidates’ integration of political communication concepts and strategies. This reinforces classroom interaction and serves to keep both peers and instructor current on all campaigns/candidates. This further reinforces each student’s focus on the progress and direction of the assignment and required report.
Another interactive project is a 20-minute group presentation. Randomly assigned groups of 5-7 students work cooperatively to present, in a creative and imaginative way, a political communication concept, theory, or strategy. Groups are then evaluated, both orally and in writing, by the instructor and the audience. This dual evaluation fosters a healthy professional attitude and understanding and tolerance for constructive criticism.
Another course component requires each student to evaluate how effectively a particular movie (chosen from a pre-assigned list) illustrates various political communication concepts and strategies. Presentations frequently generate lively debate since the presenter must provide logically developed rationale for all conclusions. That rationale is still subject to instructor and audience challenges.
As mentioned, a variety of guest speakers constitutes another critical element of the class. The speakers are apprised of the course objectives and class demographics. Speakers are welcome to promote their own agendas and solicit student on-site help. To ensure interaction with the speaker and among the class, student questioning and debate are encouraged. Afterward, students write a critique of the presentation based on instructor-prescribed criteria. This is followed by an open discussion/debate.
Finally, students are required to monitor an instructor-chosen “campaign of record” (i.e., presidential, mayoral, senatorial, county executive, etc.). By keeping current on the campaign and regularly discussing campaign strategies and political communication concepts, students become familiar with critical communication elements of that campaign.
Ultimately, the course format, the innovative projects and assignments, together with high profile guest speakers who generate incisive questioning and stimulating debate, combine to help achieve a prime course objective of having students take a more direct and proactive role in their learning. In so doing, the students engage in more dialogue and debate with both the instructor and their peers.
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