Just nu undervisar jag på en tio-veckors kurs som ingår i det internationella masterprogrammet Journalism, Media and Democracy vid avdelningen för medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap vid Mittuniversitetet. Kursen heter Political Communication as a Field: Traditional and New Perspectives, och kan beskrivas som en introduktionskurs i politisk kommunikation. Eller för att citera den formella kursbeskrivningen: ”The course offers advanced studies of political communication as an academic field. The course introduces the most important political communication studies with regard to theory, methodology and empirical data. The historical development of approaches to political communication studies is introduced with a particular focus on the relations between politics, media and citizens and potential influences on these relations.”

Att välja litteratur till en kurs av den här karaktären är en intressant utmaning, men den litteraturlista som till sist fastställdes ser ut som följer:

Böcker

– Lynda Lee Kaid (Ed.) (2004). Handbook of Political Communication Research. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

– Walter Lippman (1997). Public Opinion. New York: Free Press.

– Jay G. Blumler & Michael Gurevitch (1995). The Crisis of Public Communication. London: Routledge.

– Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson & Hazel Gaudet (1948). The People’s Choice. How the Voter Makes Up His Mind in a Presidential Campaign. New York: Columbia University Press.

– Thomas E. Patterson (1993). Out of Order. New York: Vintage.

– Shanto Iyengar (1991). Is Anyone Responsible? How Television Frames Political Issues. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Bokkapitel

– Harold D. Lasswell (1948). The Structure and Function of Communication in Society, in: Lyman Bryson (ed.): The Communication of Ideas.

New York: Harper & Brothers.

Tidskriftsartiklar

– Philip E. Converse (1962). Information Flow and the Stability of Partisan Attitudes. Public Opinion Quarterly 26(4), 578-599.

– Erik P. Bucy and Paul D’Angelo (2004). Democratic Realism, Neoconservatism and the Normative Underpinnings of Political Communication Research. Mass Communication & Society 7(1), 3-28.

– Doris Graber (2005). Political Communication Faces the 21st Century. Journal of Communication 55(3), 479-507.

– Maxwell E. McCombs & Donald L. Shaw (1972). The Agenda-Setting Function of Mass Media. Public Opinion Quarterly 36(2), 176-187.

– George Gerbner (1998). Cultivation Analysis: An Overview. Mass Communication & Society 1(3/4), 175-194.

– Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann (1974). The Spiral of Silence. A Theory of Public Opinion. Journal of Communication 24(2), 43-51.

– Jay G. Blumler (1979). The Role of Theory in Uses and Gratifications Studies. Communication Research 6(1), 9-36.

– Gianpietro Mazzoleni & Winfried Schulz (1999). Mediatization of Politics: A Challenge for Democracy? Political Communication 16(3), 247-261.

– W. Lance Bennett (1990). Toward a Theory of Press-State Relations in the United States. Journal of Communication 40(2), 103-125.

– Gaye Tuchman (1972). Objectivity as Strategic Ritual: An Examination of Newsmen’s Notions of Objectivity. American Journal of Sociology 77(4), 660-679.

– Philip J. Tichenor, George A. Donahue & Clarice N. Olien (1970). Mass Media Flow and Differential Growth in Knowledge. Public Opinion Quarterly 34(2), 159-170.

– Jay G. Blumler & Dennis Kavanagh (1999). The Third Age of Political Communication. Political Communication 16(3), 209-230.

– W. Lance Bennett & Shanto Iyengar (2008). A New Era of Minimal Effects? The Changing Foundations of Political Communication. Journal of Communication 58(4), 707-731.

– R. Lance Holbert, R. Kelly Garrett & Laurel S. Gleason (2010). A New Era of Minimal Effects? A Response to Bennett and Iyengar. Journal of Communication 60(1), 15-34.

– W. Lance Bennett & Shanto Iyengar (2010). The Shifting Foundations of Political Communication. Journal of Communication 60(1), 35-39.

– Michael J. Robinson (1976). Public Affairs Television and the Growth of Political Malaise: The Case of ”The Selling of the Pentagon”. American Political Science Review 70(2), 409-432.