HIST 290: Special Topics--2008 US Presidential Election

Fall 2008

• W 8:00 AM-11:15 AM
• A-108
  In partnership with Volgograd State Pedagogical University, Profesor Elena Bukumova, we will offer an indepth analysis of the 2008 US Presidential election.  Meeting once a week by video conferencing technology with our Russian partners we will assess how the American election relates to the recent Russian election.
  
  Assessing issues such as the role of political blogs, 527 organizations, comedy and satire TV (Daily Show, Tonight Show and SNL), the advent of viral videos and YouTube, the sea change in campaign financing and the power of TV ads we will use an extensive course web site to track the evolution of this first transformational election of the 21st century.  Dean Jennefer Mazza and Professor Tom Heed will lead the Ramapo section of the course.
• Prof Tom Heed A-213, theed@ramapo.edu
• phone 201 684-7419
• Office Hours: T & F: 1-2
• W 12-1:00
• Prof Jennefer Mazza B-231, jmazza@ramapo.edu
• phone 201 684-7105

Prof Elena Bakumova, VSPU, bakev@yandex.ru

Ronald Browstein, The Second Civil war: How extreme Partisanship has Paralyzed washington and Polarized America, Penguin Press, 2007

Morley Winograd & Michael D. Hais, Millennial Makeover: MySpace, YouTube & the Future of American politics, Rutgers University press, 2008

This course, due to the vitality of its subject, will add readings and media sources as the need arises. All those required will be posted on the web site for easy access by students.

http://www.potus.com/index.html http://www.potus.com/election2008/

Sidebar a. Campaign Artifacts b. Candidate web sites c. Blogs d. 527s e. Viral Videos f. Video Ads g. Ideology Matters-Think Tanks h. Op Ed/ Columnists

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N.B. To utilize the web site that is an essential component of this course you must have certain programs loaded on your computer. These are all free downloads that you can access off the web. 1. acrobat reader to read the text files in pdf from: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readermain.html 2. a media player to access the music files Microsoft's Media Player Real Player 3. A Video player to play the video files. Quick Time Player 4. Some of these plug-ins will not work with the Netscape browser so you must use Microsoft's Internet Explorer Microsoft Explorer 5. We will be adding flash sites to the syllabi as the semester evolves. You may download a free player from this site.

Assignments: 1) Each student shall read all assigned readings.  2) Each student shall write a concise, comparative analysis of two competing campaign strategies. Find a statement of strategy by two of the national candidates, authored by a member of that campaign, and compare and contrast the two strategic approaches. The paper will be typed and between 250 and 300 words. The comparative paper is due Oct 10 . Late papers will NOT be graded. The source may be a media report instead of a written report. You must document your sources. 3) Each student shall write a final, comprehensive exam on Dec 17.  4) Each student shall author a multi-disciplinary, multi-media research project on the 2008 election. The project will pursue one of three themes--campaign strategy, role of media, or tranformtioanl politics in Vote 2008--and utilize at least three media in explicating their thesis. The media may included YouTube, TV, film, blogs, political cartoons, viral videos, and any other source found relevant for this election.. The media, whenever possible, is to be integrated into the text of the project as an integral component of the narrative. All students MUST have a conference with the instructor and contract the projects topic and potential thesis before Oct. 10 . If the paper lacks either a multi-disciplinary structure or fails to incorporate a multi-media presentation it will receive an automatic F. 5) A vast bulk of this class will take place during class presentations and discussions. It is very unlikely that any student missing substantial class meetings will successfully complete the course. Attendance will be taken each day.  6) Each student is advised to review the Student handbook on academic standards and the dangers of plagiarism. Plagiarism is an unethical act and is totally antithetical to the goals and purposes of a Liberal Education. Any student found copying text, or the ideas from another authors work without correctly crediting that work will fail this course and be referred to the College administration for further disciplinary actions. It is also unacceptable to copy text off the internet and offer it as your own words. 7.) If you need a course adaptation or accomodations because of a documented disability, please make an appointment to see me during my office hours.

Sidebars a. Sources