Cognitive Science 0155 - Cultural Citizenship

The experience of everyday politics for most Westerners is largely an aesthetic one. People partake in a cultural citizenship, where political actors, issues and institutions are but one more set of representations and simulations that compete for attention by offering pleasure. This situation is partly due to the shift away from direct political participation and partly the result of an increasingly mediatized public culture. We will explore this notion and its implications for democracy and the press, focusing primarily on the US, but also in "democratizing" countries. Students will write reading responses, a short essays and carry out and present to the class a final research project.

Mind, Brain, and Information Independent Work Writing and Research