PUBPOL 3060

Last Updated

  • Schedule of Classes - September 22, 2025 1:06PM EDT

PUBPOL 3060
Political Messaging and Public Policy

Course information provided by the 2025-2026 Catalog.

This course will explore the history, research, and present-day usage of political messaging to achieve public policy aims - from elections to legislative battles in Congress. We'll break down how political actors craft messages across different mediums to activate matrices of voters scattered across the electorate. In doing so, we'll discuss the psychology of voter decision making, the influence of popular culture, changing patterns of media consumption, and how political messaging really works behind the scenes, from ad-making to earned media. Most importantly, we'll draw in outside experts from across the political spectrum to discuss their experience in political communications - offering students a practical view into real-life politicking and an enhanced understanding of the professional landscape. Students will put these ideas into practice through active participation in class discussions and rigorously researched written assignments analyzing real-life political messages.


Last 4 Terms Offered 2025SP

Outcomes

  • How political messages are crafted by various actors, such as candidates, PACs, interest groups, and public officials. This will include high-level decision making, common production choices, media strategies, and historical trends.
  • The impact political messages have on the electorate, from their ability (or, in some cases, inability) to affect voter behavior to their influence on broader popular culture.
  • The extent to which public policy is actually shaped by political messaging.
  • The professional landscape of political messaging, and how experts in the field leverage strategic communications to make their case to the American people.

View Enrollment Information

Syllabi: none

  •   Regular Academic Session. 

  • 2 Credits GradeNoAud

  •  8915 PUBPOL 3060   LEC 001

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    • Jan 20 - May 5, 2026

    • Israel, S

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    • Jan 20 - May 5, 2026

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    • Jan 20 - May 5, 2026

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    • Jan 20 - May 5, 2026

    • Israel, S

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    • Jan 20 - May 5, 2026

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    • F
    • Jan 20 - May 5, 2026

    • Israel, S

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    • Jan 20 - May 5, 2026

    • Israel, S

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    • Jan 20 - May 5, 2026

    • Israel, S

    • F
    • Jan 20 - May 5, 2026

    • Israel, S

    • S
    • Jan 20 - May 5, 2026

    • Israel, S

    • S
    • Jan 20 - May 5, 2026

    • Israel, S

  • Instruction Mode: In Person