Public
Opinion
n. Public consensus, as with respect to an issue or situation.
JRMC8020
Summer,
at Grady College,
with Hollander,
studying public opinion.
How cool is that?
Summer 1
(June 5 - July 1)
We start on a Friday, go for a full week, then start a MWF schedule. See calendar to the right for more details, especially the last week.
Texts & Readings
The basic texts are:
Public Opinion (2nd edition) by Glynn, Herbst, O'Keefe, Shapiro, & Lindeman. Westview Press. A fairly new, fat, useful introduction to all that is public opinion. Used copies available. Amazon link here.
Public Opinion by Vincent Price. Sage Publications. A small but absolutely essential book on the topic. Old, but marvelous. Get it, new or used. Amazon link here.
YOU MUST HAVE THE TEXTS BY THE FIRST DAY OF CLASS. Get 'em at a bookstore, get 'em online, steal 'em from a friend. Got no book? Then you got no class -- booted!!! (the technical term is administratively dropped).
Online readings will either be publicly accessible (Make sure you have a pdf reader) or behind my protected web site, which has an ID of grady and a password of grady.
Vital Links
PollingReport.com
Pollster
Pew Research Center
Public Opinion Quarterly
THE journal on the topic
The Numbers Guy
good WSJ blog on polls
The Numbers
ABC News blog on polls
Pollster Blogs
nice blog and summaries
Gallup Poll
AAPOR
NCPP
National Election Studies
Also note the NES quick data peek. Very cool, so play with this!
Grady College
Galileo at UGA
Google Scholar
Class Grading
Letter grades assigned at the end of the semester based on a mysterious system that involves papers, exams, the quality of coffee delivered to the instructor, class discussion, presentations, careful analyses, random events, and chaos theory. The good news is, I get paid no matter what grades I turn in. I love my job.
UGA Junk
There is a bunch of boilerplate university stuff they like to see on a syllabus or class web page. Basically don't cheat, don't steal, don't spit into the wind. Also do your own work, bring coffee to the instructor at random times, avoid copying the work of others, get to class on time, get to class all the time, do the readings, and actively participate in discussions to save my voice. There is probably other stuff I'm forgetting. Do the good stuff, don't do the bad stuff.
Absences and Such
Do not miss class. It is that simple. Each class equals one week. No excused or unexcused absenses, just absences. Your second miss automatically drops you one letter grade from your final grade, so if you make a "A-" in the class but have two misses, it is automatically "B-". Third miss, another letter grade gone. And so on.
Tardy? Don't be. I'll take off for that too.
Negotiating Grades
I don't
negotiate
grades
ever.
Don't ask.
A little seminar on the theoretical and 
practical meanings of public opinion from a mass media perspective. You are obligated, nay you are required, to check this page often for updates and links to new readings. It is your syllabus.
Below is the class calendar, more or less. I will continue to fiddle with this as we move along and I see how much we can realistically read. I expect lots of discussion because, while I am fascinating, I am not fascinating enough to fill this much time in the summer when we'd all rather be out enjoying an adult beverage by the pool.
Also expect me to do odd things in a given class since we have four or so hours to fill, little exercises to elaborate a point. Show and tell. Song and dance. Dog and pony. Pin the Tail on the Pollster. Ya just never know.
CLASS CALENDAR
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
| Day | Date | What's Happening? |
1 |
6/5 |
Before our first class, read the following: James Bryce chapter (online via Google Books), p. 251-258. And this classic Lippmann article (online). Finally, there's this oldish book by Lawrence Lowell also online. Read chapter 1 from Public Opinion and Popular Government (pages 1 - 27). Also, think hard about what we mean by public opinion and be prepared to define it in class. Heck, even Wikipedia has an entry so read it too. |
| 2 | 6/8 | History of Public Opinion Mucho serious discussion of what we mean by public opinion and how it has changed over time. Definitions galore. There are even some good quotes that include public opinion. |
| 3 | 6/9 | History and Methodology The Pew Center has put together a very nice collection of methodology reports on public opinion. Spend some time here looking at stuff. We'll especially focus on:
|
| 4 | 6/10 | More Methodology Method or History presentations in class by students. Here's info on what these papers/presentations are and how to do 'em. |
| 5 | 6/11 | Theories in Public Opinion |
| 6 | 6/12 | More Theories Warning: I love this topic, the idea of projection. |
| 7 | 6/15 | Yet More Theories Theory presentations by students, so get theoretical.. |
| 8 | 6/17 | Theories and Public Opinion in Context Lots of discussion. |
| 9 | 6/19 | Son of Context Begin Context presentations by students. Below, the order of attack: Foster Hydrick Pettigrew Weidner Einsiedel Hylton Saxton Walters Zhang Jackson Hataway Carlsen Browning Gant Goss Long |
| 10 | 6/22 | Finish Context presentations, then I sum up the class, wrap public opinion up in a nice neat package. After package delivery, we do a brief review of material for a final exam. Tuesday, no class. Wednesday, exam. |
| 11 | 6/24 | An exam on the semester. In-class, short-answer test on theory and methodology and all the rest. There's really nothing to review since you've seen it all in such a short time. Just know everything. |
Grading Weights & Stuff
like everything else, tentative
Class Participation |
10% |
| Presentations oral and written |
30% |
| Exam painfully comprehensive |
60% |
| Total if my math is right |
100% |
REMEMBER This space IS the syllabus and is subject to random changes as Hollander sees fit. It's summer. I often indulge in random changes just for the hell of it.
|
Public opinion is no more than this, what people think that other people think.
spoken by Lucifer in a play by Alfred Austin back in Victorian era. No, really. The play is Prince Lucifer and you can look it up yourself, if you dare, on page 189, halfway down the page.
Hollander's Web Site
the impressively named: www.barryhollander.com
Email Hollander at
barry <at> uga <dot> edu
Note my clever way of disguising my email to reduce spam.
Not that this actually works, but it's worth a shot.
Stuff to Use in Next Class
Shenkman on Stewart
Obama voters
Pew knowledge quiz
The Nation
Esquire
Time magazine piece
Sydney Morning Herald
Congressional Quarterly