Classes Explore Historic Election

The 2008 presidential election was called the most important election of our times. The American public faced many serious issues and the campaigns themselves were impacted by two highly controversial issues, race and gender, more than ever before.

Here in the Humanities and Social Sciences Department of ERAU, three classes during the Fall semester took advantage of the presidential election to emphasize course material and further teaching objectives, as well as to work toward a reciprocal goal—generating student interest in politics and the democratic process.

In fact, one of these classes was offered solely for the purpose of exploring the election and its relationship to the media. Take a look below to see how the professors incorporated the political race into their classes and how students responded.

Mass Media and Current Events

Professor Steve Master teaches COM 395D, a class that examines how the media interacts with politics and, this semester, presidential campaigns. The class is a Communication elective and attracted students from a variety of majors, from Air Traffic Management to Aerospace Engineering, mainly because of their interest in politics.

"I thought it would be a great experience," said Master, "to spend an entire semester observing how the media covers such a historic election and how the campaigns use the media to try to collect votes." The students looked at how the media covered politicians, and how the campaigns tried to manipulate the media and use it to win the election.

Master said his class exposed students to things that they wouldn't normally watch when they went home at night. "All it takes is a little exposure and they are captivated by what's going on," Master said. He added there is more participation and conversation in this class than any he has ever taught.

"And even better, it's a good group of students that can disagree without being disagreeable," he said.

Toby Bucsescu, an ATM major who took the course, is generally very politically aware. He says he was even more attentive than usual because of this class. Each week students were required to file a report on the major campaign issues being discussed in the press, new campaign advertisements and other major developments within the campaigns.

A chief aspect of the class included the different forms that media exposure can take. Students watched clips from Saturday Night Live, the Daily Show, MSNBC, and CNN. They also read blog entries from the Huffington Post and the Drudge Report, as well as convention speeches and more.

"I would definitely recommend the class to other students, perhaps in conjunction with a rhetoric class, for anyone interested in politics and journalism," said Bucsescu. And for those who were interested in doing so, Dr. Donna Barbie offered just such a class…

The Arts of Persuasion

HON 150, one of the required seminars for every honors student, was another class that benefited greatly from the political activity. Barbie calls her class "The Arts of Persuasion" and she says “there's a natural integration [between the election and her class] because campaigns are always about rhetoric, about persuasion through words, even in just tiny sound bites.”

As the campaigns proceeded, Barbie’s class discussed the three elements of rhetoric – ethos, pathos, and logos – and how the candidates used them to gather support.

“Why do we trust this person? Do they use fear, reward, or benefits to get the emotions going?” asks Barbie. “What facts do they use? There is often a dearth of logos.”

Freshman Monica Fredrickson, an Aerospace Engineering major, says she is not normally too interested in politics, but because of this class she felt motivated to look closely at the election.

“Other students seem to be having a similar reaction –many of us focused on other aspects of school with little thought to politics,” said Fredrickson. “This class [forced] us to switch from high school students to adults who must be politically aware.”

Both Barbie and Fredrickson agree that an awareness and understanding of rhetoric is important no matter one’s career choice. Barbie says she hopes to develop in students the ability to recognize the persuasive efforts that attempt to reach us everyday, and as citizens, the ability to dissect the rhetoric and get to the important issues beneath which are necessary to make important decisions such as those faced by voters in a presidential election.

Current Events in America

In the third class, SS 331: Current Events in America, students participated daily in a unique form of lecture. Dr. Glenn Dorn began by asking “What’s new?” and students proceeded to share what exciting developments they found in the news since the previous class session.

Although the class title suggests a discussion of purely American news, many world events that affect the U.S. were also included. Naturally, the presidential campaigns comprised a fair portion of the discourse, as they relate to both national and world news.

“Today we have more information available than any other generation, yet our electorate is as uneducated as ever,” says Dorn. “We have important issues yet we spend a whole day talking about lipstick.”

The reference to “putting lipstick on a pig,” –made first by John McCain, and later by Barack Obama, in such a way that many people inferred he was talking about McCain’s vice presidential choice, Sarah Palin—was probably the strongest representation of how the most trivial string of words can overwhelm all the important issues in this era of horse race political coverage.

Dorn says he tries to help students to look past the trivial details and drama to understand the process as political scientists. He wants students to step back and look at the campaigns from above, rather than from within as participants.

One student who really appreciated this increased focus was Aerospace Studies major Andrew Chase. He recommends the class highly, especially to seniors, saying, “It's important because we're the generation that's going into this in [a matter of] months. No matter what degree field you're going into or what walk of life, in some way it is going to affect you.”

Students at ERAU, who are more career-focused than those at many other universities, know this to be true more than most. Chase says of his classmates, “Everyone is actively engaged or at least paying attention. I think everyone does understand that it's important.”

While Dorn expressed past fears that his class would generate name-calling, he notes that “Embry-Riddle students are able to debate on a higher level.”

Though elections of this level of importance only occur once every four years, each of these classes are available to students at some time during their years at ERAU. The classes offer important insight on topics that continue in politics and significant issues day-to-day, whether there is an impending election or not.

So while the election provides an opportunity to explore the subjects of rhetoric, media-political involvement, and international news on a unique level, the classes should be considered valuable aids to an overall understanding of our world, no matter when they are taken.