The 2024 U.S. presidential, congressional and statewide elections are taking place amidst the backdrop of tremendous societal, cultural and technological transformation. Perhaps more than any other enterprise, political campaigns today navigate the complex challenges of communicating with a wide range of audiences. Citizens have so many more ways to learn about the issues and candidates. Candidates have to make significant decisions about the media platforms they use, even as they determine what issues are part of their platforms. All of these transformations are part of, and also inform, incredibly high levels of political polarization.
With the fields of communication, journalism and public relations serving as foundational disciplines to investigate, explore and report on these rapidly changing events, USC Annenberg is offering a series of courses this fall focused on the elections. Each of these classes is open to students of any USC degree program unless specified.
JOUR 448: Government and Public Affairs Reporting
Tuesday, noon–3:20 p.m.
4 units
Understand the presidential campaign and do real reporting on the issues that will influence the race. You will be guided by Christina Bellantoni, who devoted her 20-year journalistic career to covering politics, including serving as The Los Angeles Times assistant managing editor focused on politics and the editor-in-chief of the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call. She has covered local, state and federal government, along with four presidential campaigns and the White House. The D-clearance course is open to anyone from any major or program with a demonstrated interest in the election.
PR 458: Political Public Relations and Advocacy
Wednesday, 2–5:20 p.m.
4 units
Learn about how the presidential candidates and their campaigns decide what the American people are seeing and hearing. Led by leading political strategist Daniel Schnur, you will discuss how politicians are shaped by their gender, racial, ethnic and other demographic identities, perspectives and lived experiences, and how they use their backgrounds and biographies to create campaign messages to motivate and persuade the voters who will decide the election. You will then apply these concepts in a series of classroom exercises and written assignments in which you assume the role of campaign strategist to develop, target and deliver messages on behalf of both hypothetical and real-world candidates.
COMM 489: Campaign Communication
Tuesday and Thursday, 12:30–1:50 p.m.
4 units
This introductory course in political communication focuses on how campaigns are conducted in the modern era. You study the role of legacy and new media, discuss how people form their political beliefs, and focus on the role of political advertising in campaigns. You will also discuss the increasing challenge of mis- and disinformation and the deepening of political polarization in society. The campaigns of 2024 will be used as case studies in the class. You are encouraged to volunteer on a campaign so that you gain insights regarding the day-to-day challenges of seeking office. The class is taught by Thomas Hollihan, who publishes extensively on a range of subjects including, argumentation, media and politics, media diplomacy, political campaign communication, and contemporary rhetorical criticism, as well as having served as a consultant to political candidates, elected officials, business leaders, and leaders of NGOs.
JOUR 499: Understanding the American Voter
Thursday, 6–7:40 pm
2 units
This course will use the real-time events of the 2024 American elections to provide you with insights into strategy, planning, execution, and assessments of political campaigns and communications. You will be presented with a nuanced and real-time understanding of the complex dimensions of how voters understand the 2024 election. By utilizing a range of leading methodological sources, you will be exposed to the complex process of understanding how voters make decisions, form opinion, and change their beliefs related to the issues and candidates. You will learn to engage the complex, diverse and robust perspectives that constitute the American electorate. This methodological approach will be utilized to help inform both election fundamentals as well to better understand current events. School of Journalism Director Gordon Stables will supervise the course, engaging with current campaign professionals, including individuals with extensive experience with conducting real-time polling information for recent presidential campaigns.
PR 499: Strategic Communications in Election 2024: Advertising, PR and Messaging
Thursday, 2–5:20 p.m.
4 units
Be part of a weekly conversation about the presidential campaign between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. The course will offer ongoing analysis of the candidates’ communications strategies, including their speeches and interviews, their television and digital ads, and their social media outreach. You will hear from political professionals offering their insights and offer their own thoughts on what the candidates are saying and doing each week as they fight to become the nation’s next leader. Team taught by faculty who both bring significant political campaigns expertise, Daniel Schnur and Steve Caplan, representing two decades of experience at the nexus of politics, advertising and cause marketing. Schnur has worked on four presidential and three gubernatorial campaigns, and Caplan has served as a campaign manager and media consultant on a number of high-profile political races across the U.S.
COMM 520: The Rhetoric of the Presidential Campaign Trail
Thursday, 3:30–6:20 p.m.
4 units
We know that this campaign will be close and controversial, pitting a very unpopular former president against a female candidate of color for the first time. You will focus on the emergence of campaign issues, messages and strategies. You will read current literature regarding identity politics, race, ethnicity, sexual preferences, women’s issues, religion in politics, and foreign policy controversies. You will also discuss new developments in media systems and the role of mis- and disinformation in the 2024 presidential campaign. Open to master’s and doctoral students, this graduate seminar is taught by Thomas Hollihan.
JOUR 490 or JOUR 590: American Democracy in Crisis
Thursday, 12:45–1:45 p.m. OR Friday, 2–3 p.m.
2 units
You will engage in in-depth national reporting on threats to American democracy and consider traditional and new ways for journalists to address these threats. In this workshop and discussion class, you will review weekly readings assessing the most crucial challenges to democracy, including voter suppression, and workshop reporting plans/contributions to the class project. You will work with Alan Mittelstaedt, who advises Annenberg Media’s Politics Desk and coaches graduate students during their shifts in the media center. His specialties are accountability journalism, investigative reporting, politics, opinion writing and photography. Student projects will work in concert with Annenberg Media and publish the final course project on annenbergmedia.com.