In November 2004 the collective ritual of the U.S. Presidential
elections will be on the top of the international agenda – and not
just the agenda of journalists and politicians. If anything, a
growing source of concern for Americans is their image in the world.
This affects not only U.S. troops in action across the globe, but
also tourists, business travelers… well, it affects us all. In this
course, we are going to take a closer look at the phenomenon
of ‘having’ or ‘constructing’ a national identity in the context of
the Presidential elections. We will seek out online venues for
discussion, participatory storytelling, and generally having fun
with the election of the ‘Most Powerful Man on the Planet’, and see
how this affects our own sense of who we are and where we belong –
how we are fixed and undetermined at the same time.

The literature that helps us to come to terms with what we will find
consists of key texts by exciting scholars and social theorists in
the field of media, culture and society – with people like Gerd
Baumann, Zygmunt Bauman, Manuel Castells, Anthony Giddens, Stuart
Hall, and Liesbet van Zoonen on the list, as well as materials we
pull from news sources and online communities as varied as ABC News
and Indymedia. BYO.

Course Objectives:
-	find out how do we see ourselves and how do others see us,
and what this means for ‘being American’ (in other words:
understanding interpellations and articulations of self-identity and
social identity);
-	come to terms with current scholarly debates about identity,
culture and nationality;
-	learn about U.S. Presidential politics and elections from a
nontraditional media perspective.

Course Requirements:
-	Participation (40%): The course will be conducted primarily
as an open forum for discussion and debate. Students are expected to
actively participate in class. Participation points will be
comprised of attendance, quality of contributions to the discussion,
and the final class presentation.
-	Papers (30% and 30%): One short written assignment (5-6
pages, to be handed in half-way through the course) features a
summary and critical discussion of the key literature, a second
written assignment (also 5-6 pages) features an in-depth report of
your experiences online – set against the literature used in this
course.