Capping the Semester

Where I am usually very politically aware, this semester gave me a far greater insight to the mechanics of the American political system and how communication affects it.  With the concept of the class being a hybrid of Political Science Majors and Communication Majors, communication concepts were introduced to me throughout the semester. Due to my lack of experience in the field of communication, many of the concepts described in our coursework were extremely enlightening in the sense that I now have a better understanding of one of the strongest actors in the American political system.  My favorite three concepts that we covered this semester are field research, framing, and the process of conducting interviews to provide quantitative and qualitative research.

Of the three concepts, I believe that the most important concept involved in the realm of Political Science is framing.  The basis of framing is when media outlets focus attention events, people, or places,  in order to convey a specific message.  The message desired is usually in line with their political agenda.  The presence of bias, to some extent, will almost always be present in today's world.  Once becoming aware to such a notion, the people are able to gain a sharper scope of the absolute truth.  Being aware of the framing theory allows for one to not only retain the story, it also allows for one to identify extreme bias and gives insight to the agenda of the said outlet.  Because we rely on media sources to keep the people of this country informed, a better understanding of the motives and agenda of outlets results in a more knowledgeable voter pool.  My 2nd concept that I thoroughly enjoyed this semester was the concept of Field Research, or at least the actions and mechanics within the concept.  I had already taken research methods previously in my educational career, but it was a much more "by-the-book" method.  The type of field research that I had previously conducted was much more straight-forward, and little improvisation was required.  This semester, our field research projects allowed for me to have to improv more during the interview process, as the style was much more open-ended.  Also, participant observation was an extremely new thing for me, causing me to have to pay attention to the behaviors of those around me.  While conducting research in the field, I was able to gain a greater grasp on the different aspects that combine into making a political event, especially that of a campaign, into what it actually is.  By that I mean, parking, moods, symbols/imagery, key words, etc.  This is certainly a concept I will continue to use following graduation.  My 3rd concept could be seen as falling under the umbrella of my previously mentioned concept, field research, but I felt my greatest growth spurred from this semester was the mechanics of conducting a sound, unbiased interview.  In my research methods class, our interview process was that of a questionnaire.  The interview process was much more developed during this semester.  I now have a greater understanding on how to properly conduct an interview, while aiming to lessen potential bias in the process.  I also learned different methods of how to obtain qualitative vs. quantitative data through the interview process.  Different questions provide different data, based on how it is worded or presented to the interviewee.  Where these were just my three favorite concepts discussed, through our assignments during the semester, this was just a small portion of what we actually learned during a very "hands on" process.

Throughout the semester we were tasked with two content analysis projects, a field research project, and also with the writing of three news stories.  All of these projects were completed inside of a group format.  Where group projects are not always a fun or easy thing, these type of skills will be greatly utilized in any field going forward.  The first project was a content analysis over how Dr. Ben Carson and Dr. Rand Paul were playing up their medical professions.  As a group, we researched symbols/ imagery, slogans, and key issues of both candidates in order to compare the presence of their pasts in the medical field.  During this project, I participated in the collection of data, the interpretation of the gathered data, and headed up the writing process.  Through the process of our first content analysis, I gained a much better understanding of imagery, slogans, and the desired message conveyed by political candidates.

Democratic Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton addresses a crowd of supporters at Atlanta City Hall.  Photo taken by Garbriel Ramos, Feb.26.2016

We then switched to new groups and within these groups we conducted a field research project, along with two journalism stories.  The journalism stories were a very new concept to me, and was able to learn much about political communication as a whole through this process.  During both journalism stories, I was involved in the collection of data at the campaign events we as a group attended.  As a group, we attended four separate events in order to find the best story.  After collecting data, we divided responsibilities and I ended up with assisting with the writing and framing of the stories.  Due to the fact we were able to attend more events, we ended up with two contrasting stories.  The first of the journalism stories was about minority voters at the Donald Trump event.  We chose this story due to the highly controversial stance Trump possessed on minority groups.  We then contrasted our next story to a candidate who was trying to grab those votes Trump was alienating.  Our second story was around Hillary Clinton and her event in Atlanta.  Because we spoke of framing in length throughout the semester, we decided that this would be reflected through out news stories.   With journalism being a new concept to me,  I was much more involved during the field research project.   Our field research project was over how Hillary Clinton was trying to gain the minority vote.  During this process, I led the project and headed up the majority of the writing. We chose this topic due to our attendance of four separate events giving us a more in depth look at the agendas of contrasting candidates.  We also chose this as it possessed a lot of importance in regards to the field of Political Science, as minority voting patterns would be crucial going forward.

 We then changed groups for the final time, and under these new groups we wrote another journalism story, along with another content analysis.  During the writing of our story this time around, I was much more involved.  Not so much with the writing, but with the gathering of data.  Our story was about how the Democratic party fared, following Super Tuesday.  In order to gain a greater insight on why the results added up the way they did, I conducted a face to face interview with a volunteer for the Clinton campaign.  This was a build throughout the semester, as I became more confident in the realm of journalism.  Our final project was one more content analysis.  This stayed true to our semester, as we were tasked with analyzing the framing concepts of two different media outlets.  This is where my coding experience came into play, as my partners were the coders and I headed up the writing and the overall interpretation the data compiled.  This was my favorite project, undoubtedly due to me being more comfortable within this process as the semester carried on.

When taking a look back on the semester, it is best to evaluate your own performance based upon goals laid out by our Professors.  Of the four learning objectives,  I feel like I met the objectives.  I agree that I have demonstrated the ability to produce quality research projects, while relating it to a significant event in regards to political communication.  I certainly felt the second objective was achieved as I definitely gained a better understanding for the intersection between political science and communication involved within a election process.  I felt that we as a group produced high quality news stories, but this is the one of all of my objectives where I desire improvement the most.  Where I do feel I improved, and that we did produce high quality stories, this is something that I will certainly continue to hone.  The last of our learning objectives was achieved.  It would be impossible for a student in this class to not gain a greater understanding from observing the political process.  Attending many of my first campaign events was a huge addition for my understanding of what the American political process is.  Thank you Dr. Dewitt and Dr. Azriel for the very innovative ideas we went over in this semester, I have never had a class quite like this one!