GIAN Course on

 

CAMPAIGNS, MEDIA AND INFLUENCE 2016

 

Foreign Faculty: Prof. Holli A. Semetko, USA
Host Faculty: Dr Pahi Saikia

 

Host contact: Dr Pahi Saikia, Assistant Professor (Political Science), Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Pin: 781039

 

Course Duration: 16 May 2016 to 20 May 2016

 

Venue: E-class room, CET, IIT Guwahati, Guwahati, India

 

Course Overview

 

Modern campaigning has been upended over the past decade by advances in media technology on a magnitude not seen since the arrival of television in the mid-20th century. Campaigns of all sorts are impacted by new mobile technology—political, governmental, NGO and corporate. This course focuses on the challenges and opportunities for election campaign research with examples from country and institutional contexts in the Americas, Europe and India. This graduate-level course provides an overview of key concepts, research designs, and methods used to advance research on influence in past, present and likely future campaign contexts. Students will receive an extensive bibliography of key readings on election campaign research, some of which will be assigned. Students will complete the course having learned about the evolution of:

¤  Country and institutional contexts for campaign research: media and political systems. Cases and examples from the Americas, Europe & India

¤  Media effects research in election campaigns from early modern (post-World War II) to the present day

¤  Research designs to investigate key concepts in media effects research: agenda-setting, priming, framing

¤  Research designs and methods used to investigate key concepts in election research: public opinion, information content, campaign mobilization and party support

¤  Country cases and examples from the Americas, Europe, India

Course Details

 

Date/Time

Lectures/Themes

Lecture 1: May 16, 10-11 AM

Introduction: Review course objectives, assignments. Strategic communication campaigns and elections

Lecture 2: May 16, 11.30-12.30

2. Institutional and National Contexts

Lecture 3: May 17, 10-11 AM

3. Media Evolution & Influence

Lecture 4: May 17, 11.30-12.30 AM

4. Agenda-setting, Priming & Framing

Lecture 5: May 18, 10-11 AM

5. Research Design: Surveys, Experiments, Content, Sentiment

Lecture 6: May 18, 11.30-12.30

6. History of Election Research in India: Ethnography & Forecasting

Lecture 7: May 19, 10-11 AM

7. India's Diversity and Campaigning Contexts

Lecture 8: May 19, 11.30-12.30

8. Mobilization and Party Support: Election Studies in Comparative Perspective;

Lecture 9: May 20, 10-11 AM

9. Evolving Digital Media and Election Studies

Lecture 10: May 20, 11.30-12.30

10. Future Campaign Research: Internet Driven Advances

All days: 11 - 11.30 AM

Discussion and Assignments

 

You Should Attend If

á       You are a business executive, administrative officer from a government or private organization.

á       You are a student (preferably doctoral or masters), researcher or a faculty member at an academic or a technical institution

Fees

The participation fees for taking the course are as follows:

(A)   Participants from foreign countries: US $ 200

(B)   Participants from Industry Organizations: Rs 10000/-

(C)   Faculty members from academic institutions: Rs 5000/-

(D)   Students/Researchers from academic and research institutions: Rs 1000/-[student registration fee is refundable]

The above fee includes all Lecture Notes/video- learning material preparation, computer use for tutorials and assignments, laboratory equipment usage charges, 24-hour free internet facility. Food, transport and accommodation of course participants will be borne by the individual course participants themselves.

Online portal registration fee of Rs. 500/- (non-refundable) is separate.

 

Other important information:

 

Reading material in the form of coursepack will be made available during the course

 

Selection of participants, registration, accommodation details and any other necessary information will be communicated via emails provided by the applicants in the application forms.

For registration and other details, visit:

http://www.gian.iitkgp.ac.in/ccourses/approvecourses2 & www.gian.iitkgp.ac.in/GREGN/

 International Faculty: Holli A. Semetko, MSc PhD (The London School of Economics & Political Science) MBA (Emory), is Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Media and International Affairs, and Professor of Political Science at Emory University in Atlanta. Dr. Semetko was awarded the Samuel H. Beer Dissertation Prize for her PhD thesis and received the highest mark of distinction for the MSc in political sociology.

With over 100 publications, her research on campaigns, media and influence in international contexts extends from the U.S. to the old and new European Union (EU) member countries (including UK, France, Germany, Spain, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic), to Turkey, China and India. Dr. Semetko is often invited to speak internationally at institutions such as the Reserve Bank of India in Mumbai, Xi'an Jiaotong University School of Management, and Beijing Foreign Studies University most recently. A 2013-14 Fulbright Nehru scholar based in Mumbai, Dr. Semetko continues to serve as visiting professor at IIT-Bombay and IIT-Roorkee where she addressed 900 students at orientation in the incoming class of 2018. She has visited over a dozen of India's states and Union territories to speak, strengthen partnerships, and connect with friends and families.

Dr. Semetko served as Emory University's Vice Provost for International Affairs and Director of the Claus M. Halle Institute for Global Learning from 2003-2013, a time of unsurpassed growth in Emory's international reputation, partnerships, teaching and research. There was ten-fold growth in international alumni clubs, eight-fold growth in international students and scholars, and over 100 strategic partnerships were strengthened and launched under her leadership. Dr. Semetko led teams of entrepreneurial students, faculty and donors to launch several notable programs including the Halle Institute's Knowledge Futures initiative, an interdisciplinary program that sponsors forums to address critical issues about the digital, mediated and wireless world; Cartooning for Peace at the United Nations and Cartooning for Peace and Health at Emory; and the annual India Summit. Dr. Semetko established the Halle Institute's research program in 2004 to advance faculty research and partnered with a variety of institutions to cosponsor symposia including the European Central Bank; Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta; and various diplomatic missions, and institutions in Asia. Hundreds of scholars and students have benefited from the research program.

As a 2013-14 Fulbright Nehru Scholar at IIT-Bombay, she conducted research on corporate, governmental and political campaigns in India. Dr. Semetko and an international team launched the India Election Studies (IES), a benchmark study on campaigning and influence in the 2014 Lok Sabha election focusing on Delhi, Bengaluru and Mumbai, funded by a grant from Emory's University Research Committee. The IES grew to include Assembly elections in 2015 in Delhi, and Bihar with support from IES team members at National University of Singapore (NUS) and Kyoto University, and West Bengal in 2016 with a major grant from Singapore to Dr. Mohan Dutta at NUS.

Dr. Semetko spent eight years as Professor and Chair of Audience and Public Opinion Research at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) where she obtained over 1.5 million euros in research grants, and was founding board chair of the Amsterdam School of Communications Research (ASCoR) where she remains an honorary professor. QS ranked communication science at the UvA among the top ten media and communication programs globally in 2014, and it is the largest of its kind in Europe.

Dr. Semetko held fellowships at Harvard University's Shorenstein Center for the Press, Politics and Public Policy, and from the German Marshall Fund of the United States. An advisor to The Carter Center China Program, she was also the founding board chair of Emory's Confucius Institute. Dr. Semetko is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Academy of International Business, and has held elected office in a number of discipline-based professional associations. She serves on a number of boards and consults internationally.

  Pahi Saikia is an Assistant Professor of Political Science, in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati. She completed her PhD in Political Science from McGill University Canada. She is the recipient of the Canadian Commonwealth Fellowship. Dr. Saikia's major areas of specialization are Comparative Politics and International Relations.

Prior to joining IIT Guwahati, Dr. Saikia was a Sessional Lecturer in the Department of Political Science, University of Victoria, BC, Canada. Dr. Saikia was also associated with the Center for Asia and Pacific Studies, University of Victoria, Canada. Her research interests include: Ethnic identity politics, election studies, local governance, security issues, social movements and conflict prevention.

 

Her first book, Ethnic Mobilization and Violence in Northeast India (Routledge 2011) discusses the relationship between movements for autonomy and statehood by marginalized tribal ethnic minorities (also referred as indigenous peoples) and violence in Assam.