Special Topics (490-0-24)

Topic

The Politics Seminar: State and Local Reporting

Instructors

Bob Rowley

Meeting Info

Meets in Non-General PurposeRm: Tues 1:00PM - 3:50PM

Overview of class

This course is a seminar class preparing students to report on all aspects of politics, starting with local and state reporting on Illinois politics, state government and the Illinois General Assembly. There will be opportunities to travel to Springfield to start getting experience in statehouse reporting, as well, schedules permitting. Students may also explore early reporting assignments with the Medill's partner, Capitol News of Illinois. This is an election year and a chance to do state political coverage. American politics in the 21st Century have become increasingly divided, bitter and rancorous, culminating in the Jan. 6 insurrection by a violent mob storming the U.S. Capitol and an attempt by members of Congress to undo the lawful result of the 2020 presidential election. Protests in Chicago and Milwaukee during the 2024 Democratic and Republican National Conventions underscored the divisions in the heartland and across the U.S. on issues ranging from the war in Gaza to the fight over abortion rights. The 2024 presidential campaign playing out during this Fall Quarter course provides excellent lessons in real time for discussion in a seminar setting of state and national politics, how to cover them and the bitter partisanship besetting the country.

Illinois government is a Democratic stronghold now but also a microcosm of the shifting politics of the Midwest, and over much earlier decades it was a key swing state leaning red and conservative Republican before turning deep blue and liberal Democratic. From the policy battles in the state legislature to the rivalry between Chicago and Downstate politicians, this course will instruct students in effective ways to cover stories ranging from legislation in the Illinois Capitol to the workings of state government, politics and power, corruption and the public good. The class is a preamble for students in the Politics, Policy and Foreign Affairs specialization. It is also part of an unprecedented new program by Medill to proactively help fill some of the gaps in Illinois state news coverage amid the dangerous decline of traditional media outlets. Two U.S. newspapers are disappearing every week. Since 2005, more than 2,500 newspapers have closed, news deserts have emerged across America and local news coverage has declined—spurring an erosion of knowledge among citizens about news in their local communities and about the world in general, which threatens civic knowledge, voter engagement and democracy.

Not since the civil unrest of the 1960s and 1970s have journalists faced such challenges in covering Americans' partisanship, extremism, tribalism, racial division and demonization of their fellow citizens. Nor has the role of the news media been so fraught and fractured in its mission to tell the most objective available version of the truth across multiple news platforms. Reporters must sort through facts and "alternative facts," political spin and personal attacks, a malevolent matrix of social media propaganda and even charges that the press is "the enemy of the people." They also must examine systemic racism and the role of journalism in addressing it or perpetuating it. Today's local and national political divides, however, are not happening in a vacuum. They harken back to the protests and upheaval in the Vietnam and Watergate eras and the long struggle for civil rights, the New Deal policies of FDR and the conservative crusade of the Reagan Revolution. They echo longtime schisms in America over race, class, culture, environment, economics and immigration that reverberate as far back as the Civil War and the founding of the Republic. This class will examine all of this through good political storytelling about these trends, issues and battles at the local and state level.

Class Materials (Required)

None

Class Attributes

Attendance at 1st class mandatory
Registration is By Application Only