Examinations:

Midterm Exam

 This exam consists of 10 short essay questions, each worth 10 points. You have 3 hours to complete the exam. As a reference, you can perfectly answer each one of the questions in around 200 words.

Final Exam

 The final exam has the same format as the midterm: 10 short essay questions, each worth 10 points. You also have 3 hours to complete the exam and can answer each one of the questions in around 200 words.

General Considerations

Both midterm and final exam will be available the whole day. Still, the time to complete them is limited (3 hours in both cases). Be aware that time starts running when you begin the assessment.

PLEASE, DO NOT USE ANY QUOTE IN YOUR ANSWERS. THE GOAL OF OPEN ENDED OR ESSAY QUESTIONS IS TO FIND OUT TO WHICH EXTENT YOU UNDERSTOOD THE IDEAS AND CONCEPTS DISCUSSED IN THE COURSE AND ARE ABLE TO EXPRESS/ARTICULATE THEM WITH YOUR OWN WORDS.

If you have any technical issue during the completion of the exam, please contact immediately the help desk to report the incident (860 832 1720).

Public Opinion Research Paper

We are in the middle of an electoral battle of epic dimensions. This course should help us understand the triangular relationship between political power, mass media and public opinion. Thus, the electoral process offers us the perfect opportunity to understand the role of public opinion in politics and the impact of mass media on how the public feels about the different issues. For this project, you must choose an issue that becomes relevant in the electoral debate. Then, you have to find actual data from surveys about that topic. You should structure your project addressing the following points – and in the same order.

1. Introduction of the topic. Describe the issue you are going to talk about, why it may be controversial, and why is interesting for you.
2. Show raw/general data of the public’s feelings and opinions about the issue.
3. Break down the general data using demographic characteristics (gender, income, ideology, education) to better explain the distribution of the public opinion.
4. Finally, make you own interpretation of the data.

Follow the APA guideline for the writing and layout style. You can either write a paper (10-12 pages, double-spaced, Times font 12).

Papers are delivered online through the particular assignment’s page in Blackboard Learn. I will not accept papers sent through any e-mail system. Make sure that you attach you paper as a PDF or Microsoft WORD document. If you send the assignment in any other format, I may not be able to open it.

In this page, you can find some online resources to search for data for your projects:

Resources