Beyond True and False: How Narratives Shape Culture and Democracy

1 Course Unit

What do nationalism, Trumpism, social movements, disinformation campaigns, and the NBA MVP race have in common? They are all said to be driven by narratives. But what exactly do we mean by “narrative,” and why has the language of storytelling become such a dominant way of describing cultural power? This course introduces students to narrative as a cultural product, a mode of understanding, and a force that shapes politics. We trace how the concept has moved from literature and psychology into arenas like economics, social media, news, and activism, and compare it to other communication concepts such as framing. Along the way we will examine why stories so often succeed in driving collective action where facts alone fall short. At the same time, a deeper understanding of narratives will illuminate some of democracy's toughest challenges, like polarization and “post-truth” politics. Students in this course will explore both qualitative and quantitative methods of analysis and will be introduced to computational tools to analyze narrative structures across large collections of texts and media data. No prior programming experience is required. 1 Course Unit