Understanding Influence: Misinformation, Polarization, and Social Media in Politics

This course is designed to provide a broad introduction to key questions, theories, methodologies, and debates in public opinion, with an emphasis on cutting edge research in the current public opinion literature on the topic of misinformation, polarization, and social media. How informed is the public? How does the public need to be? What are the cognitive and social origins of misinformation? Why has polarization increased so dramatically over the past 40 years? What role does social media, and the internet more generally, play in democratic societies in the 21st century?