Readings

• Charles Pierce. 2011. Idiot America. NY: Anchor. (chapter 2, ‘The war on expertise’). In Canvas.
• Robert Cialdini. 2017. Pre-suasion: A Revolutionary way to Influence and Persuade (chapter 3: ‘The importance of attention is … attention’). In Canvas.
• Timothy Wu. The Attention Merchants. London: Atlantic Books (Chp 22, ‘The rise of clickbait’). In Canvas.
• Anthony Pratkanis and Elliot Aronson. 2007. Age of Propaganda: The Everyday Use and Abuse of Persuasion. New York: W.H. Freeman (Chapter 32, ‘What is news?’ pp 268-79). In Canvas.

Lecture pages

• Persuasion vs news
• Stratagems of persuasion
• Framing war for public consumption (note the four stratagems of persuasion)
• Mass persuasion  (from another class-don’t get lost in here!)
• ‘Rules’ of ‘Idiot America‘

Video

• Christopher Ingraham. 2020. New research explores how conservative media information may have intensified the severity of the pandemic. June 25, Washington Post. (video on their youtube channel)