Readings include those assigned from texts or other sources, as well as those from the online lecture material (this page has a list of all the online lecture pages).

• Week 1 (January 5 – ) What are social problems, and how to think about them?
• Week 2 (January 12 – ) News, media and framing social problems
• Week 3 (January 20 – ) News coverage of politics (small group work that week)
• Week 4 (January 26 – ) Will humans survive on a warmer planet?
• Week 5 (February 2 – ) Can warming be slowed, if not stopped?
• Week 6 (February 9 – ) McDonaldization: Not just a restaurant chain?
• Week 7 (February 16 – ) McDonaldization: Supersize that cage for you?
• Week 8 (February 23 – ) McDonaldization, social control, and Orwell’s 1984
• Week 9 (March 2 – ) 1984 + Framing of war and terrorism
• Week 10 (March 9 – ) Course wrap-up, final exam prep
• Week 11 (March 16 – ) course eval, makeups

• See calendar of important dates