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A. Lanethea Mathews-Gardner FYS: 239 Politics of the Dot.Net Generation Fall 2008 |
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C.V. |
Research |
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Department of Political Science
2400 Chew Street Allentown, PA 18104 Office: Ettinger 308
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Phone: (484) 664-3737 Fax: (484) 664-3536
email: mathews@muhlenberg.edu; or
Fall 2008 Office Hours: T/Th 2-3 & by appointment |
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Course Writing Assistant: Rebecca Haverson Email: rh235111@muhlenberg.edu |
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Is THIS Millennial Politics?: Jon Stewart, YouTube, and the Politics of the Dot.Net Generation
What are American youth coming to? What IS the character of the Millennial generation, and does it need to be fixed? The political pundits say that young Americans, age 18-25—frequently referred to as the Millennial or Dot.Net generation—are apathetic, lazy, entitled, politically inert, and uninformed. More college students watch the “The Daily Show” than follow “real news”—a fact perhaps not un-related to young Americans’ increasing distrust of politicians and cynical views of politics. Young Americans are less likely to vote, to participate in parties, to contact public officials, or to read a newspaper than they are to spend time looking up friends on FaceBook or downloading political gaffes from YouTube. Yet, somewhat paradoxically, young Americans are more likely to volunteer and engage in consumer activism than were generations before them. New forms of engagement, moreover, may have some good consequences: YouTube, for example, has encouraged political candidates to reach out to greater numbers of voters and has lowered the costs of participation for some Americans. This is a writing-intensive seminar that considers the future of Millennial politics using a variety of tools, including “soft” media and infotainment, film, popular literature, and political humor in addition to standard academic approaches.
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Course Documents & Resources
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