PMCb1102 Emotions, the media and politics

Faculty of Social Studies
Autumn 2025

The course is not taught in Autumn 2025

Extent and Intensity
1/1/0. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
doc. Mgr. Alena Kluknavská, PhD. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
doc. Mgr. Alena Kluknavská, PhD.
Department of Media Studies and Journalism – Faculty of Social Studies
Contact Person: prof. Mgr. et Mgr. Vlastimil Havlík, Ph.D.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is offered to students of any study field.
Course objectives
The course is designed to overview the most important theoretical perspectives, concepts, approaches, and empirical findings to asses how emotions matter in political communication. It explores the role of emotions in affecting how citizens think and act when it comes to politics. During lectures, we will cover questions such as what is the role of emotions in public debate, how relevant are emotions in comparison to other mechanisms related to media effects, or who is particularly susceptible to be influenced by the media and communication by different political actors and why? Moreover, the course looks at how these questions have been studied scientifically. The first section of the course looks at main concepts, definitions, and approaches to the study of emotions. The second section explores how emotions are approached in the study of political communication, media, and political psychology. The third section examines recent trends in the study of emotions, focusing on the latest research on the European Union, populism, misinformation and disinformation, and the environmental issues. The fourth and last section explores the methodological approaches to the study of emotions and concludes with student presentations on selected topics.
Learning outcomes
After completing the course, a student will:
be familiar with different theoretical concepts of how emotions matter for the study of political communication and advance their understanding of the role of emotions in politics
be able to apply these concepts to different contexts and specific real-life examples
learn to understand the link between emotions, news media content, political actors, and political attitudes
learn how to discuss and evaluate these relationships critically
Syllabus
  • 1. Definitions, theories, and models of emotions
  • 2. Emotions, politics and the media: Understanding emotions in mediated politics
  • 3. The role of emotions in elections and election campaigns
  • 3. News framing effects and emotions
  • 4. Social media and emotions in political communication
  • 5. Emotions and political psychology
  • 6. The European Union and emotions
  • 7. Emotions and the environment: How do the media affect environmental behaviour?
  • 8. Emotions, populism, and communication
  • 9. Emotions, misinformation, and disinformation
  • 10. Methods and approaches: How to study emotions
  • 11. Student presentations
  • 12. Student presentations
Literature
  • Myers, T. A., Nisbet, M. C., Maibach, E. W., & Leiserowitz, A. A. (2012). A public health frame arouses hopeful emotions about climate change. Climatic change, 113(3-4), 1105-1112.
  • Valentino, N. A., Brader, T., Groenendyk, E. W., Gregorowicz, K., & Hutchings, V. L. (2011). Election night’s alright for fighting: The role of emotions in political participation. The Journal of Politics, 73(1), 156-170.
  • Schuck, A. R., & Feinholdt, A. (2015). News framing effects and emotions. Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences: an Interdisciplinary, Searchable, and Linkable Resource, 1-15.
  • Himelboim, I., Sweetser, K. D., Tinkham, S. F., Cameron, K., Danelo, M., & West, K. (2016). Valence-based homophily on Twitter: Network analysis of emotions and political talk in the 2012 presidential election. New media & society, 18(7), 1382-1400.
  • Doveling, K., von Scheve, C., & Konijn, E. A. (Eds.). (2010). The Routledge handbook of emotions and mass media. Routledge.
  • Weeks, B. E. (2015). Emotions, partisanship, and misperceptions: How anger and anxiety moderate the effect of partisan bias on susceptibility to political misinformation. Journal of Communication, 65(4), 699-719.
  • Wahl-Jorgensen, K. (2019). Emotions, media and politics. John Wiley & Sons.
  • Lecheler, S. (2018). Down the rabbit hole: Integrating emotions into news framing effects research. In Doing news framing analysis II (pp. 71-89). Routledge.
  • Lecheler, S., Bos, L., & Vliegenthart, R. (2015). The mediating role of emotions: News framing effects on opinions about immigration. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 92(4), 812-838.
  • Engelken-Jorge, M., Ibarra, G. P., & Moreno, R. C. (2011). Politics and emotions: The Obama phenomenon. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.
  • Lecheler, S., Schuck, A. R., & de Vreese, C. H. (2013). Dealing with feelings: Positive and negative discrete emotions as mediators of news framing effects. The European Journal of Communication Research, 38(2), 189-209.
Teaching methods
Lectures, class discussion, presentations of the final papers.
Assessment methods
In-class presentation of students’ presentations (10 minutes) and writing a final paper on the selected topics. 60 points out of 100 needed to pass.
Language of instruction
English
Further Comments
The course is taught annually.
The course is taught every week.
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