A Novel Approach to Politics: Introducing Political Science Through Books, Movies, and Popular Culture

ISBN 10: 1483368491 / ISBN 13: 9781483368498

Published by Cq Pr, 2015

About this Item

Crease on cover*.

Seller Inventory # mon0000657625

Bibliographic Details

• Title: A Novel Approach to Politics: Introducing Political Science Through Books, Movies, and Popular Culture
• Publisher: Cq Pr
• Publication Date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1483368491
• ISBN 13: 9781483368498
• Binding: paperback
• Edition: 4th Edition
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

What if we told you that a textbook could be funny and irreverent utilizing popular books, movies, music, and television shows to introduce political science concepts? This novel approach to explaining our need for government and the intrigue of politics is a reality. Van Belle and Mash do not compromise on the Political Science content, nor do they stint on real-world political examples throughout the book. The basics and the depth are all here. The added innovation? to give you context through the popular culture you re already plugged into. Simply put, this is not a typical or boring textbook. From references to 1984 and Lord of the Flies to mentions of The Matrix and A Clockwork Orange you ll be surprised by how the core concepts of political science institutions, ideology, economics, elections, culture, national politics, and international relations are interwoven with a highly entertaining discussion of popular culture.

About the Author

Douglas A. Van Belle is a Senior Lecturer in Media Studies at Victoria University of Wellington. He was the first person to have served as the president of both the Foreign Policy Analysis and the International Communication research sections in the International Studies Association. He has also served as the Editor-in-Chief of International Studies Perspectives and Foreign Policy Analysis and has conducted extensive research on media systems and information flows in international politics. He created the press freedom data set that precedes this study, to examine the effect of media freedom on international conflict, as exemplified by "Press Freedom and the Democratic Peace" (Journal of Peace Research). That initial analysis was expanded to complete Press Freedom and Global Politics (Praeger), which provides the foundation for the extension conducted here. Studies of popular media and political theory led to the undergraduate textbook, A Novel Approach to Politics, which is now in its 4th edition. Also, before returning to the analysis of media freedom with this project, he conducted a series of studies examining the relationship between information flows, disasters, and foreign aid, including Media, Bureaucracies and Foreign Aid (Palgrave: With Potter and Rioux).