| Week | Tasks |
| Week 1 | The Impact of Social Media on Politics: The Use of Facebook by Political Parties and Leaders in the 2011 Turkish General Elections. What is social media’s role in this? Is it reasonable for social media information to take part in the election? |
| Week 2 | The Impact of social media on Politics: Arab Spring (2) Why is this linked to social media? Is social media the main cause of this movement? Can the Arab Spring still happen without social media? |
| Week 3 | The Impact of social media on Politics: COVID-19 ‘Infodemic’: Is social media helping people to better live under pandemic or creating extra stress in daily life? How does information originate, evolve, and spread on different platforms and channels during an infodemic? How does misinformation affect behavior in different populations during covid? |
| Week 4 | The Impact of Social Media on Politics: Black Lives Matter (BLM) Protests. How does this relate to social media? How people use social media to gain widespread support and engagement. |
| Week 5 | The Impact of Social Media on Politics: Polarization and Echo Chambers. What is this? How can algorithm manipulate audience? Should we still accept apps with Echo algorithm? |
| Week 6 | The Impact of Social Media on Politics: Banning TikTok. Should America ban TikTok? What are the good and bad aspects of this policy? Are there any other alternatives instead of banning it? |
| Week 7 | The Impact of social media on Politics: Seminar week |
| Week 8 | The Effects of Totalitarian Regimes on People: The Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. What happened in Cambodia? What is the context of this event? What are consequences of Khmer Rouge? How can we prevent such a disaster? |
| Week 9 | The Effects of Totalitarian Regimes on People: The Nazi Totalitarian Regime. Under what condition did Nazi rise? How did Nazi Germany govern people? What is the short-term and long-term effect of Nazi regime? What do we learn from this event? |
| Week 10 | The Effects of Totalitarian Regimes on People: Stalinist Russia. What motivated Stalin’s regime to execute 750,000 Soviet citizens without trial or legal process during this period? How did Stalin control information and shape public opinion through censorship and propaganda? Why is the question of the USSR’s co-operation with Hitler in 1939-1941 rarely discussed in contemporary Russia? |
| Week 11 | The Effects of Totalitarian Regimes on People: Turkmenistan. What is the current situation of Turkmenistan? What specific policies do its government implement? How Turkmenistan compares to USSR? How are they related and differed? |
| Week 12 | The Effects of Totalitarian Regimes on People: Myanmar. What is the situation after the military take over? What are the different sides to the conflict? What risks does Myanmar’s instability pose in terms of regional stability and the rise of international organized crime? What does the military takeover affect in terms of the country’s previous democracy? |
| Week 13 | The Effects of Totalitarian Regimes on People: Afghanistan. Why do “green-on-blue” attacks (Afghan soldiers targeting their American counterparts) continue to occur despite efforts to prevent them? How did the Taliban maintain control over Afghanistan during their rule? Can cultural resistance exist within the constraints of a totalitarian regime? |
| Week 14 | The Effects of Totalitarian Regimes on People: Seminar week |
| Week 15 | The Role of Political Lobbying: Tobacco companies. How have Tobacco companies lobbied against it? What are they for? What are the benefits and drawbacks of these policies? |
| Week 16 | The Role of Political Lobbying: The National Rifle Association. What have they lobbied for/against? What are the effects of their lobbying? Do you agree/disagree with their campaign? |
| Week 17 | The Role of Political Lobbying: Google has been known to lobby for net neutrality, arguing that all internet traffic should be treated equally to foster innovation and competition. What are the benefits and downsides of such lobbying? What have they done to lobby their cause? Do you agree with their point? |
| Week 18 | The Role of Political Lobbying: Mary Kay’s Pink Cadillac. What happened? What was lobbied for? Do you agree or disagree with her cause? How could political lobbying be a good thing? |
| Week 19 | The Role of Political Lobbying: Medical and pharmaceutical companies (such as The American Medical Association and Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America) are known to be the largest lobbying group in the U.S. What are their causes? What are some policies that have passed due to their lobbying? What are the effects on daily life of these policies? |
| Week 20 | The Role of Political Lobbying: Seminar week |
| Week 21 | The Issue of Opioid Overuse: Case study of the opioid crisis. What is the opioid crisis? When did it take place? What happened during the crisis? How do you think have politics participated in triggering this crisis? |
| Week 22 | The Issue of Opioid Overuse: The profit motive of the pharmaceutical industry has played a significant role in the opioid crisis. How have the pharmaceutical companies participated in the opioid crisis? How have these companies influenced politicians? As an extension from the previous topic, how do you think is the role of political lobbying in this crisis? |
| Week 23 | The Issue of Opioid Overuse: The crisis represents a multi-system failure of regulation. What are some of these regulation failures? How have they contributed to the opioid crisis? What are some changes that could be made to prevent these failures? |
| Week 24 | The Issue of Opioid Overuse: political representation and inequality. How have inequality played a part in the opioid crisis? Does income level affect how the opioid overuse spread? Why or why not? |
| Week 25 | The Issue of Opioid Overuse: The opioid crisis has produced complex political aftershocks. What are some of these aftershocks? How have they impacted the society? How have the opioid crisis led to these consequences? |
| Week 26 | The Issue of Opioid Overuse: Seminar week |
