Visual Literacy in International Relations: Teaching Critical Evaluative Skills through Fictional Television

“History Has Its Eyes on You”: Hamilton and the Introductory American Government Course

“…Bromley (2013), however, argued for diversifying our teaching techniques beyond simulations to appeal to different types of students, mixing case studies, small-group work, and in-class writing exercises. Particularly relevant are efforts that incorporate fictional material, using television shows such as “The West Wing” and movies about politics to enliven concepts and provide useful reference points (Holland 2016; Valeriano 2013). These studies show how fictional representations of politics are helpful in demonstrating the real-life consequences of our political choices.…”

Politik in Fernsehserien

“…Die Präsentation politischer Themen resultiert demnach weniger in einer direkten Beeinflussung politischer Einstellungen, sondern eher in der Bildung eines vergleichsweise offenen Raumes diskursiver Auseinandersetzung . Insbesondere die fiktionale Darstellung von Politik in popkulturellen Formaten fördert eher eine kritische Distanzierung (Holland 2016). Der Politikwissenschaft kann hier eine neue Rolle zukommen, wenn sie Polit-Serien nicht länger nur als Untersuchungsgegenstand versteht, der Erkenntnisse über Politik ermöglicht (die dann wieder vermittelt werden), sondern mit Interpretationshilfen die politische Reflexion anhand der erzählten Geschichten unterstützt.…”

‘The message is the medium’: Evaluating the use of visual images to provoke engagement and active learning in politics and international relations lectures

“…Cynthia Weber (2008: 138), for example, wrote that information in the visual era may be ‘expressed less through words (although these can be visual) than through still, moving, and multiplying media (photography, film, web-based windows)’. Jack Holland (2016: 173) refers us to a multimodality of learning, and was inspired to develop and experiment with visual pedagogies in part because ‘more higher education teachers [now] make use of clips, episodes and even entire [TV] series as part of their modules and programs’. His research showed that as part of scheduled teaching programmes, there was a role for moving images (in this case, The West Wing ) as a means to the ends of developing critical evaluative skills, and for developing visual literacy.…”