PLAP 3140

An incredibly informative class which provided an introduction to the intricate relationship between today's mass media to the American political realm (and particularly topical, given the 2016 Presidential election). You'll want to attend lecture (as some test questions are dependent on lecture material), and there's a significant amount of reading each week (nothing too hard, though). Make sure to see your TAs for essay help, because there's only two quizzes, two midterms, and a final - so if you screw up horribly on one, you'll be hard-pressed to improve your grades.

Overall, though, the workload is easily manageable - as long as you read carefully and attend every lecture and discussion section (if you can, Heersink's a great TA!), you'll pass the class.

This class was pretty boring until the final 2 weeks. Professor Freedman is a great guy, but the material was pretty dumb and anyone with any common sense would know the first 3/4 of the class already. The TAs were a particular disaster. The quizzes that you have to take are extremely random and do not test your knowledge of the subject. Instead Prof. Freedman throws in questions like "How many starbucks are there in the US". It had nothing to do with the readings, just extremely small details he randomly said during class. I thought it would be an awesome class during election year since I am also a politics major, but it was dreadfully boring. TAKE ANOTHER CLASS THAT'S MORE INTERESTING!

Overall I would recommend this class if you're interested in American politics. Freedman is a very engaging lecturer, and I found the course concepts incredibly interesting. There is too much reading, but you can get away with skimming things if you primarily study the readings that Freedman mentions in lecture and just know the general point of the other ones.

Freedman was great. He was very funny and engaging, which was nice for a 9 am lecture. There was way too much reading for this class though. Don't read all of it, just skim and look for the main ideas. Also, try to get a good TA. My discussion section was completely pointless, but my friend who had a different TA got great resources from their discussion section. The quizzes were pretty specific, but the essays were graded easily. The final was pretty easy too. I'm also pretty sure there was an upward curve on the final grades at the end of the course. Overall, an easy and fun course.

Everyone said this class was so awesome so I was super excited to take it this fall, but was a little underwhelmed looking back. There is an OBSCENE amount of reading, and even though Professor Freedman tells you to "strategically skim" the readings, if you want to do well on the quizzes you have to read them carefully. The quizzes are SO specific and if you were not intensely paying attention and writing down literally everything that Freedman says then you'll probably miss some of the really detailed questions. Go to the TAs before the papers are due and talk about ideas/outlines, it will improve your grade so much because they have a pretty specific rubric. Final was not hard if you studied the facts and authors/themes. The big advantage to this class is that Professor Freedman is really funny and a nice guy, so lectures aren't bad at all.

The class is interesting (though if you've really ever learned about the media, it's lots of review before you start talking about some fascinating trends), but I agree with other reviewers that there is a TON of reading. Luckily, you can skim through most of it and really look for repetition (because the readings repeat so often). The TAs really depend on who you get (my section was a complete waste of time, but I went to another section one time, and it was amazing, so obviously the experience is variable). The papers are not too tricky, and the quizzes honestly shouldn't be too stressful if you have been keeping up with the readings and going to lecture. There are some minute things, but it's mostly remembering the authors and big ideas. Some of what people have been posting in here is ridiculous.

One of my favorite classes at UVA! Professor Freedman is so great and approachable. The material is all very interesting and really relevant, and Professor Freedman picks really funny and entertaining examples of the material in lectures. That being said, this class has a LOT of reading. Most of it is pretty interesting and easy to understand, and it gets easier as you go on and get more familiar with the concepts, but it really is a lot. There are two online quizzes which aren't too hard, they're short and specific questions from the readings and lectures, but if you study well you'll be fine. Two papers which were graded very fairly by the TA's (I had Kim and she was great).

This was the class I was most excited for and it ended up being the class I was most disappointed in. For starters, the amount of reading for this course is ABSURD and just way too much- readings are repetitive, super long, and at times outdated. The amount of reading in this course should be cut in half. For this class you must do all of the reading, as there are two (almost) 50 question reading quizzes that are super specific, so you must have a thorough understanding of the readings. The quizzes are another issue I have with this class- they are far too specific for the amount of information that students expected to obtain, AND there are questions about authors (info from their readings and quote IDs). The author questions are unfair in my opinion due to the vast amount of authors and readings. There are 2 essays- the prompts aren't difficult but the rubrics are vague. TA's grade the essays and I found my TA (I will not name him) to be an unfair grader. Discussion with him was also super unhelpful. Professor Freedman is a good, engaged lecturer and because of that I think this course has the potential to be great, but it was simply not. If you are not a MDST or Politics major I would not recommend this course, and if you are, I would seek out other courses before taking this one unless the

So much potential...but this class fell short of my expectations. As a lecturer, Freedman is mediocre at best. The lecture itself is always easy to comprehend, but he barely covers anything, so he's constantly behind. Also, ignore the comments about online quizzes. I scored 100% on both--they are grade boosters, in my opinion. Sure, there are a few idiotic questions, but nothing too wild. If you were in class and listening--and writing everything down--it's not a problem. Also, the final was an absolute joke. The two essays were irritating. My advice: avoid Daniel as a TA. At the end of the day I got an A so can't complain too much. The class is just tedious and requires too much of your time.

A lot of the reviews for this class from previous semesters definitely still apply. Professor Freedman is a great lecturer and makes the class very engaging. While lectures were great, the readings were the opposite. It is almost necessary to skim the readings unless you have nothing else to do. Professor Freedman even emphasized this at the beginning of the semester, as he went over tips to skim efficiently. The class also features quizzes, which having taken are ridiculously detailed. Definitely study EVERYTHING from your notes, including data, reading summaries, terms, and certain facts or events notable in the media world. Overall, I highly recommend this class, Professor Alexander is great and so is the information, but be prepared for the amount of work necessary to do well.