Clarity in Multimedia: The Role of Interactive Media in Teaching Political Science Theories

Abstract

The field of political science has encountered a unique obstacle in its development. Contemporary political theory has diverged in opposite paths, becoming more conceptual and abstract as well as focused and concrete. The unfortunate result of this has been a lack of clarity in communicating political theory to a new generation of political science scholars. This article will seek to study the effects of multimedia technology, literacy, and innovations in the teaching and communication of foundational theories of political science. First, this article will ask why such ambiguity in modern political science theory still exists. Students, academics, and professionals alike still struggle to understand certain aspects of political theory including initial comprehension and retention of certain theories or paradigms. This article asks whether there is something inherently ambiguous about a certain field or if the issue is the communication and teaching of a field. Second, this article will examine multimedia tools and methods that have been recently developed and implemented in teaching and other areas. Third, focus will be given to cases in which multimedia innovations and methods have been put to use and what the results were of these instances. Finally, we will seek to form a conclusion on the effects of multimedia technology on the teaching and communication of political theory, eventually broadening the conclusion to fit various fields in the social sciences. The ultimate aim will be to determine whether or not academics and professionals stand to benefit from this study by using more up-to-date technologies and tools to more effectively communicate their fields of study and whether or not it has any effect on students' understanding and retention of information.

Keywords:

• international
• multimedia
• relations
• retention
• theory

Notes

It should be noted that this is the opinion of the author, formed from various undocumented interviews with university professors in the fields of international studies and political science. The common opinion among many university lecturers and professors seems to be the notion that student comprehension of a paradigm can only truly be exhibited through original interpretation and construction, rather than recognition or paraphrasing of a previously provided definition.

A compilation of interviews was conducted for this article, interviewing Dr. Steven L. Lamy (May 21, 2008), Dr. Virginia Kuhn (October 21, 2008), and Steven M. Cunningham (September 25, 2008). Dr. Steven Lamy was interviewed as an international relations professor with firsthand experience in the communication difficulties outlined in this article and because of previous work done with the author to address these issues in his international relations courses. Dr. Virginia Kuhn, who heads the Institute for Multimedia Literacy, is an expert in digital media and multimedia lecturing and was interviewed due to her providing industry, statistical, and practical insight on the role of multimedia and its progress thus far and future potential. Steven M. Cunningham is a lecturer in the Music Industry program at the USC Thornton School of Music and was interviewed because of his long-time use of multimedia in his courses. He is a proponent of multimedia-based teaching and was able to attest to the true efficacy of multimedia in breaking through miscommunication boundaries in academic realms. All interviewees agree that this was a common perception within their fields.

This project had been an ongoing issue of study for Dr. Steven Lamy but did not evolve from any statistical data gathered from primary sources. Rather, the notion was derived from previous research that alluded to obstacles in long-term theory retention in social science courses; a theory that Dr. Lamy and I expanded into the realm of undergraduate political science and international relations courses at USC, most of which were noted to have the problem of basic theory retention among their undergraduate students. Therefore, it should be noted that the basis for this project was strictly to observe the effects of switching to multimedia within one international relations course, composed of undergraduate students at USC, with no experimental comparison being taken into account. The desired outcome was to see how multimedia impacted the initial learning, comprehension, and retention of basic political and international relations theories.

In international relations, offensive realism is a variant of realism. Like realism, offensive realism regards states as the primary actors but adds several additional assumptions to the framework of structural realism. First, the assumptions are: the international system is anarchical, states are rational actors, survival is the primary goal, all states possess some level of offensive military capability, and states are never certain of other actors' intentions. Offensive Realism further posits, as stated, that the security conflict emerges from the natural state of anarchy rather than human nature and continues with the notion that states seek not just security, but hegemony. John Mearsheimer created this theory in his book The Tragedy of Great Power Politics.