Political Science Educator: Volume 30, Issue 1
Reflections
By Sarah James (jamess@gonzaga.edu)
Several abstract concepts—like norms, democratic sacrifice, civil rights and civil liberties, and representation—are essential for understanding the dynamics of American politics. An important opportunity, and challenge, for introduction to American politics instructors is figuring out how to engage students in the meaning and implications of these concepts, particularly given the highly polarized and vitriolic rhetoric that has permeated American politics for most current college students’ political lives. To address this challenge in my Introduction to American Politics course, I use popular media—namely children’s cartoons and political satire—to introduce abstract ideas relevant to American politics.
In this article, I describe how I have used popular media, especially media geared at children, as effective tools for introducing and exploring abstract concepts in American politics. In what follows, I first introduce the main sources of media that I use to teach Introduction to American Politics, including a brief overview of what each type of source brings to the classroom. I then explain why such media are useful for freshmen and sophomore college students, in particular those most likely to take Introduction to American Politics. I outline how I incorporate this media into my class. I conclude with student perspectives on this strategy and offer thoughts on why this approach may be especially effective in our current political environment.
The Unique Feature of Popular Media For Teaching
Our Gen Z college students are the first generation to enter college aware that their chances of being better off than their parents has decreased (Chetty et al. 2016). They developed their political awareness alongside Donald Trump’s entrance into politics and the accompanying elevation of nativist, vitriolic, and violent political rhetoric and are regularly inundated by doomsaying media pronouncements about the future of democracy and American politics, both of which can complicate their motivation to engage in our course (Matesan 2025). Grounding our conversation in humorous and child-oriented artifacts creates a more inviting and accessible entry point to the complicated conversations that we have in our class. The humor embedded in satire and the calm, generally optimistic, themes of children’s media offer a manageable entry point into topics that are more fraught in traditional media (Fisher and Justwan 2018; Stump 2013). Anchoring our discussion in a shared viewing of popular media also helps engage a wider range of students.
Types of Media
I use three types of popular media in my Introduction to American Politics course: children’s cartoons, political satire, and musical numbers (see Table 1 in the appendix for a comprehensive list). I briefly introduce each below, and describe the virtues of each for teaching American politics.
I use two children’s cartoons: The first, Bluey, created by Australian Joe Brumm for Australian Broadcasting Corporation (and distributed by Disney+ in the U.S.), is a short-form cartoon (episodes are 7 minutes or less) that follows a 6-year-old anthropomorphized blue heeler girl (the namesake of the show) as she navigates developmental milestones and challenges through her world of play and make believe and events. By couching important dilemmas in familiar scenarios, like not getting a present or build consensus in a group of friends, the show offers students the opportunity to think through more complicated concepts in more concrete terms than a strictly political example would allow. Furthermore, this approach allows the instructor to explore the role of mindsets, social skills, and motivations that underly many core activities of democratic citizenship (Beaumont et al. 2006).
Showing adult-oriented satire, like Saturday Night Live and sketches from The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, creates a lighthearted entry point to historical political events. While there is some evidence that satire should not replace legacy media as a news source (Baranowski 2020), paired with other traditional sources of information it can offer a rigorous opportunity to analyze how the portrayal of the absurdity of contemporary politics reflects social and political norms in the moment. The humor and the succinctness of individual sketches are more inviting to students than traditional media stories about American politics and may encourage them to seek additional political news (Martinez and Atouba 2021).
A final category of popular media that I include is music and music videos. Songs like those from School House Rock: America Rock offer a catchy way to set the stage for class (see Peterson-Overton (2023) for another example of using music in political science courses). Many of my students recognize the songs from their earlier schooling and are curious to revisit and critique the 1990’s perspective on key historical events, like Hamilton: An American Musical, the award-winning Broadway musical that tells the story of Alexander Hamilton and the American Founding era through rap, R&B, and hip-hop. Songs and lyrics from Hamilton remind us of the uncertainty faced by the leaders of the early republic, as well as the ingenuity and fallibility of the people of those we lionize in K-12 curriculum and society.
How to Incorporate Popular Media
I rely on two strategies, one more explicit than the other, for incorporating popular media into class.[1] For the first, less direct approach, I play a song, music video, or clip in the 3-5 minutes before class starts and direct students via a slide or oral instructions to consider how it relates to the content for the day. Setting the tone for a gathering before it officially begins is an important tool for engaging students (Parker 2018). I, therefore, often use the 3-7 minutes before class starts to play a song or a video for students that engages with the day’s key questions (see Table 1 in the appendix for suggestions on topic-media pairings and discussion questions). I most often use School House Rock and Hamilton videos during this time. I allow students to settle in and continue to talk or be on their technology, but I also prompt them to consider how the content of the song may apply to our work for the day. Once we transition into class, I reference the themes or arguments in song to build their understanding of the historical context of the moment in which key decisions on the design of the American government were being made.
The second, more direct use of media, involves beginning class with a group viewing of the media, followed by small group, then whole class discussion. I use this approach when I want to use media to scaffold student discussion and exploration of a specific concept. For context, I begin every class with a “Getting Started” prompt that students discuss with their peers to ensure that they are engaging with one another before they turn their attention to me. When I leverage this structure to show and analyze media, I first give students a quick preview of what show we will watch and a brief synopsis of what they should expect to see (i.e., “We are going to watch a Saturday Night Live clip from 2022” or “We are going to watch a Bluey episode about a series of birthday parties at which Bingo doesn’t get the present she is hoping for.”). When showing political satire, I remind them that the point of satire is to use absurdity and exaggeration to critique, and that our goal is not to endorse or villainize the perspectives, but rather to use our course content as a lens to analyze the media and the social political context in which it was produced.
I then point them to what I would like them to pay attention to while showing them the discussion questions after they watch the clip. If there are any key people or ideas that would be helpful to know before they watch, I provide a brief primer.
After students watch the clip, I display the discussion questions that probe relevant insights for class that day. Students discuss with their small groups for 3-5 minutes, while I circulate to participate in discussions, answer clarifying questions, or praise insightful answers. At this point, we either engage in a whole group discussion where I can selectively call on students who had points closest to the key takeaway, or I draw the explicit parallels between the media clip and the class. Alternatively, if students need more background before they can truly make the connection between the clip and the course content, I skip the whole group discussion, informing students that we will return to the clip at the appropriate moment in class. Because we all watched the same content, I can “warm call” students into the conversation about the clip in ways that are less intimidating than doing so for a reading from a scholarly source.
Student Reflections
Students have consistently reported viewing these clips as a favorite part of our class. At least one student per section per semester, unprompted,[2] identifies watching short clips in class as one of the most effective aspects of the course. Several students noted that grounding our discussions in the videos helped them better engage with the content. One student noted, “I also enjoyed the incorporation of the occasional SNL and Bluey videos that were discussed in terms of that day’s topics. These helped me to better understand and apply the topics/themes of the day.” Another reflected that including the SNL and Bluey videos “mad[e] the class engaging and relatable.” Such comments are representative of student reactions to this strategy that I see in mid-semester and end of semester structured student feedback.
An important part of teaching American politics in this unprecedented and highly polarized moment is to encourage students to remain curious about and engaged with the political world, even when it can feel overwhelming and unsustainable to do so. Grounding our exploration of American politics in more concrete and humorous media helps ease students into the more complex and challenging conversations at the heart of teaching American politics.
References
Baranowski, Michael. 2020. “The Daily Show vs. the New York Times: Comparing Their Effects on Student Political Knowledge and Engagement.” Journal of Political Science Education 16(3): 300–313. doi:10.1080/15512169.2019.1578225.
Beaumont, Elizabeth, Anne Colby, Thomas Ehrlich, and Judith Torney-Purta. 2006. “Promoting Political Competence and Engagement in College Students: An Empirical Study.” Journal of Political Science Education 2(3): 249–70. doi:10.1080/15512160600840467.
Chetty, Raj, David Grusky, Nathaniel Hendren, Maximilian Hell, Robert Manduca, and Jimmy Narang. 2016. “The Fading American Dream: Trends in Absolute Income Mobility Since 1940.” Science 356(6336): 398–406.
Fisher, Sarah, and Florian Justwan. 2018. “Scaffolding Assignments and Activities for Undergraduate Research Methods.” Journal of Political Science Education 14(1): 63–71. doi:10.1080/15512169.2017.1367301.
Martinez, Alexandra, and Yannick Atouba. 2021. “Political Satire TV Shows in the Trump’s Era: Examining Their Impact on Latinx Viewers’ Political Knowledge, Political Engagement, and Trust in Institutions.” Southern Communication Journal 86(5): 460–71. doi:10.1080/1041794X.2021.1958913.
Matesan, Ioana Emy. 2025. “Toward a Pedagogy of Hope for the Political Science Classroom.” Journal of Political Science Education: 1–16. doi:10.1080/15512169.2025.2529857.
Parker, Priya. 2018. The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters. Penguin Random House. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/319055/the-art-of-gathering-by-priya-parker/ (December 23, 2025).
Petersen-Overton, Kristofer J. 2023. “The Harmonious Classroom: Teaching Political Theory With Period Music.” Journal of Political Science Education 19(4): 545–64. doi:10.1080/15512169.2023.2171298.
Stump, Jacob L. 2013. “Exploring Politics and Government With Popular Culture: Justifications, Methods, Potentials, and Challenges in Introductory Political Science Courses.” Journal of Political Science Education 9(3): 292–307. doi:10.1080/15512169.2013.796236.
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Sarah James is an Assistant Professor in Political Science at Gonzaga University. She received her PhD in Government and Social Policy from Harvard University in 2021. Sarah studies the politics of data and the American political economy. She most recently published a book on the politics of failed policies. Prior to her career in political science, Sarah taught middle and high school, eventually serving as a high school principal. She is passionate about using the science of teaching and learning and developing effective pedagogy to equip and inspire college students to be informed and active citizens.
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Appendix for red white and bluesy
[1] It is worth emphasizing that we always watch the media in class to model active engagement with media and to improve the quality of discussion students have with their peers.
[2] The specific wording on our structured student feedback instrument is: “Please describe specific aspects of the instructor’s approach and of the course (e.g., readings, assignments, exams, classroom exercises, discussion models, guest speakers, media products, etc.) that helped you to learn.”
Published since 2005, The Political Science Educator is the newsletter of the Political Science Education Section of the American Political Science Association. As part of APSA’s mission to support political science education across the discipline, APSA Educate has republished The Political Science Educator since 2021. Please visit APSA Educate’s Political Science Educator digital collection.
Editor: Matt Evans (Northwest Arkansas Community College)
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