COMS 230- Midterm Exam Guide - Comprehensive Notes for the exam ( 99 pages long!)

• School: McGill University
• Department: Communication Studies
• Course: COMS 230
• Professor: Cayley Sorochan

Document Summary

Ideology = belief system that reduce complexity of the world. Democracy = a word that people are overwhelmingly invested in. Even governments, who"re far from being democratic, call themselves as such. Distinction between us and them (especially pertinent in places like ca & usa) Canadians/americans see ourselves as exemplary democrats: liberalism. Liberal theory that emerged out of the enlightenment based on the presumption that humans enjoy natural rights: life, liberty, and property. + freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, freedom from unjust imprisonment. It"s hard to imagine a meaningful democracy without basic liberal right. Liberal & democracy are often used in conjunction. Freedom of expression is guaranteed, however the ability to carry it out isn"t guaranteed by negative liberties. My ability to have an impact to reach people with the expression is much harder (?) Positive liberties = enable certain kinds of actions that wouldn"t be widely available otherwise. Ex: basic public education/ literacy = project of early democrats.