President Donald Trump's isn’t the first administration to have a contentious relationship with the press, but his use of propaganda has turned the country on its heel, University of Illinois instructor Mira Sotirovic said. | AP Photo/Evan Vucci Illinois University offers new course: ‘Trumpaganda’

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is launching a course examining President Donald Trump’s impact on democracy and the free press.

The state’s flagship university will offer “Trumpaganda: The War on Facts, Press and Democracy” as an eight-week course running through mid-December — right through the midterm elections when the president’s media machine will be in full tilt.


The course will examine his administration’s “disinformation campaign,” according to the university’s course description. Students will be guided through Trump’s “running war” with the mainstream news media and its implications for democracy and a free press — from name-calling to discrediting opponents to calling out media for what he terms “fake news.”

Trump isn’t the first administration to have a contentious relationship with the press, but his use of propaganda has turned the country on its heel, instructor Mira Sotirovic told the Daily Illini. Sotirovic is an associate professor and scholar of propaganda. She’s co-author of “Donald Trump Tells You What He Thinks,” a chapter in a 2018 scholarly book titled, “Communication in the Age of Trump.”

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Sotirovic did not immediately return requests for comment.

Trump isn’t the only contemporary president to become subject of a university course. Former President Barack Obama was the focus of a Harvard course initiated in 2013, titled “Understanding Obama.”

