Date & Time
Monday, October 5, 2015 - 12:30pm to 1:30pm
Contact Information
Daniel Kreiss, dkreiss@email.unc.edu
Joint new book talks by Jesse Baldwin-Philippi, assistant professor, Fordham University, author of "Using Technology, Building Democracy" and Chris Wells, assistant professor, School of Media and Journalism, University of Wisconsin-Madison, author of "The Civic Organization and the Digital Citizen" (Political Communication)
Campaigns at all levels, from the federal to the municipal, have realized the necessity of incorporating digital media technologies into their communications strategies. Still, little is understood about how these practices have been taken up and routinized at levels other than major presidential elections, or the ways in which the use of these technologies is tied to new norms and understandings of political participation and citizenship in the digital age. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in a federal-level election, interviews with communications and digital media consultants, and textual analysis of campaign materials, this book traces the emergence and solidification of campaign strategies that reflect what it means to be a citizen in a digital world.
Jesse Baldwin-Philippi is an Assistant Professor of New Media in Fordham University's Department of Communication and Media Studies and is affiliated with the program in New Media and Digital Design. Her work at the intersection of political communication, civic media, and science and technology studies has examined political campaigns' use of digital media as well as municipal civic innovation efforts.
Digital media are reshaping citizens’ connections to politics. Many claim that new media de-institutionalize political action. But where does that leave civic engagement, long structured through stable, bureaucratic organizations? This book examines what the relationship between young citizens and civic groups look like on the Web and in social media.
Chris Wells is Assistant Professor in the School of Journalism & Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he co-directs the Social Media and Democracy and Communication, Culture and Civic Participation research groups.