Social media and the prospects for expanded democratic
participation in national policy-setting.
Public Event April 8th at 4:30pm
Boston University College of Communication
640 Commonwealth Ave Boston, MA Room 209
Public Event April 8th at 4:30pm
Boston University College of Communication
640 Commonwealth Ave Boston, MA Room 209
The Division of Emerging Media Studies and the Center for
Mobile Communication are co-sponsoring a public event April 8, 2015 at 4:30pm
on the potential role, both positive and negative, of social media in setting
national goals and policies.
The power of social media appears at times almost limitless.
Indeed, when explaining the reasons for ISIL’s surprising success, President
Obama included in the list that they had been “savvy in terms of their social
media” (CBS 60 Minutes, 9/28/14). While there is no arguing that social media
have affected daily life, their impact on the conduct governance, widely
considered, seems slight. This is perhaps surprising since social media offers
the promise of expanded participation and more inclusive participation
opportunities in governance. Yet although social media have demonstrated their
critical role in electoral politics and many other domains including
disseminating political news and information, they have not yet been
effectively deployed in helping set national policy.
Dr. Michael
Bruter will be our featured speaker for the event. Dr. Bruter’s talk
is entitled “Can social media use backfire? A 6 country experiment on
twitter usage in election campaigns.” Dr. Bruter publishes widely in political
psychology, elections, and political behavior. His most recent book, The Future
of our Democracies examines the motivations of young Europeans to engage in the
political process despite their generation’s tendency to political apathy.
After Dr. Bruter’s talk there will be a panel of discussants
who will react to the talk and explore topics such as whether social media is
fundamentally pro- or anti-democratic. Below is a current list of discussants.
Dr. James Katz of the CMCS will moderate.
Deen Freelon
is an Assistant Professor in the School of Communications at American
University. His research expertise is in political expression through digital media
and the use of computation methods to extract, preprocess, and analyze massive
amounts of online data.
Anshul Jain
is a Ph.D candidate in political science at Boston University.
His dissertation concentrates on the role of digital media in the
participation of subgroups of the Indian diaspora in the political life of
their home country.
Daniel Kreiss
is an Assistant Professor in the School of Media and Journalism at University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research explores the impact of
technological change on the public sphere and political practice.
This event will be a wonderful opportunity to learn and
network with leaders in the field of emerging media and policy-setting. Reserve
your space at the public event for guaranteed seating here.
Please email Jill Walsh at mobicom@bu.edu with any questions
about the event.
