May 2013
2 posts
March 2013
1 post
“There’s no bad data, only bad uses of data.”
– Big Data and a Renewed Debate Over Privacy (via infoneer-pulse)
January 2013
1 post
November 2012
6 posts
STUDY: Declining gender bias in media coverage of... →
New study from Jennifer Lawless & Danny Hayes discusses the decline of gender bias in media coverage of female candidates. (Excerpt of WaPo article by Hayes below.)
For decades, observers have noted that women running for political office are portrayed in the media in ways that are consistent with gender stereotypes. Long before Sarah Palin, research had shown that female candidates tended...
2 tags
Campaign 2012 = First Big Data Election [via... →
The Romney team had the right idea — use big data and smart phones to close the gap between knowing and doing on Election Day. But they botched the details, and the reporting now tells why. According to Ars Technica, the whole program “was hardly a model of stability, having been developed in just seven months on a lightning schedule following the Republican primary elections.” And...
“A Politico headline: “GOP soul-searching: ‘Too old, too white, too male?’”...”
– Ken Doctor, Nieman Lab. The newsonomics of the newspaper industry as the Republican Party. (via futurejournalismproject)
8 tags
Election 2012 Fail
In the middle of switching careers, I forgot to follow a closet passion of mine: observing the whims and whimsy of web 2.0 and social politics during campaign season. As everyone continues to digest the results of Tuesday’s election, I’m reminded of many of the themes expressed here in the past - that honest, genuine dialogue is appealing to voters, and that candidates must reach...
September 2012
1 post
July 2012
6 posts
“We live in a moment in which humanity’s challenges are accelerating at a pace...”
– It’s the End of the World, And I Feel Fine: 10 Questions with Andrew Zolli
Why you'll never hear about Mitt Romney's ankles →
June 2012
4 posts
“We are creating and encouraging a culture of distraction where we are...”
– Is modern technology creating a culture of distraction? (via courtenaybird)
“You press a little touchtone key pad… You touch this, touch this, touch this, go...”
– Mitt Romney really liked the sandwich computer at Wawa - Yahoo!
Electing (and keeping) women in Congress [via... →
WaPo writer Melinda Henneberger sits down with scholars Barbara Palmer and Dennis Simon to discuss their findings in a new book titled “Women & Congressional Elections: A Century of Change.” Their work covers questions like why women do (or, more frequently, don’t) run, the challenges they face in office, and where women candidates and politicians fare best (urban areas with...
May 2012
3 posts
The Political Notebook: The One-Percentification... →
thepoliticalnotebook:
It’s graduation season in an economic downturn, so it’s time to reflect on the sorry state of college affordability, student loans and job prospects in the US. Being a twentysomething here in the US, I take discussions like these incredibly personally.
This afternoon I read this comment piece…
This commentary is spot on — the themes have been in place for...
1 tag
NATO told through social media [via Northwest... →
April 2012
6 posts
Battles for Mexico's presidency are fought (and... →
“If you want to win a campaign you need to win every space of the terrain,” said Agustín Torres Ibarrola, a 34-year-old lawmaker who coordinates the digital strategy for Josefina Vázquez Mota, the candidate of Mr. Calderón’s National Action Party, or PAN, who trails by double digits in the polls.
Mr. Torres was sitting beside a large screen displaying his TweetDeck page, which manages Twitter...
4 tags
"A Facial Theory of Politics": How Much Do Looks... →
Fascinating piece in the NY Times today discussing research by Shawn Rosenberg of U. Cal Irvine (among other academics/studies) regarding how much a candidate’s appearance can influence voter behavior. While the study examined appearance for both male and female candidates, my interest was particularly peaked during the discussion of the results of the female candidates study:
A related...
Ann Romney on the campaign trail: a lesson in... →
This photo slideshow from the Washington Post has me itching to do some more digging into the importance of image and appearance of prospective First Ladies on the campaign trail. My research last year looked at just the candidates themselves, but I’m finding the stark contrast of vivacious personality and impeccable style to Mitt’s rolled up sleeves and denim pretty intriguing.
March 2012
5 posts
“If Justice Kennedy sneezes, everybody is going to be arguing for 10 hours about...”
– Eddie Vale, a spokesman for the pro-Affordable Care Act organization Protect Your Care, on today’s landmark Supreme Court case.
- via New York Times, “Neither Phones, Nor Cameras, Nor Tweets in the Court”
Pew Study proves that SNSs, like dinner tables,... →
Friends disagree with friends about political issues and usually let their disagreements pass without comment. Among the SNS users whose friends post political content, 25% always agree or mostly agree with their friends’ political postings; 73% of these SNS users “only sometimes” agree or never agree with their friends’ political postings. When they disagree with others’ posts, 66% of these SNS...
6 tags
Obama 2012 Campaign to Data Mining: "Yes We Can" →
Very cool (and perhaps a bit disturbing, depending upon where you fall in the individual privacy debate) look at the Obama 2012 campaign and its efforts to use data to track and woo volunteers, donors, and voters.
It has tested various messages sent to different profiles of Internet users to see which get the best responses in terms of commitments of money or time — a single color change,...
5 tags
Confessions of a "feminazi": how Rush Limbaugh...
Until this point, I’ve generally refrained from posting about by personal views on the politics that are the focus of this blog. But this week, I was reminded, in many ways, of the reasons I became interested in the intersections of communications and politics in the first place.
When Rush Limbaugh, he of the bombastic radio personality, took to the airwaves and blasted the law school...
February 2012
4 posts
5 tags
Is Google becoming evil, or has it always been?... →
This post debating whether or not Google has lost sight of its original mission (“Don’t be evil”) comes from NY Times’ writer Nick Bilton. I’ve already written on how Google’s new privacy policy, which goes into effect this week on March 1st, is making me second guess my choice last summer to pick Android over the iPhone. An interesting read.
7 tags
“Twitter’s speed and ease make it the world headquarters of snap judgments. From...”
– David Carr, New York Times, “Twitter Is All in Good Fun, Until It Isn’t”
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/13/business/media/twitter-is-all-in-good-fun-until-it-isnt.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
A very worthwhile read, especially for those about to enter the workforce. It’s...
“How is it that activities we wouldn’t in a million years be roped into doing in...”
– Pamela Paul, “T.M.I. — I Don’t Want to Know,” the New York Times (via idlegnome)
6 tags
Social media v. Super PACs [via Politico] →
This is an interesting Politico article from guest blogger Maria Teresa Kumar, executive director of Voto Latino, a nonprofit focused on Latino youth civic engagement. Kumar asks the question of what will influence the outcome (or, arguably, process) of this year’s presidential election more: Super PACs, or social media?
Super PACs may have reigned supreme in the Republican primary...
January 2012
6 posts
“Dare. That’s #1. #2 is educate yourself, improve your skills…and feel confident...”
– Christine Lagarde, IMF Managing Director (via levolove)
7 tags
Dear Google -- Thanks for ruining my faith in...
This past July, I made the switch to a smartphone, ditching my semi-functional texting-and-calls-only phone for something a little snazzier: the Droid X2. One of the biggest dilemmas I faced (along with millions of other smartphone converts) was which platform to go with: Android, Apple, or Microsoft. While the iPhone is a beautiful thing to behold, and the user interface of Microsoft’s phones...
WaPo develops @MentionMachine to track popularity... →
5 tags
Kissing babies < re-tweeting? Social media's role... →
It was posted a few days ago, but seeing as the Iowa caucus is tomorrow (can you believe it?), I thought it might be prescient. I’m waiting to see how my Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ feeds will look throughout the day to see if the predictions of this article pan out.
After using Facebook and Twitter in recent months primarily to broadcast their messages and raise money, the Republican...
Students Want Social Media in Schools
socially-acceptable:
Students’ lives are online in increasingly mobile and social ways. Surveys show students want learning and schools to follow suit.
December 2011
1 post
5 tags
Obama 2012 and the "data arms race" [via Bloomberg... →
An interesting look behind the curtain at Obama’s 2012 campaign and their efforts to attract a formidable geek squad of sorts to assemble and analyze data.
3 tags
November 2011
2 posts
October 2011
4 posts
7 tags
After a great start, does Google+ still prove the... →
It’s an old article, for sure (published Sept. 27, 2011), but this Wired mag interview with Google products guru Bradley Horowitz got me thinking a bit more about Google+ when it came across (ironically) my Twitter feed this morning.
I’m a huge fan of Google+ and agree with much of Horowitz’s thinking on the social media platform’s potential and perks. But I’m not...
Social media was a boost in 2008, critical in 2012... →
After Obama’s 2008 victory, OFA received widespread praise for its social media strategy. This admiration was deserved, mainly because OFA implemented a tool that was foreign to almost everyone else in professional politics. David Axelrod, top strategist for the 2012 campaign and former senior advisor to the president, acknowledged that “so much of our support [in 2008] came from younger, more...
