Our anniversary event, co-hosted with George Washington University’s Institute for Data, Democracy, & Politics, continues through this afternoon.
If you weren’t able to join us, you can still catch keynote talks from Emily Van Duyn, Khadijah Costley White, and Francesca Tripodi on YouTube:
Watch day one – Democracy in the Dark: How our assumptions have blinded us and how to find the light again, from Emily Van Duyn
Watch day two - Becoming the News: Tea parties, insurrections, and the fourth estate, from Khadijah Costley White, and The Propagandists’ Playbook: The Long and Racist History of #StopTheSteal, from Francesca Tripodi
What the Trump White House newsletter said—and didn’t say
In “You’ve got mail: how the Trump administration used legislative communication to frame his last year in office,” published this week in Information, Communication, and Society, Francesca Tripodi and Yuanye Ma reveal the important role electoral communication plays in framing current events and the extent to which email is an essential node in the right-wing media ecosystem. By analyzing both topics and topic absences, Dr. Tripodi and Ms. Ma demonstrate how the Trump administration leveraged the Official White House Newsletter to accentuate topics deemed most important by conservative voters, while resituating negative events and favoring sources from an information ecosystem rife with conspiracy theories and speculative claims.
As Dr. Tripodi summarized on Twitter:
The administration sent 34 emails about #BLM protests describing the events as "violent mobs" and "riots."
Number of emails sent about the Jan 6th insurrection? 0
Number of emails sent framing Trump's first impeachment as a "political farce" "sham," "hoax," "weak" or "witch-hunt"? 15
Number of emails sent about who won the election? 0
Number of emails sent claiming Trump had COVID under control or calling it the "China Virus"? 5
Number of emails telling people to wear a mask? 0
Recent publications and appearances
CITAP offered several contributions to NiemanLab’s Predictions for Journalism 2022:
“Whether they center their reporting on elected officials or everyday Americans, journalists are faced with a nearly impossible choice when it comes to the Republican Party.” Shannon McGregor and affiliate Carolyn Schmitt explain how researchers and journalists can work together to protect democracy.
“‘Too hard’ isn’t an acceptable answer in a college classroom, much less from some of the smartest technically minded people in the world.” Affiliate Nikki Usher argues that the news industry will stop saying overdue UX fixes are too hard.
“We’ll see more attacks on public institutions — libraries, universities, school boards, news organizations. They’ll be hard to parse and hard to think about as connected.” Affiliate Melody Kramer imagines how newsrooms, social scientists, public health professionals, and librarians can unite to preserve democracy.
Two CITAP pieces made most-read lists in 2021:
“Seeming to bypass agents and managers and other traditional brokers of celebrity attention, young stars like Lady Gaga and Kim Kardashian provide snapshots of their lives and interactions with followers that give the impression of candid, unfettered access.” Alice Marwick’s 2015 piece on “Instafame” and the attention economy topped Duke University Press’s Most Read Articles of 2021.
Daniel Kreiss, Bridget Barrett, and Madhavi Reddi’s essay on the need for race-conscious platform governance made Tech Policy Press’s list of Top 50 Contributor Posts of 2021.
“Most misinformation is not the result of innocent misunderstanding. It’s the product of specific campaigns to advance a political or ideological agenda.” Francesca Tripodi’s work was featured in a 2022 misinformation forecast from The Conversation.
Affiliate Paul Johnson discusses conservative populism, the gospel of victimhood, and his forthcoming book on The Majority Report.
“Structural and interpersonal racism create information marginalization and inequity in formal and informal information spaces. When adults ignore or deny these dynamics, they undermine BIPOC tweens’ and teens’ ability to seek information, and their ability to protect themselves from harmful people, norms, and systems.” Affiliates Amelia Gibson and Kristen Bowen coauthored an article with Sandra Hughes-Hassell on how BIPOC teens navigate “danger zones” in information seeking.
“Throughout history, women have been accomplishing, discovering and innovating— yet their achievements have been largely left out of the historical narrative, to our detriment. When women’s accomplishments are not documented, published or promoted, it leads to a lack of role models for girls and women to emulate.” Francesca Tripodi’s work on gender representation on Wikipedia was referenced in a Ms. Magazine essay on the visibility of female role models.
Tressie McMillan Cottom published a slew of great cultural insights over the break, on everything from bell hooks to the power of mutual aid and the racial politics of country music.
Coming soon
February 18: The call for papers is up for CITAP’s cosponsored ICA preconference What Comes After Disinformation Studies? The preconference will take place May 25, 2022 in Paris, France. Submissions due February 18.
Rest of Web
📰 CITAP Affiliate Daniel Johnson published an essay in Task & Purpose on the implications of new CDC data on the 2020 suicide rates among U.S. servicemembers.
💡 The 2022 ACM Chi Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems announced a call for participation for its workshop on Triangulating Race, Capital, and Technology.
💼 The Knight Foundation is hiring a program officer for its Media and Democracy program.
Puppy!