Fresh Politics, New Media

There's been a lot of discussion regarding the findings in the Pew Research Center's new report on Political Polarization & Media Habits. The full report , released on October 21st is part of Pew's larger American Trends Panel exploring national political trends and polarization in particular. While the report suggests that both consistent liberals and consistent conservatives (e.g., those at opposite or polar ends of the ideological spectrum) are selecting media content that aligns with their political views, the findings also suggests that social media platforms are enabling exposure to diverse points of view. While conservatives are relying heavily on FOX News , consistent liberals are opting for outlets like The New York Times , NPR , Slate , and political comedy offerings like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report . These extreme partisans tend to be the loudest voices or the biggest sharers of news content via social media. Interestingly, whi...

I recently published an article entitled, " Employment discrimination, local school boards, and LGBT civil rights: Reviewing 25 years of public opinion data " in the special issue of The International Journal of Public Opinion Research on Public Opinion on Gay Rights/Marriage edited by Paul Brewer . The piece looks at what factors influence attitudes toward employment discrimination over time. The findings show that there is still a political hard core -- 21% in 2012 -- that believe it is okay to fire known homosexual teachers from positions in public schools. These individuals tend to be more conservative and religious males who hold traditional views on marriage and family. The article was featured on the Oxford University Press blog over the weekend. For more, access the original post HERE .

In case you haven't seen it, here's the video of President Barack Obama's appearance with Zack Galifianakis on his Funny or Die web series, Between Two Ferns: Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis: President Barack Obama from President Barack Obama Folks can argue about the quality of the humor present in the clip. I personally found key snippets like the reference to North Ikea or drones funny, but it's hard to deny the fact that the clip has been viewed 12 million times in just one short 24-hour period or the level of meta-coverage for the piece as a wide range of news outlets including The New York Times , The Washington Post , and even the PBS News Hour have covered the President's effort to inject humor into his marketing of the Affordable Care Act. The video itself was the leading source of visits to healthcare.gov yesterday according to an update from The Washington Post . Whether the video will actually lead to additional sign-ups by those in...

Ever wonder about the impact of those political parody videos you were watching during the 2012 Election cycle? While you might have found it funny to see Barack Obama or Mitt Romney made fun of, were others finding these things funny as well? Was anybody else watching? A new article I just published in Human Communication Research addresses these questions and more by applying the disposition theory of humor to the study of both political parody appreciation and the effects of humor exposure. First, a little background: The Pew Research Center reports that 55% of all registered voters went online during the 2012 Election cycle to watch political video . 37% watched humorous or parody videos dealing with political issues. So yes, you weren't the only one watching those YouTube clips. The research featured in the HCR article is based on an experimental study that asked subjects to watch one of three sets of videos: a set that featured Democratic-directed humor, one set that inc...

A new article I wrote on trends in public opinion toward employment discrimination is now available online at The International Journal of Public Opinion Research . The article will later be in print in the journal's special issue on Public Opinion about Gay Rights/Marriage being edited by Paul Brewer . The piece examines evolving views on whether school boards should have the authority to fire known homosexual teachers between 1987-2012 (N=35,578). In the process, I consider whether we have seen a sea change in public opinion on the issue similar to the dynamic we've recently been witnessing with the same-sex marriage debate. As the chart below shows, 51.5% of Americans expressed support for the practice when Pew first started collecting data in 1987. By 2012, only 21% of Americans still expressed support for the practice. These individuals are what researchers call the hard core , those who retain minority viewpoints in the face of majority opposition. As the results sugge...

I'm very excited for the Spring 2014 release of Mass Communication & Society's special symposium issue on Entertainment Media and Politics spearheaded by guest editor, R. Lance Holbert . It's really an honor to have my work included alongside the research of so many respected scholars of hybrid media including colleagues (and friends) Heather LaMarre , Kristen Landreville , and Danna Young . A table of contents for the special issue is pasted below. Happy spring reading! Volume 17, Number 3, 2014 • May-June Symposium—Entertainment Media and Politics Introduction R. Lance Holbert, Guest Editor Strike While the Iron is Hot: Seizing on Recent Advancements to Propel the Study of Political Entertainment Media Forward Articles Hoon Lee and Nojin Kwak The Affect Effect of Political Satire: Sarcastic Humor, Negative Emotions, and Political Participation Bruce W. Hardy, Jeffrey A. Gottfried, Kenneth M. Winneg, and Kathleen Hall Jamieson Stephen Colbert’s Civic Less...

I really enjoy watching David Brooks and Mark Shields engage in a civil discussion of the week's news on the Friday broadcast of the PBS News Hour . While I don't always agree with David Brooks' politics, I do think he presents some very rational and pressing arguments in his work (his recent column on weed aside). In today's New York Times, Brooks critiques our heightened love of machines and the use of automation to replace human dependent tasks like driving cars or picking stocks. Brooks makes the point that even in this age of rapidly expanding technology, there are certain human activities that machines just can't replicate. Brooks is certainly right on some fronts. But maybe the question isn't a dichotomous one -- machine vs. human? Perhaps, as I've seen in my own recent work with a team of computer science colleagues , it's about using machines to enhance human efforts. Relying on techniques from the world of artificial intelligence (e.g., aut...

Now out in the latest edition of the National Communication Association's Communication Currents newsletter is an essay I've written with my colleague, Don Waisanen , about our recent review of the state of political comedy research. The essay translates our recent article published in Review of Communication where we focus on defining the current boundaries of political comedy research. We discuss how research focuses primarily on comedy's features (e.g., things like comedy's devices and conventions, ideological and ethical functions, and contributions to public affairs and civic discourse) and the effects of exposure to this entertaining content (e.g., key outcomes like knowledge and learning, attitudes, and political engagement). The piece also reviews recent work on how viewers process, interpret, develop an affinity for, and come to understand political comedy content. In the second half of the piece, we work to bridge the features and effects divide by offeri...

2014 means it's time to get back to blogging. Anyone who knows me well also knows it's no secret that I am a big Bruce Springsteen fan. It's kind of a pre-requisite if you grew up in New Jersey. Perhaps the best part of my ICA 2013 London conference trip was that it overlapped with the E Street Band's stopover at Wembley Stadium in London . The ticket stub is proudly displayed in our house. Those who know the academic me also know that I spend a good chunk of my time researching the impact of exposure to political comedy and entertainment. Over the years I've found that exposure to political comedy is positively related to feelings of internal political efficacy or the belief in one's ability to effectively understand and participate in politics, that political comedy content can act as a gateway encouraging young people in particular to seek out political information from traditional news sources, and that viewing interviews on political comedy programs ...