Fresh Politics, New Media

So many of us have had a hard time making sense of the 2016 Election outcome and that is particularly true across America's college campuses. Last night, we held a Teach-In on the Loyola University Maryland campus. Selected administrators and faculty were invited to share their reflections on the election and engage in a dialogue with students, other faculty, administrators and staff about how we move forward as a community. It's been a while since I've blogged, but I thought I would share my remarks here in case they can be helpful to other students and colleagues who weren't at the forum but are still processing the election outcome. So here goes: My biggest challenge with this election outcome was how to explain it at home. As many of you know, I have an almost five year old daughter and a 2 1/2 year old son. My daughter, Nora, became very interested in the election and very supportive of another“girl” being in the White House. She is firm in her belief that Mi...

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 ...

Well the semester is FINALLY over and I'm happy to report that we had A LOT of fun in my new seminar, Popular Culture & Politics. While the 2012 election didn't provide quite as much entertainment as the 2008 Sarah Palin fest, we spent some quality time talking about SNL's new Barack Obama (Jay Pharoah), Mitt Romney style , and Stephen Colbert's Super PAC - Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow . We tried to keep up with the various viral videos and comedy appearances that popped up during the election cycle. Here are some highlights: Lena Dunham's First Time: This one's not political but it did help us talk about Saturday Night Live: Barack Obama's appearance on The Daily Show: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c Barack Obama Pt. 1 www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook And last but not least, here's some more Lena Dunham: "You Don't...

I'm happy to report that I've published a new piece of research in the latest issue of the British Journal, Celebrity Studies . The article, originally a part of my dissertation, examines the influence of celebrity issue advocacy messages (both video and text) on political engagement at the issue level. This new research emphasis on celebrity politics represents a new direction for my research on the impact of political entertainment. The case study for the research is Angelina Jolie's involvement with the global refugee crisis and the impact of exposure to her celebrity advocacy efforts vs. exposure to advocacy efforts of an expert on situational involvement, complacency, and apathy toward the refugee issue. The experiment discussed in the article presents some interesting findings about the relationships between receptivity toward celebrity politics and apathy and complacency, and the relationships between situational involvement on the issue and political disaffection....