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...

My participation as a "tweep" at the White House's Twitter Town Hall last week has encouraged me to spend more time reviewing what we know about who is using the 140 character driven social media service. According to a report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project , 13% of Americans now use Twitter (May 2011, up from 8% in November 2010). What's even more interesting is the demographics of who is using Twitter. As Pew reports: Non-white internet users continue to have higher rates of Twitter use than their white counterparts; indeed, the Twitter-adoption gap between African-Americans and whites has increased over the past six months. In November 2010, there was an eight percentage point difference in Twitter use between African-American and white internet users (13% for blacks vs. 5% for whites). By May 2011, that gap was 16 percentage points -- 25% of online African Americans now use Twitter, compared with 9% of such whites. African-American and Latin...

One of the best parts of attending last week's Twitter Town Hall at the White House -- shaking the President's hand. That's me in the black and green!

Today I was one of about 30 "tweeps" in the audience at President Barack Obama's Twitter Town Hall held in the East Room of The White House. For those of you who don't know, the "tweeps" were asked to attend and chronicle the event on Twitter. The session was moderated by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey  and featured questions from average Americans, politicians, and journalists alike -- all that were submitted on Twitter using the #askobama hashtag. My fellow tweeps represented a diverse group -- from PR professionals to public school teachers to bloggers to academics to college students. For my detailed impressions of the event, please check out my live tweets from the session. And for some news on the event itself, here's a summary from Politico . One of the coolest parts (besides shaking the President's hand) was being a part of the audience to watch as Obama sent the first "presidential tweet." Here's a video of this historic occa...

While audience members won't be able to ask questions at tomorrow's Townhall/Tweet-Up, I did take the time to post some questions about the economy and jobs on Twitter using the #askObama hashtag. While I have questions about other issues besides the economy and jobs (same-sex marriage, politics of science, foreign policy, etc.), I'm trying to stay on topic. Here are my questions. It's actually a fun exercise. Try posting your own on Twitter. Just don't forget to add #askObama . amybree   Amy Bree Becker   How do we reform public pensions without going back on promises made to retirees and those already in the system?  # AskObama 3 hours ago   Favorite   Reply   Delete amybree   Amy Bree Becker   How do we educate the new generation and also potentially re-train Boomers for opportunities in science and technology?  # AskObama 3 hours ago   amybree   Amy Bree Becker   How do we stimulate the economy while balancing the ne...

President Obama (@BarackObama) will be hosting the first ever Twitter "Town Hall" at the White House tomorrow. I'll be there as part of the small audience of @WhiteHouse followers for the corresponding Tweet-Up and will be live posting about the afternoon's events in 140 characters or less. You can follow me here: @amybree Jack Dorsey, Twitter's CEO will moderate the conversation. More details from Twitter are available here . The event can be watched live on the Internet starting at 2pm at  http//askobama.twitter.com  or . http://wh.gov/live . In the meantime, don't forget to tweet your questions about the economy and jobs using the #AskObama hash tag on Twitter and follow news about the event via @TownHall.

Will Google+ revolutionize the world of social media with it's promise of increased privacy or will + be just like Buzz and Wave? Anyone out there remember Buzz or Wave? The tech blogs are all talking about + and Gizmodo offers a useful preview of three of Google+ unique features: Circles, Spark, and Hangouts. Also discussed, Google+'s Mobile features. Over at Wired, Steven Levy offers a longer review of the new effort by Google to take a bite out of Facebook when it comes to the world of social networking and the top-secret effort code named "Emerald Sea" that fueled this large-scale, collaborative development. For the non-tech savvy, the NYT  offers a more newsy summary of Google's new effort. For now, those wanting to try out Google+ will need to be invited by a fellow Google user. It will interesting to see whether Google+ can impact the reach of Facebook and/or whether the outcome of Emerald Sea will wash away smaller social networking sites like P...

Frank Bruni offers an interesting take on the same-sex marriage debate in today's New York Times new Sunday Review section. Yes, the same Frank Bruni who was the NYT 's former chief restaurant critic. Bruni stresses how personal connections with gays and lesbians in one's own social circle or network continue to shape the same-sex marriage debate and influence changes in public policy -- most recently in New York State. Bruni writes: " This issue will increasingly transcend partisan politics and hinge less on party affiliation or archaic religious doctrine than on the intimate, everyday dynamics of family and friendship." I think Bruni stresses a very important point and one that is backed up by solid evidence from recent public opinion polls. In a recent article entitled, " New Voters, New Outlook? Predispositions, Social Networks, and the Changing Dynamics of Gay Civil Rights ," published in the June 2011 issue of Social Science Quarterly  wi...