Sunday, April 19
Pavilion 11 | 8:30 AM – 5:15 PM
Research Symposium: Political Communication, Culture and Society
This year’s research symposium, which focuses on the very expansive concept of political communication, is designed to shed light on the processes, contents, and effects related to myriad forms and vehicles of political communication. Whether involving legacy media, print or broadcast media, new and social media platforms, or face-to-face discussions, political communication today has shaped how we understand the world around us, our place in it, and ultimately, how we engage with it politically and socioculturally. In other words, political communication implicates not only “politics” with a capital P, but also “politics” with a lower-case p.
Research Symposium Chair: Patricia Moy, University of Washington

8:30 – 9:30 AM:                                Opening Keynote
Trevor Tompson, Director, The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research

9:45 AM – 10:45 AM:      Social Media, Politics, and Society
Panelists: Carlos Eduardo Back Vianna, University of Colorado Boulder; What drives online engagement? The role of incivility and news values on partisan media Facebook pages

Pranav Malhotra, University of Washington; Fashela Jailanee, Republic Polytechnic; Richard Ling, Nanyang Technological University; R(e)-veiling the Hijab: Social Media, Islamic Fashion, and Religious Identity in Singapore

Amanda Sturgill, Elon University; Humans vs. Robots:  Enacting and Fighting the Spiral of Silence with the AltGov Movement on Twitter

11:00 AM – 12:00 PM:    Us vs. Them, Us and Them
Panelists: Andrea Hickerson, University of South Carolina; Communication behaviors and political and civic action on migration: An analysis of refugee resettlement organization volunteers

Rico Neumann, University of Washington; US media portrayals of intergroup relations

Michelle M. Ouellette, State University of New York College at Plattsburgh; Rachael Jurek, University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee; Politics, Anger and Twitter During an Immigration Influx: A Content Analysis of Montreal-area Immigration Tweets before the 2018 Elections

12:00 – 12:30 PM:            Break and Exhibit Hall Digital Poster Session
Hasan Karademir, The American in the Cairo; Manatalah Soliman, The American University in Cairo; Aya Saleh, The American University in Cairo; Heba Helmy, The American University in Cairo; Sandy Philip, The American University in Cairo; The Portrayal of Palestinian Characters in the Israeli Drama Fauda

12:30 PM – 1:30 PM:       Journalistic Practices and Portrayals
Panelists: Kathleen Beckers, University of Antwerp; “The People are Angry”. Public Opinion Inferences in Broadcast and Print News

Maria Elizabeth Len-Rios, University of Georgia; Journalistic Reporting of a Politician’s Racially Insensitive Comments:  An Examination of Rules for Social Acceptability and Perceptions of Journalistic Bias

Ivanka Pjesivac, University of Georgia; Lindita Camaj, University of Huston; Marginalization by Language: Discursive practices of Public Service Media in Serbia and Montenegro during Coverage of Anti-Governmental Protests 2018-2019

1:45 PM – 2:45 PM:         The Art of the Game: Polling, Elections, and Social Media
This election season, polls and social media will be more important, influential, and widespread than ever within political coverage. In this panel, we will interrogate how campaigns and the public use social media and polling to understand the 2020 campaign. The panelists consider how social media is used to critique presidential imagery, interrogate the idea that not all polls are created equal, and explore the ramifications of social media on the future of democracy.
Moderator: David Staton, University of Northern Colorado
Panelists: Jay DeDaper, Marist Poll Director of Innovation; Marist Poll Academy
Kathleen Ryan, University of Colorado Boulder; Baby is a Trump Supporter: Presidential Visits as Campaign Ops
Kathleen Stansberry, Elon University; Internet Use and the Future of Democracy

3:00 PM – 4:00 PM:         Political Communication, Culture and Society
Panelists: Ginger Blackstone, Harding University; The ‘Missing Middle’: Characteristics and News Media Habits of Independents and Moderates in a Time of Perceived Political Polarization

Rik Ray, Bowling Green State University; Yanqin Lu, Bowling Green State University; U.S. Television news coverage of the U.S. – China trade war: Partisan media vs. non-partisan media

Nancy C. Cornwell, Montana State University; Meiklejohn, Protection of Political Expression, and Singapore’s Fake News Law. A Workable Solution to Fake News or Restriction on Political Expression?

4:15 PM – 5:15 PM:         Closing Keynote
Kathleen Frankovic, Elections and Polling Consultant; retired CBS News Director of Surveys and Elections Producer