print | email

Farai Chideya

Study Group: All Politics is Social

Mondays, 4:15-5:45pm
L166

“All Politics is Social`” looks at not only the influence of social media and digital platforms on campaigns and elections, but also at the broader sense of what makes politics social. For example, the term “identity politics” has a negative connotation. Yet, as social creatures, many voters do view their politics (regarding party or ideological affiliation) as a core part of their identity.  The interpersonal aspect of politics should never be underestimated as a motivator. The two major parties are well aware of how important face-to-face meetings and social media are to base-building and brand-building. The mix of online and offline organizing that helped build the Tea Party, often using Meetup as a platform for gatherings, offered many people a chance to meet new members of their community and derive comfort from this social space within a political context. The Occupy movement has taken a different form, but also relies on tenets of in-person and online coalition building. Some people plug into parties and movements based purely on politics; some go for the spectacle; some even go to find new friends or even romance. The mix of online and offline engagement that typifies our era will drive election 2012.

In this seminar, we examine what political engagement looks like in the era of social and viral media. We look at the different platforms that can be used to gather information; to disseminate information; reach new demographics; and more deeply engage citizens. We also speak with members of some of the groups leveraging new technology to spread their word.

Study Group Topics and Guests

Seminar One
February 13
Engagement By Any Other Name...

Social media and face-to-face organizing....
The brand-building moments that define parties and movements...
All of this is engagement.

Engaging, activating and persuading voters is a delicate art. Every election, techniques are refined and calibrated by the courtship process between candidates, movements, and voters. Parties dissect voters based on factors from race to income to region. Increasingly, your technology and media patterns are used to track you as well. Whether one is a digital native, a digital immigrant, or a luddite also plays into the ways that politicians and citizen groups try to reach voters.  Social media and the attendant mix of online and offline networking have enabled pop-up protests like Occupy Wall Street to unfold over many weeks; given groups like the Tea Party the ability to sway races; and given new tools and platforms to citizen journalists. As part of our initial conversation about the different mechanisms and approaches to engagement, the seminar will launch and run a group Twitter feed in order to provide a shared, collaborative resource for our work on voter engagement. 

====

Seminar Two
February 27

Motivating Young Voters and the Gamification of Politics
Confirmed guest: Jason Rzepka, Vice President for Public Affairs, MTV

In 1992, MTV started a campaign called “Choose or Lose” to help motivate young Americans to vote. Over time, the music and lifestyle channel was instrumental in advocating for the “Motor Voter” act (the National Voter Registration Act of 1993), and continued to do political programming through MTV News and other platforms.

In recent years, MTV has expanded its work into educational advocacy in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. This year, as part of their election efforts, they launched “Power of 12” (http://powerof12.org), an election year 2012 site that also includes a fantasy football-style game element.

We’ll speak to Jason not just about MTV, but the broader issues of whether a young electorate that was motivated in 2008 will likely return to the polls in strong numbers in 2012, and what factors will shape that.

=====

Seminar Three
March 5
Confirmed guest: Alec Ross
All International Politics is Social

We’d be remiss to take a look at politics, engagement and social media without looking at international issues. The degree to which social media and online/offline networking has been used in a global context has produced some stunning examples of citizen action, from Tahrir Square to the formation and regional win of Berlin’s Pirate Party, which approaches politics with a Wikileaks-style focus on digital freedoms. We sit down with Alec Ross, whose work as the Senior Advisor for Innovation to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has pioneered the field of “digital diplomacy .”

====

Seminar Four
March 19
Confirmed Guest: John Keefe, Senior Editor for Data News & Journalism Technology, New York Public Radio

John Keefe used to run the newsroom at WNYC -- New York Public Radio. Then, he taught himself to code. That opened up an entirely new world of data-driven reporting, including work on politics. The widespread use of social media and mobile platforms offer new ways to track and analyze the electorate... and new concerns about how data is gathered and used. In this election cycle, parties and candidates are buying databases that cross-index behavioral and financial data -- for example, supermarket affinity card data. Few people who sign up for affinity cards have an inkling that their market data could be used to map the electorate, but that’s exactly what’s happening. We’ll take a close look at data mining by the campaigns in 2012 and how it may shape specific races, as well as the tools journalists use to track politicians and voters.

=====
Seminar Five
March 26

Voters Talk Back: New Platforms for Citizen Interaction

Some of the most important moments of campaign 2012 will likely be made and documented by citizen-journalists. But how do you sort through all the information coming online, and -- if you are a producer (say, a videoblogger) -- how do you ensure that people see your work? We take an in-depth, technology-driven look at the vast array of social media tools and which ones offer advantages regarding distribution; information gathering; and engagement.

Voters being observed by the campaigns have their own ways of making themselves heard. A public radio-based system called the Public Information Network, for example, offers people the chance to opt-in to a database that might result in them being interviewed on air. The incentive of being offered a chance to share their opinion seems to overrule privacy concerns. Another way voters talk back is by building themselves into social media powerhouses and interacting with responsive reporters to offer them tips and push back against their assertions. We examine how the multi-directional digital dialogue is reshaping concepts of audience and authority in the campaign context.

====
Seminar Six
April 2
Conundrums of Constituencies
Possible guest: Lisa Replogle, steering committee member and former chair of the Colorado River Tea Party (Southwestern Arizona)

In some quarters, the Tea Party is viewed as integral to the Republican Party. In other quarters, the Tea Party is viewed as problematic to a broader GOP agenda. In 2010, dozens of candidates who belonged to or were endorsed by Tea Party groups won a seat in Congress. Staying true to the movement that helped get them elected has proven difficult for some. How do they stay connected to the social movement that put them in office while adapting to the broader realities of Capitol Hill politics? And what tools help them stay linked to their base?

====
Seminar Seven
April 9
Cause and Context: Using a Personal Brand for Advocacy
Proposed guest: John Legend, musician and education activist  

In order to surface a political issue, it helps to have a personal brand or charisma. Grammy Award-winning musician John Legend has made a commitment to championing education reform, and not just as a photo op. He works with The Education Equality Project, Teach for America, Stand for Children and the Harlem Village Academies and co-chairs the Harlem Village Academies’ National Leadership Board. We will speak with Legend or another individual with a brand in sport, media or entertainment who leverages visibility in a political context. We will examine the ways they use digital and social media to spread the word, and find out how their work affects base-building and political action.

=====
Seminar Eight 
April 16
A Preview of Election 2012
         
How do the engagement practices we’ve studied over these eight weeks change our perspective on Election 2012? How will we be watching the race differently in light of what we’ve learned about citizen action, technology, and media dissemination? As part of our final seminar, we will step into the spotlight and make our own predictions about some of the forces that will affect the Presidential and Congressional races, and have a robust debate on how human-driven, technology-enabled networking will shape our political destiny.