Disrupted Models of Mediated Political Communication

• In Event: Communication and Technology, and the Synthesis of Mass and Interpersonal Communication Processes

Abstract

There is a long tradition of research at the University of Wisconsin on the role of conversation as a key catalyst for community integration, a focal mediator of media influence on participatory outcomes, and an important source of expression effects of message producers themselves, especially in an era of social media.  However, changes in the media system, political environment, and electoral campaigning demand that these “Wisconsin School” approaches be revised or replaced to account for growing media convergence, partisan polarization, and social contention in contemporary media-politics.  Accordingly, we propose a revised set of models that continue to emphasize the centrality of talk in democratic life, both face-to-face and online, while considering how the mediational and self-reflective processes that fostered participatory convergence might also sow the seeds of partisan divergence, social distrust, and community cleavages, disrupting rather than enhancing democratic functioning.

Authors

• Dhavan Shah, U of Wisconsin, Madison

• Jaeho Cho, U of California - Berkeley

• Lewis A. Friedland, U of Wisconsin - Madison

• Douglas M. McLeod, U of Wisconsin-Madison

• Hernando Rojas, University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Michael W. Wagner, U of Wisconsin-Madison