A look at the various media used to reach and inform voters during elections -- as well as the impact of new media and media ownership on elections.
Elections and Media
Study Debunks Social Media, Finds Face-To-Face Dominates Brand Conversations, Albeit Politically
For all the stock that brands and their agencies put on the value of consumer mentions in social media, it actually ranks relatively low among the modes of communication people use to express their sentiment about brands to others.
DeSantis’ new campaign deputy was part of massive anti-net neutrality campaign that used dead people to spam the FCC
A GOP consultant set to be the next deputy campaign manager for presidential hopeful Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) was part of the infamous astroturfing campaign against net neutrality. Ethan Eilon, who Bloomberg reported is being promoted by Gov.
President Joe Biden wanted Gigi Sohn to fix America’s internet — what went wrong?
Nearly 500 days had passed since President Joe Biden first picked Gigi Sohn [Senior Fellow and Public Advocate at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society] to become the third Democrat to the nation’s top telecommunications regulator, and she was nowhere closer to confirmation than when her name was first announced in October 2021.
What Is It That We Want?
Congress is dysfunctional. The courts are a bad and dangerous joke. Independent government agencies are on the cusp of being dismantled. The Administration’s agenda is largely blocked. Companies large and small have pillaged the economy and jacked up prices that impose real pain on American consumers, long after economic circumstances can justify it. The media, which have a solemn obligation to give us real news and information, choose instead to blanket us with infotainment and trifle that divert our attention from the real problems that are undermining our democracy.
How AI will turbocharge misinformation—and what we can do about it
Attention-grabbing warnings of artificial intelligence's existential threats have eclipsed what many experts and researchers say is a much more imminent risk: A near-certain rise in misinformation. The struggle to separate fact from fiction online didn't start with the rise of generative AI — but the red-hot new technology promises to make misinformation more abundant and more compelling. By some estimates, AI-generated content
Threads poses rare threat to Twitter's political monopoly
Meta’s new microblogging app Threads is emerging as a potential threat to Twitter’s lock on politicians and political observers seeking real-time news and debate. Most Twitter competitors have struggled to match the size and bipartisanship of its user base, but Threads is garnering significant participation from both parties.
Expanding Broadband in Portland (OR), The Time Is Now
Our local and regional governments have a responsibility to provide equitable, accessible, and affordable fast-internet service to every home and business—just like electricity, water, and waste removal. Portland (OR) has existing infrastructure that can be used to provide affordable access to fast internet for all Portlanders: a publicly owned dark fiber network used for essential city services—IRNE (Integrated Regional Network Enterprise) Net.
Bidenomics Is Growing South Carolina’s Economy From the Middle Out and Bottom Up
President Biden’s economic agenda—Bidenomics—is growing the American economy from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down. And if most South Carolina Republican Members of Congress had their way, the state would have lost out on over $2.6 billion in infrastructure funding and nearly $1 billion in funding for high-speed internet for South Carolina. Nearly $1 billion in funds were awarded to South Carolina to deliver affordable, high-speed internet to every South Carolinian under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), using Made in America material.
FCC Petition Seeks to Deny Renewal of FOX’s Broadcast License for its Philadelphia Station, WTXF on 30-Month Anniversary of the Capitol Insurrection
The Media and Democracy Project (MAD) filed a petition to deny the broadcast license renewal application for Fox Corp-owned television station FOX 29 Philadelphia (WTXF-TV). MAD filed the objection before the Federal Communications Commission, alleging that senior management of Fox Corporation (FOX) manipulated its audience by knowingly broadcasting false news about the 2020 election. Its intentional and chronic news distortion further divided the country, sowing discord that was a contributing factor to the attack on our nation's Capitol on January 6, 2021.