New V-Dem data release dropped yesterday. For the first time, V-Dem identifies Trump-era United States as an autocratization episode. Here are 3 of V-Dem's indices for the full scope of U.S. constitutional history. Description of these indices in alt text.

New 📄 out in @icsjournal.bsky.social "Safety work repertoires and dating platforms: how users of Tinder and Bumble manage their safety" Link: doi.org/10.1080/1369... Thread for more details 🔽

This is such an excellent book and a veritable who's-who of #PolComm scholarship, full of prescient observations on the role of journalism, data, race / social identities, and new forms of networked mobilization in the current state of US crisis... Put it on your syllabi/reading lists!

As our government seeks to erase the truth of five years ago, I am deeply grateful for all those researchers whose words shine with such clarity in our Media and January 6th @oxfordunipress.bsky.social book: global.oup.com/academic/pro...

🚨NEW PAPER The Logic of Connective Faction: How Digitally Networked Elites and Hyper-Partisan Media Radicalize Politics w/ @yunkangyang.bsky.social & @mikecowburn.bsky.social Online radicalization doesn't just affect the public. It also reshapes how elites & parties behave. doi.org/10.1080/1058...

🚨New pub alert!🚨 Now available open-access in @journal-of-comm.bsky.social, we (w/ @dkreiss.bsky.social, @danlane.bsky.social, & @shannimcg.bsky.social) critique political communication's "Identity Turn" and offer instead a foundation for studying #polcomm from a *group* perspective. 🧵

That’s the second empirical study I’ve seen this week that does an excellent job w/ right-wing radicalizing discourse. The other is this study on anti-immigration in France which is fantastic (and I’m not only saying that b/c they cited my and @dkreiss.bsky.social’s work on “defensive publics”)

My piece has been published in PNAS today!!! "The importance of local racial demographic changes in democratic erosion in the mass American public" www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10.... A few takeaways...

I wrote a piece about the tsunami of health #disinformation being supercharged by the #MAHA takeover of HHS, and interviewed @dkreiss.bsky.social for his perspective on information warfare #publichealth #medsky www.orangedems.com/disinformati... and www.orangedems.com/interview-da...

UNC Chapel Hill has reinstated Prof. Dwayne Dixon. Rather than conduct a threat assessment of a faculty member based on spurious accusations, UNC should conduct an assessment of its own administration's threat to First Amendment rights and academic freedom. @aaup.org www.wral.com/news/local/u...

Literally the authoritarian playbook: 1. Call your opponents terrorists. 2. Deploy state power against them. There's nothing subtle or confusing or complex about what's happening. The *outcome* is uncertain but the authoritarianism is right out in the open.

Peddling polarization is very lucrative for universities.

What a great way to start the week! My new article is now published in ‪‪@polcommjournal.bsky.social‬! 🎉 This study holds a special place for me, capturing the core of my dissertation. I am so excited to finally share this work. Check out the article here: www.tandfonline.com/eprint/55HRJ...

We have a 🚨 new open access paper 🚨 with @polcommjournal.bsky.social We show how platforms can simultaneously concentrate and fragment political power. We analysed Italy's Five Star Movement across 5 platforms to understand multi-platform dynamics in political organisations. doi.org/10.1080/1058...

What a wonderful institution and honor to present in front of so many amazing scholars.

Hooray! The 31st Issue of the #PolComm Report is out! What a fantastic lineup @igoncalves.com was able to assemble for the topic of "Teaching PolComm" 🤩 Khadijah Costley White, @kcoe.bsky.social & Diana Zulli, Regina Cazzamatta, Matthew Powers, & @sangjung-kim.bsky.social (& her students).

New article from John C. Stanko in Political Communication bridging IR and CP explores how populist autocrats use international status recognition to improve legitimacy at home. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

If you work in higher-ed, please read this interview with @dkreiss.bsky.social. I believe the types of public signals to the sector he points to here have direct ramifications beyond the US.

Fantastic and timely intervention by the indispensable Dave Pozen on the true meaning of the Columbia shakedown for higher ed: replacing the rule of law with regulation by deal, which ultimately undermines both regulation and education. balkin.blogspot.com/2025/07/regu...

Big thanks to always smart & thoughtful friend & colleague @dkreiss.bsky.social for so clearly articulating how Trump’s attacks on Higher Ed harm this country. Read the full interview. www.insidehighered.com/news/governm...

The entire Open Access book is now available for FREE download here: academic.oup.com/book/60493

✨NEW OA CHAPTER ALERT✨ “In-Groups and Outrage: How Narratives and Affect Shape Digital Surrogate Networks and Radicalize Right-Wing Parties” @ulrikeklinger.bsky.social and I explore the case of the German party “Alternative für Deutschland” (#AfD), which has moved increasingly to the far right. 🧵⤵

ONLINE FIRST! This article by Allie Kosterich, @adamsaffer.bsky.social, Matthew S. Weber, and @dkreiss.bsky.social introduces “network histories” as a method to analyze how prior relationships influence digital journalism’s people, teams, and organizations. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

🚨 CCCR has a new survey report out today! 🚨 "100 Days Under Trump: Public Reactions to Attacks on American Governance & Institutions" The report draws on our Apr/May YouGov panel survey of US adults, following our Oct 2024 survey w/ recontacts + a sample refresh. 1/ cccr.wisc.edu/wp-content/u...

✨NEW BOOK CHAPTER OUT✨ The Phantom Counter-Public: Liberal Responsiveness to Far-right Information Networks as the Next Crisis of Public Communication. doi.org/10.1007/978-... In: Coleman et al.: Public Communication in Freefall: Revisiting the Work of Jay Blumler. 🧵⤵️

The call for papers for the APSA Political Communication Preconference in Vancouver is now open! Together with @ashleymuddiman.bsky.social and @patyrossini.bsky.social, we're thrilled to invite your submissions. 📅: May 25th, 2025, 11.59pm PDT (GMT-7) More information: u.osu.edu/apsa2025/

🔹The call is directed to grad students, postdocs & early career scholars. 🔗Full information: politicalcommunication.org/ica-division... 🔹Submission: 300-word abstract of your paper that outlines the research questions/hypothesis ✨Keynote Speaker: @dkreiss.bsky.social #ICA #Polcomm

📢 Call for Abstracts The ICA Polcomm is happy to be sponsoring the Second Delhi School Workshop on Political Communication 🗓️ July 30 – Aug 1, 2025 | 📍 New Delhi Deadline: May 23 The school broadens the field beyond US and European focus. 🧵👇

Posting for no particular reason. global.oup.com/academic/pro... #commsky #VOA

PSA: When entering the US, Custom & Border Protection officers may "search a traveler’s mobile phone, computer, camera, or other electronic devices during the inspection process" in a way that "allows for the examination of the device and its contents" Details in link ⬇️ www.cbp.gov/travel/cbp-s...

I have a new article @icsjournal.bsky.social on the ways gov-tech firms try to reshape public services—turning public data into private assets and redefining state capacity—and use capture, rather than surveillance, as a guiding principle. www.tandfonline.com/eprint/EBNZK...

American higher education now faces a perfect storm of demoralization, defunding, and delegitimization​. These attacks are not random or isolated; they follow a classic authoritarian playbook, and go beyond ordinary policy disagreements and have become an existential threat to the academic sector.

Absolutely superb and important piece by Professors @stevelevitsky.bsky.social and @ryanenos.bsky.social The only way to fight authoritarianism is to fight together. Strongest institutions in the front. www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

IU's Observatory on Social Media defends citizens from online manipulation – the opposite of censorship osome.iu.edu/research/blo...

🤝
WHEN WE’RE IN CHARGE: The Next Generation’s Guide to Leadership 🤝

is now available for pre-order & will be out on May 13!! It's a book for & about millennials & gen Z on how we can break the cycle of bad boomer leadership to make everyone’s lives a little bit better. whenwereincharge.com

#newPub #openAccess #academicSky #commSky Delighted to see this article finally published in Social Media + Society. #StopAsianHate as Hashtag #Activism: Provocateurs, Celebrities, and #Fan Practices of Collective Action Against #Racism journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.... Key findings 🧵👇🏽

CITAP, in collaboration with Marie Heřmanová (@mariher.bsky.social) & Kristóf Szombati, presents a very timely and important reading list: "Authoritarian Politics: How to Understand It and How to Resist It." ...🧵 citap.unc.edu/wp-content/u...

🚨New Publications🚨 In Journalism Studies, @amnadler.bsky.social and I argue that right-wing news is competing with journalism over the cultural authority to tell the “true” story of public life. For journalism scholars and practitioners alike, a🧵(1/6) doi.org/10.1080/1461...

Very much looking forward to welcome @dkreiss.bsky.social to Edinburgh!

Join us on 6 February for an insightful talk and discussion on "How Platforms Fail Democracy" with visiting Professor Daniel Kreiss from the University of North Carolina. 🎙️ Speaker: @dkreiss.bsky.social 📖 Book your space here: edin.ac/4iI52Og

💡->🔬->📝->📄->📘 Our study on "Framing Cascades in #Far-right Digital Networks" now has an issue! 🧵⤵️ #polcomm #commsky Knüpfer, C., & Hoffmann, M. (2024). Countering the “Climate Cult” – Framing Cascades in Far-Right Digital Networks. Political Communication, 42(1), 85–107. doi.org/10.1080/1058...

NEW PUB with Lee McGuigan! 🎉 We the Consumers: The Conservative “Parallel Economy” as Reactionary Commodity Activism ijoc.org/index.php/ij...

New article in Journal of Communication looking at changes to trust in news across 46 countries in the last 10 years. Trust in news declined in just over half of countries. It decreased more in countries where TV news use has declined, and/or where social media news use has grown. A thread:

Thanks to the Republican Congress, and a tsunami of lies from Musk and others, the only US agency dedicated to tracking and exposing Russian and Chinese propaganda around the world ceases to exist www.france24.com/en/live-news...

✨Out now: The Fall Issue (Nr. 30) of the Political Communication Report!✨ “What does PolComm Stand for? Normative Dimensions of Political Communication Research & Theorizing” 📖 Full issue: politicalcommunication.org/issue/fall-2... A 🧵 on the essays featured in this issue:

New in PolCom, Maki, Mann & I propose + offer evidence for a new category of election coverage we call *voting process coverage* (VPC); importantly, we find this type of coverage is not just prevalent, but drowns out game frame coverage in lead-up to Election Day www.tandfonline.com/eprint/JFBIF...

Incredibly important and rigorously researched book that is sadly all too timely. A must read for anyone who cares about democratic backsliding and media capture cc: @polcomm.bsky.social @icajsd.bsky.social

THREAD: How easy would it be to turn Voice of America into state controlled media? I wrote a book about this with @martinscott2010.bsky.social @melbunce.bsky.social, focusing on what happened to #VOA during the last #Trump administration.