Networked politics

Daniel Kreiss is looking at a busy election season as he investigates what’s different about 2012.

“For one thing, a lot more people are writing in public about elections,” Kreiss said.

Kreiss, an assistant professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, is an expert on the use of new media during election campaigns.

At the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, Kreiss will document work by a nonpartisan group called The PPL that will provide a media infrastructure for bloggers, citizen journalists and independent media to report from the convention. Kreiss will be on the ground interviewing the writers about audience, their roles in the media ecosystem and the tools they use.

“If you don’t have access to the press room, how do you write about the convention? We’re trying to figure out if the stories and narratives they’re producing are qualitatively different from what the professional press is producing,” he explained.

Kreiss is also planning to work on a project with ProPublica, a nonprofit investigative journalism organization, to dissect the process of targeted online ads and give voters an opportunity to see ads sparked by their data profiles.

He said it was important to be aware of these practices, think critically and turn to trusted sources.

“The Internet is not only embedded in the fabric of our lives, it is fast becoming the central way that we act and express ourselves as democratic citizens,” Kreiss said.

“We all share the responsibility to make sure that we can have robust and inclusive political participation and debate.”

Read more about Kreiss, his research and his book.

Listen to Kreiss on NPR’s OnPoint talking about political advertising.

Kreiss also gave a lecture on new media in campaigns as a part of the Humanities in Action 2012 Election Series, hosted by the UNC’s Program in Humanities and Human Values and taped by C-SPAN.

Published August 29, 2012.