Jennifer Stromer-Galley, a professor at Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies, has joined WCNY’s Ivory Tower as a regular panelist. The weekly current event news show features a roundtable discussion between university faculty from across Central New York.
Stromer-Galley brings her expertise in social media, politics and digital communication to the panel discussions.
“I was excited by the invitation because I enjoy sharing insights with the broader public,” she said. “I worry that our information environment is increasingly saturated with false and misleading information. As an academic and active researcher, I feel I have a duty to share what I know with the broader public. I see it as part of my teaching mission.”
With the U.S. elections nearing, Stromer-Galley has been researching campaigns and finding ways to help the public think about how social media platforms and the internet affect daily life. She is no stranger to politics and previously published an award-winning book, “Presidential Campaigning in the Internet Age” (Oxford University Press, 2019, 2nd Ed.).
“I want to encourage us to think about the current digital public sphere and ways to make it better,” she said. “Now that I’ve done the show three times, I realize that it is asking me to stretch my expertise beyond national politics and internet policy to local and state politics more actively. I am enjoying researching current events happening at the state and local level and contributing my insights to central New York.”
Barbara Fought, a substitute host of Ivory Tower and Professor Emerita at Syracuse’s Newhouse School of Public Communications, asked Stromer-Galley to join the show.
“She has great energy and enthusiasm, and that comes across well on camera,” Fought said. “I was enchanted that she was doing social media research on the presidential election.”
After watching Stromer-Galley’s first show, Fought knew she made the right decision.
“Sometimes a new panelist is shy, but she just jumped right in and had strong points to make on her very first show,” Fought said. “The panelists like having intelligent and civil conversations and often don’t agree, but they try to model civil disagreement. We all like learning new topics, and sometimes what we learn will relate to something we teach.”
Stromer-Galley joins two other Syracuse professors who are panelists on the show, Sarah Pralle, an associate professor at the Maxwell School, and Lisa Dolak, a professor at the College of Law.
The show is hosted by David Chanatry, a professor of journalism at Utica University.