The final installment of the Social Media & Democracy seminar series co-sponsored by the School of Information Studies and the Newhouse School of Public Communication will examine the impact of social media on the 2018 midterm elections.

The event will be held Nov. 14 at 6 p.m. in the Joyce Hergenhan Auditorium, Newhouse 3. Follow the discussion on Twitter at #SUSocialDemocracy.

Jennifer Grygiel, assistant professor of communications at the Newhouse School, will serve as moderator.

Panelists are:

Jessica Baldwin-Philippi

Baldwin-Philippi is an assistant professor of communication and media studies at Fordham University. She teaches about and researches civic media and political communication, and is interested in how citizens’ engagement with new technologies can restructure forms of political participation and ideas about citizenship. She has approached this area of study from a variety of political contexts—from the use of social media by political campaigns, to games designed to increase participation, to the innovation efforts of municipal governments.

Arvind Diddi

Diddi is a professor of journalism and mass communication at SUNY Oswego. He teaches introductory and advanced news writing and reporting courses, history of American journalism and mass media research methods. Diddi’s research areas include news media coverage of U.S. presidential campaigns, news media bias, news media framing, media sociology and news media use. He has been published in peer-reviewed mass communication journals and presented nearly 20 conference papers. He worked as a news reporter for six years before entering academe.

Jon Keegan ’95

Keegan is a visual journalist who writes code and words and visualizes data. An alumnus of Syracuse’s College of Visual and Performing Arts, he worked as a freelance illustrator for many years. Keegan spent 18 years at ​The Wall Street Journal, where he ran the interactive graphics team, made graphics and built news applications, including the award-winning “Blue Feed, Red Feed,” which visualized political polarization on Facebook. He spent the past 18 months as a senior research fellow at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University. 

The Social Media & Democracy seminar series has explored how social media is influencing the current political climate in the U.S. The two previous seminars examined fake news and online influence, and activism in the digital age.

Communication Access Real-time Translation (CART) services will be available. For more information or if you require additional accommodations, contact Jon Glass at jnglass@syr.edu.