Congrats to Andrew and Teresa

Congrats to Andrew Hayes and Teresa Myers for receiving a $2000 research grant in the open competition recently held by the Mass Communication & Society division of AEJMC. Their project will examine the interaction between state-level variation in media reports of deaths in Iraq and news attention as predictors of variations in public opinion toward the war.

Fei "Chris" Shen wins MC&S Top Student Paper Award!

I learned today that Chris Shen has won the Mass Communication & Society division of AEJMC's Top Student Paper Award. His paper, which discusses what he calls "intra-media interactions," will be presented at AEJMC in August. Congratulations Chris for helping keep our COPS streak of award-winning AEJMC papers alive for four (or is it five, Andrew) straight years!!!

Westhoff: A Fatal Drifting Apart

A Fatal Drifting Apart

Democratic Social Knowledge and Chicago Reform

Laura M. Westhoff

The eyes of the country frequently turned to Chicago during the 1890s as the Windy City struggled with the promises and challenges of urban democracy. Americans of all classes feared the social dislocations and economic divisions of urbanization and industrialization, and the effects of political corruption and massive immigration on democratic politics. Yet many reformers were hopeful that new forms of social knowledge and urban reform could reinvigorate democracy. They saw the moment as one of great possibility.

A Fatal Drifting Apart: Democratic Social Knowledge and Chicago Reform explores the efforts of diverse groups within Chicago during the Progressive Era. This backdrop of industrialization, emerging classes, and ethnic and racial pluralism frequently riven with class conflict set the stage on which Chicago reformers took up the seemingly impossible challenge of enacting democracy. Laura M. Westhoff examines historic events and well-known individuals of the period and brings them together in an unusual framework that offers a new perspective on the reorientation of knowledge, civic identity, and democratic culture at the dawn of the twentieth century, which she terms democratic social knowledge. The book raises important questions that continue to resonate: In a democracy, who has the power to define social problems and offer solutions, and whose experience and knowledge are seen as legitimate?

http://www.ohiostatepress.org

Paper for my COPS presentation

Here is my paper from the recent Midwest Political Science Association meeting. I'll be discussing this during the June 1st episode of COPS. I'd be glad to receive comments.