News/Research

Alum Jen Schradie on Conservatives' Use of Social Media to Move Their Agendas

25 Jun, 2019

Alum Jen Schradie on Conservatives' Use of Social Media to Move Their Agendas

Jen Schradie's brilliant book The Revolution That Wasn't: How Digital Activism Favors Conservatives continues to be relevant and on May 17th she published an adapted excerpt in Newsweek in the article "Conservatives Use Social Media to Move Their Agendas Much More Than Liberals Do."

In the article, Schradie goes back to her research in North Carolina where, while the world was touting the online organization of left-leaning social movements, she uncovered a tighlty organized and focused conservative online presence.

From the article:

It's clear that most right-wing groups in my study were using the internet more than left-wing groups. Can this be explained by only one of the three factors I examine: class, ­­organization or ideology? The ­answer, of course, is no. Instead, what I began to see is that several of these factors, when combined, would amplify the effect of the others. These factors build on each other and further ­widen the digital activism gap.

Read the full article here!