Center for Communication and Democracy

The Center for Communication and Democracy is a global think tank that contributes to our understanding of the role of communication in promoting and sustaining democracy in different political contexts. We are convinced that solid democracies depend on communication geared towards solving collective problems and that communication technologies can play a vital role in problem-solving. The center studies how citizens use communications technologies to advance democratic discussion and civic participation and explores how the civic sector can engage governments and markets to build and sustain a vibrant public sphere. The center is housed in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

News

Center for Communication and Democracy fellows Macau Mak, Mengyu Li & Hernando Rojas, published an article in Social Media + Society entitled Social Media and Perceived Political Polarization: Role of Perceived Platform Affordances, Participation in Uncivil Political Discussion, and Perceived Others’ Engagement, that argues that users’ perceptions of platform affordances influence both (a) their self-participation in uncivil political discussion on social media and (b) perceptions of others’ engagement, which eventually shape their perceptions of polarization.

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