The Center for Communication and Democracy was founded in 2001. The Center conducts research, analyzes policy, and conducts practical experiments on the ways that communication can strengthen democracy and civil society in the U.S. and around the world. The global communication ecology is constantly and rapidly changing with effects on nations, regions, states, and communities.

Our core questions are:
• Do new communications ecologies support or erode democracy and in what ways?
• How can we model and understand democratic communication at multiple levels?
• What are the information needs of American communities the new environment and how can they best be addressed?
• What practical experiments in new forms of democratic communication are taking place at local levels and which work best?
• How does democratic communication in the U.S. differ from other nations?

Center Directors:

Lewis A. Friedland, Director
Hernando Rojas, Associate Director

Center Associates:

Katherine Cramer, Senior Associate
Lucas Graves, Associate
Young Mie Kim, Associate
Lindsay Palmer, Associate
Zhongdang Pan, Senior Associate
Sue Robinson, Associate
Dhavan V. Shah, Senior Associate
Michael W. Wagner, Associate
Christopher Wells, Associate
Michael Xenos, Senior Associate