Rebuilding Civic Communities: Editorial

In previous weeks we’ve discussed the decline of civic engagement and social connectedness.  But how can we rebuild those civic communities? Can we continue to rebuild them while we are encouraged to stay at home and distance ourselves from others?  This week our class blog posts aim to discuss rebuilding those civic communities and its …

Religion and Civic Engagement

In Bowling Alone, Robert D. Putnam writes about the role of church and black communities. Putnam writes, “The black religious tradition distinctively encourages mixing religion and community affairs and invigorates civic activism.” Religion within black communities have been encouraging engagement within their communities and other civic affairs. Recently, the 2020 Census survey was sent out …

The Decline of Social Trust in America

Trust is declining in America, especially in government, and even each other. Robert D. Putnam in Bowling Alone attributes the change in social trust as one of the many reasons for the lack of community and civic engagement. Social scientists have examined social trust over time. In an effort to measure trust over time, social …

Can Social Media Have a Negative Relationship with Civic Engagement?

Social media is a key element in civic engagement because it can be a powerful resource for people to share information. However, there are aspects of social media that create a negative relationship between social media and civic engagement. According to the Circle’s report, echo chambers and lack of digital media literacy are two factors that …

Media Literacy for Customized News

What is Customized News? Image from TheDrum.com We are consuming customized news everyday thanks to algorithms. Many of us may not even be aware of our customized consumption of news. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are social network platforms that deliver customized news, but they are not the only ones. Screenshot from Homepage of Apple News …

The Impact of Google on Journalism

Illustration by Alvaro Dominguez; Photograph via Getty Images Google is one of the largest companies in America, and it’s no surprise that it would have an impact on journalism today. There are both positives and negatives to Google’s impact on journalism. Google’s AdSense is one tool that has impacted journalism. AdSense is a way for …