Center for Communication and Civic Renewal (CCCR)

Dhavan Shah, Maier-Bascom Professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication has been named the Jack M. McLeod Professor of Communication Research through the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) Named Professorship award. The WARF named professorship …

With the growth of the Center for Communication and Civic Renewal (CCCR) from working groups within the MCRC — specifically, Civic Culture and Contentious Politics and Consumer Culture and Civic Participation (CCCP) — into a free-standing …

The Center for Communication and Civic Renewal explores the relationship between partisan media use and social distancing behavior related to COVID-19.

A new UW-Madison report has found that 27% of Wisconsin Republicans and 14% of Wisconsin Democrats reside in partisan bubbles, where they do not regularly hear opposing perspectives in news or political conversations.

A new report from the Center for Communication and Civic Renewal found deep fractures in Wisconsin political life as well as political common ground and opportunities for civic renewal.

New article “Ideology and COVID-19 Vaccination Intention: Perceptual Mediators and Communication Moderators” in the Journal of Health Communication from the Center for Communication and Civic Renewal. Abstract Widespread COVID-19 vaccination is critical to slow the spread of …

The award will allow researchers to further develop Course Correct, a precision tool providing journalists with guidance against misinformation. MADISON, Wis. – A team of researchers that developed Course Correct, a tool to help journalists …

New book “Battleground: Asymmetric communication ecologies and the erosion of civil society in Wisconsin” from authors in the Center for Communication and Civic Renewal, including Lew Friedland, Dhavan Shah, Mike Wagner, Kathy Cramer, Chris Wells …

At their 72nd Annual Conference in Paris France, the International Communication Association (ICA) awarded its B. Aubrey Fisher Mentorship Award to SJMC Maier-Bascom Professor Dhavan Shah. Since 1988, the B. Aubrey Fisher Award has been …

New article “Spatial Polarization, Partisan Climate, and Participatory Actions: Do Congenial Contexts Lead to Mobilization, Resignation, Activation, or Complacency?” in Political Behavior from the Center for Communication and Civic Renewal. Abstract With increasing evidence on deepening …

New article “Political Events in a Partisan Media Ecology: Asymmetric Influence on Candidate Appraisals” in Mass Communication and Society from the Center for Communication and Civic Renewal. Abstract Political campaigns often feature jarring revelations against candidates. …

New article “Breaking the “Virtuous Circle”: How Partisan Communication Flows Can Erode Social Trust but Drive Participation” in Human Communication Research from the Center for Communication and Civic Renewal. Abstract We examine how individuals’ interactions with …

New article “Reactive and Asymmetric Communication Flows: Social Media Discourse and Partisan News Framing in the Wake of Mass Shootings” in The International Journal of Press/Politics from the Center for Communication and Civic Renewal. Abstract Marked …

At the American Political Science Association’s 2021 Annual Meeting, alum Yini Zhang (PhD’20) received the Thomas E. Patterson Best Dissertation Award from the Political Communication section for her dissertation “A Network Approach to Understanding Public …

A team of researchers has received a $750,000 grant from the NSF’s Convergence Accelerator to study methods of combating misinformation online.

New article “Polarization Over Vaccination: Ideological Differences in Twitter Expression About COVID-19 Vaccine Favorability and Specific Hesitancy Concerns” in the journal Social Media + Society from the Center for Communication and Civic Renewal.

New article “Free and Fair? The Differential Experiences of Voting Barriers and Voting Policies in American Midterm Elections” in the International Journal of Public Opinion Research from the Center for Communication and Civic Renewal (CCCR). Abstract: …

In the new article “Understanding Trump Supporters’ News Use: Beyond the Fox News Bubble” in the journal The Forum, the Center for Communication and Civic Renewal (CCCR) group finds that many Trump supporters’ media consumption tends to be more omnivorous than solely Fox News.

In the new article “News Media Use, Talk Networks and Anti-Elitism Across Geographic Location: Evidence from Wisconsin” in the journal International Journal of Press/Politics, the Center for Communication and Civic Renewal (CCCR) group explores media consumption behaviors based on an individual’s geographic place.

In the new article “News Attention and Social Distancing Behavior Amid COVID-19: How Media Trust and Social Norms Moderate a Mediated Relationship” in the journal Health Communication, the Center for Communication and Civic Renewal (CCCR) …

With information about COVID-19 rapidly circulating online, it can be difficult to determine what’s true and what’s not. Social media has made it even easier for misinformation and disinformation to spread unchecked. Knowing whether a …

The University of Wisconsin has a long tradition of quality education, strong community and dedicated service. These principles are all key to the Wisconsin Idea: that education should influence people’s lives beyond the boundaries of …

The Center for Communication and Civic Renewal (CCCR) has a new article published in the International Journal of Public Opinion Research titled “Do Improving Conditions Harden Partisan Preferences? Lived Experiences, Imagined Communities, and Polarized Evaluations”. The article was published in January 2020.

Researchers in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have been awarded a $1 million grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to establish the Center for …

The website featuring the collection of presentations and reflections on communication and populism from our “Communication, Populism, and the Crisis of Democracy” conference is now available (link to website).  In Spring 2018, the Civic Culture and …

What makes Wisconsin a Swing State, and what causes it to swing to the right or the left? Mike Wagner, Jiyoun Suk, and others working as part of the Civic Culture and Contentious Politics (CCCP) …

Members of the Civic Culture and Contentious Politics research team published an op-ed about how Wisconsinites of both parties want nonpartisan redistricting. As the piece notes, “Legislative redistricting is one of the most important — and …

The Civic Culture and Contentious Politics (CCCP) was awarded a total of $272,000 in additional grants for their research on “Communication Ecologies, Political Contention, and the Crisis of Democracy” from the Hewlett Foundation, Journal Foundation, …

Katherine Cramer, MCRC Senior Fellow, and Benjamin Toff, former SMAD member, received the Heinz Eulau Award for the best article published in Perspectives on Politics in 2017 for “The Fact of Experience: Rethinking Political Knowledge and Civic Competence” (Perspectives …

University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication scholars were rewarded in April for their cutting-edge research examining how the growing polarization and fragmentation in the Wisconsin media ecology, as reflected in talk radio, …

The Civic Culture and Contention Politics Group, with support from the UW’s Center for European Studies, hosted an international symposium and workshop entitled “Communication, Populism, and the Crisis of Democracy.” The symposium explored how democracies …