Myiah Hutchens, University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications Public Relations assistant professor, served as co-author of two articles published recently in two national communication journals.

“Evaluating Summary Measures of Heterogeneous Political Discussion: The Critical Roles of Excluded Cases and Discussion with People Holding Extreme Views” was published in Communication Methods and Measure Journal, Volume 12, 2018 – Issue 4. Hutchens, and co-authors William Eveland, Alyssa Morey and Anand Sokhey, studied political discussions among participants with extreme views.

The study addressed whether interacting with a wide variety of people is good for democracy or not, with some studies finding positive effects and others negative effects.  In particular, the debate surrounds whether talking with a variety of individuals who are somehow different from you will be associated with you participating in politics more or less. The study finds that how you count those different individuals explains the conflicting result and that discussion with people you label as having extreme views is a primary driver behind finding positive effects of political discussion.

In addition, the article “300 Million Clicks and Political Engagement via Facebook in the 2016 American Presidential Election: How Online Activity Changes Across Time and Sources,” was published in Mass Communication and Society Journal, Volume 21, 2018 – Issue 6: Media Theory and the 2016 U.S. Election.

Hutchins, and co-authors David Silva, Rebecca Donaway and Michael Beam, focus on new content distribution through social media platforms where citizens respond and react to cues about the importance of events or stories. Through the collection and analysis of all posts and their metadata from eight prominent Facebook pages, this study tracks the changes in Facebook users’ engagement over the course of the 2016 campaign.

Posted: October 24, 2018
Category: College News
Tagged as: Myiah Hutchens