Sports and Politics: The challenge of rebranding community ownership of a business as Packerism
By Alan J. Kellner, PhD Candidate in Political Science and Instructor in Chicago Field Studies, Northwestern University I few years ago I was walking with my parents through the newly constructed Titletown District in Green Bay, Wisconsin, a community development...
What if Tom Brady took a knee? And why Colin Kaepernick is still out of a job after five years
By Jonathan Finn, Professor of Communication Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University The 2021-22 NFL season is underway and Colin Kaepernick is still out of a job. It has been more than five years since he took a knee during the national anthem and in so doing further...
Outrage Industrial Complex: Research shows that polarized political discourse is actually addictive
The sharp contours of our political landscape are such that we daily, even hourly, find ourselves set off by some passing comment, tweet, or news account and sent spiraling down into the valley of contempt for them, those who incredulously choose to live on the other...
Racine’s partisan ploy: Why proposed criminal charges against election officials is a political smear tactic
Racine County Sheriff Christopher Schmaling’s recommendation of criminal charges against five Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) officials, stemming from sensationalized allegations about “possible” voting fraud in a Racine County nursing home and “possible”...
Wisconsin police departments struggle to find and retain officers after public calls for accountability
Wisconsin police departments were already struggling to draw and keep officers, and calls for accountability have made it even harder. Like many people across the country, Lauren Phillips remembers watching the murder trial of former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek...
A veneer of legitimacy: How fringe Anti-Vaxxers have co-opted local news outlets with misinformation
Last November, the WEAR-TV news station in northern Florida aired a segment on Dr. Benjamin Marble, a local doctor who created a free telehealth website offering consultations for COVID-19. Marble, the reporter said, had made it so “patients don’t have to pay a cent”...
COVID in Dog Years: How emotional responses to the pandemic has altered our perception of time
By Philip Gable, Associate Professor of Psychology, University of Delaware; and Chris Wendel, PhD Student in Psychology, University of Alabama The COVID-19 pandemic, now in its 19th month, has meant different things to different people. For some, it has meant stress...
The Facebook Papers: New documents expose tech giant’s greed that put profits before people
“Facebook wants you to believe that the problems we’re talking about are unsolvable. They want you to believe in false choices. They want you to believe that you must choose between a Facebook full of divisive and extreme content or losing one of the most...
A misinformation problem: Why Facebook’s algorithms are a threat to public health
By Ethan Zuckerman, Associate Professor of Public Policy, Communication, and Information, University of Massachusetts Amherst Leaked internal documents suggest Facebook – which recently renamed itself Meta – is doing far worse than it claims at minimizing COVID-19...
From Neuromancer to Snow Crash: Facebook’s clumsy vision unlikely to fulfill 40-year dream of a Metaverse
By Rabindra Ratan, Associate Professor of Media and Information, Michigan State University; Yiming Lei, Doctoral student in Media and Information, Michigan State University The metaverse is a network of always-on virtual environments in which many people can interact...
Fair maps by nonpartisan redistricting commission at odds with Wisconsin GOP-drafted gerrymandered plan
Governor Tony Evers is touring the state to promote new electoral maps he says will make elections in Wisconsin more competitive. The maps are an alternative to a redistricting plan recently introduced Republican legislators, which the governor says he plans to veto...
Archaic and often racist Supreme Court cases dating back to 1901 still rule over millions of Americans
By Eric Bellone, Associate Professor of Political Science and Legal Studies, Suffolk University The 4 million inhabitants of five United States territories, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Northern Marianas Islands, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands, do not have the full...
