About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press

ISBN-100226834174

ISBN-139780226834177

eBay Product ID (ePID)8064175474

Product Key Features

Number of Pages240 Pages

Publication NameThrough the Grapevine : Socially Transmitted Information and Distorted Democracy

LanguageEnglish

Publication Year2024

SubjectPolitical Process / Media & Internet, Political Ideologies / Democracy

TypeTextbook

AuthorTaylor N. Carlson

Subject AreaPolitical Science

SeriesChicago Studies in American Politics Ser.

FormatTrade Paperback

Dimensions

Item Height0.5 in

Item Weight11.2 Oz

Item Length9 in

Item Width6 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceScholarly & Professional

LCCN2023-046438

Dewey Edition23/eng/20231031

ReviewsMany citizens learn about politics through conversations with their friends and family. Such engagement can come with a steep cost. In this terrific and meticulously researched book, Carlson argues that interpersonal conversations about politics may do more harm than good. As citizens discuss what they read or hear in media reports, the actual information transmitted through conversation degrades and becomes more partisan in character, more negative in tone, and less accurate in nature., Through the Grapevine is one of the most important books written on public opinion formation in some time. Carlson convincingly argues that as an engaged public discusses politics via word-of-mouth, they distort it, make it less accurate, and more polarizing. This turns decades of conventional wisdom about the role that informed news consumers play in a democracy on its head and sheds light on how most Americans form their political opinions.

IllustratedYes

Dewey Decimal302.302850973

Table Of Content1. How Political Conversations Change the Information Environment 2. Distorted Democracy 3. Conceptual and Empirical Measurement 4. Distortion 5. Underinformed 6. Polarized 7. Engaged 8. Distorted or Dysfunctional? Acknowledgments Notes References Index

SynopsisAn enlightening examination of what it means when Americans rely on family and friends to stay on top of politics. Accurate information is at the heart of democratic functioning. For decades, researchers interested in how information is disseminated have focused on mass media, but the reality is that many Americans today do not learn about politics from direct engagement with the news. Rather, about one-third of Americans learn chiefly from information shared by their peers in conversation or on social media. How does this socially transmitted information differ from that communicated by traditional media? What are the consequences for political attitudes and behavior? Drawing on evidence from experiments, surveys, and social media, Taylor N. Carlson finds that, as information flows first from the media then person to person, it becomes sparse, more biased, less accurate, and more mobilizing. The result is what Carlson calls distorted democracy . Although socially transmitted information does not necessarily render democracy dysfunctional, Through the Grapevine shows how it contributes to a public that is at once underinformed, polarized, and engaged., An enlightening examination of what it means when Americans rely on family and friends to stay on top of politics. Accurate information is at the heart of democratic functioning. For decades, researchers interested in how information is disseminated have focused on mass media, but the reality is that many Americans today do not learn about politics from direct engagement with the news. Rather, about one-third of Americans learn chiefly from information shared by their peers in conversation or on social media. How does this socially transmitted information differ from that communicated by traditional media? What are the consequences for political attitudes and behavior? Drawing on evidence from experiments, surveys, and social media, Taylor N. Carlson finds that, as information flows first from the media then person to person, it becomes sparse, more biased, less accurate, and more mobilizing. The result is what Carlson calls distorted democracy. Although socially transmitted information does not necessarily render democracy dysfunctional, Through the Grapevine shows how it contributes to a public that is at once underinformed, polarized, and engaged.

LC Classification NumberPN4565.P65C37 2024