Welcome

Political communication is a subfield characterized by a dual interest in (a) the substance, act, and effect of communication, and (b) political psychology and behavior. Research conducted by members of the Political Communication Working Group (PCWG) sits at this intersection, offering a cross-disciplinary perspective on questions central to understanding politics and political behavior in the context of an ever-shifting media environment.

Core lab members share an interest in our current research theme, Challenges of Communication, i.e., challenges in the process of communicating and understanding political information.  We focus on issues of misinformationselective exposure and negativity; on biases in news coverage of science and the environment; on polarization of political beliefs and the impact of social media; and on media influence on issues surrounding race and ethnicity.  Each of these issues has become increasingly relevant and consequential in today’s political-communication media environment.  Our goal is thus to produce research that has both academic and real-world implications.

Our research reflects a range of social-scientific methods, including lab-experimental, survey, and ‘big-data’ content-analytic techniques. In addition to work that fits squarely in our current research theme, core members have ongoing interests in, for instance, strategic communication, motivating reasoning, political participation and representation, public policy preferences, and survey and research methodology.

We seek both to build our own research agenda and to bring together a broad range of scholars interested in the social-scientific exploration of political communication phenomena.  To that end, we organize weekly lab meetings involving ‘core’ and ‘supporting’ faculty and students.  We also bring scholars in political communication from around the world to lab meetings as guest speakers.

Support for research group meetings and speakers comes from the Department of Communication and Media, the Center for Political Studies at the Institute for Social Research, the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, and from the Rackham Interdisciplinary Workshops program.

If you are interested in work by PCWG members, or in becoming involved in the group, please see links to faculty on the Faculty page.