"Beyond the Left-Right Divide: Partisan Polarization in American Politics": In-Person in Madison, WI

Name: "Beyond the Left-Right Divide: Partisan Polarization in American Politics": In-Person in Madison, WI
Start: 2025-01-08T11:30:00-06:00
Location: 1501 Gilbert Rd, Madison, WI 53711-3515, United States

Schedule

Wed, 08 Jan, 2025 at 11:30 am

UTC-06:00

Location

1501 Gilbert Rd, Madison, WI 53711-3515, United States | Madison, WI

Join us for this free, in-person talk on Janurary 8th, 2024 at 11:30 AM at the Orchard Ridge United Church of Christ. To register please email Steve Sheets at [email protected]
The talk describes how what we think of as the contemporary political divide in the United States is far more complicated than it appears in the typical “red state-blue state” coverage we see in the news media. While we tend to think of Americans being “liberal,” “moderate,” or “conservative,” American public opinion is primarily organized around two types of issues: economic and cultural. Things get complicated because some people have liberal views on both types of issues, some have conservative views on both types of issues and others have views that are liberal on some issues and conservative on others. The talk explains the far-reaching consequences of this insight from party identification, voting behavior, political participation, media use, the 2024 elections and the future of American political conflict.
Presenter Michael W. Wagner (Bachelor of Journalism, University of Nebraska; Ph.D., Indiana University) is William T. Evjue Distinguished Chair of the Wisconsin Idea and Professor of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he directs the Center for Communication and Civic Renewal. His work, exploring how individual interactions in the information ecology affect what people believe, what they want, and what they do has been published in prestigious journals such as Science, Journal of Communication, the International Journal of Press/Politics and in books he has co-authored at Cambridge University Press, CQ Press, and Sage Press. He is Associate Editor of Public Opinion Quarterly, the Founding Editor of the Forum in Political Communication, a member of the General Social Survey’s Board of Advisors and a winner of five university-wide teaching awards.