Professor Andrea McDonnell Showcases New Book at Providence College
By Giavaya Harris ’24
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By Giavaya Harris ’24
On March 15th, Communications Program Director and Associate Professor of Political Science, Dr. Andrea McDonnell, along with Dr. Adam Silver of Emmanuel College, presented a summary of their co-edited book, A Gossip Politic. McDonnell and Silver recruited a group of international scholars and authored two chapters. Dr. McDonnell is a noted expert on the structure, use, and impact of gossip, and this project continues to develop the connections between communication long used in the entertainment sector and politics.
The book provides readers with a multi-faceted portrait of how gossip is an important communication form of political communication that deserves the focused research attention found in each chapter of the book. Dr. William Hudson, Professor of Political Science, Emeritus, provided his view on how this book contributes and expands political science knowledge, focusing on one of the chapters co-authored by McDonnell, that uses established knowledge of how members of Congress present themselves to constituents (called their homestyles) to do a systematic analysis and comparison of Twitter feeds of several prominent members of Congress.
Dr. Joe Cammarano was impressed with the book and looks forward to reading it as soon as he finishes his grading. He noted that all political scientists should consider the central argument of this book when thinking about how we update our knowledge of political communication Cammarano noted that “The merging of politics and entertainment, and the consequences for politics discussed throughout this volume cannot be overstated, and I am looking forward to reading it thoroughly as I think about how I teach and conduct research on the role of mediated communication in the age of social media.”
The methods that Dr. McDonnel emphasizes in her book are important to political scientists, especially showing the importance of integrating research approaches from multiple disciplines such as Media Studies, Linguistics, and Sociology used in the book. Political science can enhance our understanding of the role of media and politics by following the lead of the co-editors of this book. The way that politicians use social media today is something that political scientists need to understand, especially in the context of generational differences in the uses and trust in mass media, and McDonnell and Silver help us think about how to do this effectively to learn as we study new communication forms and political debates that are fought in the contemporary media environment.
