Oh Hey, I’m on the Kindle
So, I’m still sort of shocked that people actually bought paper copies of my thesis, “Facebook, Twitter and Barack Obama: New media and the 2008 Presidential Election,” considering it’s 60+ pages of econometric analysis and only a couple of bad “friending / liking” jokes. Seriously, I feel slightly bad for the people now suffering through my “pretend I know something about regression analysis” stage (don’t we all have one of those, though)?
Anyway, always being one to give the people what they want (and also curious to check out the e-publishing process itself), I’m happy to announce that my thesis is now available on Kindle! Yes that means that you can take me and my multiple-variable probit equations with you wherever you go: on the metro, on vacation, or snuggled up in bed.
It’s available at the low, low price of $2.99 (that’s like 0.0004% of the cost of a degree from Georgetown), and accessible in the US Store, the UK Store and the Germany Store.
Thus far it’s sold three copies. I only have two parents, so that means some random person is reading my sweet-little-econometric-nothings somewhere out there in the world. It’s currently ranked #78 in the “Elections: Bestsellers” category, just one spot behind “The Persecution of Sarah Palin: How the Elite Media Tried to Bring Down a Rising Star.” If nothing else, shouldn’t that be good motivation to buy my Kindle book?
Apparently local politics in DC is a lot like the board game Clue: everyone is named after a color. Where is City Councilman Professor Plum?
Thesis Time
When I posted the abstract for my thesis last month, I was surprised and flattered by how many people expressed an interest in reading it. I don’t expect you to read through all 55 pages of econometric analysis, but if you’re interested I’ve posted the whole thesis up on the site. I’d love it if you checked it out, and any feedback or comments you have would definitely be appreciated. You can find my thesis, “Facebook, Twitter and Barack Obama: New media and the 2008 Presidential election” at http://unpoppedcollar.com/thesis. Happy Reading!
Public service is a calling. I truly believe that.
-Congressman Jeff Fortenberry, (R-NE)
Last night I had the opportunity to attend a Georgetown “policy dinner” with Congressman Jeff Fortenberry a 1986 graduate of GPPI. It was a great experience to meet with a representative in such an intimate setting, and I was very impressed with his charisma and passion for his job. Once he started talking politics and policy it became clear we see the world differently, but if nothing else I was inspired by his words on why he became, and what it means to be, a public servant.
Should Kids Be Bribed to Do Well in School?
Time has an interesting article about Harvard Economics Professor Roland Fryer Jr.’s experiment to see if paying children for performance in school results in better outcomes. This case, in my opinion, brings up three important issues surrounding policy making and education:
-Try something! Analyze it. If it doesn’t work, try something else! Policymakers and leaders are often too afraid to try something new. As the article describes, Fryer and his team go into schools where he steps on crack needles in the hallway, yet the schools refuse to try novel approaches. Just because something hasn’t been done before doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be tried. Especially with Fryer’s dedication to the scientific method and statistical analysis, he is not claiming it absolutely will work; rather he says let’s see what happens.
- Be analytical and look at what the numbers tell you. Washington, D.C. Chancellor Michelle Rhee puts it well: “If it doesn’t work, we’re going to stop and start doing something else, but if it does work, it should drive where we put our money.” Call me a policy wonk, but look at the statistics and see if you’re better off as a result of the intervention or not. Don’t avoid potential solutions because of dogma.
-Don’t be a hypocrite. Adult critics in the article say that kids should learn because of an intrinsic love of learning. Okay, great, and the adult critics should do their work for their intrinsic love of doing work — not because of their paycheck. It’s easy to criticize others’ behaviors, but here I’m reminded of John Rawls’ veil of ignorance: in policy-making put yourself in others’ shoes before dictating policy.
Though I lean towards thinking paying kids for school performance is a good idea, I say let’s try it, see if it works, and then let the results dictate our policy making.
What do you think?
Facebook, Twitter and Barack Obama: New media and the 2008 Presidential election
Update: I have now posted the entire thesis and created a page for it on here: http://unpoppedcollar.com/thesis But, if you’d like a .pdf copy, feel free to get in touch and I can send one your way. Also, if you have any comments, thoughts, or critiques I would love to hear them. Cheers!
As many of you know I finally finished my master’s thesis last week! Once everything gets cleared by Georgetown I plan to publish it online (probably with Scribd) so that anyone who wants to endure enjoy 55 pages of econometric analysis can read it. In the meantime, though, I’m excited to share my abstract with you so that you can get a sense of the work I’ve been doing. To the best of my knowledge, it’s the first comprehensive study to quantitatively analyze how new media consumption informed voting behavior in the 2008 election. If you have any feedback, comments, or questions I’d love to hear from you via Disqus comments, email, or Tumblr Ask!
Political strategists and analysts have dubbed Barack Obama’s 2008 Presidential victory as the “Twitter election,” a “triumph of new media in politics,” and “the election decided by Facebook.” But, does the reality match the rhetoric? This paper examines the role of new media in the 2008 Presidential election, asking the question of whether the consumption of both new media and old media in the 2008 Presidential election have a significant effect on a person’s likelihood to engage in the political process by voting, or whether disparities exist by type of media.
Through a quantitative analysis based on data provided by the Pew Center’s Internet and American Life project, this study finds that contrary to the popular rhetoric, old media consumption still remains dominant in explaining voting behavior. This study characterizes new media as that which is two-way in communication, has low barriers to entry and virtually zero marginal cost of participating — as contrasted with old media which remains cost-prohibitively expensive.
After controlling for a number of demographic variables, the paper utilizes a probit regression model on the likelihood of a person voting with independent variables representing both new media and old media consumption patterns and actions. The model shows that, holding all other variables constant, getting most of one’s information about the election through old media sources such as television, radio and newspapers has a statistically significant and positive effect on the likelihood of a person voting. Similar new media variables — including “friending” a candidate on a social networking site and discussing the election on Twitter — fail to have significant explanatory powers. This study focuses on media’s ability to convert non-voters to voters, but does not address how it informs one’s choice of candidate — a potential area for future research.
The implications for this manifest themselves both in political strategy as well as campaign finance reform laws. On the political strategy side, this paper suggests that campaigns — contrary to popular discourse — cannot simply rely upon new media to engage voters. As a corollary, these results show that because the much more expensive old media remains dominant, campaign finance laws need to be reconsidered. Had new media had a statistically significant and positive impact on engaging voters, one could have argued that campaign spending limits were thus rendered unnecessary. On the contrary, however, after showing that expensive old media remains more important to campaigns than new media, this paper provides evidence that limits in campaign spending remain crucial for democracy to flourish in the United States.
This paper concludes that in an examination of new media and the 2008 Presidential election, old media remains dominant in getting people to vote who otherwise would not. The rhetoric simply does not match the quantitative reality.
Update: I have now posted the entire thesis and created a page for it on here: at unpoppedcollar.com/thesis. But, if you’d like a .pdf copy, feel free to get in touch and I can send one your way. Also, if you have any comments, thoughts, or critiques I would love to hear them. Cheers!
Downsizing Detroit
TIME magazine explores how private foundations are working with Detroit’s city government in innovative ways to bring about change in the dilapidated metro area. This highlights the shifting nature of public-private partnerships and I think foreshadows the future of how government and other entities will interact. As a public policy student, I’m excited to see that working for the government directly is no longer the only way to enact change and that the future — in my opinion — lies in these collaborative partnerships.
Photos of Madeline Albright and NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen speaking at Georgetown this week. The most interesting aspect of the talk to me is that NATO is opening up its strategic plan to public comment and input for the first time ever. Open source security policy? Not quite, but a great gesture!
Budak's Tumblr: From SF, but living in DC. Social Entrepreneur and Travel Writer. I like adventures, roadtrips, photography, California and empanadas.
