Keynote Dr. Michael Cornfield, Aeron Chair Activism
The day after “Super Tuesday,” Dr. Michael Cornfield, a political scientist specializing in the study of the media and American politics, addressed NARC members with an innovative presentation on how the rise of online communications has affected politics, elections, policymaking and the day-to-day work of COGs, MPOs and local elected officials. In his keynote session, “Aeron Chair Activism: Online Politicos, Elections, Policymaking and You,” Cornfield alerted members to the new and emerging media technologies and trends that are moving and shaking the election process, advocacy and general communications.
About Dr. Cornfield:
Dr. Michael Cornfield is Vice President for Research and Media Strategy at 720 Strategies, a Washington, DC based public persuasion firm specializing in integrated communications: online, on video, and in print. Dr. Cornfield heads 720 Strategies’ new reputation management practice, helping clients to deal with online messages about them and enhance their public standing through the use of social media. He also serves as Scholar in Residence at 720 Strategies’ parent firm, Capitol Advantage, the leading U.S. vendor of online government directory software, which matches citizens with their legislators when they want to send them messages.
Dr. Cornfield, a political scientist (Ph.D., Harvard University), is the author of two books about the Internet and American politics: Politics Moves Online: Campaigning and the Internet (The Century Foundation Press, 2004) and (with David M. Anderson) The Civic Web: Online Politics and Democratic Values (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003). He is an Adjunct Professor at the Graduate School of Political Management (GSPM) of The George Washington University, where he has taught the core course on strategy and message development since 1994. While at the GSPM full time, he helped found the school’s Semester in Washington Program for visiting undergraduates, and its Institute for Politics, Democracy, and the Internet (IPDI).
Dr. Cornfield is interviewed frequently by the press about online campaigning and American presidential politics, and has lectured on these subjects around the world. Currently he provides weekly commentary on the 2008 presidential race (with Alan Kelly) on XM satellite radio’s POTUS08 channel. He is also writing blog posts and reports on how the new media affect voter knowledge and participation in the 2008 elections for The Century Foundation (with Tova Andrea Wang and Kristen Oshyn). Among his many journalism publications, he co-authored (with Lee Rainie) a review of the state of online campaigning in the U.S. for the 2006 pre-election “Outlook” section of the Washington Post. He has contributed chapters to numerous academic anthologies, the latest being The Sixth Year Itch: The Rise and Fall of the George W. Bush Presidency (Larry J. Sabato, ed., Longman 2007) and Rewired Politics: Presidential Nominating Conventions in the Media Age (Costas Panagopoulous, ed., LSU Press 2007). From 1999 until 2007, Cornfield wrote a monthly column for Campaigns & Elections magazine, a trade publication for political professionals.
Cornfield served as Senior Research Consultant to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, where he pioneered the study of political online advertising, blogs, and subscriber email, collaborated on survey research and analysis of political media use by citizens, and commented on related new developments in online campaigning. Cornfield has also worked with a variety of public communication consulting firms, including RightClick Strategies, BuzzMetrics, ElectionMall.com.
Cornfield lives with his wife Kathryn Mimberg, son Matthew, and dogs Chessie and Dixie in Arlington, Virginia.
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