About Me

Matthew Hindman's portrait
Matthew Hindman is an assistant professor of political science at Arizona State University. His research interests include American politics, political communication, and (especially) online politics. 
You can email him at:
 
 
 
 

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Image  My book The Myth of Digital Democracy has just been released by Princeton University Press. You can read my official announcment of the book here, or order the book online from Princeton press or Amazon.com.

 
Obama's Final Web Fundraising Numbers
Written by Matt   
Friday, 21 November 2008

Half a billion dollars in online donations over 21 months.  $100 million of that in September alone.

For years I was told that I was overestimating the potential of the Web to change the way that campaigns are funded. I don't think I'll hear those complaints again.

 
The Book: Now Released into the Wild
Written by Matt   
Monday, 17 November 2008

I am pleased to announce that The Myth of Digital Democracy is published. If you order the book through Amazon right now, it will be in your hands by the end of the week. (Feel free to test of Amazon's logistical prowess by ordering multiple copies.)

This website has lain dormant for the past few months, as I’ve been preoccupied with final editing on the book and a host of post-book projects. But that's about to change.

 I’ll be updating this site at least once a week during the coming year. Partly, I want to clarify and expand on the arguments I make in the book. Academic publishing has a long lead time. When writing about a fast moving topic like Internet politics, years-long delays can be downright annoying.  I’ll also be responding to inevitable criticisms, and talking about the continuing evolution of media politics in the 21st century.

So stay tuned.

PS: After some early hiccups, the RSS and Atom feeds of this website seem to be behaving themselves.  You can make sure that you don’t miss any updates by subscribing using the links on the bottom left of this page.

 
Competing Against Google is Hard
Written by Matt   
Wednesday, 30 July 2008

Just ask the folks at Cuil.com, a new search engine which launched last week.

 Reviews of the new search engine have not been good.   

Google has thousands of employees doing research and development; Cuil.com has 18.  

 
Gastronomical Googlearchy
Written by Matt   
Thursday, 17 July 2008

ImageHere is a real-world example of how winners-take-all algorithms (such as Google's PageRank) are shaping offline behavior. The new iPhone has an application called Urbanspoon whereby, by shaking the phone, the hip and hungry urbanite is directed to a nearby restaurant.

Problem is, the New York Times reports, the phone only picks restaurants that already have a wealth of positive reviews: "If Urbanspoon users haven’t visited and taken a shine to a place, you’ll be shaking your way to carpal tunnel syndrome before it pops up."  Googlearchy: it's not just for Web sites any more.  

 

Last Updated ( Thursday, 17 July 2008 )
 
Debating the Power of Political Email
Written by Matt   
Wednesday, 09 July 2008

The Politico's Ben Smith has a story on Hillary Clinton's e-mail list, and its ostensible power.

 For political scientists, data on the effectiveness of political e-mail has been mixed at best.  Recent field experiments by campaign scholars have found that, compared to control groups, supporters who received candidate e-mail were not more likely to support the candidate, or to turn out on election day. 

But despite my initial skepticism, traffic data  suggests that e-mail has indeed become a powerful force in the 2008 presidential election. Consider the chart below.

Read more...
 
"I Hate the Bloggers"
Written by Matt   
Tuesday, 08 July 2008

 John McCain on our (supposedly) fragmenting media environment:

Two comments:

Last Updated ( Tuesday, 08 July 2008 )
Read more...
 
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Dr. Matthew Hindman  ·
Political Science Department
Arizona State University 
ASU Box 873902, Tempe, AZ 85287-3902
Email: