About Me

Matthew Hindman's portrait
Matthew Hindman is an assistant professor in the School of Media and Public Affairs at The George Washington University. His research interests include American politics, political communication, and (especially) online politics. 
You can email him at hindman -at- gmail -dot- com.

 
 
 
 
Image  My book The Myth of Digital Democracy was published in January 2009 by Princeton University Press. From the back cover: "The book debunks popular notions about political discourse in the digital age, revealing how the Internet has neither diminished the audience share of corporate media nor given greater voice to ordinary citizens."

The Myth of Digital Democracy has won both Harvard's Goldsmith Book Prize and the Donald McGannon Award for Social and Ethical Relevance in Communications Policy Research. Click here to listen to me talk about the book on NPR's On The Media. You can order the book online from Amazon.com or directly from Princeton University Press.
 
Other Research
Moving to George Washington University PDF Print E-mail
Written by Matt   
Wednesday, 01 September 2010
ImageIt’s now official: I have moved to Washington, DC, to take a faculty position at The George Washington University.

I am excited about the move, though I will miss many things about Arizona—especially my colleagues at ASU. I was blessed to have such smart and supportive fellow faculty, and it was personal rather than professional issues that inspired me to consider leaving.

But if it is bittersweet to leave Arizona, I am grateful to have landed at GWU, which is a fantastic place be a scholar of political communication. Very few institutions have such an impressive constellation of scholars whose interests overlap with my own.

One of the best things about DC is that lots of people come through town. If that includes you, drop me a note.
Last Updated ( Monday, 20 September 2010 )
 
The Hyperlinked Society and the Online Public Sphere PDF Print E-mail
Written by Matt   
Friday, 23 May 2008

 Another edited volume to which I've contributed has made it to press.  The Hyperlinked Society: Questioning Connections in the Digital Age, edited by Joe Turow and Lokman Tsui , has come out from DigitalCultureBooks, a new imprint of the University of Michigan Press.   Image

 My contribution is entitled "What is the Online Public Sphere Good For"? My very short answer: scandals and fact-checking, but NOT giving ordinary citizens greater voice in politics.  I am particularly critical of what I term "trickle up" theories of online discourse.  Scholars like Yochai Benkler , Daniel Drezner , and Henry Farrell are right about many things, but I argue that their vision of an accessible, bottom-up political discourse doesn't fit with the available evidence.  

You can see a preprint of the chapter here .  If you like what you read, the book can be purchased from Amazon here .
Last Updated ( Friday, 04 July 2008 )
 
Infomation Government and Open Source Politics PDF Print E-mail
Written by Matt   
Sunday, 30 September 2007

ImageGovernance and Information Technology: From Electronic Government to Information Government, the collected volume edited by David Lazer and Viktor Mayer-Schöenberger , is now out from MIT Press.  

The volume includes my chapter "'Open Source Politics' Reconsidered: Emerging Patterns in Online Political Participation." My previous discussion of the chapter can be found here ,  and while you can find a preprint version of my chapter here .

Better yet,  click here to buy the book from Amazon.

 

Last Updated ( Friday, 04 July 2008 )
 
Voice, Equality, and the Internet PDF Print E-mail
Written by Matt   
Saturday, 09 June 2007

 BookThe book manuscript is finally off to reviewers.  I'm glad to have the project off of my desk, and onto the desks of others.  

But it also means that I have a relatively polished book manuscript ready for general perusal.  Click here if you would like to read it. (Warning--the link is to a 650 KB .pdf file.) I would love to hear comments and criticisms.  

I'm also offering a $.10 bounty for every typo found.  First come, first served.

Last Updated ( Saturday, 09 June 2007 )
 
Amos, Andy, 'n' the APSA: Political Scientists, the Public and the Origin of Commercial Broadcasting PDF Print E-mail
Written by Matt   
Monday, 16 April 2007

Image
APSA on the air
In recent years, many have called for political science to engage more strongly with the public.  In his 2004 APSA presidential address, Robert Putnam declared that "attending to the concerns of our fellow citizens is... an obligation as fundamental as our pursuit of scientific truth." Other scholars (and other APSA presidents) have echoed this theme. APSA committees on inequality, and on civic education and engagement, have recently striven to make their work more accessible and more "relevant."

There is a strange omission in these debates.  In calling for political science to have a "stronger public presence" (in Putnam's words), scholars have ignored the historical period when the public presence of political science was at its zenith.

Last Updated ( Saturday, 09 June 2007 )
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Dr. Matthew Hindman  ·
Political Science Department
Arizona State University 
ASU Box 873902, Tempe, AZ 85287-3902
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