Paul Ryan’s decision to retire is likely rooted in fears that he could lose his seat in the upcoming election, that the GOP could lose the majority—or both, according to one West Virginia University expert. American politics expert Jason MacDonald says Ryan is calculating the number of House Republican retirements and weighing his own political future
While West Virginia University social media expert Elizabeth Cohen says dramatic changes may not occur in Facebook’s business model—or even in people’s online behaviors—she says Mark Zuckerberg’s congressional testimony is a societal turning point for data privacy discussions. Further, she says, it’s time to classify social media companies like Facebook so the need for regulatory rules—if any—can be determined.
The Civil Rights movement led by Martin Luther King, Jr. is now being carried forward by a new generation. Marjorie Fuller, director of the Center for Black Culture and Research at West Virginia University, and Meshea Poore, vice president of WVU’s Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, believe that as the nation marks the 50th anniversary of King’s assassination, his work is more relevant now than ever.
Social media users and their habits of sharing their personal information online are at the root of the recent Cambridge Analytica data mining scandal, according to a West Virginia University expert on management information systems. Once information has been freely shared, companies sell the information and others collect it, Stephane Collignon said.
Although Facebook and other social network sites claim they are not media companies, Facebook’s recent data breach with Cambridge Analytica could mean those sites will be regulated like newspapers and television networks, according to Elizabeth Cohen, a social media expert at West Virginia University.
A West Virginia University researcher has investigated how trolls on the subreddit "/r/The_Donald” organized to create pro-Trump campaigns on Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms. Saiph Savage, assistant professor of computer science and electrical engineering in the Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources, has worked with a team to investigate how political trolls produce collective action to create content and disrupt other communities.
A West Virginia University engineering expert believes a design fault may be responsible for the collapse of a newly installed pedestrian bridge on Florida International University's campus Thursday (March 15), killing several people.
Old tactics aren’t necessarily working in the current political climate, and even large amounts of cash—into the millions in some cases—pumped into a race doesn’t guarantee an election win, according to West Virginia University political science expert R. Scott Crichlow. Even in districts that Trump won by big margins, like the PA-18, Republicans aren’t safe, Crichlow notes. In fact, he says, the big trend is Republican candidates usually running far behind the numbers that President Donald Trump put up in 2016, a trend that could have an effect in Charleston, as well as Washington, D.C.
A generation raised on the Hunger Games and Harry Potter is using those examples of children who organize themselves to fight corruption and cruelty, according to a communications expert. The West Virginia University researcher says teens are using their collective social media acumen to address what they see as injustice in their own world. Although the issue for survivors of a mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, is gun control, it's not the only one causing teenagers across the country to find their political voices before they can vote, Elizabeth Cohen says.
A sociologist suggests there is a "strong correlation" between threats to school shooters' masculinity and their mass killings. Walter DeKeseredy, director of the Research Center on Violence at West Virginia University, says media often misses-as it did in the case of Parkland, Florida-the connection between a history of inter-personal violence and mass shootings.