Description
Battleground models Wisconsin's contentious political communication ecology: the way that politics, social life, and communication intersect and create conditions of polarization and democratic decline. Drawing from 10 years of interviews, news and social media content, and state-wide surveys, we combine qualitative and computational analysis with time-series and multi-level modeling to study this hybrid communication system – an approach that yields unique insights about nationalization, social structure, conventional discourses, and the lifeworld. We explore these concepts through case studies of immigration, healthcare, and economic development, concluding that despite nationalization, distinct state-level effects vary by issue as partisan actors exert their discursive power.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction: Why Wisconsin?; 2. Communication ecologies, social structure, and lifeworld; 3. Studying the Wisconsin communication ecology; 4. Immigration: Complex issues and conservative asymmetries; 5. Healthcare: A national issue with lifeworld implications; 6. Foxconn and economic development in the local communication ecology; 7. Understanding communication ecologies in asymmetric media systems; 8. Conclusion; References.
