KNOXVILLE — The Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in partnership with the Student Government Association-Government Affairs Committee, will host a discussion about “Blogs, Social Media and Political Incivility” on March 23.
The event, free and open to the public, will begin at 7 p.m. in the Toyota Auditorium at the Baker Center, 1640 Cumberland Ave.
Mike Fitzgerald, professor in the Department of Political Science, will introduce the program by discussing the shift from the political dialogue characteristic of civil partisanship to the current political atmosphere of incivility and a lack of cooperation.
UT law professor Glenn Reynolds, creator of Instapundit, a highly read political blog, will talk about the role that blogs and social media play in increasing dialogue on policy issues, as well as increasing polarization on issues and political incivility.
Blogs, Social Media and Political Incivility can be watched live via webcast: http://160.36.161.128/UTK/Viewer/?peid=820239f809404e37922b914e252dec5e.
On March 30, to complement this event, the Baker Center and the SGA-Government Affairs Committee will hold a workshop on learning the process of bipartisan dialogue. Free and open to the public, the workshop, “Training Future Leaders in Civility of Governance,” will be held at 6:30 p.m. on March 30 in the Toyota Auditorium.
The Baker Center, which opened at UT in 2003, develops programs and promotes research to further the public’s knowledge of our system of governance, and to highlight the critical importance of public service, a hallmark of Sen. Baker’s career.
For more about the Baker Center, see http://www.bakercenter.utk.edu.
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C O N T A C T :
Amy Blakely (865-974-5034, amy.blakely@tennessee.edu)