US Media and the 2020 Elections
On January 16, 2020, we were honored to host John Nichols, national correspondent of The Nation. The event was organized in cooperation with GRASSI Museum für Völkerkunde zu Leipzig, American Studies Leipzig, and SFB 1285 Invektivität. Rosanna Planer, research associate and Ph.D. candidate at the Institute of Communication and Media Studies at Leipzig University, was the moderator.
Talking to a full house, John Nichols spoke about what he called the most radical moment of transformation of communication: from traditional broadcasting like radio and television to social media. Driven by the ambition to make news broadcasting a profitable business, radio and television shows have become more argumentative over the course of the last decades, according to Nichols. The resulting “news gap” has been filled by social media, which has become a news source of its own.
Looking ahead to the upcoming presidential elections in November, Nichols warned that we could be in for the ugliest campaign season in US history. According to him, the outcome of the election will be decided by the media system and not necessarily by the candidates themselves.
The talk was followed by a Q&A with Ms. Planer and the audience in which Nichols spoke about his lifelong passion for and belief in journalism, weighed in on the ongoing impeachment trial, and explained his ideas on how to reform politics and the media.
We thank our colleagues at the German-American Center/James-F.-Byrnes Institute (DAZ) in Stuttgart for organizing John Nichols’ speaking tour through Germany!
Prior to the event, John Nichols sat down with us for a taping of That’s Interesting. Make sure to check it out!
