For Immediate Release

Contact:         Susan Allen
                        News and Media Relations
                        Galloway, N.J. 08205
                        Susan.Allen@stockton.edu
                        (609) 652-4790
                        www.stockton.edu/media

Galloway, N.J. – Dannagal G. Young, associate professor at the University of Delaware, will present a free lecture at Stockton University, titled “Where are the Gatekeepers: What if the democratization of information really isn't good for democracy?”

Young studies the content and effects of political communication with a focus on political entertainment. After a two-decade love affair with digital technologies, journalism scholars and practitioners are now wrestling with the challenges of our decentralized information environment. The internet and social media empower citizens, audiences and consumers to produce and distribute content and talk back to political and cultural elites. However, they also empower citizens to make up information, share conspiracy theories and hate speech, and live in ideological bubbles featuring curated versions of reality.

Young will discuss how democracy thrives in an environment of digital technologies and obligations that media platforms have to serve as a check on these dynamics.  

The event will be held on the Galloway campus on Thursday, April 13, at 6 p.m. in room F-111.

The event is sponsored by the Political Engagement Project, the American Democracy Project and Stockton’s Office of Service-Learning.