UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — An internationally recognized expert on political communication will present a free public lecture about the power of the media, focused on its ability to fuel political polarization, and whether polarization drives people to the polls on Sept. 24 at Penn State.
Hernando Rojas will present “Media and the Three Ps: Polarization, Participation and Populism” at 5 p.m. Sept. 24 in Carnegie Cinema (113 Carnegie Building) at University Park.
The event, the Pockrass Memorial Lecture, is named after the late Professor Robert M. Pockrass, a member of Penn State’s journalism faculty from 1948 to 1977. Pockrass, who specialized in public opinion and popular culture, served as the graduate officer and taught radio news writing for the School of Journalism, which later became the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications.
Drawing on more than a decade of research across five continents, Rojas’s lecture will explore how traditional and social media shape political divisions and how those divisions influence electoral participation. It also asks who benefits: ideological camps, incumbents or populist candidates?
Rojas is the Helen Firstbrook Franklin Chair at the University of Wisconsin. His award-winning research explores how emerging technologies drive social mobilization, shape perceptions of the media and influence democratic governance. An elected Fellow of the International Communication Association, Rojas has authored more than 100 publications. He directs the Center for Communication and Democracy at the university and has led both its School of Journalism and Mass Communication and its Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies Program.
He is a former editor-in-chief of the "International Journal of Public Opinion Research" and has held leadership roles across the field’s foremost professional associations. His experience bridges scholarship and practice, spanning media publishing, public-opinion research, public broadcasting, and consulting for the United Nations Development Program.