Book Talk: Through the Grapevine by Taylor Carlson

Join the Chicago Center on Democracy for a virtual conversation on Taylor N. Carlson’s new book Through the Grapevine: Socially Transmitted Information and Distorted Democracy. Come hear about Carlson’s “enlightening examination of what it means when Americans rely on family and friends to stay on top of politics” (UChicago Press). The conversation will be skillfully moderated by Peter Forberg (PHD Student in Sociology at UC Berkeley). About the book: Accurate information is at the heart of democratic functioning. For decades, researchers interested in how information is disseminated have focused on mass media, but the reality is that many Americans today do not learn about politics from direct engagement with the news. Rather, about one-third of Americans learn chiefly from information shared by their peers in conversation or on social media. How does this socially transmitted information differ from that communicated by traditional media? What are the consequences for political attitudes and behavior? Drawing on evidence from experiments, surveys, and social media, Taylor N. Carlson finds that, as information flows first from the media then person to person, it becomes sparse, more biased, less accurate, and more mobilizing. The result is what Carlson calls distorted democracy. Although socially transmitted information does not necessarily render democracy dysfunctional, Through the Grapevine shows how it contributes to a public that is at once underinformed, polarized, and engaged,” (UChicago Press). Event is free and open to all, use this link to register for the Zoom meeting.