ABOUT THE COURSE

#ElectionClass is a unique college course taking place at Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies (iSchool) which will explore the impact of social media on elections, political movements and citizen engagement with a special focus on the 2012 American Election as it unfolds in real time. Designed to adapt to new developments as they happen, #ElectionClass will examine social media tactics employed by 2012 presidential and congressional campaigns, as well as lessons learned from milestone “Information Age” campaigns such as Dean 2000 and Obama 2008. Social media strategy from the private sector will be presented as well, comparing corporate best practices to the tactics used in the public sector. Students will also use social media tools to track current issues related to the election, and even develop new tools to help analyze the torrent of conversation taking place online.

Moving beyond theory, #ElectionClass students will put their ideas into practice in a unique mock campaign experience called “The Campaign for a Better Amercia” (named after the now infamous misspelling of America found in the “I’m With Mitt” mobile app from the Romney Campaign). For this assignment, students will run campaigns for the presidency, utilizing the best mix of social media and online tactics they can to help them emerge victorious. You can follow the analysis of our mock campaign here on ElectionClass.com.

ABOUT THE PROFESSORS

Anthony Rotolo (@rotolo) is a professor at Syracuse University’s iSchool where he specializes in social media and real-time information. His course, “Social Media for the Enterprise”, or #Rotol0Class as its known on Twitter, has earned international recognition for its forward-thinking approach to organizational use of social media as well as its innovative use of Twitter in real time during class sessions. Rotolo is an established public speaker and consultant, having been invited to present at the United States Senate in 2011, NASA Johnson Space Center in 2012 and a wide range of other corporate events and conferences. He has been featured or quoted in stories by the New York Times, CNN, MSNBC, the TODAY Show, ABC, CBS and others. Rotolo is the the director of a unique social media lab known as “Starship NEXIS” focused on “New Explorations in Information Science” such as social media technologies, data visualization and data science.

Ines Mergel (@InesMergel) is an assistant professor of Public Administration at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. Her research focuses on social media use by public managers and government organizations, utilizing social network analysis and other techniques to determine how work “really gets done”. This semester, Ines is teaching a graduate section of “Social Media and the 2012 Election” for students in the Master of Public Administration program. Ines’ course will meet with #ElectionClass periodically, and Ines has contributed her expertise to the course material and lecture content.