Expertise:
Political Communication, Social Media, Civic Engagement, Campaigns and Elections, Media and Democracy, Media Impacts, Strategic Communication, Student Media, Political Advertising, Mass Communication, Public Opinion, News and JournalismA former journalist, Jason Turcotte researches issues at the intersection of news and democracy, examining how the news media cover campaigns and elections, the impact of their coverage, and political advertising. He is particularly interested in the implications of news coverage on knowledge, citizenship and political engagement, and how news media processes shape key campaign events including electoral debates and polling.
His most recent work is focused on news trust in the digital era and unpacking how news norms and processes shape key campaign events including electoral debates and polling. He is also the advisor to The Poly Post, the student newspaper at Cal Poly Pomona.
Recent Grants and Fellowships:
Cal Poly Pomona, Teacher-Scholar Support Award (2019, 2018, 2017, 2016)
Cal Poly Pomona, Research, Scholarship & Creative Activities Grant, $5,000 (2018, 2016, 2015)
Selected Publications:
- “Government, Federal, U.S., Coverage of,” Encyclopedia of Journalism (forthcoming, Sage)
- With L. Furey, J.O. Garcia-Ortega, N. Hernandez, C. Siccion, and E. Stephenson, “The novelty news frame: How social identity influences policy attention of minority presidential candidates,” Newspaper Research Journal, 2021
- “Enemies of the people: Elites, attacks, and news trust in the era of Trump,” in Communication and media in the age of Trump: Assessing campaign coverage, social media use, and political rhetoric (A. Hayes, ed., Peter Lang, 2018)
- “Predicting policy: Exploring the determinants of issues-based agendas in electoral debates,” Journal of Applied Communication Research, 45(5), 576-595, 2017
- “Who’s citing whom? Source selection and elite indexing in electoral debates,” Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 94(1), 238-258, 2017
- With A. Kirzinger, J. Dunaway & R.K. Goidel, “The many layers of local: Proximity and market influence on the news coverage of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill,” Social Science Quarterly, 98(3), 993-1009, 2017
- With K. Medenilla, K. Villasenor & S. Lampwalla, “All the polling (data) that’s fit to print: An analysis of online news coverage of 2016 primary polls,” Communication Research Reports, 34(3), 191-200, 2017
- With C. York, R. Scholl, J. Irving & R. Pingree, “News recommendations from social media opinion leaders: Effects on media trust and information seeking,” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 20(5), 520-535, 2015
- With N. Paul, “A case of more is less: The role of gender in US presidential debates,” Political Research Quarterly, 68(4), 773-784, 2015
- “The news norms and values of presidential debate agendas: An analysis of format and moderator influence on question content,” Mass Communication & Society, 18(3), 239-258, 2015
- “Despite progress on gender equity in US politics, female journalists and candidates do little to diversify the debate agendas,” United States Policy and Politics blog, the London School of Economics, October 2015
Interviews:
- “Survey finding 45 percent of gay men back Trump is ‘clickbaity,’ sloppy journalism,” Washington Blade, Sep. 18, 2020
- “Critics say Facebook should fix algorithms, add human element to trending news feature,” Communications Daily, Oct. 17, 2016
- “Facebook’s ‘trending’ feature exhibits flaws under new algorithm,” The Wall Street Journal, Sept. 6, 2016
- “Facebook rebuts criticisms about a bias against conservatives,” The Wall Street Journal, May 10, 2016.
- “Experts troubled early by media coverage inside killers’ Redlands home,” The San Bernardino Sun, Dec. 5, 2015
Education:
B.A., Communication and Political Science, Roger Williams University
M.A., Media Culture and Communication, New York University
Ph.D., Media and Public Affairs, Louisiana State University