Podcasts about Blue State Digital

Are you tired of incessant, unhinged Democratic fundraising texts and emails? Well, so are we. Tommy sits down with three experts in the party's digital fundraising space to talk about how this model became the norm, why it may be hurting Democrats more than it helps, and how that campaign — you know the one — got your cell phone number. Blue State Digital founder Joe Rospars joins to diagnose the problem, our own Dan Pfeiffer weighs in on its impact, and ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones explains why Democrats rely on the tactic and lays out what we stand to lose if Trump's attacks against her organization succeed. For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.

Gregor was elected as the MP for Livingston in Labour's 2024 landslide. It was a full circle moment for the man who'd been the party's organiser in the 2005 Livingston by-election following the death of Robin Cook. He went on to work for Blue State Digital, the team who masterminded Obama's 2008 and 2012 campaigns. This is a masterclass is the art of campaigning from one of Morgan McSweeney's former colleagues. Plus, why he loves checked shirts so much. COME AND SEE THE POLITICAL PARTY LIVE! 12 May: Wes Streeting9 June: Kemi Badenoch14 July: Michael Gove Plus more to be announced... Get tickets for all shows here: https://nimaxtheatres.com/shows/the-political-party-with-matt-forde/ DONATE to the RNOH Charity here:https://www.rnohcharity.org/donate/donate-online SEE Matt at on tour until June 2025, including his extra date at The Nottingham Playhouse: https://www.mattforde.com/live-shows29 May: Chipping Norton Theatre30 May: Swindon Arts Centre 4 June: Leeds City Varieties 5 June: Nottingham Playhouse 6 June: Cambridge Junction 12 June: York, The Crescent 13 June: Chelmsford Theatre 14 June: Faversham, The Alex Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Macon Phillips joins The Great Battlefield podcast to talk about his career in politics, being an early employee at Blue State Digital, Director of Digital Strategy at The White House and founding his firm Starling Strategy.

Asteroid mining is making a comeback. It may sound futuristic, but some startups are betting on a viable and economic path to making it a reality and investors are taking notice. One of those companies is Karman+, and this week, I'm joined by its Co-Founder, Daynan Crull. Enjoy!  

Alex Kracov is the CEO and Co-Founder at Dock, and the former VP of Marketing at Lattice. Alex joined Lattice as the first marketer and third employee, and he helped to grow the business from seed to 1850+ customers. Prior to Lattice, Alex was a consultant at Blue State Digital — the team that elected President Obama and orchestrated projects at Google. Since leaving Lattice in 2021, Alex co-founded Dock, a B2B platform that has streamlined the customer buying experience for clients like Loom, Origin, and Instabug.  In today's episode, we discuss: The 2023 SaaS marketing playbook How to start your early-stage B2B marketing How to prioritize resources across multiple marketing bets How to think about attribution Lattice's unorthodox million-dollar marketing campaign How to hire for early marketing roles What makes a standout marketer Advice for building your first website Referenced: Dock: https://www.dock.us/ Lattice: https://lattice.com/ Jack Altman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackealtman J Zac Stein: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jzacstein Where to find Alex Kracov: Twitter: https://twitter.com/kracov/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexkracov Website: https://www.kracov.co/ Where to find Brett Berson: Twitter: https://twitter.com/brettberson LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-berson-9986094/ Timestamps: [00:00:00] Intro [00:02:45] The challenges and opportunities in early-stage B2B marketing [00:05:13] How to think about short-term versus long-term marketing goals [00:07:31] Allocating resources across marketing bets [00:09:13] Signs your marketing is working [00:11:20] The most underutilized marketing strategy [00:13:03] Creating your company's first website [00:14:22] How Lattice formed its brand messaging and positioning [00:18:22] Dock's innovative approach to marketing software [00:20:14] The first thing people should see on your website [00:23:10] Lattice's most successful early-stage marketing tactics [00:28:05] Determining which marketing strategies are still relevant [00:30:25] Lattice's unorthodox million-dollar marketing campaign [00:33:26] Why Alex had an outsized impact at Lattice [00:37:05] Lessons from his first marketing hires [00:39:41] When to scale your marketing team [00:40:55] Building an effective early-stage marketing team [00:42:30] A tough conversation with the CEO & Co-founder of Lattice [00:44:46] Achieving early-stage marketing alignment [00:46:20] Transitioning from employee to entrepreneur [00:49:19] Getting the most out of conferences [00:50:47] Selecting marketing channels in the early stages [00:52:44] Hiring marketers for experience versus potential [00:56:34] The 2023 SaaS marketing stack [00:58:19] Advice for Zero to One marketing [00:60:46] What successful B2B marketing looks like

The following conversation discusses: The rise of Bernie sanders and Donald trump, potential campaign message for the Biden campaign, and the 2016, 2020, & 2024 Democratic Primaries This episode features Ryan J. Davis. Ryan is a seasoned creative executive with over two decades of experience advising and executing for brands, agencies, startups, nonprofits, and political campaigns. Currently, Ryan is the Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder of People First, a precision creator marketing agency. He also serves as a Senior Advisor for Calyx, a cutting-edge sensor technology company, and sits on the Board of Advisors for Caucus, an innovative platform that monetizes social media engagement. Ryan's career highlights include founding the social media department at Blue State Digital, which is widely recognized for its work on the Obama campaign. Rate and subscribe if you enjoy the content and follow 'overcoming_the_divide'  on Instagram & Twitter!Time Stamps:00:30 Intro 2:45 Political satire & Rudy Giuliani 5:30 Howard Dean & Barrack Obama's digital strategy8:00 Building the Obama brand12:15 Gifted political communicators13:45 Rise of Bernie Sanders & Donald Trump18:30 The 2020 Democratic Primaries 21:45 The 2024 Democratic Primaries 24:00 The Russo-Ukrainian War40:15 Messaging and branding for the Biden Campaign55:40 Trump vs DeSantis 58:00 People First: micro-influencers 1:05:15 Mending Political FracturesMusic: Coma-Media (intro)                 WinkingFoxMusic (outro)Recorded: 6/21/23

#049 - Today I am speaking with digital marketing specialist Rishi Malhotra.  Rishi says there is a lot of interest in using paid search and paid social in fundraising efforts.  Rishi has a different perspective, however.“I'll probably say I get a lot of questions about using it directly for fundraising, but I would say, the best use case I've seen is typically, to use it to boost your, your email list.”He advises organizations to use paid search and paid social to drive your ideal tribe to a lead magnet - they trade their email address for the promised piece of collateral.  The good news is this strategy will not break the bank.  In fact, Google provides $10k in monthly grants to registered 501(c)3 organizations.The application is easy enough, but he says you may want to get a little implementation advice so you achieve your desired results.Rishi got his start advising small and medium sized businesses on search marketing.  Later he went on to hone his non-profit marketing skills at Blue State Digital.When I asked Rishi if this strategy works for small organizations he said…“I would say that if your goal is to grow and build your supporters and subscribers, and potentially donors, then I would say, it's worth doing whether you're small, whether you're large, if that is kind of in line with your goals. And I think you should pursue it.”The key takeaways from my discussion with Rishi are:#1 Include your location when picking your keywords;#2 Develop a Welcome Series for new subscribers;#3 Use negative keywords to fine tune your search parameters; and#4 The Google Grant Program approves most nonprofits, with only some exceptions.Be sure to stick around until the end to hear what you should be targeting for cost per click.

Episode #65. This week on the podcast I am thrilled to talk to Gillea Allison. Gillea is the president of D Magazine Partners, responsible for advertising revenue, partnerships, and marketing for the D brands. She also oversees the People Newspapers division. She previously held roles as director of marketing for the company and associate publisher of D Home.  Before moving back home in 2016, she managed and grew Blue State Digital's key nonprofit, advocacy, and brand accounts and technology suite partnerships in New York.  She has also held roles in political campaigns and was a brand marketer for Method Soap. She's currently an Executive Board member of Dwell with Dignity and the Coalition for a New Dallas, and in the Dallas Regional Chamber's Leadership Dallas Class of 2020. I loved this conversation so much. We talk about Gillea's experience and role as a manager, the importance that therapy has played in her life, motherhood, and how D Magazine came to be. I learned so much from this conversation. Can't wait for you to listen! Connect with Gillea: Website Instagram Connect with Lupe: Website Instagram

Patrick Ruffini has been on the cutting edge of politics for 20+ years, as one of the first wave of operatives working in the tech and digital political space. After working at the RNC in 2004, he started an early political tech firm and then formed Echelon Insights to merge political data and tech. In this conversation, Patrick talks his career trajectory, the advancement of digital political tools, and how American politics has evolved in the age of Donald Trump.IN THIS EPISODE…Patrick's unusual bi-national upbringing…Patrick starts following politics at a very early age…A young Patrick on the cutting edge of the political boom on the internet…Patrick's 1998 correspondence with Karl Rove…Patrick's stint at the RNC in 2004….Patrick breaks down the tech impact of the Obama 2008 campaign…Patrick starts his own digital firm Engage…The importance of the 2012 GOP “autopsy” report on Patrick's career…Patrick starts Echelon Insights with GOP pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson…Patrick's advice on how to balance reliance on polling vs analytics…What Patrick has learned about social media listening…Patrick's dissection about the recent populist direction of the Republican Party…Patrick talks of Glenn Youngkin-type candidates as the future of the GOP…Patrick's take on the recent reduced racial polarization in the electorate…Patrick previews a book he's working on that outlines a rising cross-racial coalition of the Republican Party…Patrick talks some of the new measurement tools he's excited about…AND base politics, Joe Biden, blaming the internet, Blue State Digital, Scott Brown, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, Eric Cantor, the center-right blogosphere, Mike Connell, Howard Dean, Chuck DeFeo, Becki Donatelli, Efficient Market Hypothesis, Facebook, Mindy Finn, governing agendas, Don Green, Mickey Kaus, John Kerry, Josh Marshall, John McCain, mybarackobama.com , RCTs, relational organizing, Mitt Romney, snake oil, Andrew Sullivan, the War on Terror, & more!

This week on Coffee Break, PRWeek editorial director Steve Barrett is joined by Thomas Gensemer, chief strategy officer at Public Policy Holding Company.PPHC is a bipartisan full-service U.S. government affairs business with five operating companies that was admitted to the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange in mid-December with a market capitalization of $146.1. It will principally use money raised to grow the business through M&A. Its revenue comes one-third from public affairs and two-thirds from lobbying.Gensemer founded Democratic-leaning Blue State Digital back in the day before selling it to WPP in 2011. He then moved to the holding company's PR firm Burson-Marsteller.In the Coffee Break interview he talks about the growth of PPHC, its plans in 2022, the difference between public affairs/public relations and lobbying and how digital communication has changed since his days at Blue State.Coffee Break topics:- Intro to Public Policy Holding Company.- Going public on the London Stock Exchange.- The work Gensemer does.- How much work was lobbying at your previous company?- Difference between lobbying and PR.- The perception of lobbying and the benefits of ethical lobbying.- Going from a base of clients that were majority democratic to now bipartisan, and how digital communication has changed since his time at Blue State.- Plans for 2022.

Jay Wujun Yow is the Audio Producer and Engineer for The James Altucher Show. He's become an indispensable part the Altucher media empire. Jay is a very passionate person when it comes to music and all kinds of media, especially sound. He's a graduate of Full Sail University, receiving 7 awards, including Valedictorian. He has a good ear and a talent for sound. Jay has applied his excellent computer skills to audio engineering and sound production for over 8 years. He's proficient in Pro Tools, Nuendo 2, Nuendo 3, Nuendo 4, Cubase 3, Cubase 5 and wavelab. He is skillful and quick at recording and editing. Artist worked with include: Mike Stern, Benedict Cumberbatch, Frank Grillo, American Author, Roomful of Teeth, Abbi Jacobson, IKillya, American Diesal, Castle Walls, Magic Room Theater, Benjamin Cartel. Chinese and Malaysian Artist; Gary Cao, Soo Wincci, Namewee, DayDream, ManHand, and Von. Voice Over Work included: Disney, Alexjacobi, The Story Exchanged, Fly Wheel Media, Blue State Digital, Dashlane Follow Jay at @jay_yow07 Connect with James Altucher: https://jamesaltucher.com/ 00:00:00 Intro 00:00:34 Jay's origin story and "choosing himself"! 00:14:28 Jay's ethical will. 00:20:26 What's your favorite game? 00:23:23 What are the hazards of these new mediums? 00:27:23 What advice would you give your younger self? Support the podcast: https://www.patreon.com/drbriankeating And please join my mailing list to get resources and enter giveaways to win a FREE copy of my book (and more) http://briankeating.com/mailing_list.php

Show Notes Moe Factz with Adam Curry for September 19th 2020, Episode number 49 "Brothas Be Voting" Description Adam and Moe review the Democratic and Republican conventions, who the parties were speaking to and they deconstruct it all the way down the Chaotic Magic rabbit hole Executive Producers: James Jackie Greene Cole Calistra Nastassja Findley Branden Kollmar Frankie G Anonymous Please Daniel Huttner Brian Rogers Steve Allen Associate Executive Producers: Theodora Dorinda Ongena gunter weber Elvis Rosenberg Episode 49 Club Members Occult Fan Sir Spencer, Wolf of Kansas City & Dame DuhLaurien ShowNotes Dr.UmarJohnson.com Sat, 19 Sep 2020 20:18 RESERVE YOUR SEAT NOW FOR DR. JOHNSON'S NEXT APPEARANCE RESERVE YOUR SEAT NOW FOR DR. JOHNSON'S NEXT APPEARANCE SIGN UP NOW FOR THE LATEST UPDATES SEND AN EMAIL TO STAY CONNECTED TO ALL UPCOMING EVENTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS THE NATIONAL BLACK PARENT TRAINING TOUR 2020 GET YOUR IFATUNDE APPAREL HERE YOUR DONATIONS WILL HELP TO BUILD THE FDMG SCHOOL. SHARE IN DR. UMAR'S VISION TODAY! Send Restoration Fund Donations to:FDMG ACADEMYPO BOX 9634Wilmington DE 19809 STRIVE FOR PERSEVERANCE. DELIVER EXCELLENCE. Dr. Umar Johnson is a Doctor of Clinical Psychology and Certified School Psychologist who is considered an expert on the education and mental health of Afrikan and Afrikan-American children. Dr. Umar, as he is known to friends, is a paternal kinsman to both the Great Abolitionist Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) and the late Bishop Alexander Wayman (1821-1895), 7th Bishop of the AME Church, both from Maryland's Eastern Shore.Dr. Umar is founder and lead tour guide for the "Unapologetically Afrikan" Black College & Consciousness Tour for 11 thru 17-year-old boys & girls which exposes them to the great historical Black College tradition, within the context of visiting and learning about significant places and personalities that helped shaped the global Afrikan struggle for freedom and independence. This tour is held annually during the first two weeks of July. The Prince of Pan-Afrikanism hosts a free regular weekly Black parent teleconference every Tuesday morning from 6-8am EST where he gives free educational and mental health consultations to community members in order to help them better advocate for Black children. Dr. Umar's name, quotes and speeches have been mentioned and shared on records and songs by various Hip-Hop artists more than any other living scholar. In addition, his image has been re-created by various Black artists more than any other scholar of the 21st century. The most requested Black scholar in America also hosts a regular annual "Unapologetically Afrikan" Group tour to the Afrikan continent, which takes place the last week in July and first week in August. This tour, which always includes stops in two different countries, is designed to help Afrikans in the west reestablish their psycho-spiritual connection to their ancestral homeland. A direct descendant of formerly enslaved civil war veterans who served in the United States Colored Troops of Maryland, Dr. Umar is an educational diagnostician who specializes in special education issues. He is known most for his work in identifying mis-diagnosed learning disabled and ADHD students. Dr. Umar has been featured on News One Now, the Tom Joyner Morning Show, the Bev Smith Show, The Breakfast Club, as has appeared as a special guest life coach on Real Housewives of Atlanta(RHOA8). As a child therapist, he works with depressed and behaviorally-challenged males. Dr. Umar is author of the book "Psycho-Academic Holocaust: The Special Education and ADHD Wars Against Black Boys," the 1st book ever written by a African-American male school psychologist to Black parents with specific strategies on how to fight back against special education and ADHD misdiagnoses. Dr.Umar also holds degrees in education and political science.Dr. Johnson is preparing to begin organizing his National Independent Black Ex-Offender Association (NIBEA), also known as "The New Underground Railroad," in order to advocate for rights on behalf of previously incarcerated Black women, men & children, and to prevent their recidivism. Dr. Umar is founder of the "Unapologetically Afrikan," "Unapologetically Black," & "Afrikan Family First" movements. Dr. Umar is founder & president of the National Independent Black Parent Association (NIBPA) organized to fight against educational and academic racism & disproportionality in the 7 core areas of a) special education, b) school discipline, c) school finance, d) social support/services, e) school policy, f) home schooling, and g) parent advocacy. One of the most recognized social scientists & Pan-Afrikanists of the 21st Century, his book, articles and lectures are included by college and university professors across the country within their required course materials. Dr. Umar is one of the most requested speakers in the world, and has lectured in North America, South America, The Caribbean, Europe and Afrika. Dr. Umar is currently working on building his new school, The Frederick Douglass & Marcus Garvey RBG International Leadership Academy for Boys, America's first residential academy for Black boys founded upon the principles of Pan-Afrikanism and International Economics. In the future, Dr. Umar also would like to extend this school to include female students in their own residential school. BOOKS, LECTURES, & EVENTS KEEP CONNECTED WITH DR. UMAR FDMG Resumes FDMGresumes@gmail.com facebook.com/ drumarifatunde Dr. P.O.P.A.Podcast Subscription FDMG DonationsRestoration Fund DonationsFDMG ACADEMYPO BOX 9634Wilmington DE 19809 Who We Are | Black Male Voter Project | We are Building a Movement Sat, 19 Sep 2020 20:05 Black Male Voter Project was founded by W. Mondale Robinson, who currently serves as our Principal. He is the National Political Director for Democracy for America, Political Contributor for The Village Celebration where he has political and cultural columns and is a regular on their syndicated radio show. Mondale is also a Political Consultant. Born one of 13 in rural North Carolina, W. Mondale grew up with a front-row seat to obstacles that kept and keeps Black people from voting. With this knowledge and his veteran campaign experience, he created a voter engagement program that would increase Black people's participation in the electoral process (BMEP Additory Approach(C)). The program was designed with a special focus on Black men, who are so often labeled as low information and sporadic voters. The program has been a success in the 13 states where it has been implemented (VA, NC, SC, GA, MS, FL, AL, TX, AR, OH, IN, NY, and NJ). Mondale has been a lifelong advocate for the expansion of democracy and the protection of voting rights. He has worked on more than 125 campaigns''across all levels of government''in the United States, and leading roles internationally. Why W. Mondale Robinson Founded the Black Male Voter Project Sat, 19 Sep 2020 19:54 W. Mondale Robinson (center) at a 2019 'Brothas Be Voting' roundtable in Atlanta. W. Mondale Robinson When I was a kid, I used to watch my father do amazing things for people all the time'--he'd fix roofs, lay drywall, pour cement for entire driveways. We were extremely poor, and I could never understand why. I thought: My dad is an anomaly. How can you be so great as a person and still suffer from poverty? As I grew older, I realized my dad was not an anomaly. Most Black men his age were similarly situated but were crippled in some way: My dad, for instance, earned a felony when he was a young boy for defending his mother against white supremacy. Knowing that his struggles were all too common for Black men and watching America snuff out his greatness were my marching orders and the reason I fight for the betterment of my community. I wound up doing campaign work for a long time, and one thing I noticed right away was that most of the people who determine what's said about politics generally, but progressive politics more specifically, are white men. The messaging they convey doesn't speak to my lived experience as a Black man. It's not motivating to me or to the brothas I know'--uncles, cousins, friends, men like my father. It is well-known that voting is a habit that's formed when resources are spent on it, and Black men aren't a priority when it comes to spending money on elections. That was the genesis of the Black Male Voter Project. Our goal isn't just to make voters out of Black men but to foster this idea of voting on issues that are important to us. We don't outright support candidates; we support issues important to Black men. We're seeking to combat the narrative that Black men are apathetic toward politics. Illustration of W. Mondale Robinson, founder of the Black Male Voter Project. Arrington Porter Being a Black man in America is a political statement, and it is impossible to watch politics from my body when the result of so much of the politics of this country has been the subjugation of me and folks who look like me. You can't discount the impact that's had on the mental health of Black men, either, and yet mental health is not considered part of the fight for revolution as it pertains to white supremacy. Imagine what hundreds of years of slavery have done to the psyche and the soul and the makeup of Black bodies in this country. There's a direct correlation between voting and people's health, especially for Black men. We know we're overrepresented in the prison population, which means we are less likely to have voting rights. A Florida prison system did a study a few years back, and they found that people with restored voting rights were less likely to go back to prison. Every time that I'm silent about inequality, I think about my mother, who would pretend to laugh'--to lessen the impact'--when she would tell me stories about being sprayed with a fire hose when she was nine years old for no reason other than being downtown after dark. She couldn't run and hide because she also had groceries for her siblings in her arms, and so she had to pick up the groceries while being sprayed. The white man who did it was still in elected office as the fire chief when I was growing up. Whenever I'm silent, I feel as though I'm selling my mother out. How we define success with our organization, in the end, is more complex than simply getting more Black men to vote. We're building long-term relationships. We hold focus groups called Brothas Be Voting and populate the room with brothas who don't normally participate in politics, people from the street and from underground economies, so we can hear what the barriers are. That way, we can work to remove them and help Black men start believing in the electoral process again. '--As told to Michelle Garcia This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io Advertisement - Continue Reading Below When Republicans Were Blue and Democrats Were Red | History | Smithsonian Magazine Sat, 19 Sep 2020 18:51 Television's first dynamic, color-coded presidential map, standing two stories high in the studio best known as the home to ''Saturday Night Live,'' was melting. It was early October, 1976, the month before the map was to debut'--live'--on election night. At the urging of anchor John Chancellor, NBC had constructed the behemoth map to illustrate, in vivid blue and red, which states supported Republican incumbent Gerald Ford and which backed Democratic challenger Jimmy Carter. The test run didn't go well. Although the map was buttressed by a sturdy wood frame, the front of each state was plastic. ''There were thousands of bulbs,'' recalled Roy Wetzel, then the newly minted general manager of NBC's election unit. ''The thing started to melt when we turned all the lights on. We then had to bring in gigantic interior air conditioning and fans to put behind the thing to cool it.'' That solved the problem. And when election results flowed in Tuesday night, Nov. 2, Studio 8-H at 30 Rockefeller Center lit up. Light bulbs on each state changed from undecided white to Republican blue and Democratic red. NBC declared Carter the winner at 3:30 a.m. EST, when Mississippi turned red. That's right: In the beginning, blue was red and red was blue and they changed back and forth from election to election and network to network in what appears, in hindsight, to be a flight of whimsy. The notion that there were ''red states'' and ''blue states'''--and that the former were Republican and the latter Democratic'--wasn't cemented on the national psyche until the year 2000. Chalk up another one to Bush v. Gore. Not only did it give us ''hanging chads'' and a crash course in the Electoral College, not only did it lead to a controversial Supreme Court ruling and a heightened level of polarization that has intensified ever since, the Election That Wouldn't End gave us a new political shorthand. Twelve years later, in the final days of a presidential race deemed too close to call, we know this much about election night Nov. 6: The West Coast, the Northeast and much of the upper Midwest will be bathed in blue. With some notable exceptions, the geographic center of the country will be awash in red. So will the South. And ultimately, it is a handful of states'--which will start the evening in shades of neutral and shift, one by one, to red or blue'--that will determine who wins. If enough of those swing states turn blue, President Barack Obama remains in the White House four more years. If enough become red, Gov. Mitt Romney moves in January 20, 2013. For now, they are considered ''purple.'' Here's something else we know: All the maps'--on TV stations and Web sites election night and in newspapers the next morning'--will look alike. We won't have to switch our thinking as we switch channels, wondering which candidate is blue and which is red. Before the epic election of 2000, there was no uniformity in the maps that television stations, newspapers or magazines used to illustrate presidential elections. Pretty much everyone embraced red and blue, but which color represented which party varied, sometimes by organization, sometimes by election cycle. There are theories, some likely, some just plain weird, to explain the shifting palette. ''For years, both parties would do red and blue maps, but they always made the other guys red,'' said Chuck Todd, political director and chief White House correspondent for NBC News. ''During the Cold War, who wanted to be red?'' Indeed, prior to the breakup of the Soviet Union little more than two decades ago, ''red was a term of derision,'' noted Mitchell Stephens, a New York University professor of journalism and author of A History of News. ''There's a movie named Reds, '' he said. ''You'd see red in tabloid headlines, particularly in right wing tabloids like the Daily Mirror in New York and the New York Daily News.'' In 1972, CBS News split the country into regions and used a color-coded map, with blue for Republicans and red for Democrats. (YouTube) In 1976, ABC News used this color-scheme for the presidential election. (YouTube) This 1980 map from NBC News shows states for Ronald Reagan in blue, Jimmy Carter in red, and uncalled in yellow. (YouTube) For years, NBC News used blue to indicate Republican states and red to indicate Democratic states. Shown here is a screen grab from the 1984 election (YouTube) A still from CBS News' coverage of the 1988 presidential election. White indicated states where ballots had closed, but had not been declared for one candidate or another. (YouTube) By 2000, NBC News had joined their colleagues in using the current red/blue scheme. At this point in the evening, Vice President Gore had been declared the winner in Florida. This, of course, would not be the case by the following morning. (YouTube)Perhaps the stigma of red in those days explains why some networks changed colors'-- in what appeared to be random fashion'--over the years. Kevin Drum of the Washington Monthly wrote in 2004 that the networks alternated colors based on the party of the White House incumbent, but YouTube reveals that to be a myth. Still, there were reversals and deviations. In 1976, when NBC debuted its mammoth electronic map, ABC News employed a small, rudimentary version that used yellow for Ford, blue for Carter and red for states in which votes had yet to be tallied. In 1980, NBC once again used red for Carter and blue for the Republican challenger, Ronald Reagan, and CBS followed suit. But ABC flipped the colors and promised to use orange for states won by John Anderson, the third-party candidate who received 6.6% of the popular vote. (Anderson carried no states, and orange seems to have gone by the wayside.) Four years later, ABC and CBS used red for Republicans and blue for Democrats, but the combination wouldn't stick for another 16 years. During the four presidential elections Wetzel oversaw for NBC, from 1976 through 1988, the network never switched colors. Republicans were cool blue, Democrats hot red. The reasoning was simple, he said: Great Britain. ''Without giving it a second thought, we said blue for conservatives, because that's what the parliamentary system in London is, red for the more liberal party. And that settled it. We just did it,'' said Wetzel, now retired. Forget all that communist red stuff, he said. ''It didn't occur to us. When I first heard it, I thought, 'Oh, that's really silly.' '' When ABC produced its first large electronic map in 1980, it used red for Republicans and blue for Democrats, while CBS did the reverse, according to Wetzel. NBC stuck with its original color scheme, prompting anchor David Brinkley to say that Reagan's victory looked like ''a suburban swimming pool.'' Newspapers, in those days, were largely black and white. But two days after voters went to the polls in 2000, both the New York Times and USA Today published their first color-coded, county-by-county maps detailing the showdown between Al Gore and George W. Bush. Both papers used red for the Republican Bush, blue for the Democrat Gore. Why? ''I just decided red begins with 'r,' Republican begins with 'r.' It was a more natural association,'' said Archie Tse, senior graphics editor for the Times. ''There wasn't much discussion about it.'' Paul Overberg, a database editor who designed the map for USA Today, said he was following a trend: ''The reason I did it was because everybody was already doing it that way at that point.'' And everybody had to continue doing it for a long time. The 2000 election dragged on until mid-December, until the Supreme Court declared Bush the victor. For weeks, the maps were ubiquitous. Perhaps that's why the 2000 colors stuck. Along with images of Florida elections officials eyeballing tiny ballot chads, the maps were there constantly, reminding us of the vast, nearly even divide between, well, red and blue voters. From an aesthetic standpoint, Overberg said, the current color scheme fits with the political landscape. Republicans typically dominate in larger, less populated states in the Plains and Mountain West, meaning the center of the United States is very red. ''If it had been flipped, the map would have been too dark,'' he said. ''The blue would have been swamping the red. Red is a lighter color.'' But not everyone liked the shift. Republican operative Clark Bensen wrote an analysis in 2004 titled ''RED STATE BLUES: Did I Miss That Memo?'' ''There are two general reasons why blue for Republican and Red for Democrat make the most sense: connotation and practice,'' Bensen wrote. ''First, there has been a generally understood meaning to the two colors inasmuch as they relate to politics. That is, the cooler color blue more closely represented the rational thinker and cold-hearted and the hotter red more closely represented the passionate and hot-blooded. This would translate into blue for Republicans and red for Democrats. Put another way, red was also the color most associated with socialism and the party of the Democrats was clearly the more socialistic of the two major parties. ''The second reason why blue for Republicans makes sense is that traditional political mapmakers have used blue for the modern-day Republicans, and the Federalists before that, throughout the 20th century. Perhaps this was a holdover from the days of the Civil War when the predominantly Republican North was 'Blue'.'' At this point'--three presidential elections after Bush v. Gore'--the color arrangement seems unlikely to reverse any time soon. Not only have ''red states'' and ''blue states'' entered the lexicon, partisans on both sides have taken ownership of them. For instance, RedState is a conservative blog; Blue State Digital, which grew out of Democrat Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign, helps candidates and organizations use technology to raise money, advocate their positions and connect with constituents. In 2008, a Republican and a Democrat even joined forces to create Purple Strategies, a bipartisan public affairs firm. Sara Quinn, a visual journalist now at the Poynter Institute in Florida, said she sees no particular advantage to either color. ''Red is usually very warm and it comes forward to the eye. Blue tends to be a recessive color, but a calming color,'' she said. Not that anyone thought of those things when assigning colors in 2000. Not that they think about it at all today. ''After that election the colors became part of the national discourse,'' said Tse. ''You couldn't do it any other way.'' The Rosy or Rose Cross - Occult Symbols Sat, 19 Sep 2020 18:45 The Rose Cross is associated with a number of different schools of thought, including that of the Golden Dawn, Thelema, the OTO, and the Rosicrucians (also known as the Order of the Rose Cross). Each group offers somewhat different interpretations of the symbol. This should not be surprising as magical, occult and esoteric symbols are frequently used to communicate ideas more complex than is possible to express in speech. Christian Elements Users of the Rose Cross today tend to downplay the Christian elements to it, even though the magical systems used by such people are generally Judeo-Christian in origin. The cross, therefore, has other meanings here besides being the instrument of Christ's execution. Despite this, the presence of the letters INRI, which is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase Iesvs Nazarens Rex Ivdaeorym, meaning "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews," cannot escape Christian interpretation. According to the Christian Bible, this phrase was inscribed on the cross where Jesus was executed. In addition, the cross is often viewed by occultists as a symbol of immortality, sacrifice, and death. Through Jesus's sacrifice and death on the cross, humanity has a chance at eternal life with God. The Cross Cross-shaped objects are commonly used in occultism too represent the four physical elements. Here each arm is colored to represent one element: yellow, blue, black and red to represent air, water, earth, and fire. These colors are also repeated on the bottom portion of the cross. The white on the upper portion of the bottom arm represents the spirit, the fifth element. The cross can also represent dualism, two forces going in conflicting directions yet uniting at a central point. The union of rose and cross is also a generative symbol, the union of a male and female. Finally, the cross's proportions are made up of six squares: one for each arm, an extra one for the lower arm, and the center. A cross of six squares can be folded into a cube. The Rose The rose has three tiers of petals. The first tier, of three petals, represents the three basic alchemical elements: salt, mercury, and sulfur. The tier of seven petals represents the seven Classical planets (The Sun and Moon are considered planets here, with the term ''planets'' indicating the seven bodies that appear to circle the earth independently of the star field, which moves as a single unit). The tier of twelve represents the astrological zodiac. Each of the twenty-two petals bears one of the twenty-two letters in the Hebrew alphabet and also represents the twenty-two paths on the Tree of Life. The rose itself has a myriad assortment of additional meanings associated with it: It is at once a symbol of purity and a symbol of passion, heavenly perfection and earthly passion; virginity and fertility; death and life. The rose is the flower of the goddess Venus but also the blood of Adonis and of Christ. It is a symbol of transmutation - that of taking food from the earth and transmuting it into the beautiful fragrant rose. The rose garden is a symbol of Paradise. It is the place of the mystic marriage. In ancient Rome, roses were grown in the funerary gardens to symbolize resurrection. The thorns have represented suffering and sacrifice as well as the sins of the Fall from Paradise. ("A Brief Study of The Rose Cross Symbol," no longer online)Inside the large rose is a smaller cross bearing another rose. This second rose is depicted with five petals. Five is the number of the physical senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell, and it is also the number of man's extremities: two arms, two legs, and the head. Thus, the rose represents humanity and physical existence. The Pentagrams A pentagram is displayed at the end of each arm of the cross. Each of these pentagrams bears symbols of the five elements: a wheel for spirit, a bird's head for air, the zodiac sign for Leo, which is a fire sign, the zodiac symbol for Taurus, which is an earth sign, and the zodiac symbol for Aquarius, which is a water sign. They are arranged so that when tracing the pentagram you can progress from the most physical to the most spiritual: earth, water, air, fire, spirit. The Three Symbols at the End of Each Arm The three symbols repeated at the end of all four arms stand for salt, mercury, and sulfur, which are the three basic alchemical elements from which all other substances derive. The three symbols are repeated on each of the four arms of the cross, numbering a total of twelve. Twelve is the number of the zodiac, comprised of twelve symbols that circle the heavens throughout the year. The Hexagram Hexagrams commonly represent the union of opposites. It is composed of two identical triangles, one pointing up and one pointing down. The point-up triangle can represent ascending toward the spiritual, while the point-down triangle can stand for the divine spirit descending to the physical realm. The Symbols Around and in The Hexagram The symbols in and around the hexagram represent the seven Classical planets. The symbol for the Sun is in the center. The sun is generally the most important planet in Western occultism. Without the Sun, our planet would be lifeless. It is also commonly connected with the light of divine wisdom and the purification properties of fire, and was sometimes considered the visual manifestation of God's will in the universe. On the outside of the hexagrams are the symbols for Saturn, Jupiter, Venus, the Moon, Mercury, and Mars (clockwise from top). Western occult thought generally considers the planets in the farthest orbits from the Earth in an earth-centric model) to be the most spiritual, because they are the furthest from the physicality of the Earth. Thus, the top three planets are Saturn, Jupiter and Mars, while the bottom three are Mercury, Venus and the Moon. Music in this Episode Intro: Mobb Deep - G.O.D. Part III Instrumental 9 seconds Outro: Whole Truth - Can you loose by following god 15 seconds Donate to the show at moefundme.com Search for us in your podcast directory or use this link to subscribe to the feed Podcast Feed For more information: MoeFactz.com

Show Notes Moe Factz with Adam Curry for September 19th 2020, Episode number 49 "Brothas Be Voting" Description Adam and Moe review the Democratic and Republican conventions, who the parties were speaking to and they deconstruct it all the way down the Chaotic Magic rabbit hole Executive Producers: James Jackie Greene Cole Calistra Nastassja Findley Branden Kollmar Frankie G Anonymous Please Daniel Huttner Brian Rogers Steve Allen Associate Executive Producers: Theodora Dorinda Ongena gunter weber Elvis Rosenberg Episode 49 Club Members Occult Fan Sir Spencer, Wolf of Kansas City & Dame DuhLaurien ShowNotes Dr.UmarJohnson.com Sat, 19 Sep 2020 20:18 RESERVE YOUR SEAT NOW FOR DR. JOHNSON'S NEXT APPEARANCE RESERVE YOUR SEAT NOW FOR DR. JOHNSON'S NEXT APPEARANCE SIGN UP NOW FOR THE LATEST UPDATES SEND AN EMAIL TO STAY CONNECTED TO ALL UPCOMING EVENTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS THE NATIONAL BLACK PARENT TRAINING TOUR 2020 GET YOUR IFATUNDE APPAREL HERE YOUR DONATIONS WILL HELP TO BUILD THE FDMG SCHOOL. SHARE IN DR. UMAR'S VISION TODAY! Send Restoration Fund Donations to:FDMG ACADEMYPO BOX 9634Wilmington DE 19809 STRIVE FOR PERSEVERANCE. DELIVER EXCELLENCE. Dr. Umar Johnson is a Doctor of Clinical Psychology and Certified School Psychologist who is considered an expert on the education and mental health of Afrikan and Afrikan-American children. Dr. Umar, as he is known to friends, is a paternal kinsman to both the Great Abolitionist Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) and the late Bishop Alexander Wayman (1821-1895), 7th Bishop of the AME Church, both from Maryland's Eastern Shore.Dr. Umar is founder and lead tour guide for the "Unapologetically Afrikan" Black College & Consciousness Tour for 11 thru 17-year-old boys & girls which exposes them to the great historical Black College tradition, within the context of visiting and learning about significant places and personalities that helped shaped the global Afrikan struggle for freedom and independence. This tour is held annually during the first two weeks of July. The Prince of Pan-Afrikanism hosts a free regular weekly Black parent teleconference every Tuesday morning from 6-8am EST where he gives free educational and mental health consultations to community members in order to help them better advocate for Black children. Dr. Umar's name, quotes and speeches have been mentioned and shared on records and songs by various Hip-Hop artists more than any other living scholar. In addition, his image has been re-created by various Black artists more than any other scholar of the 21st century. The most requested Black scholar in America also hosts a regular annual "Unapologetically Afrikan" Group tour to the Afrikan continent, which takes place the last week in July and first week in August. This tour, which always includes stops in two different countries, is designed to help Afrikans in the west reestablish their psycho-spiritual connection to their ancestral homeland. A direct descendant of formerly enslaved civil war veterans who served in the United States Colored Troops of Maryland, Dr. Umar is an educational diagnostician who specializes in special education issues. He is known most for his work in identifying mis-diagnosed learning disabled and ADHD students. Dr. Umar has been featured on News One Now, the Tom Joyner Morning Show, the Bev Smith Show, The Breakfast Club, as has appeared as a special guest life coach on Real Housewives of Atlanta(RHOA8). As a child therapist, he works with depressed and behaviorally-challenged males. Dr. Umar is author of the book "Psycho-Academic Holocaust: The Special Education and ADHD Wars Against Black Boys," the 1st book ever written by a African-American male school psychologist to Black parents with specific strategies on how to fight back against special education and ADHD misdiagnoses. Dr.Umar also holds degrees in education and political science.Dr. Johnson is preparing to begin organizing his National Independent Black Ex-Offender Association (NIBEA), also known as "The New Underground Railroad," in order to advocate for rights on behalf of previously incarcerated Black women, men & children, and to prevent their recidivism. Dr. Umar is founder of the "Unapologetically Afrikan," "Unapologetically Black," & "Afrikan Family First" movements. Dr. Umar is founder & president of the National Independent Black Parent Association (NIBPA) organized to fight against educational and academic racism & disproportionality in the 7 core areas of a) special education, b) school discipline, c) school finance, d) social support/services, e) school policy, f) home schooling, and g) parent advocacy. One of the most recognized social scientists & Pan-Afrikanists of the 21st Century, his book, articles and lectures are included by college and university professors across the country within their required course materials. Dr. Umar is one of the most requested speakers in the world, and has lectured in North America, South America, The Caribbean, Europe and Afrika. Dr. Umar is currently working on building his new school, The Frederick Douglass & Marcus Garvey RBG International Leadership Academy for Boys, America's first residential academy for Black boys founded upon the principles of Pan-Afrikanism and International Economics. In the future, Dr. Umar also would like to extend this school to include female students in their own residential school. BOOKS, LECTURES, & EVENTS KEEP CONNECTED WITH DR. UMAR FDMG Resumes FDMGresumes@gmail.com facebook.com/ drumarifatunde Dr. P.O.P.A.Podcast Subscription FDMG DonationsRestoration Fund DonationsFDMG ACADEMYPO BOX 9634Wilmington DE 19809 Who We Are | Black Male Voter Project | We are Building a Movement Sat, 19 Sep 2020 20:05 Black Male Voter Project was founded by W. Mondale Robinson, who currently serves as our Principal. He is the National Political Director for Democracy for America, Political Contributor for The Village Celebration where he has political and cultural columns and is a regular on their syndicated radio show. Mondale is also a Political Consultant. Born one of 13 in rural North Carolina, W. Mondale grew up with a front-row seat to obstacles that kept and keeps Black people from voting. With this knowledge and his veteran campaign experience, he created a voter engagement program that would increase Black people's participation in the electoral process (BMEP Additory Approach(C)). The program was designed with a special focus on Black men, who are so often labeled as low information and sporadic voters. The program has been a success in the 13 states where it has been implemented (VA, NC, SC, GA, MS, FL, AL, TX, AR, OH, IN, NY, and NJ). Mondale has been a lifelong advocate for the expansion of democracy and the protection of voting rights. He has worked on more than 125 campaigns''across all levels of government''in the United States, and leading roles internationally. Why W. Mondale Robinson Founded the Black Male Voter Project Sat, 19 Sep 2020 19:54 W. Mondale Robinson (center) at a 2019 'Brothas Be Voting' roundtable in Atlanta. W. Mondale Robinson When I was a kid, I used to watch my father do amazing things for people all the time'--he'd fix roofs, lay drywall, pour cement for entire driveways. We were extremely poor, and I could never understand why. I thought: My dad is an anomaly. How can you be so great as a person and still suffer from poverty? As I grew older, I realized my dad was not an anomaly. Most Black men his age were similarly situated but were crippled in some way: My dad, for instance, earned a felony when he was a young boy for defending his mother against white supremacy. Knowing that his struggles were all too common for Black men and watching America snuff out his greatness were my marching orders and the reason I fight for the betterment of my community. I wound up doing campaign work for a long time, and one thing I noticed right away was that most of the people who determine what's said about politics generally, but progressive politics more specifically, are white men. The messaging they convey doesn't speak to my lived experience as a Black man. It's not motivating to me or to the brothas I know'--uncles, cousins, friends, men like my father. It is well-known that voting is a habit that's formed when resources are spent on it, and Black men aren't a priority when it comes to spending money on elections. That was the genesis of the Black Male Voter Project. Our goal isn't just to make voters out of Black men but to foster this idea of voting on issues that are important to us. We don't outright support candidates; we support issues important to Black men. We're seeking to combat the narrative that Black men are apathetic toward politics. Illustration of W. Mondale Robinson, founder of the Black Male Voter Project. Arrington Porter Being a Black man in America is a political statement, and it is impossible to watch politics from my body when the result of so much of the politics of this country has been the subjugation of me and folks who look like me. You can't discount the impact that's had on the mental health of Black men, either, and yet mental health is not considered part of the fight for revolution as it pertains to white supremacy. Imagine what hundreds of years of slavery have done to the psyche and the soul and the makeup of Black bodies in this country. There's a direct correlation between voting and people's health, especially for Black men. We know we're overrepresented in the prison population, which means we are less likely to have voting rights. A Florida prison system did a study a few years back, and they found that people with restored voting rights were less likely to go back to prison. Every time that I'm silent about inequality, I think about my mother, who would pretend to laugh'--to lessen the impact'--when she would tell me stories about being sprayed with a fire hose when she was nine years old for no reason other than being downtown after dark. She couldn't run and hide because she also had groceries for her siblings in her arms, and so she had to pick up the groceries while being sprayed. The white man who did it was still in elected office as the fire chief when I was growing up. Whenever I'm silent, I feel as though I'm selling my mother out. How we define success with our organization, in the end, is more complex than simply getting more Black men to vote. We're building long-term relationships. We hold focus groups called Brothas Be Voting and populate the room with brothas who don't normally participate in politics, people from the street and from underground economies, so we can hear what the barriers are. That way, we can work to remove them and help Black men start believing in the electoral process again. '--As told to Michelle Garcia This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io Advertisement - Continue Reading Below When Republicans Were Blue and Democrats Were Red | History | Smithsonian Magazine Sat, 19 Sep 2020 18:51 Television's first dynamic, color-coded presidential map, standing two stories high in the studio best known as the home to ''Saturday Night Live,'' was melting. It was early October, 1976, the month before the map was to debut'--live'--on election night. At the urging of anchor John Chancellor, NBC had constructed the behemoth map to illustrate, in vivid blue and red, which states supported Republican incumbent Gerald Ford and which backed Democratic challenger Jimmy Carter. The test run didn't go well. Although the map was buttressed by a sturdy wood frame, the front of each state was plastic. ''There were thousands of bulbs,'' recalled Roy Wetzel, then the newly minted general manager of NBC's election unit. ''The thing started to melt when we turned all the lights on. We then had to bring in gigantic interior air conditioning and fans to put behind the thing to cool it.'' That solved the problem. And when election results flowed in Tuesday night, Nov. 2, Studio 8-H at 30 Rockefeller Center lit up. Light bulbs on each state changed from undecided white to Republican blue and Democratic red. NBC declared Carter the winner at 3:30 a.m. EST, when Mississippi turned red. That's right: In the beginning, blue was red and red was blue and they changed back and forth from election to election and network to network in what appears, in hindsight, to be a flight of whimsy. The notion that there were ''red states'' and ''blue states'''--and that the former were Republican and the latter Democratic'--wasn't cemented on the national psyche until the year 2000. Chalk up another one to Bush v. Gore. Not only did it give us ''hanging chads'' and a crash course in the Electoral College, not only did it lead to a controversial Supreme Court ruling and a heightened level of polarization that has intensified ever since, the Election That Wouldn't End gave us a new political shorthand. Twelve years later, in the final days of a presidential race deemed too close to call, we know this much about election night Nov. 6: The West Coast, the Northeast and much of the upper Midwest will be bathed in blue. With some notable exceptions, the geographic center of the country will be awash in red. So will the South. And ultimately, it is a handful of states'--which will start the evening in shades of neutral and shift, one by one, to red or blue'--that will determine who wins. If enough of those swing states turn blue, President Barack Obama remains in the White House four more years. If enough become red, Gov. Mitt Romney moves in January 20, 2013. For now, they are considered ''purple.'' Here's something else we know: All the maps'--on TV stations and Web sites election night and in newspapers the next morning'--will look alike. We won't have to switch our thinking as we switch channels, wondering which candidate is blue and which is red. Before the epic election of 2000, there was no uniformity in the maps that television stations, newspapers or magazines used to illustrate presidential elections. Pretty much everyone embraced red and blue, but which color represented which party varied, sometimes by organization, sometimes by election cycle. There are theories, some likely, some just plain weird, to explain the shifting palette. ''For years, both parties would do red and blue maps, but they always made the other guys red,'' said Chuck Todd, political director and chief White House correspondent for NBC News. ''During the Cold War, who wanted to be red?'' Indeed, prior to the breakup of the Soviet Union little more than two decades ago, ''red was a term of derision,'' noted Mitchell Stephens, a New York University professor of journalism and author of A History of News. ''There's a movie named Reds, '' he said. ''You'd see red in tabloid headlines, particularly in right wing tabloids like the Daily Mirror in New York and the New York Daily News.'' In 1972, CBS News split the country into regions and used a color-coded map, with blue for Republicans and red for Democrats. (YouTube) In 1976, ABC News used this color-scheme for the presidential election. (YouTube) This 1980 map from NBC News shows states for Ronald Reagan in blue, Jimmy Carter in red, and uncalled in yellow. (YouTube) For years, NBC News used blue to indicate Republican states and red to indicate Democratic states. Shown here is a screen grab from the 1984 election (YouTube) A still from CBS News' coverage of the 1988 presidential election. White indicated states where ballots had closed, but had not been declared for one candidate or another. (YouTube) By 2000, NBC News had joined their colleagues in using the current red/blue scheme. At this point in the evening, Vice President Gore had been declared the winner in Florida. This, of course, would not be the case by the following morning. (YouTube)Perhaps the stigma of red in those days explains why some networks changed colors'-- in what appeared to be random fashion'--over the years. Kevin Drum of the Washington Monthly wrote in 2004 that the networks alternated colors based on the party of the White House incumbent, but YouTube reveals that to be a myth. Still, there were reversals and deviations. In 1976, when NBC debuted its mammoth electronic map, ABC News employed a small, rudimentary version that used yellow for Ford, blue for Carter and red for states in which votes had yet to be tallied. In 1980, NBC once again used red for Carter and blue for the Republican challenger, Ronald Reagan, and CBS followed suit. But ABC flipped the colors and promised to use orange for states won by John Anderson, the third-party candidate who received 6.6% of the popular vote. (Anderson carried no states, and orange seems to have gone by the wayside.) Four years later, ABC and CBS used red for Republicans and blue for Democrats, but the combination wouldn't stick for another 16 years. During the four presidential elections Wetzel oversaw for NBC, from 1976 through 1988, the network never switched colors. Republicans were cool blue, Democrats hot red. The reasoning was simple, he said: Great Britain. ''Without giving it a second thought, we said blue for conservatives, because that's what the parliamentary system in London is, red for the more liberal party. And that settled it. We just did it,'' said Wetzel, now retired. Forget all that communist red stuff, he said. ''It didn't occur to us. When I first heard it, I thought, 'Oh, that's really silly.' '' When ABC produced its first large electronic map in 1980, it used red for Republicans and blue for Democrats, while CBS did the reverse, according to Wetzel. NBC stuck with its original color scheme, prompting anchor David Brinkley to say that Reagan's victory looked like ''a suburban swimming pool.'' Newspapers, in those days, were largely black and white. But two days after voters went to the polls in 2000, both the New York Times and USA Today published their first color-coded, county-by-county maps detailing the showdown between Al Gore and George W. Bush. Both papers used red for the Republican Bush, blue for the Democrat Gore. Why? ''I just decided red begins with 'r,' Republican begins with 'r.' It was a more natural association,'' said Archie Tse, senior graphics editor for the Times. ''There wasn't much discussion about it.'' Paul Overberg, a database editor who designed the map for USA Today, said he was following a trend: ''The reason I did it was because everybody was already doing it that way at that point.'' And everybody had to continue doing it for a long time. The 2000 election dragged on until mid-December, until the Supreme Court declared Bush the victor. For weeks, the maps were ubiquitous. Perhaps that's why the 2000 colors stuck. Along with images of Florida elections officials eyeballing tiny ballot chads, the maps were there constantly, reminding us of the vast, nearly even divide between, well, red and blue voters. From an aesthetic standpoint, Overberg said, the current color scheme fits with the political landscape. Republicans typically dominate in larger, less populated states in the Plains and Mountain West, meaning the center of the United States is very red. ''If it had been flipped, the map would have been too dark,'' he said. ''The blue would have been swamping the red. Red is a lighter color.'' But not everyone liked the shift. Republican operative Clark Bensen wrote an analysis in 2004 titled ''RED STATE BLUES: Did I Miss That Memo?'' ''There are two general reasons why blue for Republican and Red for Democrat make the most sense: connotation and practice,'' Bensen wrote. ''First, there has been a generally understood meaning to the two colors inasmuch as they relate to politics. That is, the cooler color blue more closely represented the rational thinker and cold-hearted and the hotter red more closely represented the passionate and hot-blooded. This would translate into blue for Republicans and red for Democrats. Put another way, red was also the color most associated with socialism and the party of the Democrats was clearly the more socialistic of the two major parties. ''The second reason why blue for Republicans makes sense is that traditional political mapmakers have used blue for the modern-day Republicans, and the Federalists before that, throughout the 20th century. Perhaps this was a holdover from the days of the Civil War when the predominantly Republican North was 'Blue'.'' At this point'--three presidential elections after Bush v. Gore'--the color arrangement seems unlikely to reverse any time soon. Not only have ''red states'' and ''blue states'' entered the lexicon, partisans on both sides have taken ownership of them. For instance, RedState is a conservative blog; Blue State Digital, which grew out of Democrat Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign, helps candidates and organizations use technology to raise money, advocate their positions and connect with constituents. In 2008, a Republican and a Democrat even joined forces to create Purple Strategies, a bipartisan public affairs firm. Sara Quinn, a visual journalist now at the Poynter Institute in Florida, said she sees no particular advantage to either color. ''Red is usually very warm and it comes forward to the eye. Blue tends to be a recessive color, but a calming color,'' she said. Not that anyone thought of those things when assigning colors in 2000. Not that they think about it at all today. ''After that election the colors became part of the national discourse,'' said Tse. ''You couldn't do it any other way.'' The Rosy or Rose Cross - Occult Symbols Sat, 19 Sep 2020 18:45 The Rose Cross is associated with a number of different schools of thought, including that of the Golden Dawn, Thelema, the OTO, and the Rosicrucians (also known as the Order of the Rose Cross). Each group offers somewhat different interpretations of the symbol. This should not be surprising as magical, occult and esoteric symbols are frequently used to communicate ideas more complex than is possible to express in speech. Christian Elements Users of the Rose Cross today tend to downplay the Christian elements to it, even though the magical systems used by such people are generally Judeo-Christian in origin. The cross, therefore, has other meanings here besides being the instrument of Christ's execution. Despite this, the presence of the letters INRI, which is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase Iesvs Nazarens Rex Ivdaeorym, meaning "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews," cannot escape Christian interpretation. According to the Christian Bible, this phrase was inscribed on the cross where Jesus was executed. In addition, the cross is often viewed by occultists as a symbol of immortality, sacrifice, and death. Through Jesus's sacrifice and death on the cross, humanity has a chance at eternal life with God. The Cross Cross-shaped objects are commonly used in occultism too represent the four physical elements. Here each arm is colored to represent one element: yellow, blue, black and red to represent air, water, earth, and fire. These colors are also repeated on the bottom portion of the cross. The white on the upper portion of the bottom arm represents the spirit, the fifth element. The cross can also represent dualism, two forces going in conflicting directions yet uniting at a central point. The union of rose and cross is also a generative symbol, the union of a male and female. Finally, the cross's proportions are made up of six squares: one for each arm, an extra one for the lower arm, and the center. A cross of six squares can be folded into a cube. The Rose The rose has three tiers of petals. The first tier, of three petals, represents the three basic alchemical elements: salt, mercury, and sulfur. The tier of seven petals represents the seven Classical planets (The Sun and Moon are considered planets here, with the term ''planets'' indicating the seven bodies that appear to circle the earth independently of the star field, which moves as a single unit). The tier of twelve represents the astrological zodiac. Each of the twenty-two petals bears one of the twenty-two letters in the Hebrew alphabet and also represents the twenty-two paths on the Tree of Life. The rose itself has a myriad assortment of additional meanings associated with it: It is at once a symbol of purity and a symbol of passion, heavenly perfection and earthly passion; virginity and fertility; death and life. The rose is the flower of the goddess Venus but also the blood of Adonis and of Christ. It is a symbol of transmutation - that of taking food from the earth and transmuting it into the beautiful fragrant rose. The rose garden is a symbol of Paradise. It is the place of the mystic marriage. In ancient Rome, roses were grown in the funerary gardens to symbolize resurrection. The thorns have represented suffering and sacrifice as well as the sins of the Fall from Paradise. ("A Brief Study of The Rose Cross Symbol," no longer online)Inside the large rose is a smaller cross bearing another rose. This second rose is depicted with five petals. Five is the number of the physical senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell, and it is also the number of man's extremities: two arms, two legs, and the head. Thus, the rose represents humanity and physical existence. The Pentagrams A pentagram is displayed at the end of each arm of the cross. Each of these pentagrams bears symbols of the five elements: a wheel for spirit, a bird's head for air, the zodiac sign for Leo, which is a fire sign, the zodiac symbol for Taurus, which is an earth sign, and the zodiac symbol for Aquarius, which is a water sign. They are arranged so that when tracing the pentagram you can progress from the most physical to the most spiritual: earth, water, air, fire, spirit. The Three Symbols at the End of Each Arm The three symbols repeated at the end of all four arms stand for salt, mercury, and sulfur, which are the three basic alchemical elements from which all other substances derive. The three symbols are repeated on each of the four arms of the cross, numbering a total of twelve. Twelve is the number of the zodiac, comprised of twelve symbols that circle the heavens throughout the year. The Hexagram Hexagrams commonly represent the union of opposites. It is composed of two identical triangles, one pointing up and one pointing down. The point-up triangle can represent ascending toward the spiritual, while the point-down triangle can stand for the divine spirit descending to the physical realm. The Symbols Around and in The Hexagram The symbols in and around the hexagram represent the seven Classical planets. The symbol for the Sun is in the center. The sun is generally the most important planet in Western occultism. Without the Sun, our planet would be lifeless. It is also commonly connected with the light of divine wisdom and the purification properties of fire, and was sometimes considered the visual manifestation of God's will in the universe. On the outside of the hexagrams are the symbols for Saturn, Jupiter, Venus, the Moon, Mercury, and Mars (clockwise from top). Western occult thought generally considers the planets in the farthest orbits from the Earth in an earth-centric model) to be the most spiritual, because they are the furthest from the physicality of the Earth. Thus, the top three planets are Saturn, Jupiter and Mars, while the bottom three are Mercury, Venus and the Moon. Music in this Episode Intro: Mobb Deep - G.O.D. Part III Instrumental 9 seconds Outro: Whole Truth - Can you loose by following god 15 seconds Donate to the show at moefundme.com Search for us in your podcast directory or use this link to subscribe to the feed Podcast Feed For more information: MoeFactz.com

Thomas Gensemer joins The Great Battlefield podcast to talk about his career from helping to found and run Blue State Digital to the marketing and sale of the company to his time at Burson-Marsteller and what he's up to now at Blue Labs and elsewhere.

Matthew and Toby record a new episode during a particularly stressful Sunday afternoon, going around the horn on the beauty of baseball crowds (with internet assists from past guests Peter Bondi and Kelly Kreft), Puig Fever in Cleveland, and avoiding sweeps. And the boys finally get the technology to cooperate to have Joe Rospars, CEO of Blue State Digital and advisor to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, on for a Half-Hearted Attempt at Empathy.

Mike Conlow joins The Great Battlefield podcast to discuss his career from working on the voter file and analytics at the DNC to the Obama campaigns to his current role at Blue State Digital.

Our guest on the podcast this week is Blue State Digital's executive creative director, Matt Ipcar. Sharing pivotal moments and highlights from his career so far, he tells us about studying architecture and his first jobs – designing automotive print ads, to working as a design lead on both Obama campaigns. Originally from New York, we met with Matt after he took to the stage at Design Manchester to find out more about his role, creating work that positively impacts the world – and the email he once sent to Steve Jobs. ... This episode of Creative Lives was brought to you by Lecture in Progress. It was presented by Marianne Hanoun and the editor was Ivor Manly. Lecture in Progress is made possible with the support of a number of brand partners – they include ustwo, Google, Sky Creative Agency, G.F Smith and The Paul Smith Foundation.

Matt Compton, Director of Advocacy and Engagement at Blue State Digital, discusses how email programs are used for political campaigns and advocacy. Matt also shares his experience in working in digital communications for the Obama White House and the Democratic National Committee. We look ahead to the 2018 U.S. midterm elections and discuss trends in how the Democratic Party is using social media to campaign.

Jascha Franklin-Hodge is the former Chief Information Officer for the City of Boston. Jascha was appointed by Mayor Martin Walsh to serve in the cabinet and to lead the Department of Innovation and Technology (DoIT). He created the City’s first Digital Team and their projects included the award-winning Boston.gov web site and BOS:311 mobile app. Prior to working for Boston, Jascha founded Blue State Digital where he oversaw the development of their online fundraising, email, and CRM platform that is used by a variety of not-for-profit and political clients — most notably the Obama campaigns in 2008 and 2012.

Jascha Franklin-Hodge, Boston's well-known and respected Chief Information Officer, and the co-founder of Blue State Digital, is about to leave his post. As he ends his tenure as Beantown's CIO, we present this sparkling dialogue, recorded last spring in our studio with Toby Bottorf, our VP of Service and Experience Design. It's an earnest, intelligent conversation, often punctuated with laughter. Together Franklin-Hodge and Bottorf range all over the intellectual landscape: smart cities, transportation, data, Net Neutrality, Barak Obama, Teddy Roosevelt, privacy, ethics, and "Parks and Recreation." Consider this episode a farewell salute to a terrific digital civil servant, who says: • “I'm always a little allergic to the term ‘smart cities,' which kinda comes in and out of vogue but often ends up being shorthand for what, I think, is a sort of thoughtless and industry-driven application of technology to things that don't have technology applied to them.” • “You sort of end up sometimes running the risk that you're up building the sort of Juicero of cities. ‘Let's take a thing a put a computer on it because we can!'” • “If you put 40 cameras at an intersection—yes, it's for safety, but how do we make sure we're doing that in a way that's responsible and that respects the privacy needs and wishes of the people who travel through there? • “We asked people to tell us their question about transportation in Boston. Some people said: ‘Why can't I have a stoplight at the end of my street?' and other people said: ‘Why can't I take a duck boat to work?' We have this vast spectrum of interest and ideas.” • “If predictions are right—that autonomous vehicles become a real thing in the next five to ten years—the fundamental ways in which we get around, the ways we use land, the way we think about things like parking, the way we design intersections, the way we design buildings, that are kind of the interface layer between vehicles and people that live in those buildings: all that's gonna have to change. And anybody that tells you that have that all figured out is lying.” • “If you don't stop and have that conversation and ask those questions [about privacy and ethics], you tend to default to just: collect everything. Save everything. Put everything in a central repository somewhere. And I think that is the basis for a lot of this kind of unintended surveillance and, frankly, a lot of security and privacy risk that we haven't quite wrapped our heads around.” • “So this idea that, just because you work for a city that it's OK to build a terrible UI and then be: ‘Oh, we can just send people to training and they'll be able to figure it out!' What is the cost of that? If that person starts their day dreading the six clicks they're gonna have to do every single time they do a task, they're not gonna be in the right mood. They won't really have the time to deliver to people.” • “There's no right answer when it comes to privacy. It's a balance. It's a conversation. It's always evolving as technology evolves.” Host: Pete Chapin Editor: Kyp Pilalas Producer: Ken Gordon

Ben Self, the recently elected Chair of the Kentucky Democratic Party, joins The Great Battlefield to recount his enviable career: from his time on Howard Dean's presidential campaign, to co-founding Blue State Digital, to working as Head of Technology for the DNC, to eventually bootstrapping West Sixth Brewery in his hometown of Lexington. | Episode 88

Samir Patel, Managing Director at Blue State Digital London, guests this week to discuss how the recent success of the Labour Party in the 2017 British elections was aided by a huge push in digital by the British Left. We discuss the role that Facebook data targeting played in the election - not just from Labour but also advocacy groups. Samir also explains how social media was used to mobilize the British youth vote, how citizens built their own digital tools to campaign (i.e. civic tech), and some transnational differences (and similarities) between campaigning in the United States, United Kingdom, and other parts of the European Union. We also talk about how Brexit and the upcoming negotiations may affect data privacy laws and campaign regulations. The article that I mention in the introduction can be found on Blue State Digital's website here.

The Social Media and Politics Podcast is a podcast bringing you innovative, first-hand insights into how social media is changing the political game. Subscribe for interviews and analysis with politicians, academics, and leading industry experts to get their take on how social media influences the ways we engage with politics and democracy. Connect with us on Twitter @SMandPPodcast & Facebook: Social Media and Politics Podcast Dr. Shelley Boulianne, Associate Professor in Sociology at MacEwan University, joins the show to share insights from her research on how social media is impacting citizens' engagement in civic and political life. Dr. Boulianne discusses the findings of her meta-analysis studies, comparing the results of existing research in order to better uncover how social media is affecting citizens engagement with politics. You can follow her on Twitter @DrBoulianne. Check out Dr. Boulianne's full research paper that we discuss in the podcast: "Revolution in the making? Social media effects across the globe". Full Transcript: [00:00:00] Michael Bossetta: Welcome to Episode 26 of the Social Media Politics Podcast, bringing you expert insights into how social media is changing the political game. I'm your host, Michael Bossetta, political scientist at the University of Copenhagen. You can follow us on Twitter @SMandPPodcast, and also our Facebook Page: Social Media and Politics Podcast. [00:00:48] Thank you so much for tuning in. I'm going to be interviewing Dr. Shelley Boulianne, who is an Associate Professor of Sociology at MacEwan University in Canada. And as we alluded to a little bit in our previous episode, looking at social media use in the British elections, as academics we tend to really focus in on one aspect of social media and politics. We'll look at one platform for one specific case or one specific protest. And what's cool about Dr. Boulianne's work is she's been looking at, in some cases hundreds of studies, and looking at the findings of those and then seeing what are the similarities and differences between those studies. And what really do we know about the effects of social media on for example: people's likelihood to vote, or people's likelihood to engage in activism or community involvement? [00:02:40] My guest today is Dr. Shelley Boulianne, Associate Professor in Sociology at MacEwan University. Dr. Boulianne is an expert on how digital media influences civic engagement and political participation and joins us via Skype from Edmonton Canada. Dr. Boulianne, Thanks so much for taking the time out and welcome to The Social Media and Politics Podcast thank you very much for inviting me. So as I mentioned, in your research you're interested in the influence of digital media on civic and political engagement. Could you lay out these concepts for our listeners? What exactly is civic and political engagement? [00:03:12] Dr. Shelley Boulianne: Sure. My working definition of civic and political engagement includes activities designed to influence government activities designed to improve community life and activities designed to express one's views about civic and political issues. So the type of activities that tend to link up with these studies are activities such as: voting, participating in boycotts, protesting in the streets volunteering in the community, talking politics, and then donating to political campaigns, charities, political causes. [00:03:43] Michael Bossetta: And is it actions from only citizens or are there other actors that can engage in these type of activities? [00:03:51] Dr. Shelley Boulianne: Well the research that I'm trying to summarize or is largely focused on surveys of citizens. [00:03:57] Michael Bossetta: And speaking of that research you've done a number of really great what's called meta-analyses, looking at how social and digital media influence these type of engagement. So can you describe what a meta-analysis is and kind of how you go about conducting one? [00:04:13] Dr. Shelley Boulianne: Sure. A meta-analysis is a systematic analysis of existing research on a topic. Specifically, I like to call it a quantitative analysis of quantitative studies on a topic. It's largely used in the medical and health sciences, and it's often used to summarize a large body of experiments on a particular topic. So I and others have adapted meta-analysis techniques to try to summarise survey research on specific topics. So like other meta-analyses I search for manuscripts through academic databases. I also use Google Scholar to find sources. And finally I consult the reference lists of relevant works to identify relevant research. [00:04:53] Michael: Ah ha, so You look at a study and then who else has cited that study to sort of broaden that net. [00:04:58] Dr. Shelley Boulianne: Sure, and then which sources have that study cited. So we're always building on each other's academic research and so I go forward and backwards with the citation lists. Who have they cited? And who is citing this reference, using Google Scholar and other similar software. [00:05:15] Michael Bossetta: And then how do you go about it from there? So you have this this huge pool of studies. I mean do you go through and read each one individually or do you look at only there their findings and results? [00:05:26] Dr. Shelley Boulianne: So my focus within that area of research is on survey research. I mean there is a lot of studies on social media engagement that are rich descriptions about specific election campaigns or protest events, and so that type of literature is really hard to summarize because it uses very different methodology. And I have it on my To-Do list to try to write some sort of comprehensive lit review of those types of research projects. But for a meta-analysis it really is meant to be a quantitative review. And so my research is largely focused on survey research. So with these latest studies that I've done have actually hired students to go through studies and figure out whether they use survey research and whether they test the relationship between social media use and engagement. [00:06:15] Michael Bossetta: Interesting. So do they actually scout the research as well or is it you who do scouts the research and then passes it down to them and has that kind of filter out what's relevant and what's not? [00:06:26] Dr. Shelley Boulianne: I would say it's a combination of things. I do like to send them to the academic databases to do searches based on keywords and to consult within the academic databases. And then in terms of Google Scholar we're all sort of hooked in to that, you know to find updates on things that we've queried about or we find updates on what's been cited in this area of research. And so we get those regular updates. So it's a lot of back and forth with my research assistants. Sometimes you find the same study on the same day and we're sending it to each other saying look there's a new study. So I guess a it's team effort in terms of finding those studies. [00:07:05] Michael Bossetta: Right. And what's the... It's an interesting method for me because it's not that you're, you know, going out and conducting surveys yourself. Even though you do that and other research. But what's the benefit of this meta-analysis method, versus using survey data from a specific election or going out and conducting your own? [00:07:25] Dr. Shelley Boulianne: Well, definitely. I mean, any single survey is going to have its limitations. We can only ask so many questions. And then of course our sample size will be very much limited by budget. And so I argue the benefit of a meta-analysis is that it basically takes all of these surveys, all of the people who have responded to these surveys, all those survey questions that have been asked within these surveys, and compiling all of that data together in one data set to try to summarize what is the big picture around the relationship between social media and engagement. [00:07:57] Michael Bossetta: And so let's get into that in a little bit. In 2015, you published an analysis of 36 studies that looked at how social media influences political participation. And so my first question is why did you choose to focus on that topic specifically? What's interesting about the connection between social media and participation? [00:08:20] Dr. Shelley Boulianne: Well, that paper came about in a rather odd way. I was invited to speak at the 2014 American Sociological Association Annual Meeting. I hadn't planned to do a meta-analysis, but one of the conference organizers read my 2009 piece around internet use and engagement, and she wanted me to give an update on the findings. And so what we had agreed upon and what we could do and the timelines that we had, I decided to focus very narrowly on social networking sites and what this new research on social networking sites was saying about engagement and that's how I got back into I guess the meta-analysis business. I was invited to update my findings, and I decided to do that very narrow focused. [00:09:03] Michael Bossetta: And what was the timeframe of those studies that you were looking at? [00:09:07] Dr. Shelley Boulianne: Those, because I focused on social networking sites, I would say I have just maybe one or two studies that was in 2007, possibly one in 2006. But the bulk of the research was collected in 2008 through the 2013 time period. And then of course the paper was published in 2015. So there's always a little bit of a time lag between when the paper the meta-analysis gets published and then when the data has been collected in these other sources. [00:09:37] Michael Bossetta: Yeah it's interesting. 2008 is kind of an early adoption period. I think especially for scientists that are that are looking at this, so you have the nice, uh, catching the beginning there. So what did you find? Was there, you know, some common findings that came out by looking at all these 36 different studies? Or was it really a kind of grab bag of different findings? [00:09:58] Dr. Shelley Boulianne: Well I mean, my intent with that piece was really to just give a quick update on what was happening with that research on social networking sites and engagement. So I had a rather narrow focus or a narrow intent with that research. Which was just to give an insight into what was happening. And so that piece really focused on what types of social media uses matter for what types of engagement. And also to address the broader question that was going around, which was: Is social media having a negative effect on engagement? Because that is basically what the concern was at that time when I was writing. And so my objective was to address that point. Is it having a negative effect? And I think pretty conclusively said that it's not. I mean, most of the studies we're coming up with positive effects are seeing a positive relationship between social networking site usage and engagement in civic and political life. [00:10:53] Michael Bossetta: And what exactly does that mean? A "positive effect." We have some students listening to the show who may not be so caught up in their effects research. What is it that that increases that participation or has that positive effect? [00:11:06] Dr. Shelley Boulianne: So I think that that piece really highlighted two different aspects of social media use that we're having positive effects. One is that social media was building people's social networks. So, you know, we go to social media or social networking sites, we're finding friends, we're building up those networks, and we know from research from the 1950s that building your networks increases the likelihood that you get asked to participate in civic and political life. It increases the chances that you will in fact participate in civic and political life. And so what I think that 2015 piece illustrated is that this is happening online now. It's happening through these social networking sites. People are joining groups, they're building their friendship networks, and these networks are becoming mobilized. So people are more likely to be engaged in civic and political life. And then the people that are engaged in civic and political life are also using social media to talk about their activities. And so we see that sort of dual process happening, based on that research. [00:12:08] Michael Bossetta: And, was it so much that the networks corresponded to one's offline network, or? Because there's been some talk about social media enabling people who had known each other previously to kind of seek out and form networks around similar issues or what we're calling "issue publics." Is that the type of networks you're talking about? Or is it more about mobilizing your friends who you already know. [00:12:33] Dr. Shelley Boulianne: Yeah I think that this is where the research needs to get into more of the nuances. What type of networks do you create in your social networking sites? And I think part of the question is whether or not your social networks are different across different platforms. So we know quite a bit about Facebook research. Because still, the large majority of this research is done focusing on Facebook. And so, the networks we create and maintain on Facebook are very much different than other platforms where we might interact with people that we don't know as well. We have weak ties too. So I'm glad to see that the research is actually moving in this direction of finding out what types of networks are we creating and maintaining in these social networking sites. Because I think that the different types of networks are going to have different outcomes in terms of whether or not we become more engaged in civic and political life. But again, my research is responding to what's out there. And I think that there needs to be more research on the nuances of what types of networks we're creating in these spaces. [00:13:36] Michael Bossetta: Right. Because that might be a little bit difficult to get out with with survey data or the predominant survey approach needs to be updated. But I want to ask you about one of the difficulties that you noted in that paper, which was that the different research designs and methods can make it a bit difficult to compare the results of these studies. So can you go into that a little bit in terms of where the difficulties in comparing these studies it sometimes might be very different even though they're asking the same questions? [00:14:04] Dr. Shelley Boulianne: Right. Well I would say that the majority of the studies use cross-sectional research designs, which is basically you interview a group of people and you look at what they said about media use, and what they said about engagement, and then try to make some sort of assessment of: is there a relationship? And so, for those studies it is much easier and straightforward to try to summarize the results and to say look these two things, these responses to the media use questions and responses to the engagement question, are sort of going in the same direction. And the direction usually is, the more you use social media, the more that your reporting higher are levels of engagement in civic and political life. So these are rather straightforward to deal with them the analysis techniques are pretty standard. And so this was quite easy for me to do in terms of summarizing. What gets complicated is the longitudinal designs. And I would argue the value of the longitudinal design, despite the complexity that it introduces, is that there is great value in the longitudinal design. So the designs that we're seeing, they track people over time to see if there's changes in their levels of engagement, and whether these changes can be related to changes in social media use. And so it's a much stronger set of data to try to think that there's a causal relationship - that on is causing the other. But the problem is there's a much more complexity in these types of designs. They tend to be limited in terms of their sample size. They tend to use student samples because they're the easiest ones to track over a period of time. And so these complexities of the sampling approach, the complexities in the analysis approach, that makes them very hard to summarize the result. [00:15:46] Michael Bossetta: Yeah, and I would think that it's a little bit difficult today, where you have, as you're saying there's a lot of focus on college students, using Facebook when Facebook first came out. But now what we see is some, you know, 15 and unders don't have Facebook. They might be just on Instagram, and then older people are starting to come on Facebook, and there's tons of new platforms to cope on. So I think it's, it will be difficult in the future to kind of disentangle that over time because of all these external factors that are in the social media landscape. [00:16:21] Dr. Shelley Boulianne: Right. And just to add to that the more platforms, I mean, this will be great. I can respond to the differences by platform once there's research out there, when there are multiple studies out there looking at different platforms. But I guess the problem is that, if they are using multiple platforms, how do we figure out: So this is you know an Instagram effect, and this is Facebook effect, and this is a Twitter effect? That makes it very hard because a lot of these people are using multiple platforms. [00:16:48] Michael Bossetta: And do you think there's, by looking at self reported survey data, I mean do you think there's a need for more studies looking at the actual metrics of social media? Or, is there a way that you can incorporate that, or complement that, by survey data? Because you know, one of the problems with surveys is that people say they do something, and maybe it's inaccurate what they're actually doing. So what are your thoughts on that? [00:17:10] Dr. Shelley Boulianne: Well I absolutely love the idea of mixed methods research. My own research you mentioned, I do surveys. Well, I do surveys, and then I supplement the survey data with other sources. So for example, the projects that I'm working on right now looks at social media use. So many of these same survey questions that I've seen used in other studies, I look at social media use measures. I look at engagement measures, and I'm looking at it around a particular event, which was charitable donations in relation to a wildfire that my province had last year. And what we're doing is we're using the survey data, and we can establish that there's a connection there. That there's a correlation, or a relationship. The more you use social media to find out news about this event, the more likely you were to donate to the Red Cross and other similar organizations. But what we did, that I think should be done more often, is we looked at what was happening on Twitter. What was the Twitter discourse around that time period? And what you're seeing to supplement what the survey data was saying. What you're seeing is these messages of "help out," "donate." You know, "these people are suffering." You know, "we need to do something." Those sort of calls to action were evident in the Twitter data. So we use the combination of sources, and I think that that's really where research should be done. I know that this is done often in book format, where you see survey data supplemented with social media analytics, but I'd like to see more done in the article length because I really do think that surveys are only so good for making that theoretical connection between two variables that there really needs to be details about what is the content that is circulating. [00:18:53] Michael Bossetta: Right. So it's not necessarily so much that people are just using social media and then happen to organically donate to this cause, but that there are actually certain things going on on the platform, like asking people to donate, that would then elicit more of that response. [00:19:09] Dr. Shelley Boulianne: Exactly. [00:19:10] Michael Bossetta: OK. So, let's fast forward to today maybe focusing on the 36 studies that analysis is not doing proper justice to a more recent work where you've looked at 150 different studies on social media and participation. And what what changes did you observe if any between looking at 36 studies in a more updated list of 150? [00:19:31] Dr. Shelley Boulianne: Right. So, one of the things that I saw right away when I started looking at this literature is that what people are focused on in terms of social media use has changed. There is a lot more studies that look at the use of social media for political expression or for discussing political issues. And so there was enough of those studies that have focused on this that I can really look at that particular finding, and look at whether it had outcomes on people's offline engagement in civic and political life. So that was one thing that was new with this area. Again, these meta-analysis have to evolve based on what the research is producing, and the research was producing some consistent findings around this idea of political expression on social media and offline forms of engagement. [00:20:20] Michael Bossetta: Ah ha. And I've been looking at a few of these studies where they'll say, for example, that those who are more likely to tweet during a political event are more likely to go out and vote, or go out and canvass, or campaign. And I'm wondering, I mean, does that have anything to do with that the people being surveyed or already politically interstate? Or, how do you disentangle that from the causal mechanism of social media to go out and do something? I mean is that something that's clear from from this 150 study meta-analysis? [00:20:56] Dr. Shelley Boulianne: I think, again, this is where the value of a longitudinal design comes in, because we can account for things like are they already politically interested. We can ask that question and try to account for, you know, is it political interest that it's causing both does observing these political events through a second screening and whatnot, and also causing engagement in political life? I mean, we can try to do that, and try to untangle that process using the cross-sectional data, but really the value is in longitudinal studies or experimental studies. If there were studies looking at changes in behavior, then we could untangle the causal process. I don't think that we're there yet. I mean the longitudinal studies that we have really aren't able to untangle that process just quite yet in terms of what is causing what. [00:21:49] Michael Bossetta: And are there any other differences that you observe between... So in the 2015 study you found this positive effect on social media and participation. And then, in the updated version, is it similar positive effect?. You know, I'm thinking about these echo chambers and this kind of reinforcement idea. Did you find evidence for that or was it still a generally positive trend? [00:22:14] Dr. Shelley Boulianne: So I definitely still find that positive trend. I guess the reason that I set out to do the second piece is that one of the questions that I couldn't properly address were that 2015 paper is the magnitude of the relationship. And so I look at, yes, there's positive effects, but only half of them were statistically significant. And I know researchers are always concerned about, is it significant? So the question I ask with this new study is: Are the effect sizes substantive? Is it really a game changer that social media use is going to cause changes in things like voter turnout? Is social media use going to change someone's decision about whether to participate in a street protest, or whether to volunteer in their community? And so I needed to look at the sizes, to look at that magnitude of the relationship. So that was really the primary objective in starting out the second piece on this meta-analysis of social media trying to get at: what is the magnitude of the relationship? And in particular, the discourse isn't debating anymore whether there's a positive effect, it's debating whether or not there's a substantial effect. And so that there's a debate about whether the effects are revolutionary. And so that's the title that I have for this paper, is trying to assess whether or not the effects at least when we're talking about citizens engagement in civic and political life, are these are facts revolutionary? Are they game changers? [00:23:38] Michael Bossetta: And, have you gotten to that final verdict at this point or are you still working through the data? [00:23:44] Dr. Shelley Boulianne: I would say that there's certain aspects where we can see that there's revolutionary effects. And the aspect that I think is most evident is around the political expression on social media. We see it in the survey data and I think that the analytics of social media data is showing that same pattern. And so I see that there's something possibly revolutionary in there. And the other dimension, or the other really that I'm analysing this data, is to try to understand how the effects differ across different political contexts. Because I think that's part of the answer of whether these effects are revolutionary, depends on where we're talking about these effects occurring. So social media affects in a media rich environment, or in a system where there's a free press, I mean social media effects are going to compete with other media effects. Whereas we see in the meta data, when you look at systems where there's a lack of a free press, we see a much larger relationship. And again it's social media that's filling in a huge gap in terms of information needs, and it's causing a larger effect in terms of peoples' engagement in civic and political life. [00:24:53] Michael Bossetta: So, that might be something like a country where they don't have a free press, maybe an authoritarian regime, but social media sort of has this potential to create awareness about something that may spill over into a protest that's organized on social media. [00:25:09] Dr. Shelley Boulianne: Yes, absolutely. And I would say that it's evident in systems where there's not a free press or the authoritarian regimes. But also there's a strong relationship in terms of systems where there's a transition in democracy or there's a partly free press. So, you know, it's developing a democratic system but it's still in those developmental stages. And you see strong effects there as well. [00:25:31] Michael Bossetta: So kind of dovetailing on that, and it's kind of a loaded question, but based on having looked at all of this data, what's your assessment in terms of the potential for these social media in terms of impacting the quality democracy? Are they positive or negative for democracy? Or is it, you know, the argument that they're neutral and it's how you use them? [00:25:53] Dr. Shelley Boulianne: Well, I guess my first reaction to that question is that we need to look beyond democracy and the role of social media beyond democratic systems, because as I mentioned the effects are quite substantial when we're looking at other types of political systems. And so asking about whether it's good for democracy, you know, that's sort of a different answer because it is good for citizen participation in all types of political systems. And the question of: Is it good for the quality of democracy? I guess that sort of depends on what you think is good for democracy, and I think more citizen participation is a good thing for democracy. So in that line, or on that note I would say that social media is having a positive influence on democracy as well as non- democratic states. [00:26:40] Michael Bossetta: Good answer. And just wrapping up, can you give us a teaser about where your research is heading at the moment? So you mentioned a study about wildfires and the effect of social media participation on that. Anything else we should look out for? [00:26:56] Dr. Shelley Boulianne: Yes, along the lines of the meta-analysis. I have decided to revisit the 2009 study that I had published around internet use and engagement. And so I have a database there of over 300 studies... [00:27:09] Michael Bossetta: Jeez... [00:27:09] Dr. Shelley Boulianne: Yes, I'm still collecting the studies. For that one in particular I want to answer the question what this new research about whether the 2016 period is distinctive. Whether the U.S. election in 2016 will produce different outcomes in terms of citizen engagement. But I'm also looking more around the world and there's a lot of Western democracies having elections in 2017, and so I have this database, and I have some ideas about what's happening in the database. But I'm really looking at these these brand new studies to add to the question of are we seeing something dramatically shift in terms of media and its role in citizens engagement. So that's one of the objectives that I have over the next few months. The other one is to look at the effects and how they're distinctive for youth. Because I think this has been a reoccurring theme with my meta-analyses to say that youth are distinctive, the effects are possibly larger for youth. And so I've decided to tackle that question: how does social media and digital media, how does it have a different affect for youth compared to other age groups? [00:28:17] Michael Bossetta: Very interesting, very relevant, and a huge knot to untangle though. So, best of luck with that, I'll be looking very much forward to reading the final results. And Dr. Boulianne thanks so much for coming on the show. Appreciate your time. [00:28:31] Dr. Shelley Boulianne: All right, thank you very much Michael. [00:28:33] Michael Bossetta: I've just been speaking with Dr. Shelley Boulianne, Associate Professor of Sociology at MacEwan University. You can follow her on Twitter @drboulianne. [00:28:46] All right, that's a wrap for this episode of The Social Media and Politics podcast. Hope you enjoyed the show, and thanks so much for tuning in. Next week we'll be speaking with Sam Jeffers co-founder of the group Who Targets Me, and a former executive director at Blue State Digital. [00:29:02] Feel free to connect with us on Twitter @SMandPPodcast podcast. Direct any questions, feedback, suggestions for future episodes that way. If you want to be a hero leave a review on Apple Podcasts and help us game those algorithms. We're climbing thanks to you guys. Keep downloading. Keep sharing. Keep learning. I'm your host, Michael Bossetta, signing off from off in Copenhagen. See you next time.

What’s fake news, and how can we spot it? This episode is about media literacy, and offers insights on how to spot fake news, as well as media bias, and skewed data. We talked with Clay Johnson, author of The Information Diet and the co-founder of Blue State Digital, the firm that built and managed Barack Obama’s online campaign for the presidency in 2008. Here’s a few resources to dig deeper: How to tell fake news from real news - TED Ed How to Spot Fake News - FactCheck.org

Have you started thinking about your year-end giving campaign? If not, don't worry, Andrew Rothman from Blue State Digital joins in to share some tips as far as getting ready for year-end giving. By dividing up the year into four quarters, he breaks down what exactly you should be doing in each quarter to ensure a successful year-end giving campaign that optimizes all of your communications. Whether through email or direct mail, there are ways to connect with your donors (and potential new ones) in ways that truly speak to them.

On this episode we talk with Taylor Corrado about lessons nonprofits can learn from how for profit companies approach marketing, how today’s “connected world” has changed the way we fundraise, and effective ways nonprofits can leverage content marketing to rally more people around their cause. Taylor is currently on the Digital Marketing team at American Express, however has previously help nonprofits raise money online through various marketing roles at FirstGiving, HubSpot, and Blue State Digital. During her time at HubSpot, she co-authored the book "Transform Your Nonprofit with Inbound Marketing" and managed the content development of 70+ blog articles, content offerings, and webinars designed to help nonprofits reach more people and raise more money for their cause. Learn more about the #GivingTuesday webinar + reserve your spot (only a few available) ~ https://resources.causevox.com/webinar/giving-tuesday-2016-fundraising-campaign SHOW LINKS: Taylor's collection of nonprofit marketing articles ~ http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/author/taylor-corrado AirBnb's content marketing strategy ~ https://contently.com/strategist/2014/12/05/how-airbnb-is-using-content-marketing-to-stay-on-top/ Interview w/ Kivi Leroux Miller about nonprofit communications ~ https://www.causevox.com/blog/kivi-leroux-miller-nonprofit-communication-podcast/ Find more episodes on iTunes (bit.ly/CVpodcast) or our website (www.causevox.com/podcast). Looking for more nonprofit insights? Visit our blog (bit.ly/nonprofit_blog) and see our collection of 400+ posts sharing all things fundraising and marketing. Easily create a powerful fundraising campaign in minutes. Try CauseVox for free! ~ https://www.causevox.com

Hellre rätt än brett - är en av slutsatserna Kommunikationspoddens Max Landergård och Hugo Rennéus gör efter SXSW Interactive som gjorde sin sista föreläsning i veckan. I veckans avsnitt pratar vi targeting, social marknadsföring, Periscope, drönare, samkönade äktenskap och kanalval. Amber Armstrong, marknadsföringsansvarig för IBM, berättar om vikten hur man skapar framgångsrik marknadsföring av köpt, ägt och förtjänat i sociala medier.  Sam Olstein, Innovationschef för General Electrics berättar om hur GE använde sig av drönare för att skapa uppmärksamhet om sitt erbjudande via Periscope.  Erika Trautman, VD Rapt Media, berättar om att bygga content för interaktiva videos.  Och Rich Mintz, executive vice president för Blue State Digital, berättar om hur det gick till när de byggde kampanjen Freedom to Marry som de menar påverkade USA:s högsta domstol i rätt riktning då de klubbade igenom rätten till samkönade äktenskap.

Interview with Matthew McGregor of Blue State Digital on the topics covered in his seminar "Digital strategy, social media and elections".

Interview with Matthew McGregor of Blue State Digital on the topics covered in his seminar "Digital strategy, social media and elections".

This week Ben talks with former thoughtbotter, and creator of Is It Christmas, Eric Mill about the power of blogging, the personal empowerment offered by the internet and the role of government in the digital age. Is It Christmas? The Door to the FISA Court Switch to HTTPS Now, For Free Civic Hacking Weekly 2,000-Year Problems Blue State Digital The Sunlight Foundation Scout Search Engine 18f United States Project Eric on Twitter

I would once again like to welcome from Buyers Meeting Point to share information of this week's events and news from the world of purchasing Kelly Barner. NOTE: In this week's guest soundbite, Clay Johnson, co-founder of Blue State Digital, former Presidential Innovation Fellow and the CEO of Department of Better Technology, describe the need for federal procurement reform so that government IT failures such as Healthcare.gov are avoided in the future. The full interview can be viewed on YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sC3HOxnfZm4 Be sure to visit the Buyers Meeting Point website @ http://buyersmeetingpoint.com NOTE: Here is the link to Andy Akrouche's new book Relationships First: The New Relationship Paradigm in Contracting

  Blue State Digital’s Sarah Newhall, Executive Vice President and Director of Analytics is my guest this week on The Inside Social Media Podcast, as my journey to connect with the biggest brands in the world and share with you how you can model and adapt their social media insights and strategies continues. Click to Listen Click here […] The post ISM Episode 28: Blue State Digital’s Sarah Newhall on President Obama’s 2008 Election Campaign & More appeared first on Rick Mulready.

  Blue State Digital’s Sarah Newhall, Executive Vice President and Director of Analytics is my guest this week on The Inside Social Media Podcast, as my journey to connect with the biggest brands in the world and share with you how you can model and adapt their social media insights and strategies continues. Click to Listen Click here... The post ISM Episode 28: Blue State Digital’s Sarah Newhall on President Obama’s 2008 Election Campaign & More appeared first on RickMulready.com.

Before the Minnesota Orchestra locked out its musicians in a season-long labor dispute, the orchestra's administration had already locked down a large number of domain names – buying up at least a dozen website addresses that were variations on "Save Our Minnesota Orchestra." The bulk purchase was uncovered by Emily Hogstad, a Wisconsin-based blogger who was trying to set up a website to rally support for locked-out musicians. She quickly discovered that many of the obvious URLs had already been taken — several months before the lockout began, by the orchestra itself. (She eventually found one, which launched this week.) The incident is the latest example of political-style web advocacy that's moved into the realm of classical music and the arts. In this podcast, we get three views on the trend, including that of Hogstad, who writes the blog Song of the Lark. A Minnesota Orchestra spokesperson told NPR Music's Anastasia Tsioulcas that the organization reserved the URLs to protect the orchestra's name, knowing well that the labor talks would be contentious. Such purchases are a standard business practice, although they're usually masked by a third-party buyer so that it's not quite so obvious what's taking place. Even so, the revelation drew a wave of negative commentary and the orchestra had to acknowledge Hogstad's blog, which she said it had previously ignored. Tsioulcas believes the rise of "save our symphony" advocacy websites signifies a new level of audience empowerment, giving fans "a foot in the discussion," as she put it. "It used to be that for a ticket buyer, a fan, really the only agency they had was: would they buy tickets or not?" She further notes that the musicians themselves had bought up their own domain name two years earlier. Ryan J. Davis is a vice president of the new-media start up Vocativ, and has worked on social media at Blue State Digital and the 2004 Howard Dean campaign. He notes that arts organizations have been generally slow to understand social media. However, he said, "we're seeing this shift from the power of institutions to dictate policy and the top-down way they’ve been doing for generations for an ability for people to using social media to express their opinions and filter information up." Another recent example of fan-driven advocacy involves an online petition aimed at pressuring the Metropolitan Opera to dedicate its opening night gala to the gay community. The gala features the two stars – Anna Netrebko and Valery Gergiev – who are supporters of Vladimir Putin, who recently passed anti-gay legislation in Russia. Davis believes that whether or not the petition can influence Met policy, it has succeeded in stimulating a conversation about the issue of gay rights. "It's just another piece of bad P.R. for Russia," he said. Arts organizations must also learn better ways to harness social media, and not only from a defensive stance, said Tsioulcas. Two years ago, it was enough to stage a flashmob and that would spawn a viral YouTube video. "That’s not quite enough," Tsioulcas said. "They really have to spend the time and effort and learn how to spread them. "It's a multi-way conversation. It's not there as a megaphone to broadcast your next press release." Weigh in: How can the Internet give fans a greater voice in performing arts companies? Listen to the full discussion above and share your thoughts below.

Anne McElvoy examines the political legacy of Edmund Burke with Conservative MP Jesse Norman, who is keen to point out differences between Burke's more communitarian conservatism and the liberal individualism espoused by some people who describe themselves as conservatives today. Exploring a new exhibition on propaganda and power at the British Library are Eliane Glaser, author of Get Real: How To Tell It Like It Is In A World Of Illusion and Matthew McGregor, Political Director of Blue State Digital who was involved in the 2012 Obama election campaign. Sean Holmes, artistic director of the Lyric Theatre, the actor Adjoa Andoh and Geoff Colman, Head of Acting at Central School of Speech and Drama discuss the future of acting.

Blue State Digital's founder and the man behind the Obama presidential campaign's digital strategy talks with Emily Bell on the power of technology to initiate a new era of democratic action.

File backup for clean install, Profiles in IT (Carver Mead and Lynn Conway, creators of the VLSI design revolution), significance of Mead-Conway revolution, how Obama used the web (Blue State Digital, former Deaniacs, MyBo), VP announced via text message, website of the week (Plus Magazine, Internet magazine about the beauty and importance of math), Microsoft marketing initiative (Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates try to make Vista look good), importance of Gmail SSL feature (session highjacking, unencrypted cookies, man-in-the-middle attack, proper use of SSL), Pandora makes last stand (royalty fees take 70 percent of revenue, make have to close doors), commercial CD turns 26 (first produced by Sony in 1982), and Food Science (types of potatoes, effect of starch, cooking methods, taste, texture). This show originally aired on Saturday, August 23, 2008, at 9:00 AM EST on 3WT Radio (WWWT).

File backup for clean install, Profiles in IT (Carver Mead and Lynn Conway, creators of the VLSI design revolution), significance of Mead-Conway revolution, how Obama used the web (Blue State Digital, former Deaniacs, MyBo), VP announced via text message, website of the week (Plus Magazine, Internet magazine about the beauty and importance of math), Microsoft marketing initiative (Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates try to make Vista look good), importance of Gmail SSL feature (session highjacking, unencrypted cookies, man-in-the-middle attack, proper use of SSL), Pandora makes last stand (royalty fees take 70 percent of revenue, make have to close doors), commercial CD turns 26 (first produced by Sony in 1982), and Food Science (types of potatoes, effect of starch, cooking methods, taste, texture). This show originally aired on Saturday, August 23, 2008, at 9:00 AM EST on 3WT Radio (WWWT).