Tom Hollihan
Professor, Annenberg School for Communication
After serving for ten years as an Associate Dean at the Annenberg School for Communication heading the School’s initiatives to develop international programs, Tom Hollihan decided it was time to focus on his research and teaching. He’s been on sabbatical for the past year, but he will be returning to USC next fall. This time,“...just as a professor,” he says. “I’ve never been just a professor. I was a debate coach for ten years, a department chair for six years, and then an associate dean for ten years. So, it’s going to be a real change for me.”
For some, being away on sabbatical may conjure images of a long vacation, but Tom Hollihan has been busy. In May, the second edition of his book, Uncivil Wars: Political Campaigns in a Media Age, hit the shelves of bookstores, and the new material contained within it is bound to attract the hungry eyes of many political junkies who are following this year’s presidential campaigns closely. “To say that it’s the second edition is a little misleading,” Hollihan says, “because it’s really about the current 2008 presidential election, and 75% of the book is new content.”
One of the noteworthy topics covered in the book is the role of the Internet in the Democratic and Republican candidates’ campaigns. “The Internet has changed,” says Hollihan. “The number of users has increased exponentially in recent years, and the ways the medium is used have changed as well. Political campaigns are working hard to figure out how, for instance, to make social networking sites and websites like YouTube.com work for them.” According to Hollihan, “The Internet today makes certain kinds of political organization not only easier, but it also gives campaigns a certain social dimension, which may be drawing more young people into politics. The social networking sites were important in the Howard Dean campaign in 2004, but are playing an even more significant role this year. The phenomenal success of Obama in the caucuses may be due in part to his effective use of these social networking sites to organize his supporters and get a higher voter turnout.”
Hollihan also discusses another powerful way that the Internet can affect the course of a campaign, and not always in a way that the candidates would like: through user generated content. “The real power of user generated video was shown in the race for Senate in Virginia,” says Hollihan. In 2006, Republican Senator George Allen lost his bid for re–election to Democrat Jim Webb. By many accounts, a video excerpt of the candidate using a racial epithet was a significant factor in determining the election’s outcome. The video, says Hollihan, “circulated very quickly, which didn’t just cost him the Virginia election; arguably it also changed the course of the Republican presidential race. Allen had been considered by many as a frontrunner in that race. If not for the rapid circulation of this damaging video, we could be seeing a very different presidential contest. The speed at which these videos are disseminated, the viral character of the exchange of videos, and the unique appeal they have to young people, make them powerful tools that can make or break a campaign.”
Tom Hollihan has been at USC since 1980. It was “a great job” that brought him to Southern California, he says thinking back. “I had earned my PhD and I taught at Illinois State University for a couple of years and this tremendous opportunity came up at USC. It turned out to be a wonderful place.” And as to what got him into the field of communication? “I was an undergraduate debater,” he says. “I loved debate and my debate coach was one of the professors in the speech communication department. So, I just started taking courses in the area. The one thing I was reasonably successful in was oral argument and that pulled me into the discipline. And I've always been interested in politics. So, media and their influence on politics was a natural thing for me.”
Thirty years after graduating with his PhD from the University of Nebraska, Tom Hollihan is still driven by the same dream. “I tend to want to focus on issues and topics that have impact and value beyond the immediate academic dialogue,” he says. “I mean, I want to change the world! In my classrooms, I try to engage students to think critically and to take what they’ve learned back into politics, as participants. I don’t care what their politics are — I just want them to be engaged and involved.”
“The notion of training citizens for life in a democracy is a long standing tradition in our field,” explains Hollihan. “It has been fun to work at Annenberg, where the notion of socially–engaged study is reflected throughout our curriculum and research, and indeed, in the daily life of the school.”
If you have questions or comments, contact the Graduate Student in Residence
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