In the wake of the assassination attempt on Donald Trump over the weekend, Virginia Tech experts are available to discuss the media and political fallout, what the event says about the climate of our politics, and the impacts it will have on the Republican National Convention this week in Milwaukee, as well as the broader presidential race.
Karen Hult is an expert on U.S. politics and the presidency. She can speak to the likelihood of the weekend’s events lowering the heat on political rhetoric, as well as the responses from politicians on both sides of the aisle. Hult can also speak to both the short-term impacts — like the selection of a vice presidential candidate at the Republican National Convention — and the longer-term implications for the 2024 race.
Cayce Myers focuses on public relations in politics. He says “the use of the images of July 13th have gone viral and have already been successfully used for fundraising for victims of the attack.” Myers believes the incident will be “the defining moment of the 2024 presidential campaign.” Myers also says that “the rhetoric of political campaigning in the U.S. has risen in its severity and hyperbole” since 2016, and it remains to be seen whether these events will change that, such as through Trump’s and other Republicans’ convention speeches.
President Biden likewise has called for a less adversarial tone in the campaign, and Myers believes that, in the wake of this weekend’s events, “the calls for Biden to step down as the nominee will likely become quieter.” Myers can also comment on the selection of J.D. Vance as Trump’s running mate.
Megan Duncan is a communications professor who studies news audiences. She can speak to the political polarization of audiences consuming news and the role of the media during and after major events like this. Duncan has particular insight into the local media scene, having worked at all three local newspapers in the area — The Butler Eagle, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “A portion of the audience’s distrust of news media shapes the way they view coverage of the assassination attempt,” she says. Duncan can also offer news media best practices for covering a breaking news story such as this.
James Hawdon studies extremism, online hate, and political polarization. While he says that our politics is highly polarized, “we have had several periods of high polarization in the past and this is not the most polarized we have been.” However, he says that “we need to tone down the polarization if we are to have a more functional government since we are at a state of high levels of gridlock.”
As for the fallout from the shooting, Hawdon says “the direction we go at that flashpoint will largely be determined by how the two sides handle it. If it follows recent history, there will be conspiracy theories, unsupported accusations, and, at worst, calls for lethal partisanship. Hopefully, it will instead lead to the realization that ‘enough is enough’ and calls for less partisanship and greater unity.”
About the experts
Hult, professor of political science at Virginia Tech, serves on the faculty of the School of Public and International Affairs’ Center for Public Administration & Policy, with expertise in the U.S. presidency, federal and state politics, policy, and governance, and federal and state courts. Read her full bio here.
Myers, director of graduate studies at the School of Communication in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, specializes in media history, political communication, and laws that affect public relations practice. Read his full bio here.
Duncan is an assistant professor in the School of Communication at Virginia Tech. Her research focuses on how partisans judge the credibility of and engage with the news. Using survey-embedded experiments, surveys, and other quantitative methods, she’s interested in knowing more about audiences, their perceptions of the news, how they form opinions, and how to use this knowledge to make democracy stronger.
Hawdon is director of the Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention at Virginia Tech. His research investigates the role of communities in promoting, deterring, or reacting to crime, violence, and tragedies. His most recent work focuses on how communities are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, and his ongoing research studies how online communities lead to exposure to and participation in extremism.
Schedule an interview
To schedule an interview with any of the experts, contact Margaret Ashburn at mkashburn@vt.edu or 540-529-0814, or Noah Frank at nafrank@vt.edu or 805-453-2556, in the media relations office.
