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Filippo Trevisan Associate Professor School of Communication

Degrees
BA International Relations, University of Trieste; MSc Political Communication, University of Glasgow; MRes Public Policy, University of Glasgow; PhD Political Communication and Public Policy, University of Glasgow.

Bio
Filippo Trevisan is Assistant Professor in the School of Communication and Deputy Director of the Institute on Disability and Public Policy at American University in Washington, D.C. After working as a reporter for Italy's largest private news agency in Rome, he completed his PhD and worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. His research explores the impact of new media technologies on advocacy, activism, and political communication. His work investigates how elite and grassroots stakeholders use the Internet to influence debates about contested issues and affect policy decisions, including in combination with traditional protest and strategic communication techniques. His first book "Disability Rights Advocacy Online: Voice, Empowerment and Global Connectivity" (Routledge, 2017) reveals how a combination of social media activism and acute policy crises revolutionized the disability movement in the UK and the U.S., fueling the rise of new online self-advocacy networks. More broadly, he is interested in the growing personalization of collective action. Other major projects include a comparative study of how voters in different countries use search engines to find information about elections, for which he developed an innovative methodology that uses Google Trends data. His research has been published in top communication, disability, and political science journals including, among others: Information, Communication and Society; the International Journal of Communication; Social Media & Society; the Journal of Information Technology and Politics; Disability and Society; and First Monday.
See Also
Video - Hear Prof. Trevisan talk about his research and teaching
Personal Website - Research, Publications, Latest News
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For the Media
To request an interview for a news story, call AU Communications at 202-885-5950 or submit a request.

Teaching

Spring 2021

  • COMM-551 Grassroots Digital Advocacy

  • COMM-744 Strategic Comm Capstone

  • COMM-899 Doctoral Dissertation

Fall 2021

  • COMM-551 Grassroots Digital Advocacy

  • COMM-738 Research for Strategic Comm

Partnerships & Affiliations

Scholarly, Creative & Professional Activities

Selected Publications

Books

Trevisan, F. (2017) Disability Rights Advocacy Online: Voice, Empowerment and Global Connectivity. New York: Routledge (Now available in paperback).

Journal articles

Trevisan, F. (2020) ‘Do You Want to Be a Well-informed Citizen, or Do You Want to Be Sane?’ Social Media, Disability, and Political Marginality. Social Media + Society, published online before prin. [open access]

Trevisan, F., Bello, B., Vaughan, M., & Vromen, A. (2020) “Mobilizing Personal Narratives: The Rise of Digital ‘Story Banking’ in U.S. Grassroots Advocacy,” Journal of Information Technology and Politics, 17(2): 146-160.

Trevisan, F. (2019) "Using the Internet to Mobilize Marginalized Groups: People with Disabilities and Digital Campaign Strategies in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election," International Journal of Communication, 13: 1592-1611. [open access]

Trevisan, F. (2018) “Connective Action Mechanisms in a Time of Political Turmoil: Virtual Disability Protest at Donald Trump’s Inauguration,” Australian Journal of Political Science, 53(1): 103-115.

Trevisan, F., Hoskins, A., Oates, S., and Mahlouly, D. (2018) “The Google Voter: Search Engines and Elections in the New Media Ecology,” Information, Communication & Society, 21(1): 111-128. [open access]

Trevisan, F. (2017) “Crowd-Sourced Advocacy: Promoting Disability Rights through Online Storytelling,” Public Relations Inquiry, 6(2): 191-208. (Click here for a pre-print version of this article: Trevisan_Crowd-scourced advocacy_Pre-print)

Pearson, C. and Trevisan, F. (2015) “Disability Activism in the New Media Ecology: Campaigning Strategies in the Digital Era,” Disability & Society, 30(6): 924-940.

Trevisan, F. (2014) “Search Engines: From Social Science Objects to Academic Inquiry Tools.” First Monday, 19(11). [open access]

Trevisan, F., and Reilly, P. (2014) “Ethical Dilemmas in Researching Sensitive Issues Online: Lessons from the Study of British Disability Dissent Networks,” Information, Communication and Society, 17(9): 1131-1146.

Reports

Cogburn, D.L. and Trevisan, F. (2018) Accessibility in Global Governance: The (In)Visibility of Persons with Disabilities – Barriers to Effective Participation and Recommended Solutions. Washington, D.C.: Institute on Disability and Public Policy.

Trevisan, F. (2016) “The View from Across the Pond: Brexit on American Media” in Jackson, D., Thorsen, E., and Wring, D. (Eds.) EU Referendum Analysis 2016: Media, Voters, and the Campaign. Political Studies Association, Centre for the Study of Journalism, Culture and Community at Bournemouth University, Centre for Research in Communication and Culture at Loughborough University.

Media

Trevisan, F. (2019) Who's Winning the Democratic Debates? Here's What Google Search Trends Can't Tell You, The Washington Post, July 31

Trevisan, F. (2018) In Italy, Fake News Helps Populists and Far-Right Triumph, The Conversation, March 5.

AU Experts

Area of Expertise

European politics (Italy, UK), information technology and politics, search engines, grassroots advocacy and protest, disability rights.

For the Media

To request an interview for a news story, call AU Communications at 202-885-5950 or submit a request.

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