Ozean Political Blog
A political blog about digital media, data, research and consulting.
Blog Challenge: What is the most important messaging challenging facing Republicans? Same for Democrats?
I like this question because it forces you to think about Republicans and Democrats in context. It is a question that deserves a lot more time than I have today, because of FuBball! (GO USMNT!) While I will write a more detailed post for each party on messaging...
Political Behavior and Schools of Fish
I was on my walk today, and a decent metaphor explaining political behavior came to the surface: a school of fish. I think I was imagining myself standing in a cold stream being mocked by trout, but that morphed into a school of fish. The underlying psychology of...
Why are politicians so afraid to vote for what’s best for our country as opposed to what their party wants?
I think some it is explained by sincere differences in policies. “Best for the country” is up for true debate. There are those that truly believe ‘an unregulated militia’ is ‘best for the country’. Others believe a ban on war-like weapons is...
What is the solution to extreme divisiveness?
Oh, now you have stepped into one the greatest modern debates in political science. Abramowitz versus Fiorina. Sorting versus polarization - and now we have calcification. Let’s get ready to rumble!!!! In broad strokes, Morris Fiorina has...
Blog Challenge: What do you do?
My father and I have started meeting for breakfast once a week. No agenda, just eggs and chatter. We were chewing the fat about it being busy at work, and he looks at me and asks “What is it that you guys do?” That hit hard – my own father doesn’t know what we do....
Blog Challenge: Will there ever be a “multi-party” system (i.e. 5-10 parties) or are we stuck here?
Will there ever be a "multi-party" system (i.e. 5-10 parties) or are we stuck here? Short answer, we are stuck – at least for the foreseeable future. There are roughly three types of party government – single parties (China), two party (USA), and multi-party,...
Best Books of 2022 for political practitioners
Introduction So begins the 30 day blogging challenge. My thought is to start with an easy one and ease into it. A graduate student asked me what book I read this year that I would recommend to practitioners of political affairs. Seeing that I have seeming spent a...
Alachua County and Single Member Districts
Overview For the most part, voters in Alachua County performed about as one would expect. Of all campaigns that were partisan and county wide, Democrats averaged 58% and Republicans averaged 42% of the vote. This is in-line with historic returns going back to 1996....
PART 4 – HOW TO USE DIGITAL MEDIA TO CHANGE MINDS
We spent time in part 1, part2 , and part3 in this series speaking about the difficulty in changing minds once formed. We also spent some time talking about the 'deep work' needed and how to change to change minds. We have seen just how difficult it is to change minds...
PART 3 – HOW TO CHANGE MINDS USING DIGITAL MEDIA? PERSUASION
We have finally arrived at part 3 of 3 on the topic of "How to Change Minds Using Digital Media? Persuasion." In Part 1 - we explored the formation of beliefs, values, and opinions. In Part 2 - we explored the forces at work that attempt to sustain beliefs - both...
Part 2 – HOW TO CHANGE MINDS USING DIGITAL MEDIA? SUSTAINING OF BELIEFS, VALUES AND ATTITUDES
In Part 1 HOW TO CHANGE MINDS USING DIGITAL MEDIA? FORMATION OF BELIEFS, VALUES AND ATTITUDES, we explored the formation of beliefs, values, attitudes, and identities. We understand that after people form political identities (or any for that matter), they are...
PART 1 – HOW TO CHANGE MINDS USING DIGITAL MEDIA? FORMATION OF BELIEFS, VALUES AND ATTITUDES
This begins a three-part blog post exploring how to use digital media to change minds in a political context. I have spent nearly a professional lifetime trying to understand how people make political decisions and how to affect that process. Even that topic gets...