The Institute for Democratic Engagement and Accountability (IDEA) welcomes Dr. Annelise Russell from the University of Kentucky for a talk on one of the most overlooked challenges facing American governance today: how Congress communicates.
Congress is routinely lurching from one disaster to another, but the crisis that remains constant is the communication crisis, a failure of the technology and information dissemination that enable Congress to effectively communicate with the public. In this presentation, drawn from her recent book Tweeting Scared: Congress's Crisis of Communications (Oxford University Press, 2025), Dr. Russell considers how the staff and professionals who drive the daily operations of Congress have adapted to meet the rapid pace of news and information. Her argument is striking: the logistics of daily engagement in Congress now mirror those of a disaster response.
Dr. Russell is an Associate Professor of Public Policy at the University of Kentucky's Martin School. Her research focuses on how members of Congress use digital media to communicate their agendas and build relationships with constituents. Before entering academia, she spent more than 6 years as a journalist at National Journal, Congressional Quarterly, and the San Francisco Chronicle. She is also a recent Research Fellow at the Library of Congress, where she studied the history and trajectory of digital politics in Congress.
This event is open to faculty and graduate students across the college. For questions, contact democracyinstitute@osu.edu