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Josh Scacco 🗳️

@joshscacco.bsky.social
909 followers 816 following 71 posts

Director, Center for Sustainable Democracy, University of South Florida | Political Communication researcher | News, public opinion, political leadership | Book: "The Ubiquitous Presidency" | Friend of democracy

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Josh Scacco 🗳️ @joshscacco.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
At a time of unprecedented stress on the foundations of American democracy, including the health of communities that sustain it, these symposia will address head on how we must think about community health in relation to the rhythms of democratic life.
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Josh Scacco 🗳️ @joshscacco.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
🗣️ For the past year, I have been telling everyone I meet that democracy and public health are intricately connected. This idea inspired my fellows application to @carnegie.org and pushes forward that research. 💬 @sustaindemocracy.bsky.social releases the first part of that research today. ⬇️
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The Center for Sustainable Democracy @sustaindemocracy.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
❤️ 🗳️ Healthy communities are necessary for functional democratic processes. Today, the CSD releases the first part of our @carnegie.org funded research on Spanish-language public health messages around vaccination. usf.box.com/s/ulx419qnhb...
usf.box.com
USF CSD White Paper Vaccination Message Environment 082726.pdf | Powered by Box
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Josh Scacco 🗳️ @joshscacco.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Researchers attending #ICA26 in Cape Town who are interested in learning more about PersonaLex, we are hosting a Sip N Chat during the conference. DM Adam or me for details.
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Josh Scacco 🗳️ @joshscacco.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
Doing research on identity and thinking about how to assess messages at scale? @adamsaffer.bsky.social, Jianing Li, and I developed the PersonaLex computational classifier to assist research on social identity. Accessible. Transparent. Scalable. Grounded in research and theory. 🔗 bit.ly/PersonaLex
bit.ly
PersonaLex: Validated short-text classifier for identities, interests, and issues - Technology Commercialization
PersonaLex is a validated computational classifier database containing a lexicon of terms for identifying and categorizing social identity markers, interests, and policy issues in short-text digital m...
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András Tóth-Czifra @minczifra.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
Perhaps Magyar's most important promise, and the one that certainly resonates with voters: "never again a country without consequences!" The crowd chants: "To prison! To prison!" [with the corrupt officials of the outgoing government]
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The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 12/04/2026
Viktor Orbán has been ousted—and efforts by Washington and Moscow to prop the autocratic leader up give his defeat implications that extend far beyond Hungary, @isaacstanleybecker.bsky.social reports from Budapest. Read more: theatln.tc/KdGVkPGT
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Sten Hansson @stenhansson.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
Flooding the zone: Paths forward for information quality, misinformation, and disinformation work -- @joshscacco.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
tandfonline.com
Introduction to the forum: Flooding the zone: Paths forward for information quality, misinformation, and disinformation work
Published in Journal of Applied Communication Research (Vol. 54, No. 1, 2026)
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Josh Scacco 🗳️ @joshscacco.bsky.social · 03/11/2025
Appreciate that Jill Lepore used "The Ubiquitous Presidency" to help make sense of why the president communicates the way he does for her @newyorker.com article. @kcoe.bsky.social and I wrote our book to help people make sense of contemporary political leadership and messaging.
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AAUP @aaup.org · 04/10/2025
UC’s Academic Council calls on the Office of the President & the UC Board of Regents to unequivocally reject governmental demands that compromise institutional autonomy and #academicfreedom. This is the way. #DefendHigherEd
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Leticia Bode @leticiabode.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
Special issue of Political Communication CFP on "the political communication dynamics at work in democratic decline—and in democratic resilience" - full manuscripts due December 15. think.taylorandfrancis.com/special_issu...
think.taylorandfrancis.com
Communicating Democratic Decline & Resilience
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Ana Marie Cox @anamariecox.com · 14/06/2025
Strib coverage is in front of their paywall. Please follow their coverage and resist the urge to speculate about *anything* about the attack itself. www.startribune.com/brooklyn-par...
startribune.com
Live: Rep. Melissa Hortman killed, Sen. John Hoffman shot in ‘targeted shootings’
Gov. Tim Walz said there were targeted shootings in both Brooklyn Park and Champlin on Saturday.
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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 14/06/2025
The news isn’t being clear about this but to people hearing about these Minnesota shootings: Melissa Hortman is the Dem leader in the Minnesota House and was Speaker of the House 2019-2025. She’s probably the most influential state-level Democrat barring the governor.
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Jake Lahut @jakelahut.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
A DHS official told me Noem & security had no idea who Senator Padilla was. Now, the FBI is running with the statement that the senator "did not identify himself and was not wearing his senate security pin" — but he very much did identify himself, loudly, on video...
NEW: FBI LA statement to 
@FoxNews
 re: Senator Padilla

"During a press conference today held at the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, Senator Alex Padilla was detained by members of the U.S. Secret Service assigned to Secretary Noem’s detail when he became disruptive while formal remarks were being delivered. Secret Service Agents were assisted by FBI Police who are in Los Angeles at this time.  Senator Padilla did not identify himself and was not wearing his senate security pin.  Senator Padilla was subsequently positively identified and released."
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David Burbach 🇺🇸 @dburbach.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
We drill into military officers that Members of Congress have Constitutional oversight rights, Members outrank four-stars in protocol, and even Congressional staffers are treated like generals/admirals. To see sworn federal officers manhandle and handcuff a U.S. Senator... I'm still shook up.
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Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
"If you saw all this in any other country — soldiers sent to crush dissent, union leaders arrested, opposition politicians threatened — it would be clear that autocracy had arrived."
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Anthony Michael Kreis @anthonymkreis.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
This sounds unlawful as hell. apnews.com/article/mari...
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Freedom of the Press Foundation @freedom.press · 09/06/2025
The targeting of reporters in LA is inexcusable. The public interest in press coverage of protests couldn’t be more self-evident. We helped lead this letter to remind federal officers of journalists’ constitutional right to report on civil unrest. media.freedom.press/media/docume...
media.freedom.press
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Josh Scacco 🗳️ @joshscacco.bsky.social · 09/06/2025
The deploying of American military into U.S. cities is an attempt to functionally curtail the right to peacefully assemble and protest for a redress of grievances. LA seems to be the prototype to attempt to tamp down the possibility of nationwide protests.
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Adam Rose @adamrose.bsky.social · 08/06/2025
Law enforcement is violently targeting press at protests around Los Angeles, from easily recognizable "mainstream" outlets to freelancers and independents. ALL press have explicit legal protections in California. #JournalismIsNotACrime. This evidence thread may get graphic. 🧵👇
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Joseph Fink, we're going to win @planetoffinks.bsky.social · 09/06/2025
1 in 12 Americans live in California. 1 in 35 Americans live in LA County. LA is America
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Tim Dickinson @timdickinson.bsky.social · 09/06/2025
What's happening in LA is a redux of the federal invasion of Portland. It took a 'Wall of Moms' using their privilege to protect more marginalized protesters to turn that around. www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
rollingstone.com
Who Won the Battle of Portland?
How Portland, Oregon's uprising turned back President Trump’s authoritarian revival of ‘law and order’ politics. Reporting by Tim Dickinson.
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John Morales @johnmoralestv.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
Cuts have consequences, illustrated. As seen on TV 📺
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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 03/06/2025
New: Trump is posting to Truth Social three times as often as he tweeted during his first presidency - 2,262 'truths' in 132 days. Outrageously false stuff, too, like that Biden was executed in 2020 and replaced by a robot clone. 3 a.m. polemics at a pace surprising even his aides wapo.st/43HBtpb
wapo.st
Tallying Trump’s online posting frenzy: 2,262 ‘truths’ in 132 days
In his current term, the president has left his own record for social media missives in the dust. He posts day and night.
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Kevin Elliott @kjephd.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
This is literally an authoritarian using the power of the state to jail an opponent, and attempt to intimidate all other opponents, in the United States of America. This doesn't happen if the US is still a democracy
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Josh Scacco 🗳️ @joshscacco.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
Journalists: Report the pattern, not just the episode. DOJ charges a sitting Member of Legislative branch. Follows DOJ charges against a sitting member of Judicial Branch. The Executive is at war with the separation of powers in service of expanding its unilateral power.
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Adam Berinsky @adamberinsky.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
Another update: I can't share the text of my appeal but MIT's OGC has said they are happy to connect with OGC at other institutions going through the appeal process. So if you are planning to appeal, DM me and I can make the connection.
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Adam Bonin @adambonin.bsky.social · 09/05/2025
From Jeffrey Toobin's 2008 book THE NINE, this remains the greatest Justice Souter anecdote I can possibly share. RIP.
. . . It was, for example, a running joke at the Court that outsiders frequently mistook Souter and Breyer for each other. No one could really understand why this happened, because the two bore little resemblance. One day when Souter was making his usual solo drive from Washington to New Hampshire, he stopped for lunch in Massachusetts. A stranger and his wife came up to him and asked, "Aren't you on the Supreme Court?"

Souter said he was.

"You're Justice Breyer, right?" said the man.

Rather than embarrass the fellow, Souter simply nodded and exchanged pleasantries, until he was asked an unexpected question.

"Justice Breyer, what's the best thing about being on the Supreme Court?"

The justice thought for a while, then said, "Well, I'd have to say it's the privilege of serving with David Souter."
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Axios @axios.com · 02/05/2025
Press freedom in the United States has hit a record low, according to the latest World Press Freedom Index published annually by Reporters Without Borders.
axios.com
U.S. press freedom falls to historical low
Reporters Without Borders cites economic strains on the media as the biggest driver of press freedom declines globally.
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Josh Scacco 🗳️ @joshscacco.bsky.social · 29/04/2025
🫠
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Judge Luttig @judgeluttig.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
To read the Criminal Complaint and attached FBI Affidavit that gave rise to Wisconsin State Judge Hannah Dugan’s federal criminal arrest today for obstructing or impeding a proceeding before a department or agency of the United States and concealing an individual to prevent his discovery and arrest
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Josh Scacco 🗳️ @joshscacco.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
U.S. enters the political influencer era online. Discussed with @juanbennjr.bsky.social at @politico.com the implications for Democrats who lack a unifying national figure at this moment.
politico.com
Influencers angle for a bigger seat at the political table
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Jan-Werner Mueller @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social · 18/04/2025
'“If we’re going for going to mobilize, it’s going to be the most prominent, the most well-endowed, the most privileged and protected of us in civil society who have to take the lead,” Levitsky said.'
latimes.com
This professor studies dictatorships. He helped convince Harvard to stand up to Trump
Harvard professor Steve Levitsky has spent decades studying democracies and how they fail. He's now raising alarm bells over what he sees as a slide toward autocracy under President Trump.
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The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 16/04/2025
Thirty-eight of 43 experts cut last month from the boards that review the science and research that happens in laboratories at the National Institutes of Health are female, Black or Hispanic, according to an analysis by the chairs of a dozen of the boards.
washingtonpost.com
Women, minorities fired in purge of NIH science review boards
Scientists, with expertise in fields that include mental health, cancer and infectious disease, typically serve five-year terms and were not given a reason for their dismissal.
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Eileen Guo (is on leave for rest of 2026) @eileenguo.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
SCOOP: sources tell me that the State Dept plans to eliminate its only office to counter foreign disinformation, as soon as today, delivering a win to foreign governments like Russia, Iran, and China—and the office's mostly conservative critics. www.technologyreview.com/2025/04/16/1...
technologyreview.com
US office that counters foreign disinformation is being eliminated, say officials
Conservative critics have long accused the department of helping to censor the American right.
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Dominik Stecuła @stecula.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
The call for papers for the APSA Political Communication Preconference in Vancouver is now open! Together with @ashleymuddiman.bsky.social and @patyrossini.bsky.social, we're thrilled to invite your submissions. 📅: May 25th, 2025, 11.59pm PDT (GMT-7) More information: u.osu.edu/apsa2025/
u.osu.edu
2025 Political Communication APSA Preconference
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Josh Scacco 🗳️ @joshscacco.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
May this be a lesson to every higher education institution about what compliance will entail.
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Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
New on @MSNBC: The White House will not release the list of 75 countries that have reached out on trade deals, despite requests from NBC News.
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Josh Scacco 🗳️ @joshscacco.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
Before he headed back home from USF, we sat down with @esserfrank.bsky.social for "By Conduct and Example" to pick his brain about the 2024 U.S. election and next steps for the study and preservation of democracy and communication.
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Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
We hang together or we hang separately. Could not be clearer what is happening and how universities must respond.
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Josh Scacco 🗳️ @joshscacco.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
In two years he will have to go up for post-tenure review under new provisions set by the legislature and governor for all public tenured faculty in Florida. Let’s see how that process shakes out.
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Josh Scacco 🗳️ @joshscacco.bsky.social · 31/03/2025
“Public Service and a Cause Greater than Oneself” will explore Dr. Novello’s consequential moments leading and participating in significant public health campaigns on behalf of the United States. Dr. Novello also will sign copies of her book "Duty Calls." Looking forward to hosting Dr. Novello!
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UC Berkeley Law @ucberkeleylaw.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
Dean Chemerinsky and other #lawschool deans "speak as legal educators, responsible for training the next generation of lawyers, in condemning any government efforts to punish lawyers or their firms based on the identity of their clients or for their zealous lawful and ethical advocacy."
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Josh Scacco 🗳️ @joshscacco.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
Administration: This Signal stuff was no big deal. Like the nothingest of nothing burgers. Atlantic: Hold my beer for the attack plans texted by the SecDef.
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Josh Scacco 🗳️ @joshscacco.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
Also coincidentally in the same period when Benjamin Harrison interrupted Grover Cleveland’s two terms in office 🤔
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Pennsylvania Maps @pennsylvaniamaps.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
The last time Lancaster County elected a Democrat to the Pennsylvania Senate was in 1889, when John S. Hoover won a special election. 136 years later, James Malone joins the club.
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Stephan Lewandowsky @lewan.uk · 21/03/2025
Why are people complacent about democratic backsliding? Ralph Hertwig and I explain based on decision science research showing how and why people underweight rare events theconversation.com/the-paradox-... of interest @profsanderlinden.bsky.social @brendannyhan.bsky.social @adamberinsky.bsky.social
theconversation.com
The paradox of democracy’s success: behavioural science helps explain why we miss autocratic red flags
We tend to underestimate the threat of rare events but we can prime ourselves to be more alert to the signs.
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