“The recreational marijuana industry is the wild, wild West right now,” said Stephen Farnsworth, professor of political science at the University of Mary Washington.
Small Cannabis Entrepreneurs Say They Can’t Compete Against ‘Walmart of Weed’ (RVA Magazine)
Stephen Farnsworth, professor of Political Science and director of the University’s Center for Leadership and Media Studies, recently presented an online lecture, "Presidents, Presidential Candidates and Shaping the Public Discourse," to political science and communication students at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh. The talk drew on Professor Farnsworth's recently published book, "Presidential Communication and Character: White House News Management From Clinton and Cable to Twitter and Trump."
Dr. Farnsworth has also been quoted in several recent media reports:
General Assembly reconvenes for veto session (Cardinal News)
What to expect from this year’s reconvene session (WVTF; WAMU)
Great Lives : Charlie Chaplin (C-SPAN)
‘The Problem With Jon Stewart’ Has a Problem — With Ratings (Yahoo.com)
Jon Stewart’s Struggles Add to List of Streaming Talk Show Flops (Bloomberg)
Fossil Fuel Fiesta in Alexandria (Connection News Papers)
Glenn Youngkin Went From Private Equity Executive to Virginia’s Executive Mansion (Market Realist)
Although Charlie Chaplin honed his craft in the now dust-covered formats of vaudeville and silent film, the world’s first global movie star remains an important voice who speaks to us across time about key questions involving political power, mass culture and our shared humanity.
In his films, Chaplin asked: do ever-expanding media formats empower political elites and allow them to manipulate and thereby dominate ordinary citizens? Does technology rob us of our natural connections to each other as fellow citizens? How can we fight back?
Chaplin’s work did not always offer satisfying answers to these questions, but at least he made sure we laughed along the journey. Unlike many filmmakers of his era, Chaplin often challenged political authority and power, and in particular highlighted the absurdity of following the lead of political blowhards and would-be dictators. To Chaplin, even “The Tramp” knew that human beings were smarter, kinder and better than to do that.
The iconoclastic, controversial and tumultuous life of Chaplin provides an important backdrop for appreciating his work as one of the history’s most effective users of mass media to shape political and cultural messages – messages that speak to his time, and ours.
Stephen Farnsworth, a University of Mary Washington political scientist, said Virginia is feeling the same shock waves that have hit national politics. “One of the aftereffects of the Trump presidency has been greater willingness to abandon what had been political norms,” Farnsworth said. “To pick and choose which school boards and which elected officials you want to punish by shortening their terms, why that’s fundamentally a violation of the way this process works.”
Youngkin’s move to force Loudoun school board elections called ‘troubling’ (The Washington Post)
“You can almost think of the presidency as a no-win proposition,” said Stephen Farnsworth, the director of the Center for Leadership and Media Studies at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va. “Presidents have a great deal of support on their side of the partisan divide and almost none on the other side of the political divide.”
Stephen J. Farnsworth, a political scientist at the University of Mary Washington, said that “there is no indication” that the two chambers are very close to reaching an agreement on the budget. “My guess is that there will be another one-day session, maybe in May or June, to keep the government operating after June 30,” he said.
General Assembly reconvenes for veto session (Cardinal News)
