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In an age awash with digital content and 24/7 news cycles, how well does the information we consume actually equip us for democratic life? This critical question lies at the heart of the research conducted by Andrew Trexler, who graduates this May from Duke University with a Ph.D. earned through the joint program in Public Policy and Political Science. As a Doctoral Fellow at Sanford's DeWitt Wallace Center for Media & Democracy, Trexler has dedicated his studies to understanding the complex interplay between political communication, the news media, public opinion, and the health of democratic norms in the United States.
Trexler's work confronts the challenges of our "contemporary information environment," examining the media's sometimes "faltering capacity" to provide the kind of news essential for democratic accountability. His dissertation, titled "Public Demand for a More Informative Press" and co-chaired by Sanford's D. Sunshine Hillygus and Philip M. Napoli, dives deep into this issue. Employing a sophisticated mix of experiments, surveys, text analysis, and machine learning, his research bridges political science, public policy, mass communication, and psychology.
Building on his previous Master of Public Policy from Sanford (where he won the 2020 Outstanding Student Award), Trexler amassed an impressive record during his doctoral studies. He has already co-authored four peer-reviewed articles in top journals, secured significant grant funding, including a major Doctoral Fellowship from the Knight Foundation and a Dissertation Grant from the Rapoport Foundation, and contributed as an instructor and teaching assistant within Sanford.
This May, Andrew Trexler isn't just graduating; he's preparing for the next major step in his career. In the fall, he will join the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science, carrying his research on media and democracy forward.
As he prepared for graduation and this exciting transition, Andrew sat down with us to discuss how Sanford prepared him for his next adventure.
What brought you to Sanford?
I initially came to Sanford for the MPP program---I was particularly drawn by the program’s built-in opportunities to directly apply what I was learning to real-world challenges through the first-year client project and second-year master’s project, as well as the close-knit community feel of the program’s students and faculty. This certainly bore out in my own experience; I had the opportunity to host nearly every student in my cohort, as well as a handful of faculty and staff, for dinner at my home at some point during those two years. As an MPP I also quickly learned how much I enjoyed conducting deep research dives and the challenge of contributing new knowledge to the world, so I applied for the PhD program in my second year. As my interests moved towards media and mass communication, I became particularly interested in working with the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media & Democracy, which offers a unique opportunity for scholarship at the intersection of media, policy, and politics.
What has your academic focus been at Sanford?
I am a scholar of political communication, public opinion, and political behavior. I am particularly interested in the contemporary information environment: how people get news information, how news information affects their attitudes and behaviors, how the information environment both affects and is affected by policy decisions of governments and civil society. Much of my current work is centered on who U.S. political news is written for (and who it is not written for), analyzing the media’s faltering capacity to provide the broad public with news information that is critical for democratic accountability—and identifying what could be done to improve that capacity.
What professors at Sanford had the most impact on your journey?
So many faculty—and staff and students—have had an enormously positive impact on my journey at Sanford. Far too many for a brief feature on your blog! Many have gone well out of their way to help me, especially Anna Gassman-Pines, Lisa Gennetian, Bruce Jentleson, Subhrendu Pattanayak, Jay Pearson, Marcos Rangel, Ken Rogerson, and Tom Taylor. But for the lion’s share, I have benefited from a truly fantastic committee of four exceptional mentors. Phil Napoli has been instrumental in connecting me with resources through DeWitt, the Knight Foundation, and several other opportunities, and never misses a chance to celebrate my work in front of an audience. Mallory SoRelle is a truly one-of-a-kind mentor: she provides not only insightful advice on my work, but also offers wisdom on how to thrive as my complete self in academia. And Sunshine Hillygus and Chris Johnston in Political Science have taught me nearly everything I know—my acumen as a scholar is largely thanks to them.