SCM Associate Professor Joel Penney Wins Two Literary Awards

SCM Associate Professor Joel Penney was recently awarded with two literary awards for his book, “The Citizen Marketer: Promoting Political Opinion in the Social Media Age,” which was published by Oxford University Press in May 2017.

Penney’s work has garnered two book awards — the 2018 Best Book in Information Technology and Politics award, given out by the American Political Science Association, a group of professional political science academics in the United States.

The second award is the 2018 Roderick P. Hart Outstanding Book Award, sponsored by the National Communication Association’s Political Communication Division. According to the award committee, “The Citizen Marketer was commended based on its relevance, broad spectrum of research, and its seasoned message.”  Penney will be presented this award during National Communication Association’s annual conference in Salt Lake City, Utah.

“The Citizen Marketer” explores recent social and political trends with a direct emphasis on social and online medias such as hashtag activism and ‘slacktivism,’ political memes, information and news sharing, and grassroots marketing, especially fueled by the 2016 U.S Presidential Election.  Penney analyzes how everyday people become ‘citizen marketers,’ or people who actively utilize media outlets to advance their political views or voice protests, and how these behaviors ultimately become a source of personal identity.

“[Social] media is powerful in terms of political influence, and now people have the ability to be a part of that,” Penney says. “With great power comes great responsibility. That was the message of the book.”

“The Citizen Marketer” is available for order from Amazon here.