About Eric Gordon and Gabe Mugar

Eric Gordon is the founding director of the Engagement Lab and a professor in the Department of Visual and Media Arts at Emerson College. Eric studies media and technology in civic and political participation. He is particularly interested in the transformation of civic institutions, including government and journalism, in the wake of technological disruption, and the emerging tensions between technological efficiency in "smart city" solutions and democratic governance.

Gabe Mugar is a design researcher at Ideo. His work sits at the intersection of technology, media, and community building. His expertise is in building and analyzing learning and collaborative experiences in large scale online contexts and local civic settings.

4 Ways Civic Organizations Can Use Media to Build Trust

In this climate of distrust, we conducted a study to learn how activists and civic institutions are leveraging media and digital technology to rebuild and reimagine new approaches to civic discourse and action. Through our conversations with over 40 practitioners in Boston, Chicago, and Oakland, we provide a way of identifying and evaluating media and technology designed to facilitate democratic process.
We spoke to people in a variety of civic organizations (everything from government, arts, to community journalism), who were grappling with the challenge of using new media and technology to engage, or connect with the publics they serve.  Among these practitioners, we saw that their work reflected an ethic of care, an essential part of citizenship that orients people towards an understanding that citizenship is the practice of how we work with others to take care of the world we live in.