Ten Minutes with Kathleen Searles, Assistant Professor in the LSU Department of Political Science and the Manship School of Mass Communication and 2018 Rainmaker
“I came from a graduate program where I was clueless about what I was doing and about graduate school in general. I experienced a lot of hostility from other people in my cohort, a lot of bullying and some sexual harassment. Later, a lot of that became a motivation in my research and in my mentorship of underrepresented scholars like myself, women and people of color and people of different abilities and different orientations. Those experiences are now teaching opportunities, opportunities for me to persist in the academy and to be here, to be heard and represented, and for my scholarship to be part of the conversation. That's really meaningful to me.
Kathleen SearlesEddy Perez/LSU
As an example, these experiences and my scholarship intersect in a larger project I’ve been working on, trying to understand how reporters pick sources and, more specifically, why they systematically pick men more. We know based on 2015 report that something like 24% of all sources worldwide are women. I think just by sheer persistence and stubbornness, I've managed to convince some people that this work is important, and that's been immensely rewarding.
“Political psychology is driven by how different messages can affect people, persuade people and change people's attitudes. From there, it wasn't a far leap to study the media.”
I always liked politics, from when I was very young. One of my earliest memories is fighting with my grandparents about Bill Clinton's impeachment. And I was way too young to know what was happening. But as many academics, I was convinced I knew everything.
In college I was fortunate to have some internships in DC that I loved, but I figured out that I don't want to be in politics—I want to study it. So, I decided to pursue a Ph.D. in political psychology, and at some point, I became increasingly interested in the media and the news.
Political psychology is driven by how different messages can affect people, persuade people and change people's attitudes. From there, it wasn't a far leap to study the media. Because I'm a political scientist, I'm trained to think about political institutions, and the media is a political institution.
“As we increasingly rely on mobile devices, what does this mean for how we're consuming information? As it turns out, the people consuming more information are those who already know a lot about politics. They're using their devices to consume all sorts of information, but the people who aren't politically inclined are using their devices to avoid political information as much as possible.”
Also, I realized there wasn't a lot of work on mobile phones. As we increasingly rely on mobile devices, what does this mean for how we're consuming information? As it turns out, the people consuming more information are those who already know a lot about politics. They're using their devices to consume all sorts of information, but the people who aren't politically inclined are using their devices to avoid political information as much as possible.
We have a fantastic Media Effects Lab (MEL) at the Manship School that's equipped with eye trackers. We were able to set up several experiments in which we tested whether people reading news articles on computers versus mobile phones process information differently when they're on those devices. And we found that yes, people pay significantly less attention to information when they're reading on phones relative to computers. And the effect of that is that they learn significantly less—almost half as much as people who read on computers. And then we followed up with the same participants 24 hours later and found that the gap increased significantly, where the computer users remembered three times as many details versus their peers who read on mobile phones.
“My grandpa doesn't quite understand all the things I do, and I can't blame him. Political science is sort of a hard discipline to explain to people.”
With these results, we started to ask bigger questions. What are the long-term consequences if we increasingly rely on mobile phones without realizing that we may be learning less? There are serious democratic implications here. Of course, mobile phones are great for superficial tasks, like using Google maps or looking up a restaurant. But based on our results, I'd say the push to have students use tablets or mobile devices in the classroom is something we should be cautious about.
I'm working on a book on this with Johanna Dunaway called News and Democratic Citizens in the Mobile Era [now under contract with Oxford University Press for their Digital Politics Series]. I'm ready for it to be out—my family keeps asking. My grandpa doesn't quite understand all the things I do, and I can't blame him. Political science is sort of a hard discipline to explain to people. But he's really grasped onto this idea that his granddaughter is working on a book. Every time I talk to him, he says, ‘Is the book out yet?’ I think it'll be fun for him to have a tangible book in his hand, evidence of something his granddaughter does. I guess he's waited for grandchildren for so long and that hasn't come through, so he's like, the book is nice. ‘I'll take the book.’”
Get to know our other five 2018 Rainmakers:
Elsa Hahne
LSU Office of Research & Economic Development
225-578-4774
ehahne@lsu.edu