_Department_of_Political_Science_&_Public_Administration

Paul G. Harwood (Ph.D. University of Maryland-College Park) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration, and Director of the Public Opinion Research Lab.  His research interests focus on the socio-political impact of new information technologies, terrorism, political communication, and U.S. civil society. Harwood recently co-authored with Victor Asal, Educating the First Digital Generation (2007).  

Harwood is currently working on several projects concerning ICTs and terrorism, including research into "Homegrown Radicalization and the Role of Social Networks and Social Inclusiveness in the United States." This project is funded by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), a Center of Excellence of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

"Search Engines: Terrorism's Killer App."  Studies in Conflict and Terrorism,  31 (7), July 2008. This paper investigates whether a relationship exists between the number of fatalities caused by a terrorist group, and the number of websites returned via the Google search engine when a search for the group is conducted. Asal and Harwood hypothesize that search engines' algorithms facilitate such an association, and search engines' role as the Web's 'gatekeeper.' Much attention has been paid to understanding the role the news media, particularly television, has within a terrorist's campaign.  Today, terrorism is understood as being partly theater - carefully choreographed events created not solely to kill, but to capture transnational television screens, and arouse a heightened state of public apprehension, and achieve a terrorist group's psychological devastation goal.    This paper questions whether such offline terrorist violence has a similar agenda-setting function online.

"Airing Grievances Online:  Search Engine Algorithms and the Fate of Minorities At Risk," Journal of Information Technology and Politics, vol. 4 (3), Fall 2007. This paper examines the role search engine algorithms have in ethnopolitical mobilization.  With the news media performing a vital role in message dissemination offline, we argue here that search engine algorithms perform a similar external resource function, mediating what sites get reported as top-ranked search results.  Asal and Harwood address whether an association exists between the number of MAR advocacy Web sites protesting a MAR's plight within a search engines' top 30 search results and the level of grievance an MAR group experiences or the available open opportunity structures.  The authors find that a MAR's grievance level, rather than the availability of open opportunity structures, is vital in explaining the role of search engines in ethnopolitical mobilization.

Educating the First Digital Generation investigates the impact this generation's assimilation of new technologies heralds for U.S. education and society.  Harwood and Asal explore how the IT usage by today's youth has impacted teachers and teaching; our children and learning; and the intersection of teaching and learning.

Harwood and Asal explore how today's information technology is changing how we educate and are educated. Focusing on the United States, with useful insights from the classroom digital revolution in a few other key places, the authors investigate the impact of today's technologies on education -- how they impact teachers and teaching, children and learning, and the intersection of teaching and learning. For example, they tell us what the educational impact of having over 60% of America online is. The authors explain exactly how new technologies are changing the learning environment in and out of the classroom with a focus on the effects on K-12 education. Chapters include vignettes about children who are integrating information technologies into their lives at school and at home and those children who for a variety of reasons, most notably, socio-economic, have found themselves excluded as full members of the first digital generation. There are also accounts from K-12 teachers who are incorporating technology into their classroom environments. Using closed-circuit cameras, electronic cheating, and distance learning are all also discussed at length.

For further information see: http://www.greenwood.com/catalog/C8959.aspx

Harwood talks about Educating the First Digital Generation on Channel 4's "The Morning Show"

Publications

Asal, Victor & Paul G. Harwood. "Search Engines: Terrorism's Killer App."  Studies in Conflict and Terrorism. v.31(7).  2008.

Asal, Victor & Paul G. Harwood. "Airing Grievances Online: Search Engine Algorithms and the Fate of Minorities At Risk" Journal of Information Technology and Politics, vol. 4, no.3. Fall 2007.

Harwood, Paul G. & Victor Asal. Educating the First Digital Generation (Praeger, August 2007).

Harwood, Paul G. & Wayne McIntosh "Virtual Distance and America's Changing Sense of Community." In Democracy Online: The Prospects for Political Renewal Through the Internet. Routledge, 2004

Harwood, Paul G. and Lee Rainie "People who use the Internet away from home and work" Pew Internet and American Life Project, 2004.

Recent Conference Papers

"Running Scared of SCADA: An Analysis of the Vulnerabilities of America's Infrastructure to Cyberattack." With Ryan Tesnow. Presented at the Florida Political Science Association, Tampa, FL. April 18 2008.

"Gauging Online Collective Action Success: MAR Organizations in Four Languages." With Na'ama Nagar and Victor Asal. Presented at the International Studies Association, San Francisco, March 25-30, 2008

"Divergent Means to a Shared End: The Case of Irish Republicans and Irish Nationalists." With Pamela Zeiser. Presented at the International Studies Association, San Francisco, March 25-30, 2008

"Differences among Dissenters: A Socio-Psychological Analysis of Irish Republicans' Turn to Terror." With Pamela Zeiser. Presented at the American Conference on Irish Studies, Savannah, GA. March 5-9, 2008.