Still Trending: A Divided America, from Newspaper to Newsfeed

An attack on the U.S. Capitol, controversy over vaccines and reactions to a pandemic, immigrant parents separated from their children--these are all topics with established battle lines on modern media platforms. But the very same topics were also points of deep polarization in the 19th and early 20th centuries, playing out in American newspapers, often through strongly worded letters to the editor.

In Still Trending, author Kenneth N. Weiss transports us back to the earliest form of ＂social media＂. Some of the similarities we observe over time are startling, and two realities remain steadfastly true: The country has a rich and often troubled history as a democracy, and time and time again, we manage to work through our differences. Democracy not only survives but emerges stronger than ever before.

Kenneth N. Weiss most recently served as a content editor for the Baltimore Sun Media Group. Previously, he held editorial oversight for the Opinion pages in three distinct publications, including The Washington Post Company’s now-defunct Gazette of Politics and Business. In addition, he works as a part-time copy editor for the African Institute for Development Policy, contributing to a project that evaluates democracy indicators in African countries.

Earlier in his career, Weiss was a researcher for the film ＂The War at Home＂ which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary in 1979. Over a span of ten years, he instructed an introductory news writing course, initially at Towson University and later at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.