Regina
Marchi

Regina Marchi studies alternative forms of political communication and civic engagement, focusing on populations historically marginalized from official politics and news media due to their race, class, immigration status, gender or age. She has traveled extensively throughout North, Central, and South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa observing a wide variety of cultural rituals and media practices. She has spoken nationally and internationally at scholarly conferences and museums, and has been interviewed by National Public Radio and other media outlets. Prior to life in academia, she worked as a journalist in the U.S. and Central America and as a community organizer regarding health and environmental justice issues.  She is an affiliated faculty member in the Department of Latino and Caribbean Studies and the Center for Race and Ethnicity.

Regina Marchi's research focuses on the intersections of media, culture, and politics. She is particularly interested in how traditionally disenfranchised communities, be they economically, linguistically, racially, ethnically, or politically marginalized, have been portrayed in the mainstream media over the decades and how these groups have utilized media to advocate for civil rights and fuller democratic participation.  She has also written on community radio and social media. 

Professor Marchi's latest book "Young People and the Future of News: Social Media and the Rise of Connective Journalism" (Cambridge University Press: 2017) is co-authored with Lynn Schofield Clark and introduces the concept of "connective journalism." This refers to the social media practices through which youth share stories, links, photos, videos and other "artifacts of engagement" that are precursors to civic participation. As youth share such artifacts to express their personal experiences, perspectives and feelings on public issues, they create emotional engagement with current political events, hailing like-minded others into counterpublics that are capable of collective and connective action. Marchi's first book, "Day of the Dead in the USA: The Migration and Transformation of a Cultural Phenomenon," examines the ways in which Chicano and other Latino artists and activists have used public art, collective ritual, and other alternative forms of media to express cultural identity, create community, and advocate for political rights.