Mary Francoli

Biography

Mary Francoli is Associate Professor of Communication and Media Studies. She is also an Associate Dean and Director of the Arthur Kroeger College of Public Affairs. She holds a doctorate in Political Science from Western University. Prior to joining the School of Journalism and Communication, she was the Leverhulme Visiting Fellow in New Media and Internet Politics at Royal Holloway, The University of London.

Research Interests

Dr. Francoli’s research looks at the relationship between digital media and issues related to politics and governance. While this is a large and diverse field, most of her research has focused on the way that digital media has impacted three broad areas: (1) citizen engagement and mobilization, (2) governance, and (3) access to information and data.

Dr. Francoli is a leading researcher in the field of open government and open data. She has authored two major reports for the Open Government Partnership assessing the Government of Canada’s progress in the area of open government. She has provided expert testimony to the Standing Parliamentary Committee on Government Operations on the issue of open data and has been invited to speak about open government and open data at a number of conferences and venues, including the annual meeting of the federal and provincial Information Commissioners in 2014.

Articles and Book Chapters

Lauriault, T. and Francoli, M. (in press). ‘Openness, Transparency, and Participation’ in Rob Kitchin, Tracey P. Lauriault, and Matthew W. Wilson eds Understanding Spatial Media. Sage.

Francoli, M, Greenberg, G., and Waddell. (2016). ‘Like, Share, Vote: the CTV/Facebook Partnership and the 2015 Canadian Election’ in Jon Pammett and Christopher Dornan eds. The Canadian Federal Election of 2015. Dundurn.

Francoli, M. (2015). ‘Mobile News: The 2015 Election via News Apps’ in Canadian Election Analysis 2015: Communication, Strategy, and Democracy. Accessed from http://www.ubcpress.ca/CanadianElectionAnalysis2015.

Clarke, A. and Francoli, M. (2014). ‘What’s in a name? Questioning the homogeneity of ‘open government’ programs across seven countries,’ Journal of e-Democracy and Open Government, 6/3.

Francoli, M. (2013). ‘Developing a Strategy for Effective e-Government.’ in Anthopoulos, L. and Reddick, C. eds. Government e-Strategic Planning and Management. Springer

Francoli, M. (2013). ‘Exploring Social Media Campaigns,’ in Bishop, J. eds. Politics in the Information Age. IGI Global.

Francoli, M. (2012). ‘ Informed Comedy or Impotent Politics?‘ in Josh Greenberg and Charlene Elliott eds. Communication in Question. Thomson-Nelson.

Francoli, M. (2011). ‘Embracing a New Relationship with Canadians: Addressing Barriers to New Media Adoption in Canada’s Public Service.’ in Christopher Stoney and G. Bruce Doern eds. How Ottawa Spends 2011-2012: Trimming Fat or Slicing Pork. McGill-Queen’s University Press.

Francoli, M, Waddell, C. and Greenberg (2011). ‘The Campaign in the Digital Media’ in Jon Pammett and Christopher Dornan eds. The Canadian Federal Election of 2011. Dundurn.

Francoli, M. (2011). ‘What Makes Governments ‘Open’?’, Journal of eDemocracy, 3(2): 16-29.

Francoli, M. (2009) ‘The Digital MP’, Journal of Media Practice, v10 numbers 2 &3.

Francoli, M. and Ward, S. (2008) ‘20^th Century Soapboxes? MPs and Their Blogs’ Information Polity, 13, 1-2: 21-39.

Francoli, M. (2008) “Death by Blog? An examination of the relevance of mainstream media in the era of citizen journalism” in Josh Greenberg and Charlene Elliott eds., Communication in Question: Competing Perspectives on Contentious Issues in Canadian Communication Studies, Thomson-Nelson.

Reports

Francoli, M. (2016). ‘Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) Progress Report 2014-2015: Canada’,

Francoli, M., Ostling, A., and Steibel, F. (2015). From Informing to Empowering: Best Practices and Recommendations for Improving Government-Civil Society Interactions within OGP.

Francoli, M. (2014) Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) Profess Report 2012-2014: Canada. 

Media and Blogs

Francoli, M. (2016). ‘Open Government at a Crossroad.’ The Hill Times, February 8.

Francoli, M. (2016). ‘Engage Canadians on Open Government: Lessons learned from Tony Clement.’ The Hill Times, April 1,

Francoli, M., Ostling, A., and Steibel, F. (2015). ‘Improving Government-Civil Society Interactions with the OGP.’ Open Government Partnership Blog,

Francoli, M. (2015). ‘Strengthening e-Democracy for Better Open Government.’ The Centre for e-Democracy, 

Francoli, M. (2014) ‘Open Government 2.0: Learning from the Past’ Canadian Government Executive, October 10.

Francoli, M. (2010) ‘Stephen Harper vs The Onion Ring’ Hill Times, February 22, page 2.