Academics

#137: 2021 Year in Review! Social Media and Politics, with Dr. Anamaria Dutceac Segesten

December 22, 2021 Academics

Here we go! A deep dive into the year’s latest trends in social media and politics, as well as predictions for the future. We cover various platforms’ year in review recaps, Telegram and Belarus, Facebook’s change to Meta and the Silicon Valley “Founder”, artificial intelligence and the virtual politician, Web 3 and Parler, and the enduring role of newsletters.


Here’s the platform year in review stats and bonus links for the episode:


Facebook Threat Report

Google Year in Search

Tiktok Cultural Phenomenons

Pinterest Predicts

Reddit Recap

Snap Lens on the Year

Twitter #OnlyOnTwitter

Article with chart on social media’s impact on democracy

The greatest newsletter of all-time


See you in January for new episodes! <3

#136: Right-Wing Alternative Media and Republican Party Social Media Engagement, with Dr. Curd Knüpfer and Mike Cowburn

November 28, 2021 Academics

Dr. Curd Knüpfer (Assistant Professor) and Mike Cowburn (PhD Candidate), from the JFK Institute for North American Studies at Freie Universität Berlin, discuss their research on right-wing alternative media. We start out by discussing what right-wing alternative media are, and how they are transnationally linked across Western democracies. Then, we explore Mike and Curd’s ongoing work into how Members of Congress’ social media engagement with these sites may be predictors of political positionality. We also look at how Republican Members of Congress’ use of the fake news label also relates to their political ideology.

 

The (published) studies discussed in the episode are:

 

Beyond Breitbart: Comparing Right-Wing Digital News Infrastructures in Six Western Democracies

 

Toward a Transnational Information Ecology on the Right? Hyperlink Networking among Right-Wing Digital News Sites in Europe and the United States

 

Legislator Adoption of the Fake News Label: Ideological Differences in Republican Representative Use on Twitter

#134: ISIS Radicalization, Counter-Extremism, and Visual Propaganda on Social Media, with Dr. Tamar Mitts

October 24, 2021 Academics

Dr. Tamar Mitts, Assistant Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, shares her research on ISIS radicalization and it’s relationship to social isolation, anti-Muslim sentiment, and counter-extremism programs. We discuss Dr. Mitts’ Twitter dataset that uses spatial algorithms to identify ISIS sympathizers’ locations and machine learning to identify pro-ISIS sentiment. Toward the end of the episode, we discuss how computer vision tools such as Amazon’s Rekognition API can be used to detect violent imagery in ISIS propaganda. 


Here are the studies we discuss in the episode: 


From Isolation to Radicalization: Anti-Muslim Hostility and Support for ISIS in the West  (2019)

Countering Violent Extremism and Radical Rhetoric (2021)

Studying the Impact of ISIS Propaganda Campaigns (Forthcoming)

#133: Covid Mask Wearing in Politicians’ Social Media Images and Emotions in German Politics, with Dr. Mirya Holman

October 10, 2021 Academics

Dr. Mirya Holman, Associate Professor of Political Science at Tulane University, shares her latest research on how politicians depict mask wearing through their social media images. We discuss how computer vision can be used to detect masks in images, as well as what factors correlate with politicians’ depicting masks. Later in the episode, we discuss another recent study by Dr. Holman, where emotions in the facial expressions and vocal pitch of German politicians were analyzed during election debates. 

 

Here’s a link to that study: 

Gender, Candidate Emotional Expression, and Voter Reactions during Televised Debates (2021)

 

And here’s a link to Mirya Holman’s Aggressive Winning Scholars (#MHAWS) Newsletter! 

#132: Social Media and Political Polarization in the United States, with Prof. Chris Bail

September 26, 2021 Academics

Professor Chris Bail, Professor of Sociology and Public Policy at Duke University, discusses his latest book Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing. Professor Bail shares findings from three studies on political polarization covering field-experiments, qualitative interviews, and lab experiments. We discuss how social media contributes to a distorted reality in how extremists and moderates discuss politics online, and how this prism fosters a sense false polarization. We also chat about measures that individuals and social media platforms could take to reduce online political polarization. 

Here are supplementary links to two studies discussed in the episode: 

Exposure to Opposing Views on Social Media can Increase Political Polarization (2019)

Political Sectarianism in America (2020)

#128: Modern Political Campaigns and Social Media in the United States, with Dr. Michael D. Cohen

June 13, 2021 Academics

Dr. Michael D. Cohen, CEO of Cohen Research Group and Lecturer at Johns Hopkins University, discusses his new book Modern Political Campaigns: How Professionalism, Technology, and Speed Have Revolutionized Elections. 

We talk about how communication technologies have shifted political campaigns from being party-centered to candidate-centered. We also discuss various aspects of political campaigns covered in the book, such as: how political campaigns conduct opposition research, the role of data and analytics in the modern campaign, and the value social media can provide to a political campaign.  

Buy Modern Political Campaigns here and use code RLFANDF30 for 30% off! 

#126: The Cultural Sociology of Political Performance, Icons, and Social Media, with Prof. Jeffrey Alexander

May 16, 2021 Academics

Jeffrey Alexander, Professor of Sociology at Yale University, discusses his cultural sociology approach to political performance and cultural icons. We start out with the concept of fusion, and how political actors work to achieve it through the elements of political performance. Then, we turn to a discussion of objects, affordances, and the power of political icons.

 

Here’s some extra reading on the topics we cover in the episode:

 

Cultural Pragmatics: Social Performance Between Ritual and Strategy (2004)

The Performativity of Objects (2020)

#125: Digital Media Infrastructures and Tech Platforms, with Dr. Jean-Christophe Plantin

May 2, 2021 Academics

Dr. Jean-Christophe Plantin, Associate Professor in Media and Communications at the London School of Economics, explains the concept of media infrastructures.


We discuss Dr. Plantin’s research on digital platforms, infrastructures, and how tech giants like Facebook and Google increasingly blend those two concepts. We also discuss the infrastructure of WeChat, and get into Dr. Plantin’s ongoing work into the concept of programmable infrastructures – which explores how the hardware of the tech industry is becoming increasingly disagreggated and modular.


Check out Dr. Plantin’s recent talk at Sciences Po for more details on programmable infrastructures.


And the articles we discuss in the episode:


Digital Media Infrastructures: Pipes, Platforms, and Politics (2018)

Infrastructure Studies Meet Platform Studies in the Age of Google and Facebook (2018)

WeChat as Infrastructure: The Techno-Nationalist Shaping of Chinese Digital Platforms (2019)

#122: Digital Politics in Canada: Parties, Memes, and the Courts, with Dr. Tamara Small

February 21, 2021 Academics

Dr. Tamara A. Small, Associate Professor in Political Science at the University of Guelph, discusses her research on social media and politics in Canada. We start out with her latest edited volume Digital Politics in Canada: Promises and Realities (2020, University of Toronto Press).


We then dive into Dr. Small’s research on Canadian party leaders’  use of Twitter, citizens’ sharing of memes about Stephen Harper and Justin Trudeau, and how Canadian courts use social media. We also cover how journalists live-tweet about court cases, and the Canadian courts’ struggle to adapt during Covid-19.


Here’s the full list of studies discussed in the episode:


Digital Politics in Canada: Promises and Realities (2020)

What the Hashtag? A Content Analysis of Canadian Politics on Twitter (2011)

Online Negativity in Canada: Do Canadian Party Leaders Attack on Twitter? (2018)

Trolling Stephen Harper: Internet Memes as Online Activism (2019)

“Justin Trudeau – I Don’t Know Her”: An Analysis of Leadership Memes of Justin Trudeau (2020)

Tweet Justice: The Canadian Court’s Use of Social Media (2020)

Play-by-Play Justice: Tweeting Criminal Trials in the Digital Age (2020)

Trial by Zoom? The Response to COVID-19 by Canada’s Courts (2020)

#121: Information Theory, Algorithms, and Political Polarization, with Prof. Martin Hilbert

February 7, 2021 Academics

Martin Hilbert, Professor of Communication at UC-Davis, discusses his research on algorithms and polarization. Prof. Hilbert introduces information theory and how it can be applied to studying the transfer of emotions via algorithms. We break down some of Prof. Hilbert’s recent studies, as well as his current thinking around detaching from social algorithms.


The studies discussed in the episode:


Behavioral Experiments With Social Algorithms: An Information Theoretic Approach to Input-Output Conversions

Do Search Algorithms Endanger Democracy? An Experimental Investigation of Algorithm Effects on Political Polarization

Communicating with Algorithms: A Transfer Entropy Analysis of Emotions-based Escapes from Online Echo Chambers


Prof. Hilbert’s seven part Medium series on Social Media Distancing.