Academics

#114: The Hype Machine: Political Implications of the Social Media Industrial Complex, with Prof. Sinan Aral

September 19, 2020 Academics

Sinan Aral, David Austin Professor of Management at MIT and Director of MIT’s Initiative on the Digital Economy, discusses his new book “The Hype Machine: How Social Media Disrupts Our Elections, Our Economy, and Our Health—and How We Must Adapt.”


Prof. Aral breaks down key theoretical concepts from the book, which outlines some of the fundamental mechanisms for how social media platforms operate. We also discuss the science behind these concepts and they implications they have for elections, politics, and society. 

#113: Data-Driven Political Campaigning in Germany, with Dr. André Haller and Simon Kruschinski

September 5, 2020 Academics

Dr. André Haller (University of Applied Sciences Kufstein Tyrol) and Simon Kruschinski (University of Mainz) share their research into data-driven political campaigning in Germany. We discuss the key political, legal, and cultural factors that influence German politicians digital campaigning, differences in organic posts versus paid advertisements, and how social media platforms have been used by fringe political actors.

 

Here’s the research paper we discuss in the episode: Restrictions on Data-Driven Political Micro-targeting in Germany.

#111: Data Science across Academia, Industry, and Progressive Campaigns, with Dr. Solomon Messing

August 9, 2020 Academics

Dr. Solomon Messing, Chief Scientist at ACRONYM and Affiliated Researcher at Georgetown University, shares his insights on data science across academia, the tech industry, and political campaigning space. We discuss how computational social science methods have changed over time, and how system architectures can be built to protect social media users’ privacy. We also chat about current trends that Dr. Messing is observing at ACRONYM relating to the persuasiveness and cost of political ads on social media. 

Here’s the paper we discuss on differential privacy, and the Facebook URLs Dataset Codebook. 

#110: Digital Media, Democracy, and the Retooling of Politics, with Dr. Andreas Jungherr

July 18, 2020 Academics

Dr. Andreas Jungherr, Assistant Professor for Social Science Data Collection and Analysis at the University of Konstanz, guests to discuss his latest book, “Retooling Politics: How Digital Media are Shaping Democracy.” 

 

We chat about the state of social media research in political science and political communication, and what we currently know about echo chambers, polarization, and election prediction. We also discuss how digital media is shaping political campaigning and the role it might play for campaigns in the future. 

#107: Persuasion Effects of Psychometric Targeting and Chatbots, with Dr. Brahim Zarouali

May 31, 2020 Academics

Dr. Brahim Zarouali, Assistant Professor in Persuasive Communication at the University of Amsterdam, discusses his research on social media political ads and their effectiveness on different personality types (introverts and extroverts). We break down the findings from two experiments, which try and replicate the psychometric targeting techniques of firms like Cambridge Analytica  by appealing to users’ psychological traits and emotions. We also discuss the de-polarization potential of chatbots, based on a study Dr. Zarouali conducted that presents participants with pro- or anti-attitudinal news on immigration. 

#105: Health Misinformation Correction on Social Media, with Dr. Leticia Bode

April 26, 2020 Academics
Dr. Leticia Bode, Associate Professor at Georgetown University, discusses her research on social media and health misinformation correction. We break down several experiments that test the effectiveness of digital misinformation correction in the context of the Zika virus. We also talk about what the findings might mean for public health organizations’ social media strategy in times of crisis. Towards the end, we also look at some of Dr. Bode’s ongoing research investigating the coronavirus conversation on Twitter. The studies we discuss in this episode are:
  1. See Something, Say Something: Correction of Global Health Misinformation on Social Media
  2. I Do Not Believe You: How Providing a Source Corrects Health Misperceptions on Social Media
  3. A First Look at COVID-19 Information and Misinformation Sharing on Twitter

#103: What American History Teaches us about Political Communication, with Dr. Ben Epstein

March 29, 2020 Academics

Dr. Ben Epstein,
Associate Professor of Political Science at DePaul University, guests
to discuss the role of history in understanding contemporary political
communication.

We take a deep dive in Dr. Epstein’s book The Only Constant is Change: Technology, Political Communication, and Innovation over Time, published by Oxford University Press.

Dr.
Epstein explains how the development of newspapers, the radio, and
Internet fundamentally changed political communication practices for
political campagins, social movements, and interest groups. We then
discuss how television and social media were novel technologies for
their time, but did not fundamentally establish new political
communication orders. 

#102: House of Lords Democracy and Digital Technologies Committee, with Lord David Puttnam and Dr. Kate Dommett

March 15, 2020 Academics, Civil Society


Lord David Puttnam and Dr. Kate Dommett guest to discuss the work on the British House of Lords select committee “Democracy and Digital Technologies.”


The committee seeks to investigate the pros and cons of digital technologies around six key areas: transparency in political campaigns; privacy and anonymity; misinformation; the effects of digital technology on public discourse; how technology can facilitate democracy; and the development of effective digital literacy. 


We discuss the motivations behind forming the committee, the status of the inquiry so far, as well as get into a broader discussion about policy recommendations for the potential regulation of digital and social media companies in the UK and elsewhere in the European Union. 


For links mentioned during the episode, check out: 


The website of the committee, and follow their latest updates on Twitter @HLDemoDigital. 

Dr. Dommett’s study “Data-driven Political Campaigns in Practice” in Internet Policy Review. 

#100: Content Moderation and the Politics of Social Media Platforms, with Dr. Tarleton Gillespie

February 16, 2020 Academics


Dr. Tarleton Gillespie, Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research and Associate Professor of Communication at Cornell University, guests for our 100th episode!


We revisit Dr. Gillespie’s 2010 study “The Politics of Platforms” as well as discuss his latest book: “Custodians of the Internet: Platforms, Content Moderation, and the Hidden Decisions that Shape Social Media.”


We discuss how social media companies strategically position themselves through discourse, the early adoption of social media by advertisers and political campaigns, and how content moderation shapes our interactions with platforms and politics.

#99: Information Gerrymandering on Social Networks, with Dr. Alexander Stewart

January 27, 2020 Academics


Dr. Alexander Stewart, Assistant Professor of Biology at the University of Houston, guests to discuss his research on “information gerrymandering,” recently published in Nature. The study uses a voter game, mathematical modelling, social media data, and legislative data to examine how information asymmetries in social networks impact collective decision-making processes. We break down the study, and the implications of its findings for democracy.


Read the full study, and check out the video showing information gerrymandering in action!