Academics

#93: Political Self-Expression on Social Media, with Dr. Dan Lane

October 26, 2019 Academics


Dr. Dan Lane, Assistant Professor of Communication at UC Santa Barbara, guests to discuss his research on how political self-expression influences citizens’ perceptions of their political selves as citizens. We also talk about how certain design features of social media seem to affect youth political expression, and how different acts of self-expression can influence political self concepts to varying degrees.


Here are the three studies we discussed in the episode:

  1. Social Media Expression and the Political Self
  2. Civic Laboratories: Youth Political Expression in Anonymous, Ephemeral, Geo-Bounded Social Media
  3. Social Media Design for Youth Political Expression: Testing the Roles of Identifiability and Geo-boundedness

#92: Protest, Participation, and Cross-Cutting Exposure on Social Media, with Dr. Sebastian Valenzuela

October 6, 2019 Academics


Dr. Sebastian Valenzuela, Associate Professor of Communication at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, guests to discuss two studies on how social media impact political participation.


The first study demonstrates how both Facebook and Twitter contribute to protest participation, but they do so through different pathways that relate to strong and weak tie social networks.The second study is a meta-analysis of existing research, and it explores whether exposure to cross-cutting information affects political participation.


Both studies are published in Political Communication, and you can read them here:


1) Ties, Likes, and Tweets: Using Strong and Weak Ties to Explain Differences in Protest Participation Across Facebook and Twitter Use


2) A Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Cross-Cutting Exposure on Political Participation

#89: Fake News, Disinformation, and Social Media Campaigning in Norway, with Dr. Bente Kalsnes

August 25, 2019 Academics


Dr. Bente Kalsnes, Associate Professor of Communication at Kristiania University College, guests to discuss her new book “Fake News: Lies, Disinformation, and Propaganda in the Digital Public Sphere.” We also break down politicians’ social media campaigning in Norway, how this campaigning is changing ahead of the 2019 local elections, and look at some early Norwegian social media sites that predated Facebook

#87: Natural Language Processing with Social Media Data, with Dr. Leon Derczynski

July 28, 2019 Academics


Dr. Leon Derczynski, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the IT University of Copenhagen, guests to discuss how natural language processing and computational linguistics can be applied to social media data.

We break down several of Dr. Derczynski’s EU-funded research projects, from detecting the informativeness of tweets in crisis communication to assessing the veracity of claims through comment patterns on Twitter and Reddit.

Dr. Derczynski also shares his thoughts on machine learning, artificial intelligence, and deepfake detection.

#86: The Platform Society, Public Values, and Politics, with Dr. José van Dijck

July 13, 2019 Academics


Dr. José van Dijck, Distinguished Professor in Media and Society at Utrecht University, guests to discuss her latest book, The Platform Society: Public Values in a Connective World (Oxford University Press).

We break down key concepts from the book, including Platform Societies and Platform Power. We discuss the importance of public values in the Platform Society, and how these values might differ across the United States, the European Union, and China.

Dr. van Dijck also shares her thoughts on how platforms can be reverse engineered in ways that promote the public good.

#81: European Parliament Elections 2019: Results and Breakdown, with Dr. Anamaria Dutceac Segesten

May 29, 2019 Academics


Dr. Anamaria Dutceac Segesten, Assistant Professor of European Studies at Lund University, guests to discuss a live breakdown of the 2019 EU election.

We talk about the election results, the European Parliament’s digital campaign, and what it all means for Europe.


Here’s the 2019 European Parliament’s promo video: Choose your Future.


And the 2014 video: Act. React. Impact.

#80: Strategic Narratives in International Relations and Diplomacy, with Dr. Ben O’Loughlin

May 19, 2019 Academics

Dr. Ben O’Loughlin, Professor of International Relations at Royal Holloway, University of London, guests to discuss how diplomats use strategic narratives in managing international relations. We break down the concept of strategic narrative, which includes paying attention to the media environment. Dr. O’Loughlin explains the relationship between narrative and digital diplomacy, while providing examples from the 2015 Iran Deal and ongoing discussions around nuclear policy.

#79: Presidential Campaigning, Digital Media, and US Elections, with Dr. Jennifer Stromer-Galley

May 12, 2019 Academics


Dr. Jennifer Stromer-Galley, Professor of Information Studies at Syracuse University, guests to share her research on American presidential campaigns and their digital media use since 1996.


We discuss her award-winning book, Presidential Campaigning in the Internet Age, as well as its upcoming second edition, which includes a chapter on the 2016 election. Dr. Stromer-Galley breaks down how American campaigns’ digital strategy has changed over time, how it hasn’t, and what these practices reflect about democracy.

#73: Far-Right Extremism, Media Manipulation, and Disinformation Online, with Dr. Alice Marwick

February 24, 2019 Academics

Dr. Alice Marwick, Assistant Professor of Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, guests to discuss the findings of her research report: Media Manipulation and Disinformation Online. Dr. Marwick breaks down how far-right groups use the internet and social media to promote their ideologies. We also talk about radicalization, conspiracy theories, and differences in online activity between the far-right and far-left.


Check out the report here!

#72: Digital Political Campaigning in Britain, with Dr. Rachel Gibson

February 10, 2019 Academics

Dr. Rachel Gibson, Professor of Politics at the University of Manchester, discusses British political parties’ digital campaigning from websites to social media. We take a longitudinal dive into the development of digital campaigning in the UK, and compare it to campaigning practices in the US. Then, we examine how citizens’ political participation is evolving through their use of digital communication technologies.