Civil Society

#175: Countering Project 2025 with Google Search Ads, with Kindred Motes

September 1, 2024 Civil Society

Kindred Motes, Founder and Managing Partner at KM Strategies Group (KMSG), shares his advocacy work  to counter the online reach of Project 2025. Working with the  Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, KMSG launched a paid campaign on Google Search before Project 2025 became mainstream. Kindred shares how TikTok played a role in catalyzing Project 2025 as a political issue, as well as some of the challenges that nonprofits face in running digital ad campaigns. We also discuss the benefits and trade-offs of social media for advocacy work, and end with some practical tips for how nonprofits can effectively communicate in today’s fragmented media landscape. 

#172: Far Right Women Influencers on YouTube and Instagram, with Dr. Eviane Leidig

April 7, 2024 Civil Society

Dr. Eviane Leidig, Marie Curie postdoctoral fellow at Tilburg University, discusses her book “The Women of the Far Right: Social Media Influencers and Online Radicalization.” 

We break down the role of social media for the alt-right movement, and how platforms like Instagram and YouTube work to mainstream extremist views. These insights come from Dr. Leidigs research conducting digital ethnography on women influencers prominent on the American Right. 

#158: Progressive Big Tech Regulation and Advocacy, with Adam Kovacevich

February 5, 2023 Civil Society

Adam Kovacevich, Founder and CEO of Chamber of Progress, shares his trade association’s goals for progressive advocacy in the tech sector. We discuss the politicization of ‘Big Tech’ and  recent opinion polls about Midterm voters’ attitudes towards tech regulation. We also discuss how First Amendment rights apply to tech companies, misperceptions of the techlash, and partisan differences in moderating misinformation and free speech.

 

Extra Links:

President Biden’s op-ed in WSJ

Adam’s presentation on Chamber of Progress’ Midterm Poll

Episode #49 on CCIA and Tech Trade Associations

#147: Anti-immigration YouTube Videos: Tactics and Narratives, with Shauna Siggelkow

August 7, 2022 Civil Society

Shauna Siggelkow, Director of Digital Storytelling at Define American, discusses a new report on anti-immigration YouTube videos: ‘Immigration will Destroy Us and Other Talking Points.’


We break down the report, which identifies a network of viral YouTube videos promoting narratives associated with the Great Replacement Theory. Shauna also shares findings from experiments that test how different genres, animation styles, and messengers can effectively communicate political issues.


Check out the toolkit for communicating pro-immigration messages (and other types of political content) on digital and social media.

#141: Rating News Credibility with Algorithms, with Arjun Moorthy

April 17, 2022 Civil Society

Arjun Moorthy, co-founder and CEO of The Factual, discusses how machine learning and natural language processing can rank news for credibility. Arjun breaks down the criteria underpinning The Factual’s rating system as well as how it tries to minimize bias. We talk about some of the pitfalls of optimizing news for engagement, as well as how anonymity in a different incentive structure affects discourse around discussing news. Towards the end of the episode, we discuss the current state of AI in the newsroom, and how automation might affect news consumption in the future.


Check out the Unbiased Podcast!

And test out The Factual’s engine at IsThisCredible.com

#130: Tech Advocacy for Children’s Rights and the Twisted Toys Campaign, with Baroness Beeban Kidron

July 4, 2021 Civil Society

Baroness Beeban Kidron, Chair of the 5Rights Foundation, guests to discuss the recently launched Twisted Toys campaign. We chat about the role of awareness campaigns for tech advocacy, how policymakers respond to children’s data protection issues, and the creative design process behind the Twisted Toys campaign.

 

Check out Twisted Toys here!

#124: Deliberation in Practice and Pandemics, with Ieva Česnulaitytė

April 18, 2021 Civil Society

Ieva Česnulaitytė, Policy Analyst at the OECD, discusses her and her colleagues’ research on representative deliberative processes. We break down some of the key models of deliberative processes, when they tend to be used, and how their success can be measured. 

We also discuss how the coronavirus pandemic has moved deliberative processes online. As social distancing limits the ability for citizens to attend in-person events, how are deliberative processes being carried out? 

Here’s the report we discuss in the episode – Innovative Citizen Participation and New Democratic Institutions: Catching the Deliberative Wave. 

 

And the op-ed in Nature discussing online deliberation during the pandemic. 

#112: China’s Influence Operations, Propaganda, and Disinformation, with Vanessa Molter

August 23, 2020 Civil Society

Vanessa Molter, Graduate Research Assistant at the Stanford Internet Observatory, breaks down her new report: “Telling China’s Story: The Chinese Communist Party’s Campaign to Shape Global Narratives.” 

 

We discuss what researchers currently know about China’s influence operations on social media, how they compare with Russia’s disinformation strategies, and dive into the report’s three case studies: the 2019 Hong Kong protests, the 2020 Taiwanese presidential elections, and the Covid-19 pandemic.

#108: Black Lives Matter Social Media Narratives outside the US, with James MacGregor

June 22, 2020 Civil Society

James MacGregor, Managing Director at Bakamo Public, discusses the main narratives in social media conversations around Black Lives Matter in the UK, Turkey, and Hungary. We break down how key themes from the US protests are translated into these different national contexts, as well as how the online debate has evolved since the protests started.