Civil Society

#106: Political Voiceovers for Democratic Campaigns, with Maria Pendolino and Ian Fishman

May 9, 2020 Civil Society

Maria Pendolino and Ian Fishman are co-founders of Blue Wave Voiceover, a collective of professional voiceover actors lending their voices to Democratic campaigns. We discuss the role of voices in political ads, the back-end of reading political copy, and some of the differences between commercial and political voiceovers. We also demo the script reading process with real political ads, and change their tone to showcase what voiceover actors can do!


Here’s the final version of the ads we discuss in the episode: 

#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. 

#101: Video Search Engines and Petey Vid as an Alternative to Google Video Search, with Craig Stadler

March 1, 2020 Civil Society


Craig Stadler, Founder and CEO of Petey Vid, guests to discuss the video search engine landscape and his alternative to the dominance of Google and YouTube: Petey Vid. Petey Vid offers users video content from 60+ different sources while not tracking users’ search history or IP addresses. We break down Craig’s motivations behind starting Petey Vid, how it’s search architecture is structured, and what separates it from YouTube.

#96: Pro-Trump Social Networks: The Donald on Reddit and TheDonald.win

December 3, 2019 Civil Society


A moderator of Reddit’s The Donald guests to discuss the notorious subreddit community, and the new pro-Trump online forum: TheDonald.win.

We discuss the role of memes in these online forums, how memes are used for redpilling, and the steps Reddit has taken to limit the reach of pro-Trump social networks.

#94: Warren’s Meme Team, with Misha Leybovich

November 17, 2019 Civil Society


Misha Leybovich, Organizer for Warren’s Meme Team, guests to discuss how memetic templates can be used for grassroots political campaigning. We break down the plan for Warren’s Meme Team, its focus on augmented reality (AR) lenses, and what the response to the initiative has been like so far.


Read the full plan here.

#88: Making Memes to Support Donald Trump, with Carpe Donktum

August 11, 2019 Civil Society


Carpe Donktum, the pseudonym for a citizen who makes memes to support Donald Trump, guests to discuss his work. We talk about some of the memes that the President has retweeted on Twitter, as well as differences in meme making cultures across Reddit, 4chan, and 8chan.

Here are the memes discussed in the episode:

State of the Union
Biden Meme
Acosta Meme

And, a link to my paper on political campaigns’ use of computer games!

#83: Mapping Migration Narratives in the EU with Social Media Data, with Kata Füge

June 9, 2019 Civil Society


Kata Füge, Social Media Analyst at Bakamo Social, discusses Bakamo’s latest study charting citizens’ online discussions about immigration across Europe. We break down the main findings of the study, the main narratives used by EU citizens to discuss migration in online spaces, as well as the methodology behind it.

Click here to see the study’s interactive dashboard, and find out what narratives about migration are popular in your country!

#82: Italian Politics, Digital Campaigning, and Social Media, with Dino Amenduni

June 2, 2019 Civil Society


Dino Amenduni, Political Strategist and Partner at Proforma, guests to discuss his work campaigning for Partito Democratico (PD) in Italy. We talk about the role of social media in digital campaigning for Italian politics, the enduring importance of television, and differences between local, national, and European elections.

#76: Crypto Social Networks, with Bill Ottman

April 7, 2019 Civil Society

Bill Ottman, Founder and CEO of Minds, discusses how decentralized social media platforms may be the response to privacy concerns surrounding big platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. We talk about Minds’ peer-to-peer cryptocurrency model, how blockchain technology is used on the platform, and online censorship.

#75: Human Rights, Social Media, and Myanmar, with Ray Serrato

March 25, 2019 Civil Society

Ray Serrato, Social Media Analyst at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, discusses how social media data is used in the context of human rights violations. Ray breaks down the attacks against the Rohingya minority in Myanmar, and we discuss the role of social media in these attacks. Lastly, we talk about what the closing down of social media APIs means for future human rights work.