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!
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.
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.
Alexandra Ekkelenkamp, Advisor to the Director of Media and Communications at the Council of the European Union, discusses how the EU Council uses social media for strategic communication.
Alexandra shares her insights about how social media campaigns reflect the Council’s work, how that creates authenticity, and how to incorporate local versus European narratives when communicating to the EU public.
Loren Merchan and Jonathan Barnes guest to discuss the concept of authenticity and authentic campaigns in US elections. We break down the concept of authenticity, and discuss how digital and social media can be leveraged to make a candidate seem more authentic during a campaign.
Read more about Authentic Campaigns here!
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.