Episodes

#166: Democracy, Architecture, and Social Media, with Dr. Jennifer Forestal

October 21, 2023 Academics

Dr. Jennifer Forestal, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Loyola University Chicago, discusses how digital platforms can be approached from an architectural perspective. Dr. Forestal shares insights from her latest book, Designing for Democracy, where she evaluates digital platforms’ democratic potential from the lens of political theory. The episode breaks down a framework for how to assess the democratic quality of social media platforms by examining their degrees of boundaries, durability, and flexibility. Dr. Forestal reveals how these properties can be illustrated by the cases of Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit. 

#165: Covid Vaccine Hesitancy in Sweden, with Dr. Mia-Marie Hammarlin

October 7, 2023 Academics

Dr. Mia-Marie Hammarlin, Senior Lecturer in Media and Communication at Lund University, shares her research on vaccine hesitancy in Sweden. We discuss the major themes of coronavirus vaccine skepticism on the Swedish online forum Flashback, as well as Dr. Hammarlin’s ethnographic research meeting with vaccine hesitant communities.


Here are links to Dr. Hammarlin’s research mentioned in the episode:


COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy: A Mixed Methods Investigation of Matters of Life and Death (2023)

I bonded with COVID vaccine sceptics over saunas and Mother Earth rituals (2023)


And check out HT-samtal, a podcast on humanities research from Lund! 

#164: Political Persuasion and the Effects of Targeted Social Media Ads, with Dr. Alexander Coppock

September 23, 2023 Academics

Dr. Alexander Coppock, Associate Professor of Political Science at Yale University, shares his research on measuring the political effects of persuasive information. We discuss how political persuasion affects voters holding different viewpoints, the durability of these effects over time, and how much political ads seem to affect voters’ political attitudes. 

Here are Dr. Coppock’s research studies discussed in the episode: 

 

Persuasion in Parallel: How Information Changes Minds about Politics (2022)

The small effects of political advertising are small regardless of context, message, sender, or receiver (2020)

Does digital advertising affect vote choice? Evidence from a randomized field experiment (2022)

The impact of digital advertising on turnout during the 2020 US presidential election (Pre-print, 2022)

#162: Negative Campaigning on Facebook in EU Elections, Cross-Platform Extremism, and Dissonant Public Spheres, with Prof. Ulrike Klinger

July 1, 2023 Academics

Prof. Ulrike Klinger, Professor for Digital Democracy at the European New School for Digital Studies at European University Viadrina, shares her latest research on negative campaigning on social media. We discuss some of the challenges in studying digital communication in the EU, as well as what explains a rise in negative campaigning across two European Parliament elections. Prof. Klinger also shares her research on the UN Global Compact for Migration, where extremist ideas from the Identitarian movement were picked up by the mainstream media. Lastly, we discuss Prof. Klinger’s suggestions for increasing researcher data access ahead of the Digital Services Act.


Here are links to the studies discussed in the episode: 

  1.  Are Campaigns Getting Uglier, and Who Is to Blame? Negativity, Dramatization and Populism on Facebook in the 2014 and 2019 EP Election Campaigns (2023)

  2. From the fringes into mainstream politics: intermediary networks and movement-party coordination of a global anti-immigration campaign in Germany (2022)

  3. Delegated Regulation on Data Access Provided for the Digital Services Act (2023)

  4. Political Communication Special Issue: Digital Campaigning in Dissonant Public Spheres (2023)

#161: Connecting Social Media Influencers with Political Campaigns, with Zach Fang

June 18, 2023 Digital Strategists

Zach Fang, Head of Sales and Business Development at Vocal Media, shares how the start-up is building a database of social media influencers to connect with political campaigns and organizations. We discuss what makes TikTok influencers a different type of political advertising and how their costs stack up to traditional broadcast and social media. Zach also shares what’s happening with influencers on Twitch, Discord, and YouTube shorts, and how influencers may turn from awareness raising to organizing. 

 

Here’s a link to the study mentioned in the episode. 

#160: Digital Media Trends in American Political Campaigns, with Russell Mindich

May 20, 2023 Digital Strategists

Russell Mindich, political consultant and author of the 2022 Political Tech Landscape Report, shares his insights on the role of social media in political campaigning. We discuss social media influencers and how campaigns are connecting to them on TikTok, the move towards politicla advertising on streaming services, and the potential uses of ChatGPT and other generative AI for politics.

#159: Social Media, Democracy, and National Security, with Jenny Reich

March 18, 2023 Academics

Jenny Reich, Fellow at the Georgetown Law Center on National Security, discusses the Center’s recent report entitled Social Media: The Canary in the Coal Mine.


We dive into the potential security risks posed by digital technology developments as well as the report’s recommendations for addressing them at the levels of government, the tech industry, and civil society. The report brings together various stakeholders to shed insight on the core democratic values of the United States, the major threats posed by technological advancements, and first steps toward developing regulatory frameworks and civil society resilience to meet these threats in ways that safeguard democracy and American national security interests. 

#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

#157: Political Targeting, Strategic Communication, and Democracy, with Prof. Sanne Kruikemeier

January 21, 2023 Academics

Prof. Sanne Kruikemeier, Professor of Digital Media and Society at Wageningen University & Research, discusses her latest research on political targeting. We discuss how political targeting differs in EU and US contexts, how perceptions of targeting affect voters’ democratic perceptions, and what types of issues parties strategically communicate during election campaigns.

 

Here are the studies discussed in the episode:

 

Data-driven campaigning and democratic disruption: Evidence from six advanced democracies (2022)

Understanding the democratic role of perceived online political micro-targeting (2022)

(Tar)getting you: The use of online political targeted messages on Facebook (2022)