Episodes

#143: Challenging Covid Vaccine Misinformation on Private Social Media, with Prof. Andrew Chadwick

May 1, 2022 Academics

Prof. Andrew Chadwick, Professor of Communication at Loughborough University, shares insights from his new public research report: Covid Vaccines and Online Personal Messaging: The Challenge of Challenging Everyday Misinformation.


The report explores how British citizens use private social messaging apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, and in particular how they experience and engage with coronavirus misinformation across private group chats on these platforms. We discuss the hybrid character of this engagement, the role of qualitative research in project designs, and person-centered solutions to countering misinformation on private social media.

#142: Comparing Digital Political Communication across Countries and Time, with Prof. Anders Olof Larsson

April 24, 2022 Academics

Prof. Anders Olof Larsson, Professor of Communication at Kristiania University College, shares his comparative social media research on party communication. We start out with a macro-level look at political parties’ adoption of Facebook and Instagram across Europe, before focusing more specifically on Scandinavia. Prof. Larsson discusses the pros and cons of political merch contests in driving engagement, and how hashtag network structures have evolved over time on Facebook and Instagram in Norway. We also discuss post virality and Prof. Larsson’s work comparing viral posts in Norway across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

 

Here are the studies mentioned in the episode: 

 

Longitudinal studies of European party communication: 

Picture-perfect populism: Tracing the rise of European populist parties on Facebook (2022)

The rise of Instagram as a tool for political communication: A longitudinal study of European political parties and their followers (2021)

 

Studies using Norwegian data:

‘Win a sweater with the PM’S face on it’ – A longitudinal study of Norwegian party Facebook engagement strategies (2020)

‘Coherent clusters’ or ‘fuzzy zones’ – Understanding attention and structure in online political participation (2019)

Winning and losing on social media: Comparing viral political posts across platforms (2019)

#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

#140: Social Media and the War in Ukraine, with Prof. Joshua Tucker

April 7, 2022 Academics

Joshua Tucker, Professor of Politics at NYU and Co-Director of the Center for Social Media and Politics, discusses social media’s impact on the invasion of Ukraine. We talk about ‘information theaters’ of operation and how they differ across the West, Ukraine, Russia, and China. Prof. Tucker also shares his thoughts on Volodymyr Zelensky’s teleconferencing, the Biden administration’s pre-bunking strategy towards disinformation, multinational corporations’ actions towards sanctions, and Vladimir Putin’s isolation. And more!

 

Here are links to prior episodes on Ukraine:


Volodymyr Zelensky’s Social Media Strategy in the 2019 Ukraine Elections

Russian Disinformation and Social Media in Ukraine

#139: Political Leader Evaluations on Instagram and Emotions in Covid Crisis Communication, with Dr. Jenny Lindholm

February 27, 2022 Academics

Dr. Jenny Lindholm, University Teacher and Researcher in Political Science, Media, and Communication at Åbo Akademi University, discusses her research on visual political communication. First, we break down Dr. Lindholm’s eye-tracking experiment on how party leaders’ Instagram photos affect viewers’ trait perceptions of leaders. The focus is on where viewers of these images give their visual attention, and whether that differs across public versus private photos as well as the gender of party leaders. Then, we discuss another study focusing on the emotion communication of the Finnish Prime Minister during coronavirus crisis communication in press conferences. 

 

Here are the two studies we discuss in the episode:

 

See Me, Like Me! Exploring Viewers’ Visual Attention to and Trait Perceptions of Party Leaders on Instagram (2021)

Emotionell räddning? Visuell kriskommunikation under coronakrisens inledande skede – fallet Finland (2021)

#138: Mobile News Consumption: How Smartphone News Exposure Affects Political Knowledge, with Dr. Jakob Ohme

February 13, 2022 Academics

Dr. Jakob Ohme, Senior Researcher at the Weizenbaum Institute, discusses his research on mobile news consumption. Dr. Ohme breaks down how exposure to political news on a smartphone might differ from a desktop, and he breaks down results from a recent eye-tracking study exploring the topic. We also discuss how smartphones can be used for data collection, through Dr. Ohme’s research using a smartphone media diary as well as data from the iOS Screen Time function.


The studies discussed in the episode are: 

#137: 2021 Year in Review! Social Media and Politics, with Dr. Anamaria Dutceac Segesten

December 22, 2021 Academics

Here we go! A deep dive into the year’s latest trends in social media and politics, as well as predictions for the future. We cover various platforms’ year in review recaps, Telegram and Belarus, Facebook’s change to Meta and the Silicon Valley “Founder”, artificial intelligence and the virtual politician, Web 3 and Parler, and the enduring role of newsletters.


Here’s the platform year in review stats and bonus links for the episode:


Facebook Threat Report

Google Year in Search

Tiktok Cultural Phenomenons

Pinterest Predicts

Reddit Recap

Snap Lens on the Year

Twitter #OnlyOnTwitter

Article with chart on social media’s impact on democracy

The greatest newsletter of all-time


See you in January for new episodes! <3

#136: Right-Wing Alternative Media and Republican Party Social Media Engagement, with Dr. Curd Knüpfer and Mike Cowburn

November 28, 2021 Academics

Dr. Curd Knüpfer (Assistant Professor) and Mike Cowburn (PhD Candidate), from the JFK Institute for North American Studies at Freie Universität Berlin, discuss their research on right-wing alternative media. We start out by discussing what right-wing alternative media are, and how they are transnationally linked across Western democracies. Then, we explore Mike and Curd’s ongoing work into how Members of Congress’ social media engagement with these sites may be predictors of political positionality. We also look at how Republican Members of Congress’ use of the fake news label also relates to their political ideology.

 

The (published) studies discussed in the episode are:

 

Beyond Breitbart: Comparing Right-Wing Digital News Infrastructures in Six Western Democracies

 

Toward a Transnational Information Ecology on the Right? Hyperlink Networking among Right-Wing Digital News Sites in Europe and the United States

 

Legislator Adoption of the Fake News Label: Ideological Differences in Republican Representative Use on Twitter

#135: Digital Political Communication and Social Media Campaigning in Germany, with Juri Schnöller

November 14, 2021 Digital Strategists

Juri Schnöller, Co-Founder and Managing Director at Cosmonauts & Kings, discusses the latest trends in German digital political communication. We chat about the role of digital political consultants in Germany, the important role of messenger apps like Signal and Telegram, and how social media influencers are impacting coronavirus communication. We also compare how features of the German electoral rules, political culture, and media system work to shape German digital campaigning.


Extra links:


Public Arena Playbook: Juri’s Handbook for Digital Political Communication

Civical: A Social Media Management Software for Politics

#134: ISIS Radicalization, Counter-Extremism, and Visual Propaganda on Social Media, with Dr. Tamar Mitts

October 24, 2021 Academics

Dr. Tamar Mitts, Assistant Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, shares her research on ISIS radicalization and it’s relationship to social isolation, anti-Muslim sentiment, and counter-extremism programs. We discuss Dr. Mitts’ Twitter dataset that uses spatial algorithms to identify ISIS sympathizers’ locations and machine learning to identify pro-ISIS sentiment. Toward the end of the episode, we discuss how computer vision tools such as Amazon’s Rekognition API can be used to detect violent imagery in ISIS propaganda. 


Here are the studies we discuss in the episode: 


From Isolation to Radicalization: Anti-Muslim Hostility and Support for ISIS in the West  (2019)

Countering Violent Extremism and Radical Rhetoric (2021)

Studying the Impact of ISIS Propaganda Campaigns (Forthcoming)