Episodes

#133: Covid Mask Wearing in Politicians’ Social Media Images and Emotions in German Politics, with Dr. Mirya Holman

October 10, 2021 Academics

Dr. Mirya Holman, Associate Professor of Political Science at Tulane University, shares her latest research on how politicians depict mask wearing through their social media images. We discuss how computer vision can be used to detect masks in images, as well as what factors correlate with politicians’ depicting masks. Later in the episode, we discuss another recent study by Dr. Holman, where emotions in the facial expressions and vocal pitch of German politicians were analyzed during election debates. 

 

Here’s a link to that study: 

Gender, Candidate Emotional Expression, and Voter Reactions during Televised Debates (2021)

 

And here’s a link to Mirya Holman’s Aggressive Winning Scholars (#MHAWS) Newsletter! 

#132: Social Media and Political Polarization in the United States, with Prof. Chris Bail

September 26, 2021 Academics

Professor Chris Bail, Professor of Sociology and Public Policy at Duke University, discusses his latest book Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing. Professor Bail shares findings from three studies on political polarization covering field-experiments, qualitative interviews, and lab experiments. We discuss how social media contributes to a distorted reality in how extremists and moderates discuss politics online, and how this prism fosters a sense false polarization. We also chat about measures that individuals and social media platforms could take to reduce online political polarization. 

Here are supplementary links to two studies discussed in the episode: 

Exposure to Opposing Views on Social Media can Increase Political Polarization (2019)

Political Sectarianism in America (2020)

#131: Digital Ads for Registering and Mobilizing Black and Latinx Voters, with Tatenda Musapatike

August 15, 2021 Digital Strategists

Tatenda Musapatike, Founder and CEO of the Voter Formation Project, shares her insights on using social media to mobilize non-white voters. In her prior role at Acronym, Tatenda led the Expand the Electorate project, which used digital ads to register and mobilize Black and Latinx voters in 8 target states. In this episode, we discuss the results of Tatenda’s work in the 2020 US election, the racial biases in data and targeting technologies, and how gender differences between Black voters might be overcome in future electoral cycles. 

Here’s the case study from the Expand the Electorate project and more detailed white paper (requires email sign-up) – definitely worth a read! 

#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!

#129: Political Marketing, Digital Strategy, and Social Media for the Yang 2020 Campaign, with Andrew Frawley

June 27, 2021 Digital Strategists

Andrew Frawley, former Director of Marketing at Yang2020, shares his experience running marketing and digital strategy for Andrew Yang’s 2020 campaign. Andrew discusses the role of social media for outsider campaigns, challenges in establishing growth on social media, and the role of podcasts for political campaigns. We also discuss campaign slogans, differences between outsider and mainstream campaigns, and Facebook groups as organizing hubs. 

Check out Andrew’s website for more experiences from the campaign! 

#128: Modern Political Campaigns and Social Media in the United States, with Dr. Michael D. Cohen

June 13, 2021 Academics

Dr. Michael D. Cohen, CEO of Cohen Research Group and Lecturer at Johns Hopkins University, discusses his new book Modern Political Campaigns: How Professionalism, Technology, and Speed Have Revolutionized Elections. 

We talk about how communication technologies have shifted political campaigns from being party-centered to candidate-centered. We also discuss various aspects of political campaigns covered in the book, such as: how political campaigns conduct opposition research, the role of data and analytics in the modern campaign, and the value social media can provide to a political campaign.  

Buy Modern Political Campaigns here and use code RLFANDF30 for 30% off! 

#127: Social Media Communication in the EU, with Tom Moylan

June 4, 2021 Digital Strategists

Tom Moylan, Communication Strategist at the Directorate-General for Communication at the European Commission, shares his personal reflections on EU digital communication. We discuss the value that social media can bring in communicating the European Union to citizens, as well as how EU institutions have evolved their communication strategy over time. Tom also shares his experiences as a speechwriter in EU trade policy, and how speech writing compares with social media communication. We also discuss current trends in EU institutional communication, and what lessons might be learned from coronavirus pandemic moving forward. 

Be sure to subscribe to Tom’s newsletter: Speaking Moylanguage! 

#126: The Cultural Sociology of Political Performance, Icons, and Social Media, with Prof. Jeffrey Alexander

May 16, 2021 Academics

Jeffrey Alexander, Professor of Sociology at Yale University, discusses his cultural sociology approach to political performance and cultural icons. We start out with the concept of fusion, and how political actors work to achieve it through the elements of political performance. Then, we turn to a discussion of objects, affordances, and the power of political icons.

 

Here’s some extra reading on the topics we cover in the episode:

 

Cultural Pragmatics: Social Performance Between Ritual and Strategy (2004)

The Performativity of Objects (2020)

#125: Digital Media Infrastructures and Tech Platforms, with Dr. Jean-Christophe Plantin

May 2, 2021 Academics

Dr. Jean-Christophe Plantin, Associate Professor in Media and Communications at the London School of Economics, explains the concept of media infrastructures.


We discuss Dr. Plantin’s research on digital platforms, infrastructures, and how tech giants like Facebook and Google increasingly blend those two concepts. We also discuss the infrastructure of WeChat, and get into Dr. Plantin’s ongoing work into the concept of programmable infrastructures – which explores how the hardware of the tech industry is becoming increasingly disagreggated and modular.


Check out Dr. Plantin’s recent talk at Sciences Po for more details on programmable infrastructures.


And the articles we discuss in the episode:


Digital Media Infrastructures: Pipes, Platforms, and Politics (2018)

Infrastructure Studies Meet Platform Studies in the Age of Google and Facebook (2018)

WeChat as Infrastructure: The Techno-Nationalist Shaping of Chinese Digital Platforms (2019)

#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.