Episodes - Page 8 of 19 - Social Media and Politics

#113: Data-Driven Political Campaigning in Germany, with Dr. André Haller and Simon Kruschinski

September 5, 2020

Dr. André Haller (University of Applied Sciences Kufstein Tyrol) and Simon Kruschinski (University of Mainz) share their research into data-driven political campaigning in Germany. We discuss the key political, legal, and cultural factors that influence German politicians digital campaigning, differences in organic posts versus paid advertisements, and how social media platforms have been used by fringe political actors.

Here’s the research paper we discuss in the episode: Restrictions on Data-Driven Political Micro-targeting in Germany.

#112: China’s Influence Operations, Propaganda, and Disinformation, with Vanessa Molter

August 23, 2020

Vanessa Molter, Graduate Research Assistant at the Stanford Internet Observatory, breaks down her new report: “Telling China’s Story: The Chinese Communist Party’s Campaign to Shape Global Narratives.”

We discuss what researchers currently know about China’s influence operations on social media, how they compare with Russia’s disinformation strategies, and dive into the report’s three case studies: the 2019 Hong Kong protests, the 2020 Taiwanese presidential elections, and the Covid-19 pandemic.

#111: Data Science across Academia, Industry, and Progressive Campaigns, with Dr. Solomon Messing

August 9, 2020

Dr. Solomon Messing, Chief Scientist at ACRONYM and Affiliated Researcher at Georgetown University, shares his insights on data science across academia, the tech industry, and political campaigning space. We discuss how computational social science methods have changed over time, and how system architectures can be built to protect social media users’ privacy. We also chat about current trends that Dr. Messing is observing at ACRONYM relating to the persuasiveness and cost of political ads on social media.

Here’s the paper we discuss on differential privacy, and the Facebook URLs Dataset Codebook.

#110: Digital Media, Democracy, and the Retooling of Politics, with Dr. Andreas Jungherr

July 18, 2020

Dr. Andreas Jungherr, Assistant Professor for Social Science Data Collection and Analysis at the University of Konstanz, guests to discuss his latest book, “Retooling Politics: How Digital Media are Shaping Democracy.”

We chat about the state of social media research in political science and political communication, and what we currently know about echo chambers, polarization, and election prediction. We also discuss how digital media is shaping political campaigning and the role it might play for campaigns in the future.

#109: Digital Organizing for Progressive Campaigns and Advocacy, with Ned Howey

July 5, 2020

Ned Howey, CEO of Tectonica, discusses the international firm’s approach to digital organizing for progressive campaigns. We focus on how Tectonica’s digital solutions integrate with NationBuilder, some key principles of website design, and how to engage supporters with an authentic strategy and tone.

#108: Black Lives Matter Social Media Narratives outside the US, with James MacGregor

June 22, 2020

James MacGregor, Managing Director at Bakamo Public, discusses the main narratives in social media conversations around Black Lives Matter in the UK, Turkey, and Hungary. We break down how key themes from the US protests are translated into these different national contexts, as well as how the online debate has evolved since the protests started.

#107: Persuasion Effects of Psychometric Targeting and Chatbots, with Dr. Brahim Zarouali

May 31, 2020

Dr. Brahim Zarouali, Assistant Professor in Persuasive Communication at the University of Amsterdam, discusses his research on social media political ads and their effectiveness on different personality types (introverts and extroverts). We break down the findings from two experiments, which try and replicate the psychometric targeting techniques of firms like Cambridge Analytica by appealing to users’ psychological traits and emotions. We also discuss the de-polarization potential of chatbots, based on a study Dr. Zarouali conducted that presents participants with pro- or anti-attitudinal news on immigration.

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

May 9, 2020

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:

#105: Health Misinformation Correction on Social Media, with Dr. Leticia Bode

April 26, 2020

Dr. Leticia Bode, Associate Professor at Georgetown University, discusses her research on social media and health misinformation correction. We break down several experiments that test the effectiveness of digital misinformation correction in the context of the Zika virus. We also talk about what the findings might mean for public health organizations’ social media strategy in times of crisis. Towards the end, we also look at some of Dr. Bode’s ongoing research investigating the coronavirus conversation on Twitter. The studies we discuss in this episode are:

#104: Online Engagement and Digital Campaigning for Pete Buttigieg, with Stefan Smith

April 12, 2020

Stefan Smith, former Online Engagement Director at Pete for America, discusses the role of social media in digital organizing and campaigning during the 2020 Democratic Primaries. We break down two of Stefan’s grassroots initiatives — the Digital Captains program and Digital Door Knocking program — and how they contributed to the overall campaign.

We also talk about the political viability of Pinterest and Reddit, alongside more traditional platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.