Elections
#96: Pro-Trump Social Networks: The Donald on Reddit and TheDonald.win
A moderator of Reddit’s The Donald guests to discuss the notorious subreddit community, and the new pro-Trump online forum: TheDonald.win.
We discuss the role of memes in these online forums, how memes are used for redpilling, and the steps Reddit has taken to limit the reach of pro-Trump social networks.
#79: Presidential Campaigning, Digital Media, and US Elections, with Dr. Jennifer Stromer-Galley
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.
#77: Ukraine Presidential Elections and Social Media Campaigning, with Mikhail Fedorov
Mikhail Fedorov, Chief Digital Strategist for Vladimir Zelensky, joins the podcast to discuss digital campaigning ahead of the 2019 Ukrainian Presidential Elections. We discuss how Zelensky, the election’s frontrunner, is using tools like Facebook, YouTube, and Telegram to grow a support base and coordinate volunteers’ canvassing efforts. We also talk about bots, trolls, and fake news in Ukraine ahead of the election, and how the Zelensky campaign is working to avoid information pollution on their online channels.
Be sure to check out the podcast’s Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube channels!
#57: The 2018 Swedish Elections and Social Media, with Dr. Anamaria Dutceac Segesten
Dr. Anamaria Dutceac Segesten, Senior Lecturer in European Studies at Lund University, guests to discuss the 2018 Swedish Elections and social media’s role in it. We break down the election results and talk about what it means for Sweden as well as the European Union.
Here are the links to the studies discussed in the episode:
Moe & Larsson’s 2014 study on Swedish politicians’ Facebook use
Jakob Svensson’s study on Swedish campaigning between elections
Kragh & Åsberg’s study on Russian disinformation via Facebook in Sweden
ComProp’s study of “junk news” during the Swedish election
#56: Facebook Ad Targeting in the 2017 British General Election, with Dr. Nick Anstead
Dr. Nick Anstead, Associate Professor in Media and Communications at the LSE, guests to discuss his new research on British parties’ Facebook ad targeting during the 2017 election. Using a data from the Chrome browser created by Who Targets Me, Dr. Anstead and his team compare the content, tone, personalization, and calls to action used in these ads. We discuss the findings of that study, as well as outline three challenges for academics studying Facebook ad targeting moving forward: the epistemological, the conceptual, and the systematic.
Read the full study here!
#45: Facebook Ads Transparency in the Irish Abortion Referendum, with Craig Dwyer
Craig Dwyer, co-founder of the Transparent Referendum Initiative, discusses targeted Facebook advertising ahead of the Irish constitutional referendum about abortion on May 25th. The TRI collects “dark” Facebook posts and is building an openly accessible database of targeted political ads. We discuss some of the major issues surrounding the referendum, the difficulties in discerning when a Facebook ad is “political,” and targeted political advertising on other platforms like Google and Youtube.
The Medium post mentioned in the episode.
ForaChange: Craig’s digital campaigning toolkit.