A5063065481- Social Media and Politics
- Misinformation and Its Impacts
- Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection
- Media Studies and Communication
- Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence
- Media Influence and Politics
- Computational and Text Analysis Methods
- Cybersecurity and Cyber Warfare Studies
- Populism, Right-Wing Movements
- Gun Ownership and Violence Research
- Discourse Analysis in Language Studies
- Political Conflict and Governance
- Gender, Feminism, and Media
- Service-Learning and Community Engagement
- Radio, Podcasts, and Digital Media
- Crime, Deviance, and Social Control
- Political and Economic history of UK and US
- Risk Perception and Management
- Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics
- Suicide and Self-Harm Studies
- Social and Cultural Dynamics
- Elite Sociology and Global Capitalism
- Public Relations and Crisis Communication
- Political Influence and Corporate Strategies
- Authorship Attribution and Profiling
The University of Texas at Austin
2021-2024
University of Connecticut
2022
University of Wisconsin–Madison
2015-2022
Cornell University
2022
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
2020
University of California, Berkeley
2020
Bocconi University
2020
University of Massachusetts Amherst
2020
Georgia Institute of Technology
2020
Brown University
2020
Keywords: political communicationpresidentcampaignTrumphybridTwittertweet2016electionpublic opinionnewspaperdigital
Abstract In the last 10 years, many canonical findings in social sciences appear unreliable. This so-called “replication crisis” has spurred calls for open science practices, which aim to increase reproducibility, replicability, and generalizability of findings. Communication research is subject same challenges that have caused low replicability other fields. As a result, we propose an agenda adopting practices Communication, includes following seven suggestions: (1) publish materials, data,...
Though nation-states have long utilized disinformation to influence foreign audiences, Russia’s 2015 2017 campaign against the U.S.—executed by Internet Research Agency (IRA) —is unique in its complexity and distribution through digital communication ecology. The following study explores IRA activity on three social media platforms, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, understand how activities these sites were temporally coordinated. Using a VAR analysis with Granger Causality tests, results show...
The recent rise of disinformation and propaganda on social media has attracted strong interest from scientists. Research the topic repeatedly observed ideological asymmetries in content reception, wherein conservatives are more likely to view, redistribute, believe such content. However, preliminary evidence suggested that race may also play a substantial role determining targeting consumption Such racial exist alongside, or even instead of, ones. Our computational analysis 5.2 million...
How populists engage with media of various types, and are treated by those media, questions international interest. In the United States, Donald Trump stands out for both his populism-inflected campaign style success at attracting attention. This article examines how interactions between candidate communications, social partisan news combined to shape attention Trump, Clinton, Cruz, Sanders during 2015–2016 American presidential primary elections. We identify six major components system...
Populism, as many have observed, is a communication phenomenon much coherent ideology whose mass appeal stems from the fiery articulation of core positions, notably hostility toward “others,” bias against elites in favor “the people,” and transgressive delivery those messages. Yet what we know about populist based on analysis candidate pronouncements, verbal message conveyed at political events over social media, rather than performances—the visual tonal markers outrage—that give populism...
The Russian-sponsored Internet Research Agency’s (IRA) use of social media to influence U.S. political discourse is undoubtedly troubling. However, scholarly attention has focused on media, overlooking the role that news within country played in amplifying false, foreign messages. In this article, we examine articles system quoted IRA tweets through lens changing journalism practices hybrid system, focusing specifically gatekeepers’ as vox populi. We find a majority embedded were That is,...
This study focuses on the outpouring of sympathy in response to mass shootings and contestation over gun policy Twitter from 2012 2014 relates these discourses features shooting events. We use two approaches text analysis—hashtag grouping supervised machine learning (ML)—to triangulate an understanding intensity duration "thoughts prayers," control, rights discourses. conduct parallel time series analyses predict their temporal patterns shootings. Our reveal that while total number victims...
Influencers are omnipresent on social media platforms. They occupy important digital real estate across a range of topical domains including beauty, fashion, and gaming. While researchers have contributed work the respective role that authenticity plays for influencers’ success described burgeoning industry within larger domain entertainment, comparably little is known about what happens when influencers get involved in politics, they harness their clout to promote political causes issues,...
Social media amplification is both a mechanism to attract public attention and process of information diffusion shaped by the online social network structure. This study focuses on elites examines extent which traditional emerging partisan influencers engage in “network amplification.” Defined as like-minded sharing similar or/and mutual messages, highlights interrelation interaction between elite messages communication environment media. phenomenon worth investigating because...
Abstract Social bots, or algorithmic agents that amplify certain viewpoints and interact with selected actors on social media, may influence online discussion, news attention, even public opinion through coordinated action. Previous research has documented the presence of bot activities developed detection algorithms. Yet, how bots attention dynamics hybrid media system remains understudied. Leveraging a large collection both tweets (N = 1,657,551) stories 50,356) about early COVID-19...
How disinformation campaigns operate and how they fit into the broader social communication environment – which has been described as a 'disinformation order' [Bennett & Livingston, (2018). The order: Disruptive decline of democratic institutions. European Journal Communication, 33(2), 122–139] represent critical, ongoing questions for political communication. We offer thorough analysis highly successful account run by Russia's Internet Research Agency: so-called 'Jenna Abrams' account....
Previous research has shown the importance of Donald Trump's Twitter activity, and that his following, in spreading message during primary general election campaigns 2015–2016. However, we know little about how publics who followed Trump amplified messages took shape. We take this case as an opportunity to theorize test questions assembly what call "attentive publics" social media. situate our study context current discussions audience formation, attention flow, hybridity United States'...
Abstract This study investigates how successful Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA) Twitter accounts constructed the followings that were central to their disinformation campaigns around 2016 U.S. presidential election. Treating an account’s social media following as both ego network and audience critical for information diffusion influence accrual, we situate IRA accounts’ accumulation of followers in ideologically polarized, attention driven, asymmetric political communication system....
Given that political groups are dispersed across platforms, resulting in different discourses, there is a need for more studies comparing communication platforms. In this study, we compared posts about #StopTheSteal from three social media platforms after the 2020 US Presidential election and preceding January 6 Capitol Riot. To do so, utilized Snow Benford’s typology of movement frames—diagnostic, prognostic, motivational frames—in context far-right movements an additional frame device:...
The current study analyzes the framing of China’s emergence as a global power in opinion pages two elite newspapers. expands upon previous studies examining newspaper gatekeepers’ use editorial and opposite-editorial salient platforms for expression diverse regarding foreign affairs. Results show that New York Times framed China undermined by structural limitations, while Wall Street Journal direct threat to US policy interests. results analysis are discussed context media-government dynamics.
Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is the process of extracting reserves natural gas and oil from shale formations deep underground. This process, initially met with public support in United Kingdom, has since become a highly contentious issue primarily debated between government, industry, anti-fracking advocacy groups. Through employment three levels agenda-building as theoretical lens examination (object, attribute, network connections), this study investigated political discourse these...
Attacks on journalists have become a growing concern in democracies around the world. Past scholarship suggests that such attacks could lead to chilling effect of self-censoring their reporting. However, there is limited empirical work substantiates effects journalists. To empirically test existence effects, this mixed-methods study uses conditions journalism under Jair Bolsonaro’s government Brazil as an exploratory case study. We investigate how ( N = 901) and propaganda messages 518,853)...
Former President Donald Trump is well-known for dominating the attention-driven hybrid media system through his controversial tweets, which spurred social user engagement and news attention. The removal of from Twitter/X raises questions about continued ability to drive attention alt-tech platform, Truth Social. Our analysis shows that retweets "retruths" gained predicted related across political spectrum. However, our results also point shifts in attention, including diminished direct...
Bolsonaro’s supporters used social media to spread content during key events related the Brasília attack. An unprecedented analysis of more than 15,000 public WhatsApp groups showed that these political actors tried manufacture consensus in preparation for and after A cross-platform time series on Twitter predicted WhatsApp. also news coverage supporters, suggesting a propaganda feedback loop. Our findings indicate investigative journalism policy initiatives could benefit from monitoring...
The rise of audio-as-data in social science research accentuates a fundamental challenge: establishing reproducible and reliable methodologies to guide this emerging area study. In study, we focus on the reproducibility preparation methods computational communication evaluate accuracy popular tools. We analyze automated transcription phonology tools applied 200 episodes conservative talk shows hosted by Rush Limbaugh Alex Jones. Our findings reveal that tested are highly accurate. However,...
In this theoretical piece, we discuss the limitations of using purely computational techniques to study big language data produced by people online. Instead, advocate for mixed-method approaches that are able more critically evaluate and consider individual social impact data. We propose one approach combines qualitative, traditional quantitative, methods text. Such leverage speed expediency tools while also highlighting value qualitative in assessing outcome results. addition this,...
This project explores how affective polarization, hostility towards people’s political adversaries, manifests on social media. Whereas prior attempts have relied sentiment analysis and bag-of-word approaches, we use supervised machine learning to capture the nuances of polarization in text Specifically, fine-tune BERT build a classifier that identifies expressions posts shared Facebook or Twitter during first six months COVID-19 pandemic (n = 8,603,695). Focusing this context allows us study...
The current study examines the framing of China in opinion section two elite newspapers, New York Times and Wall Street Journal. Although there is an expectation that editorials op-eds present multiple frames opinions, results a content analysis show not framed differently between these newspapers. Both papers largely emphasized same issues issue frames.