Social Media and Politics

Chris Dick, Director of Applied Data Science at Civis Analytics, guests to discuss how data science approaches are being used to increase participation in the 2020 US Census.We talk about some of the political and financial challenges facing the census, what types of data are being used models of hard-to-count communities, and how different types of messaging can either increase or decrease Census response rates.Learn more about the Civis Census Intelligence Center here!

Neal Rothschild, Associate Director of Growth at Axios, guests to discuss the Axios-NewsWhip 2020 Attention Tracker. The attention tracker monitors candidate and issue mentions across Facebook and Twitter, and we talk about how the technology is used in Axios's reporting of the 2020 Democratic Primaries.

Dr. Bente Kalsnes, Associate Professor of Communication at Kristiania University College, guests to discuss her new book "Fake News: Lies, Disinformation, and Propaganda in the Digital Public Sphere." We also break down politicians' social media campaigning in Norway, how this campaigning is changing ahead of the 2019 local elections, and look at some early Norwegian social media sites that predated Facebook

Carpe Donktum, the pseudonym for a citizen who makes memes to support Donald Trump, guests to discuss his work. We talk about some of the memes that the President has retweeted on Twitter, as well as differences in meme making cultures across Reddit, 4chan, and 8chan. Here are the memes discussed in the episode: NPC Infowars Winner State of the Union Biden Meme Acosta Meme And, a link to my paper on political campaigns' use of computer games!

Dr. Leon Derczynski, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the IT University of Copenhagen, guests to discuss how natural language processing and computational linguistics can be applied to social media data. We break down several of Dr. Derczynski's EU-funded research projects, from detecting the informativeness of tweets in crisis communication to assessing the veracity of claims through comment patterns on Twitter and Reddit. Dr. Derczynski also shares his thoughts on machine learning, artificial intelligence, and deepfake detection.

José van Dijck, Distinguished Professor in Media and Society at Utrecht University, guests to discuss her latest book, The Platform Society: Public Values in a Connective World (Oxford University Press).We break down key concepts from the book, including Platform Societies and Platform Power. We discuss the importance of public values in the Platform Society, and how these values might differ across the United States, the European Union, and China.Prof. van Dijck also shares her thoughts on how platforms can be reverse engineered in ways that promote the public good.

Alexandra Ekkelenkamp, Advisor to the Director of Media and Communications at the Council of the European Union, discusses how the EU Council uses social media for strategic communication. Alexandra shares her insights about how social media campaigns reflect the Council's work, how that creates authenticity, and how to incorporate local versus European narratives when communicating to the EU public. Alexandra also shares her work for Donald Tusk's personal social media account, and in particular Instagram. We talk about the differences between institutional and personal communication at the Council, as well as how the two work together.

Loren Merchan and Jonathan Barnes discuss creating authentic campaigns in US elections, utilizing digital and social media. They delve into the evolving definition of authenticity in politics, the impact of digital media on conveying authenticity, and the challenges of maintaining authenticity across platforms. The importance of genuine storytelling in connecting with voters is emphasized.

Kata Füge, Social Media Analyst at Bakamo Social, discusses Bakamo's latest study charting citizens' online discussions about immigration across Europe. We break down the main findings of the study, the main narratives used by EU citizens to discuss migration in online spaces, as well as the methodology behind it. Click here to see the study's interactive dashboard, and find out what narratives about migration are popular in your country!

Dino Amenduni, Political Strategist and Partner at Proforma, guests to discuss his work campaigning for Partito Democratico (PD) in Italy. We talk about the role of social media in digital campaigning for Italian politics, the enduring importance of television, and differences between local, national, and European elections.