Social Media and Politics

Arjun Moorthy, co-founder and CEO of The Factual, discusses how machine learning and natural language processing can rank news for credibility. Arjun breaks down the criteria underpinning The Factual's rating system as well as how it tries to minimize bias. We talk about some of the pitfalls of optimizing news for engagement, as well as how anonymity in a different incentive structure affects discourse around discussing news. Towards the end of the episode, we discuss the current state of AI in the newsroom, and how automation might affect news consumption in the future. Check out the Unbiased Podcast!And test out The Factual's engine at IsThisCredible.com

Prof. Joshua Tucker, Professor of Politics at NYU and Co-Director of the Center for Social Media and Politics, discusses social media's impact on the invasion of Ukraine. We talk about 'information theaters' of operation and how they differ across the West, Ukraine, Russia, and China. Prof. Tucker also shares his thoughts on Volodymyr Zelensky's teleconferencing, the Biden administration's pre-bunking strategy towards disinformation, multinational corporations' actions towards sanctions, and Vladimir Putin's isolation. And more! Here are links to prior episodes on Ukraine:Volodymyr Zelensky's Social Media Strategy in the 2019 Ukraine ElectionsRussian Disinformation and Social Media in Ukraine

Dr. Jenny Lindholm, University Teacher and Researcher in Political Science, Media, and Communication at Åbo Akademi University, discusses her research on visual political communication. First, we break down Dr. Lindholm's eye-tracking experiment on how party leaders' Instagram photos affect viewers' trait perceptions of leaders. The focus is on where viewers of these images give their visual attention, and whether that differs across public versus private photos as well as the gender of party leaders. Then, we discuss another study focusing on the emotion communication of the Finnish Prime Minister during coronavirus crisis communication in press conferences. Here are the two studies we discuss in the episode:See Me, Like Me! Exploring Viewers’ Visual Attention to and Trait Perceptions of Party Leaders on Instagram (2021)Emotionell räddning? Visuell kriskommunikation under coronakrisens inledande skede – fallet Finland (2021)

Dr. Jakob Ohme, Senior Researcher at the Weizenbaum Institute, discusses his research on mobile news consumption. Dr. Ohme breaks down how exposure to political news on a smartphone might differ from a desktop, and he breaks down results from a recent eye-tracking study exploring the topic. We also discuss how smartphones can be used for data collection, through Dr. Ohme's research using a smartphone media diary as well as data from the iOS Screen Time function. The studies discussed in the episode are: Mobile News Learning: Investigating Political Knowledge Gains in a Social Media Newsfeed with Mobile Eye Tracking (2021)Mobile Data Donations: Assessing Self-report Accuracy and Sample Biases with the iOS Screen Time Function (2020)Mobile but Not Mobilized? Differential Gains from Mobile News Consumption for Citizens’ Political Knowledge and Campaign Participation (2020)

Here we go! A deep dive into the year's latest trends in social media and politics, as well as predictions for the future. We cover various platforms' year in review recaps, Telegram and Belarus, Facebook's change to Meta and the Silicon Valley "Founder", artificial intelligence and the virtual politician, Web 3 and Parler, and the enduring role of newsletters. Here's the platform year in review stats and bonus links for the episode: Facebook Threat ReportGoogle Year in SearchTiktok Cultural PhenomenonsPinterest PredictsReddit RecapSnap Lens on the YearTwitter #OnlyOnTwitterArticle with chart on social media's impact on democracyThe greatest newsletter of all-time See you in January for new episodes! <3 

Dr. Curd Knüpfer (Assistant Professor) and Mike Cowburn (PhD Candidate), from the JFK Institute for North American Studies at Freie Universität Berlin, discuss their research on right-wing alternative media. We start out by discussing what right-wing alternative media are, and how they are transnationally linked across Western democracies. Then, we explore Mike and Curd's ongoing work into how Members of Congress' social media engagement with these sites may be predictors of political positionality. We also look at how Republican Members of Congress' use of the fake news label also relates to their political ideology. The (published) studies discussed in the episode are: Beyond Breitbart: Comparing Right-Wing Digital News Infrastructures in Six Western DemocraciesToward a Transnational Information Ecology on the Right? Hyperlink Networking among Right-Wing Digital News Sites in Europe and the United StatesLegislator Adoption of the Fake News Label: Ideological Differences in Republican Representative Use on Twitter

Juri Schnöller, Co-Founder and Managing Director at Cosmonauts & Kings, discusses the latest trends in German digital political communication. We chat about the role of digital political consultants in Germany, the important role of messenger apps like Signal and Telegram, and how social media influencers are impacting coronavirus communication. We also compare how features of the German electoral rules, political culture, and media system work to shape German digital campaigning. Extra links: Public Arena Playbook: Juri's Handbook for Digital Political CommunicationCivical: A Social Media Management Software for Politics 

Dr. Tamar Mitts, Assistant Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, shares her research on ISIS radicalization and it's relationship to social isolation, anti-Muslim sentiment, and counter-extremism programs. We discuss Dr. Mitts' Twitter dataset that uses spatial algorithms to identify ISIS sympathizers' locations and machine learning to identify pro-ISIS sentiment. Toward the end of the episode, we discuss how computer vision tools such as Amazon's Rekognition API can be used to detect violent imagery in ISIS propaganda. Here are the studies we discuss in the episode: From Isolation to Radicalization: Anti-Muslim Hostility and Support for ISIS in the West  (2019)Countering Violent Extremism and Radical Rhetoric (2021)Studying the Impact of ISIS Propaganda Campaigns (Forthcoming)

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! 

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)