Category: Uncategorized

Posted on

Speaking at the University of Liverpool on British Tabloids and Online Misinformation

uniofliverpoollogo2.jpgOn Thursday, April 19, I will be speaking at the Media, Communication and Politics Research Seminar Series, organized by the Department of Communication and Media at the University of Liverpool.

The talk will start at 5pm and is open to everyone. The address is 19 Abercromby Square L69 7ZG.

I will present new research, coauthored with my colleagues Andrew Chadwick (Loughborough University) and Ben O’Loughlin (Royal Holloway, University of London) on the role of British tabloids in providing resources through which social media users may accidentally or intentionally spread inaccurate information on social media.

The paper is forthcoming in New Media & Society. Stay tuned for more details on our research!

Posted on

What do We Know about Social Media, Political Polarization, and Political Disinformation?

The Hewlett Foundation has just published a report that provides an overview of the current state of the literature on the relationship between social media, political polarization, and political disinformation. The report was coordinated by Josh Tucker and features contributions from Andrew Guess, Pablo Barberá, Alexandra Siegel, Sergey Sanovich, Denis Stukal, Brendan Nyhan, and myself. Importantly, the report also identifies key gaps in our knowledge of these phenomena and the kinds of data we need to overcome them.

Screen Shot 2018-03-20 at 10.38.28.pngI wrote the section on “Online Content and Political Polarization“, where I focus on the kinds of contents, spread across traditional and digital media, that have been shown to contribute to, as well as mitigating, different forms of political polarization. Here is the executive summary:

Screen Shot 2018-03-20 at 10.44.24.png

The full report can be downloaded for free at the Hewlett Foundation website and on the Social Science Research Network. Thanks to the Hewlett Foundation for funding this project and to Josh Tucker for bringing me on board.