Social Media and Democracy (SMAD)

MCRC researchers, Dhavan Shah and Sijia Yang, joined with colleagues in psychology and computer science to publish two proceedings on the use of Large Language Models (LLMs) to simulate opinion dynamics.  This work will be …

In their new article, “From Weinstein to Kavanaugh: Shifting Coverage of Sexual Violence and the #MeToo Movement Across U.S. News Media,” a team of researchers from Social Media and Democracy examined how news coverage and …

A team of researchers from the Mass Communication Research Center has been awarded the Research Forward grant to assist in the completion of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Terrarium. The team consists of Jack M. McLeod …

Dhavan Shah, Maier-Bascom Professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication has been named the Jack M. McLeod Professor of Communication Research through the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) Named Professorship award. The WARF named professorship …

The SMAD team studied patterns of polarized expression on social media and found that it could be categorized into three groups that not only explain existing concepts about polarization but speak to the deep partisan divide.

The Social Media and Democracy group examines the #MeToo movement through a global lens and demonstrates how the movement differs across language groups and social media platforms.

The Social Media and Democracy Group addresses the challenge of micro-coding aggressive political debate styles by developing a multimodal classifier that incorporates video and audio features with speech coding of candidate debate performance.

The award will allow researchers to further develop Course Correct, a precision tool providing journalists with guidance against misinformation. MADISON, Wis. – A team of researchers that developed Course Correct, a tool to help journalists …

In the new article “Vaccine discourse during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic: Topical structure and source patterns informing efforts to combat vaccine hesitancy” in PLoS One, the Social Media and Democracy group extracted a …

At their 72nd Annual Conference in Paris France, the International Communication Association (ICA) awarded its B. Aubrey Fisher Mentorship Award to SJMC Maier-Bascom Professor Dhavan Shah. Since 1988, the B. Aubrey Fisher Award has been …

In the new article “Algorithmic Agents in the Hybrid Media System: Social Bots, Selective Amplification, and Partisan News about COVID-19” in the journal Human Communication Research, the Computational Approaches and Message Effects Research group employed …

In the new article “Covering# MeToo across the News Spectrum: Political Accusation and Public Events as Drivers of Press Attention” in the International Journal of Press/Politics, the Social Media and Democracy Group examines how news …

New article “Reactive and Asymmetric Communication Flows: Social Media Discourse and Partisan News Framing in the Wake of Mass Shootings” in The International Journal of Press/Politics from the Center for Communication and Civic Renewal. Abstract Marked …

New chapter “Counter a reactive media system” in the book Fixing American Politics from the Social Media and Democracy Group. Full Citation: Counter a reactive media system D Shah, Y Zhang, J Pevehouse, S Valenzuela Fixing American Politics, …

At the American Political Science Association’s 2021 Annual Meeting, alum Yini Zhang (PhD’20) received the Thomas E. Patterson Best Dissertation Award from the Political Communication section for her dissertation “A Network Approach to Understanding Public …

A team of researchers has received a $750,000 grant from the NSF’s Convergence Accelerator to study methods of combating misinformation online.

New article “Polarization Over Vaccination: Ideological Differences in Twitter Expression About COVID-19 Vaccine Favorability and Specific Hesitancy Concerns” in the journal Social Media + Society from the Center for Communication and Civic Renewal.

In the new article “Resonant Moments in Media Events: Discursive Shifts, Agenda Control, and Twitter Dynamics in the First Clinton-Trump Debate” in the Journal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media, the Social Media and Democracy (SMAD) group found key differences in social media discourse about the two candidates during the first 2016 U.S. presidential debate.

In the new article “Death Across the News Spectrum: A Time Series Analysis of Partisan Coverage Following Mass Shootings in the U.S.” in the International Journal of Communication, the Social Media and Democracy (SMAD) group analyzed news coverage following mass shooting events.

Furthering their research on the #MeToo movement, the Social Media and Democracy (SMAD) team has published “Covering #MeToo across the News Spectrum: Political Accusation and Public Events as Drivers of Press Attention” in The International Journal of Press/Politics.

The Social Media and Democracy (SMAD) group has a new article published in New Media & Society. The article, “Performing populism: Trump’s transgressive debate style and the dynamics of Twitter response” was published in April 2020.

The Social Media and Democracy (SMAD) group has published a new article in the journal New Media and Society, titled “Trump, Twitter, and news media responsiveness: A media systems approach”.

Researchers in the Social Media and Democracy (SMAD) group published their paper, “#MeToo, Networked Acknowledgment, and Connective Action: How Empowerment Through Empathy Launched a Social Movement,” in Social Science Computer Review. The study, led by …

Researchers in the Social Media and Democracy (SMAD) group had their paper, “Whose Lives Matter? Mass Shootings and Social Media Discourses of Sympathy and Policy, 2012-2014,” published in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, the highest …

A new study by Social Media and Democracy group researchers (link to submission) examines how Trump’s populist communication style, as manifest in his rhetorical and non-verbal approach to Presidential debates, drove reactions on social media. …

The manuscript, “Zero Day Twitter: How Russians Propaganda Infiltrated the U.S. Hybrid Media System” received two awards at the 2018 Association in Education and Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) conference this August. The paper won …

The Social Media and Democracy group’s research on social media discourse after mass shootings was featured in the Washington Post! The report summarizes the results of the analysis of 1.3 million tweets and 700 related …