We’re lucky to have welcomed three new postdoctoral researchers this fall, and we’d love for you to get to know their work! These scholars study conspiracy theories, digital governance in the global south, news engagement, and so much more. We can’t wait to learn from them and support them as they begin this new journey.
How a person makes sense of the news often depends on their life contexts. Including their cultural backgrounds and identities, what they do for a living, and their past experiences. These contexts also shape how they interpret and cope with today’s fast-paced information flow.
Meet Yiping:
My research has always been about understanding the relationship between technology and democracy, particularly for marginalized and minoritized groups in the global south on social media platforms.
Meet Nanditha:
I’m working on projects that look at conspiracy theory, gender, and sexuality. Both how some conspiracy theories are used to target people who have marginalized gender identities and how others are taken up by the LGBTQ community and women as well.
Meet Yvonne:
Publications and appearances
“Liberals may be drawn to ironic humor like satire because it reflects their antagonism toward the status quo. But outrage plays better to the political psychology of conservatives.” Tressie McMillan Cottom’s new piece discusses late night TV through the lens of political humor, political psychology, and media sociology.
“Most people are not seeking out political information on these platforms, so what can be worrisome is, if they start getting it and they’re not someone who’s very politically interested, are they going to be able to judge the veracity or the quality of that information in the same way as someone who’s seeking out political information all the time?” Shannon McGregor spoke to UNC’s The Well about spreading election misinformation.
“What happens on Twitter often becomes what is the news. And what happens on Twitter informs decisions that politicians make and shapes the way then that many people who are not on Twitter come to understand what’s happening in the world.” Shannon McGregor appeared on NPR to talk about why what happens to Twitter matters.
“Fewer journalists means more opportunities for conspiracy theories without any check at all.” Daniel Kreiss spoke to AFP about suspicious “local news” sharing misinformation.
“We all have our individual policy preferences, but we don’t allow what we wish were true to influence our process of discovering what is true.” Deen Freelon, alongside Shannon McGregor and Daniel Kreiss, spoke to UNC Research about democracy in the digital age and CITAP’s agenda.
“It is permissible under federal law, or it’s not illegal to run ads that suppress the vote. That’s problematic in our view, and we think there should be a federal law that prohibits that.” Affiliates Matt Perault and Scott Brennen appeared on Tech Policy Press’s The Sunday Show to discuss programmatic political advertising in the US.
Affiliate Rachel Kuo has a new essay out on the challenges researchers within academic institutions face and resisting bureaucracies.
Affiliate Parker Bach presented this week at NYU’s Center for Social Media and Politics’ 2022 midterms seminar series on The Impact of New and Niche Platforms. He investigates political discourse and identity on TikTok.
Coming soon
November 9: The Center for the Study of the American South hosts a conversation with Psyche Williams-Forson and Tressie McMillan Cottom who will discuss Williams-Forson’s Eating While Black: Food Shaming and Race in America.
November 10: The CITAP fall speaker series wraps up with Tamara K. Nopper delivering on Crime Data and Policing Data as Open Data: Considering Research Ethics, Transparency, and Privacy. Event information and registration. RSVP is required for livestream access.
November 10: Carolina Data Science Now presents “Navigating Politics & The Law”. Shannon McGregor is one of the speakers.
November 15: Submission deadline for the 2023 Local Journalism Researchers’ Workshop, organized by the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media & Democracy at Duke and the Center for Sustainability and Innovation in Local Media at UNC.
December 2, 9am-5pm: The Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison holds its Election Symposium 2022. Shannon McGregor will be on the “Candidate TV Advertising and Social Media” panel.
Rest of Web
🎙️ We’re listening to Tressie McMillan Cottom talk to WNYC Studios about beauty in America.
💼 Our friends at UW’s Center for an Informed Public are looking to hire three postdocs!
Don’t miss out on this opportunity! Our friend Jonathan Ong is still looking for a postdoc to work with him at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.