Unveiling X/Twitter: What's in Your PIE?
Featuring a paper from former CITAP researchers & an ICA post-conference in June.
Beyond Clicks: PIEGraph's User-Centric Approach to X/Twitter Timelines
Many former CITAP researchers- including post-docs and grad students- Deen Freelon, Meredith L. Pruden, Daniel Malmer, Qunfang Wu, Yiping Xia, Daniel Johnson, Emily Chen, and Andrew Crist authored “What's in your PIE? Understanding the contents of personalized information environments with PIEGraph”, published in the Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology.
The paper takes a unique user-centric approach to unravel the personalized information environments (PIEs) individuals create on X (formerly Twitter). The study introduces PIEGraph, a data collection system designed to analyze participants' X/Twitter timelines comprehensively. It aims to measure the total content, political relevance, ideological leanings, and fact quality ratings. Unlike traditional studies where the websites or apps clicked by a user are examined, “PIEGraph reconstructs each user's chronological X/Twitter timeline based on the unique set of users they follow.”
The analyses from the authors reveal intriguing findings, including finding that over 10% of links were politically relevant, challenging previous user-centric studies. Despite Elon Musk's purchase of X/Twitter, the study finds stability in political content, ideological leanings, and fact quality.
The changes in X/Twitter's data access model raise concerns about the accessibility of data for academic research. Between January 2021 and April 2023, academic researchers benefited from free access to 10 million X/Twitter posts monthly, facilitating a wide range of studies. However, a significant shift occurred with Elon Musk's decision to discontinue this program. Now, researchers face a substantial challenge as access comes at a cost of $100 per month for the lowest tier, providing only 10,000 posts monthly. This has profound implications for the types of studies that can be conducted and the accessibility of data.
Finally, the European Union's has recognized the significance of investigating digital harms, particularly misinformation. The EU's Digital Services Act mandates large online platforms to provide data for independent researchers, aiming to understand and combat systemic risks. The authors assert that their research aligns with the EU's vision of systemic risk. They highlight the empirical value of social media research, currently hindered by the lack of regulation in the U.S., particularly concerning data access.
The authors advocate for regulatory measures akin to the EU's Digital Services Act, emphasizing the need for consistent access to social media data. Such regulation is pivotal in effectively addressing digital risks and fostering a healthier information ecosystem for all.
P3: Power, Propaganda, and Polarization
CITAP is co-hosting a postconference at ICA this June, “P3: Power, Propaganda, and Polarization.” The postconference will be held at the Kelvin Grove campus of Queensland University of Technology (Central Brisbane, Australia).
Abstracts of up to 3500 characters (plus references) are due by February 1, 2024.
Read part of the call here:
In recent years, scholars around the globe have increasingly sounded alarms about the threats to democracy posed by media and technological change. Researchers have analysed the relationship between mis- and disinformation, political and state propaganda, the growth of a new class of social and political influencers, and deepening partisanship, growing populism, and increasing polarisation.
Despite the insights this work has already generated, the relationship between media, propaganda, mis/disinformation, and polarisation and power is either not well understood or conceptual models are subfield-specific. However, it is increasingly clear that political actors and movements wield media, propaganda, and mis/disinformation in pursuit of social, political, economic, or cultural power. Polarisation is often a tool in the service of people pursuing power, or the inevitable by-product of struggles over power.
This two-day postconference brings together current and emerging conceptual and applied theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of the relationship between power, propaganda, and polarisation. Day One reviews and challenges our conceptual frameworks for understanding the relationship between power and patterns of information and social interaction, while Day Two takes stock of the current methodological toolkit for the study of power, propaganda, and polarisation.
We invite your paper contributions on these issues. Abstracts of up to 3500 characters (plus references) are due by February 1, 2024.
Publications and appearances
Alice Marwick joined Roger Caruth, Cecilia Dones, and Edward Timke in an “Author Meets Critics” session with author Michael Serazio on his book, “The Authenticity Industries: Keeping it “Real” in Media, Culture, and Politics” in Advertising & Society Quarterly.
Coming soon
February
February 8th @ 3:30pm in the Freedom Forum Conference Center: CITAP is hosting TJ Billard for a book talk on their “Voices for Transgender Equality”.
Register to join online or join in-person. UNC Students are eligible for CLE credit.
March
March 20th @ 12pm in the Freedom Forum conference Center: UNC Sociology and CITAP are co-hosting speaker, Forrest Stuart. Lunch will be provided! More details to come.