Professor Philip Howard
Professor of Internet Studies
Philip N. Howard is a professor of sociology, information, and international affairs. He is Director of the Programme on Democracy and Technology, and is a Professorial Fellow of Balliol College.
Published on
16 Feb 2018
16 Feb 2018
Written by
Social media can have an impressive impact on civic engagement and political discourse. Yet increasingly we find political actors using digital media and automated scripts for social control. Computational propaganda—through bots, botnets, and algorithms—has become one of the most concerning impacts of technology innovation.
Misinformation, Media and Science
In this new, three-year programme, researchers from the Oxford Internet Institute and the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism will examine the interplay between systematic misinformation campaigns, news coverage, and increasingly important social media platforms for public understanding of science and technological innovation.
The Production and Detection of Bots
Political bots are manipulating public opinion over major social networking applications. This project enables a new team of social and information scientists to investigate the impact of automated scripts, commonly called bots, on social media. The PIs will study both the bot scripts and the people making such bots, and then work with computer scientists to improve the way we catch and stop such bots.
Restoring Trust in Social Media Civic Engagement
Most social media platforms are slow to address troll and bot activity, so this innovative tool will put ERC research into public service in Europe—and around the world.
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