Tag: social media

4 February 2020

Authors: Sara Spinks

Q&A with Doctoral Candidate Theodora Sutton In her article “Digital Harm and Addiction: an Anthropological View“, published in Anthropology Today, OII DPhil student and digital anthropologist Theodora Sutton offers ...
Read More Digital Harm and Addiction: an Anthropological View

6 April 2018

Authors: Genevieve Juillet

Dr Vidya Narayanan, a researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute and post-doctoral researcher on the Computational Propaganda Research Project, discusses her work understanding the effects of technology and social ...
Read More Firefighting AI-powered propaganda

26 March 2018

Authors: Genevieve Juillet

Why and how has the rise of social media contributed to the spread of what we at the Computational Propaganda Project call “junk news”–the tabloidization, false content, conspiracy theories, ...
Read More Three reasons junk news spreads so quickly across social media

9 March 2018

Authors: Genevieve Juillet

There are widespread fears that so-called echo chambers and filter bubbles are leading to political polarization that poses a danger to democracy. But are the fears unfounded? (Melvin Sokolsky/1963 ...
Read More The myth of the echo chamber

10 January 2018

Authors: Jonathan Bright

I’ve got a new draft paper out with a host of colleagues here at the OII entitled Does Campaigning on Social Media Make a Difference? Evidence from candidate use of ...
Read More Does Campaigning on Social Media Make a Difference?

25 October 2017

Authors: Jonathan Bright

Over the last decade or so there has been an explosion of research interest in the area of measuring (and forecasting) of traffic and commuting patterns. Part of this ...
Read More Estimating local commuting patterns from geolocated Twitter data

1 October 2017

Authors: Scott A. Hale

Twitter has rolled out a limited trial of 280 characters for some of its users. In announcing the trial, Twitter specifically noted that most Japanese tweets had 15 characters ...
Read More Twitter trials 280 characters, but its success in Japan is more than a character difference

27 January 2017

Authors: David Sutcliffe

  This is the second post in a series that will uncover great writing by faculty and students at the Oxford Internet Institute, things you should probably know, and ...
Read More Five Pieces You Should Probably Read On: Fake News and Filter Bubbles

20 January 2017

Authors: David Sutcliffe

  This is the first post in a series that will uncover great writing by faculty and students at the Oxford Internet Institute, things you should probably know, and ...
Read More Five Pieces You Should Probably Read On: The US Election

9 January 2017

Authors: Helen Margetts

After Brexit and the election of Donald Trump, 2016 will be remembered as the year of cataclysmic democratic events on both sides of the Atlantic. Social media has been ...
Read More Of course social media is transforming politics. But it’s not to blame for Brexit and Trump

7 December 2016

Authors: Brent Mittelstadt

The Facebook Wall, by René C. Nielsen (Flickr). A central ideal of democracy is that political discourse should allow a fair and critical exchange of ideas and values. But ...
Read More Should there be a better accounting of the algorithms that choose our news for us?

20 November 2016

Authors: Bill Dutton

Fake News is a Wonderful Headline but Not a Reason to Panic I feel guilty for not jumping on the ‘fake news’ bandwagon. It is one of the new ...
Read More Don’t Panic over Fake News

15 November 2016

Authors: Philip Howard

Donald Trump in Reno, Nevada, by Darron Birgenheier (Flickr). This is the big year for computational propaganda — using immense data sets to manipulate public opinion over social media. Both the ...
Read More Is Social Media Killing Democracy?

15 November 2016

Authors: Helen Margetts

Young activists gather at Lafayette Park in protest at the presidential campaign of presumptive Republican nominee Donald J. Trump. By Stephen Melkisethian (Flickr). Commentators have been quick to ‘blame ...
Read More Don’t Shoot the Messenger! What part did social media play in 2016 US e­lection?

23 August 2016

Authors: Ralf Schroeder

Did Twitter lead to Donald Trump’s rise and success to date in the American campaign for the presidency? Image: Gage Skidmore (Flickr) What are the dangers or new opportunities ...
Read More Rethinking Digital Media and Political Change