During the 2016 Zika virus outbreak, the Annenberg Public Policy Center surveyed tens of thousands of people over more than seven months to learn about the American public’s behavior, attitudes, and knowledge about the virus as it spread to the United States. Yet over the same period, an even larger […] Read more »
Did Russia impact the election?
“I think it [Facebook, Twitter, Instagram] helped me win all of these races where they’re spending much more money than I spent.” — President Donald Trump, on “60 Minutes,” Nov. 13, 2016 “Facebook and Twitter were the reason we won this thing.” — Brad Parscale, Digital Director, Trump for President, Wired, Nov. […] Read more »
Why Parkland students have emerged as a powerful political voice
The boldest voices to emerge in the wake of last week’s mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., have been unexpected ones. Surviving students at the school quickly spoke out on social media and to news cameras about the violence and, more broadly, about political leadership […] Read more »
Russian trolls went on attack during key election moments
Thousands of Russian trolls targeted national events during the 2016 U.S. presidential election to infiltrate the online conversations of millions of Americans, according to a new analysis of a database of recovered troll tweets by NBC News. The records show how digital communications tools invented by U.S. companies, such as […] Read more »
Fake News and Bots May Be Worrisome, but Their Political Power Is Overblown
How easy is it to change people’s votes in an election? The answer, a growing number of studies conclude, is that most forms of political persuasion seem to have little effect at all. … In fact, a recent meta-analysis of numerous different forms of campaign persuasion, including in-person canvassing and […] Read more »
Avoiding the Echo Chamber about Echo Chambers: Why selective exposure to like-minded political news is less prevalent than you think
With critics decrying the “echo chambers,” “filter bubbles,” and “information cocoons” created by the rise of online news and social media, you’d think that the entire American public was consuming a near-exclusive diet of politically pleasing news. … However, these claims are vastly overstated. A deep dive into the academic […] Read more »