iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Jiyoun Suk @jiyoun-suk.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

🌟 New Pub 🌟 If your computational social science study focuses on “most engaged” or top-liked content, you may be measuring what people publicly signal, not what they actually pay attention to. For political content, that gap is especially wide. First 50 copies: www.tandfonline.com/eprint/7M7FR...

tandfonline.com

Rethinking digital trace inference in political communication: evidence from a simulated platform experiment

Digital trace data such as likes, shares, and comments are widely used to infer what captures attention in digital political communication. Yet these visible signals may not map closely onto underl...

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Reposted by Yini Zhang

danah boyd @zephoria.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

PhD candidates/new grads: Postdoc opportunity with me focused on political economy and tech. See details here: academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/32502

academicjobsonline.org

Cornell University, Department of Communication

Job #AJO32502, Postdoctoral Associate, Department of Communication, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, US

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Jiyoun Suk @jiyoun-suk.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

📢 Excited to share that our paper w/, @yinizhang.bsky.social “From Mass Media and Social Media to AI: A Multilevel Framework for Understanding Trust in Generative AI," is now out in the Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, as part of the special issue on Trust in Generative AI.

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Jonathan Ladd @jonathanmladd.com · 06/08/2026

I'm happy to report that the mini-book I co-authored with an outstanding team, is now published online in the Cambridge Elements series: "American Presidential Campaigns in the Attention Economy." It combines our original polling data and media content data to look at how Trump dominates attention

cambridge.org

American Presidential Campaigns in the Attention Economy

Cambridge Core - American Government, Politics and Policy - American Presidential Campaigns in the Attention Economy

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Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

The sky is not falling; high-quality platforms (Prolific, Verasight, CR Connect) have low rates of apparent bots. osf.io/preprints/ps... But also not zero; vigilance is very much needed!

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Dave Karpf @davekarpf.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

New post: Can AI Replace Social Science Researchers? (No. No it can't. Come on, now.) davekarpf.beehiiv.com/p/can-ai-rep...

davekarpf.beehiiv.com

Can AI Replace Social Science Researchers?

No. No it can't. Come on, now.

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Reposted by Yini Zhang

Christopher Barrie @cbarrie.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

🧵on my new paper "Synthetic personas distort the structure of human belief systems" w Roberto Cerina I'm v excited about... 🚨 Do synthetic samples look like human samples? We compare 28 LLMs to the 2024 General Social Survey (GSS) to find out + develop host of diagnostics...

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Philip Mai @philipmai.com · 03/01/2026

Remember when “authentic” was the word of the year in 2023? That was also the first full year generative AI became a household term, and the last year authenticity still meant “human,” not “well-prompted.” #PostAuthentic #DigitalShift

wired.com

‘Authentic’ Is the Word of the Year. You Read That Right

In a year dominated by artificial intelligence, deepfakes, and disingenuity, “authentic” has somehow emerged as Merriam-Webster’s word for 2023.

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Alessandro Nai @alessandronai.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

After 3 years and 5,322 emails (and counting) our Encyclopedia of Political Communication is finally out at @elgarpublishing.bsky.social 📚 Three volumes ⭐ 431 entries 🎓 581 wonderful authors from across the world A very short 🧵

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International Conference on Computational Social Science @ic2s2.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

IC2S2 2026 registration is open! Explore the 2026 conference here ➡️ ic2s2-2026.org ✔️ Submissions open December 15th ✔️ Keynotes will be announced between now and February ✔️ Full program of selected talks and tutorials will be available in late April

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Reposted by Yini Zhang

Chokely Carmichael🥋 @stewartcoles.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

🚨New pub alert!🚨 Now available open-access in @journal-of-comm.bsky.social, we (w/ @dkreiss.bsky.social, @danlane.bsky.social, & @shannimcg.bsky.social) critique political communication's "Identity Turn" and offer instead a foundation for studying #polcomm from a *group* perspective. 🧵

Abstract: Recent political communication scholarship finds that groups and identities play a central role in the crises faced by political and media systems globally, particularly in democracies. Yet an individualist orientation in the literature has resulted in key theoretical and conceptual limitations, preventing a broader group-centric theoretical framework from emerging. We synthesize disparate bodies of theory on groups, politics, and communication to offer three basic propositions underlying a group theory of political communication. First, it is the group—not the individual—that is the fundamental organizing unit of social and political life. Second, groups are constituted through communication, which is central to how they define their politics. Third, groups and politics are reciprocally influencing forces through political communication, oriented around power. We offer a framework for studying the role of groups in political communication at the micro, meso, and macro levels, providing a concrete agenda for the study of groups in political communication.

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Yini Zhang @yinizhang.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

Our latest paper on how #metoo got entangled in partisan discourse, explained in a two-minute AI generated video!

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Yini Zhang @yinizhang.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

Timely research on news creators and their influence across the globe!

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Chris Bail @chrisbail.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

Open Research (OpenAI-linked research outfit) just put out a new report on using LLMs for public opinion polling that suggests they may improve response rates substantially: www.openresearchlab.org/findings/ai-...

openresearchlab.org

Can Conversational AI Improve Survey Research? | Findings

Early Insights from Testing a Chat-Based Survey

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Matthew Facciani @matthewfacciani.bsky.social · 23/08/2025

”It’s a lot easier to blame food dyes, vaccines, or lack of exercise for every health issue your family faces… It makes you think if you eliminate or do that one thing, or take a supplement instead, it will all be fine. It gives you control — a false sense of control.”

open.substack.com

Life is Messy

Holding space for complexity in a world that loves certainty

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Computational Communication Research @computationalcommunication.org · 23/05/2025

📣Call for Papers: CCR Special Issue on Computational Approaches to Researching Short Videos co-edited by Jing Zeng, @lrossi.bsky.social, and @rupertkiddle.com Abstract deadline: 25-Jul-2025 See announcement for more information - journal.computationalcommunication.org/announcement...

journal.computationalcommunication.org

Call for Papers: CCR Special Issue on Computational Approaches to Researching Short Videos | Computational Communication Research

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Joshua Tucker @jatucker.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

💡 Ever wondered how social media and digital technology shapes our democracy? Join our team @CSMaP_NYU as a Research Engingeer and help us build the tools that power cutting-edge research on the digital public sphere. 🚀 Apply now! apply.interfolio.com/165833

apply.interfolio.com

Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio

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Tori @buildwithtori.com · 30/04/2025

Reading Careless People makes me appreciative of @bsky.app and the AT Protocol. The open social web feels like this bright light in a sea of mercurial CEOs. Seeing teams like @graze.social and @stream.place build on it, solidifies this belief for me. Grateful to be here 💕

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Yini Zhang @yinizhang.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

Couldn’t agree more! @shannimcg.bsky.social's amazing talk at UB last Friday and this clip really helped clarify the current presidential-press relationship for me.

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Yini Zhang @yinizhang.bsky.social · 28/04/2025

🚨 New paper out in @journalqd.bsky.social! 🚨 How do different social media platforms connect to each other? In our latest study, we propose that social media can be understood as a system made up of differentiated yet interconnected platforms, shaped by how users share information. #socialmedia🧵

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Jiyoun Suk @jiyoun-suk.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

🌟pub🌟 "Communicative AI in the scientific public sphere" is out in Telematics & Informatics! w/ @yinizhang.bsky.social Jiawei Liu & Yukyung Yang We examine public discussions on generative AI tools from both cognitive and affective dimensions. first 50 copies 👇 authors.elsevier.com/a/1kmCI2dUkY...

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Matthew Facciani @matthewfacciani.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

Over the past two decades, online news headlines have become longer, more negative, and increasingly use features linked to clickbait. This shift is widespread across outlets of all political leanings and journalistic quality. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.com

The evolution of online news headlines - Humanities and Social Sciences Communications

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications - The evolution of online news headlines

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Angus Johnston @angus.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

Columbia grad student with a green card and a pregnant US citizen wife, abducted by ICE because of his political organizing, and now his lawyers can't find him. Hey, @schumer.senate.gov. This is your constituent. Bring him back home.

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Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

Reminder: When a person or institution you hate is targeted for illiberal persecution by an aspiring authoritarian, you have to defend them EVEN IF you don't like them. It doesn't matter if you don't like campus protestors or Columbia or the law firms. We must defend them or we're all at risk next.

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Jeremy Littau @jeremylittau.com · 25/02/2025

The pool reporter is the eyes and ears of all the press not in the room (because they cannot all be in the room). There's a reason why WHCA journalists choose this person; it depends on being able to trust the source, a basic reporter question. What favors/obeyances are required to get picked now?

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Chris Bail @chrisbail.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

Tiktok boosted Republican messages 11.8% more than Democrat messages during the 2024 U.S. Presidential Race according to this new study that employed bots to view ~394,000 videos.

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Yini Zhang @yinizhang.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

The social media landscape is shifting so quickly these days that there will be so many things to talk about in my social media class. From Musk’s instrumentalization of Twitter in the 2024 election, Zuckerberg’s sudden turn against fact-checkers, to the TikTok ban and migration to Red Note.

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Jo(sephine) Lukito @jolukito.bsky.social · 13/01/2025

🚨New Publication in New Media & Society🚨 Co-First-Authored w/ @m-dot-brown.bsky.social @meredithpruden.bsky.social & @markriedl.bsky.social Making academia suck less: Supporting early career researchers studying harmful content online through a feminist ethics of care. jlukito.com/s/brown-et-a...

Cover for Making academia suck less: Supporting early career researchers studying harmful content online through a
feminist ethics of care

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 06/01/2025

New, from me: Four years ago we lived through a pivot point. History could have gone one way, but went another. Why was Jan. 6 not the end of Trump? At key moments, key Republicans who knew better protected or resurrected Trump. 🧵 open.substack.com/pub/donmoyni...

open.substack.com

Jan. 6 and the path not taken

At key moments, Republicans were unwilling to defend democracy

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Kevin Coe @kcoe.bsky.social · 03/01/2025

My department at the University of Utah is hiring a teaching position (3/3 load; no research expectations) in strategic communication. Great department and SLC is an underrated place to live. I'm on the search committee and am happy to answer questions. Info here: careers.icahdq.org/jobs/view/as...

careers.icahdq.org

Recent Jobs - International Communication Association

View jobs available on International Communication Association. Search for and apply to open jobs from International Communication Association.

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Yini Zhang @yinizhang.bsky.social · 21/12/2024

No research that uses social media data can get around questions like “how was your data collected?” and “what did you do to ensure that you got all or most of the data you needed?” Our article provides some ideas and a method for addressing such questions.

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Rebekah Tromble @rebekahtromble.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

Job Alert 🚨 GW’s School of Media & Public Affairs is hiring an asst prof of political communication, focused on digital platforms and tech. The new hire will get to work closely with amazing colleagues in the Institute for Data, Democracy & Politics. #commsky #polisky www.gwu.jobs/postings/116...

gwu.jobs

Assistant Professor of Media and Public Affairs

The School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position to begin as early as August 2025. We seek scholars with a st...

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Rebekah Tromble @rebekahtromble.bsky.social · 23/09/2024

The RSC comes out of research that Prof. Katie Searles (Univ of S Carolina) and I have been conducting into the impacts of occupational intimidation (OI) on experts—scientists, journalists, public health and election officials, etc.—focusing in particular on what can be done to mitigate harms. 1/

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Richard Fletcher @richardfletcher.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

New article in Journal of Communication looking at changes to trust in news across 46 countries in the last 10 years. Trust in news declined in just over half of countries. It decreased more in countries where TV news use has declined, and/or where social media news use has grown. A thread:

academic.oup.com

The link between changing news use and trust: longitudinal analysis of 46 countries

Abstract . Changing levels of public trust in the news are of deep concern to both researchers and practitioners. We use data from 2015 to 2023 in 46 count

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Yini Zhang @yinizhang.bsky.social · 14/03/2024

Twitter was essential for Donald Trump to gain media attention. Now he's on Truth Social (an alt-tech platform), can he use it to obtain comparable levels of news attention as he could with Twitter? From our latest paper w/ @jolukito.bsky.social @JiyounSuk, @antisomniac.bsky.social🧵

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Ross Dahlke @rossdahlke.bsky.social · 05/02/2024

New from me and @yinizhang.bsky.social. We find that after Trump's defeat, only his female supporters lowered their levels of political expression on Twitter, with the effect being greater for those who expressed a gendered identity in their bio doi.org/10.1093/jcmc...

Surviving or thriving political defeat on social media: a temporal analysis of how electoral loss exacerbates the gender gap in political expression
Ross Dahlke, Yini Zhang
Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Volume 29, Issue 1, January 2024, zmad051, https://doi.org/10.1093/jcmc/zmad051

Average number of tweets per day by supporters of the Biden, Sanders, and Trump campaigns.

Note: Descriptive plot of the average number of tweets sent by supporters of each campaign. The vertical break-points are the days of defeat for Sanders (April 8, 2020) and the Trump campaigns (November 7, 2020).

Prototypical and individual models of tweets per day.

Note:
⁠,
⁠. Model-predicted changes in mobilization (volume of tweets). Small lines represent individual predicted trajectories, while big lines represent the prototypical predicted trajectory. The x-axis represents the time to/from the day of defeat, with 0 representing “the day of defeat.” The y-axis represents the volume of tweets. The green lines represent supporters of the losing campaign. Purple lines are supporters of the winning campaign. The dotted lines represent females. The solid lines represent men.

Note: Coefficients using Equation (3).
⁠,
⁠. Time is centered on the day of defeat. Est. = estimate; CI = 95% confidence interval.

***
p < .001;

**
p < .01;

*
p < .05.

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Dan Hopkins @dhopkins1776.bsky.social · 28/11/2023

The IC2S2 organizing team is thrilled to launch the website and post the call for abstracts and tutorials for the 2024 conference, to be held here at Penn July 17-20. * Tutorial proposals due January 19th, 2024 * Abstracts due February 24th, 2024 URL: ic2s2.org

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