Technology doesn’t operate in a vacuum. Neither does our research.

We research the intersection of technology platforms and democratic society. We analyze how social differences shape unequal dynamics in our information systems and prioritize questions of power. And that work produces insights that inform a digital future rooted in equality and justice.

The Private Is Political

A new book from CITAP principal investigator Alice Marwick considers how data aggregation and social media underscore the networked nature of privacy.

While we tend to think of privacy as an individual responsibility, “most online privacy violations are impossible for an individual to avoid,” and “our networks are only as safe as our chattiest contact.” Furthermore, privacy is unequally distributed, and the harms of privacy violation fall disproportionately on already-marginalized groups, including people of color, the LGBTQ+ community, and the poor.

 

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The Latest From CITAP

News

CITAP is Hiring!

September 18, 2023
We are seeking a Postdoctoral Research Associate to join us and work on the Search Prompt Integrity & Learning Lab (SPILL) research initiative .

CITAP is hiring!

August 23, 2023
We are seeking a dynamic, motivated Executive Director to provide innovative and visionary leadership for CITAP .

Announcing the 2023-24 affiliate community

August 4, 2023
We’re pleased to welcome our 2023-2024 cohort of affiliates .

Summer 2023 personnel announcements

July 14, 2023
This summer, CITAP is celebrating big moves across our team .

Francesca Tripodi wins 2023 CIP Award for Impact and Excellence

June 23, 2023
The award recognizes Tripodi’s research contributions to strengthening democracy against disinformation .

Call for Papers: Symposium on Misinformation & Marginalization

June 1, 2023
This symposium on Misinformation & Marginalization will explore global and comparative frames for mis- and disinformation studies that center marginalized perspectives .

Deen Freelon to join Penn; CITAP co-founder will become senior affiliate researcher

April 25, 2023
The CITAP community warmly congratulates our friend and colleague Professor Deen Freelon on his new appointment with the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School .

Shannon McGregor on TikTok scrutiny

March 22, 2023
“This is not distinct to social media, but because of the very quick rise of Americans and young Americans using TikTok, we’re seeing .

Publications

Platforms are Abandoning U.S. Democracy

September 26, 2023
Bridget Barrett and Daniel Kreiss argue platforms risk repeating the mistakes of the 2016 election nearly eight years on .

A review and provocation: On polarization and platforms

September 26, 2023
Is increasing polarization—the distance between politically meaningful groups in society—inherently bad for democracy .

‘Do your own research’: affordance activation and disinformation spread

September 20, 2023
We explain how pundits, propagandists, and conspiracy theorists ‘activate affordances’ to validate their claims .

Social media policy in two dimensions

September 14, 2023
American public opinion on who should be responsible for content governance is complicated .

Recentering power: conceptualizing counterpublics and defensive publics

June 19, 2023
What do researchers lose by failing to consider power when studying digital networks and right-wing publics .

A Review and Provocation: On Polarization and Platforms

April 20, 2023
Polarization is the necessary byproduct of the struggle to realize democracy in unequal societies .

#Politicalcommunicationsowhite: Race and Politics in Nine Communication Journals, 1991-2021

April 6, 2023
Understanding communication requires accounting for social and cultural difference, especially race and ethnicity .

“Too Soon” to Count? How Gender and Race Cloud Notability Considerations on Wikipedia

March 29, 2023
Wikipedia’s editors are more likely to consider you “notable” if you’re a white man .

Events

Symposium on Religion, Media, and Public Life

Addressing the intersection of technology, American religion, and politics with particular attention to race and power .

Symposium on Misinformation and Marginalization

How does misinformation circulate in marginalized communities, and what misinformation narratives are shared about marginalized groups .

Lee McGuigan: Selling the American People

Where did adtech come from, and how did data-driven marketing come to mediate the daily encounters of people, products, and public spheres .

Melanie Feinberg: Everyday Adventures with Unruly Data

To understand the power and pitfalls of data science, we must attend to the data itself, not merely the algorithms that manipulate it .

Bridget Barrett: Merchandizing Democracy

Who buys campaign merch? Why do campaigns partake in merchandizing? What sells? Most importantly, what else can we learn from today’s online marketplaces for .

Hakeem Jefferson: From Margin to Center

Studying race and inequality requires an approach that takes seriously the experiences, knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of those who live on the margins of our .

ChatGPT in Context

What is ChatGPT? Where did it come from? What does it mean for science, scholarship, and public life? Join our interdisciplinary panel for a discussion .

Digital Cultures & Governance: Perspectives from the Global South

The Global South or the Majority World remains underrepresented and absent in discussions around Artificial Intelligence and data governance that are largely focused in high .