Research

Recent Publications

Announcing the Bulletin of Technology & Public Life

Today, we’re excited to launch the Bulletin of Technology and Public Life! Built on PubPub’s open-source platform, the Bulletin is an online library of research on mis- and disinformation, platforms, networks, infrastructure, and political processes. We hope that the Bulletin … Continued

Francesca Tripodi on anti-immigration YouTube networks

Define American recently released a new report, “’Immigration Will Destroy Us’ and Other Talking Points.” It describes how popular anti-immigration YouTube videos frame the issue and their influence on offline conversations and perceptions. One section, co-authored by Francesca Tripodi, Shauna … Continued

How mis- and disinformation spread in Asian diasporas

The bulk of research on mis- and disinformation studies English-language cases and communities—but we know that identity plays an important role in how we consume, interpret, and share information. In a piece for the HKS Misinformation Review, Sarah Nguyen, Rachel … Continued

How QAnon constructs alternate facts

How does QAnon build and elaborate on its core theory? Alice Marwick and William Partin released a preprint of “Constructing Alternative Facts: Populist Expertise and the QAnon Conspiracy,” exploring QAnon as a participatory culture and digging into how Anons build … Continued

Our approach

At CITAP, we recognize that effective analysis of technology platforms and information systems requires

• A holistic approach grounded in history, society, culture, and politics
• Analyzing how social differences—including race and ethnicity, gender, class, and sexual identity—shapes unequal information ecosystem dynamics
• Prioritizing questions of power, institutions, and economic, social, cultural, and technological structures
• Making clear foundational commitments to equality and justice

Research topics

Political processes

Technological tools increasingly interact with our political systems and changes how society thinks about politics. Our work addresses political mechanisms like elections, digital advertising, and communication to better understand these shifts and what they mean for the political landscape.

Featured work

	Black Trolls Matter: Racial and Ideological Asymmetries in Social Media Disinformation by Deen Freelon, Michael Bossetta, Chris Wells, Josephine Lukito, Yiping Xia, and Kirsten Adams in Social Science Computer Review
	Analyzing online political discussion using three models of democratic communication by Deen Freelon in New Media & Society
	Political identity ownership: Symbolic contests to represent members of the public by Daniel Kreiss, Shannon McGregor, and Regina Lawrence in Social Media + Society
	CITAP Digital Politics resources

Democracy & equality

The rise of digital communication simultaneously poses threats and offers promise to democracies worldwide. We explore the ways in which democratic practices and equality evolve alongside rapid societal and technological change.

Featured work

	Racial justice activist hashtags: Counterpublics and discourse circulation by Rachel Kuo in New Media & Society
	Talking Politics on Twitter: Gender, Elections, and Social Networks by Shannon McGregor and Rachel R Mourão in Social Media + Society
	Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest by Zeynep Tufekci

Mis- & disinformation

False and low-quality information sources generate revenue and power for their creators while undermining public trust. CITAP research seeks to understand how mis- and disinformation campaigns are created and spread and how they can be counteracted.

Featured work

	Identity propaganda: Racial narratives and disinformation by Madhavi Reddi, Rachel Kuo, and Daniel Kreiss in New Media & Society
	Why Do People Share Fake News? A Sociotechnical Model of Media Effects by Alice Marwick in Georgetown Law Technology Review
	Media Manipulation and Disinformation Online by Becca Lewis and Alice Marwick published by Data & Society
	Critical Disinformation Studies: A Syllabus by Alice Marwick, Rachel Kuo, Shanice Cameron, & Moira Weigel

Platforms, networks, & infrastructure

The design and operation of communication technologies influence power dynamics and shape our society. CITAP explores these dynamics through studies of various platforms as infrastructure.

Featured work

	Ms. Categorized: Gender, notability, and inequality on Wikipedia by Francesca Tripodi in New Media & Society
	Where Platform Capitalism and Racial Capitalism Meet: The Sociology of Race and Racism in the Digital Society by Tressie McMillan Cottom in Sociology of Race and Ethnicity
	Searching for Alternative Facts: Analyzing Scriptural Inference in Conservative News Practices by Francesca Tripodi published by Data & Society