Research

Recent Publications

New Publication: Media Frames in The White House Newsletter

In a new article for Information, Communication, and Society, Francesca Tripodi and Yuanye Ma reveal the important role electoral communication plays in framing current events and the extent to which email is an essential node in the right-wing media ecosystem. By … Continued

Navigating Conflict in Democratic Social Movements

Conflict and harm are inevitable within democratic social movements. In a pair of columns for Interactions by the Association for Computing Machinery, Rachel Kuo and her coauthors explore the role endings and dissolutions play in research and social organizing. In … Continued

Facebook, Google, and the myth of neutrality in political advertising

Bridget Barrett’s new research reveals for the first time that Facebook and Google are the central players in digital political advertising – and they’re hardly neutral content platforms. Her research uses Federal Election Commission data to show just how central … Continued

Explaining anti-CRT campaigns in Scientific American

In a new opinion piece in Scientific American, CITAP faculty Daniel Kreiss, Alice Marwick, and Francesca Tripodi describe how political campaigns against critical race theory (CRT) continue a long tradition of linking racial justice movements to communism as a form … 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