Research
Recent Publications
Measurements that matter
How should social science make use of the vast new stores of data generated by modern technologies? Last week in Nature, Deen Freelon and his co-authors David Lazer, Eszter Hargittai, Sandra Gonzalez-Bailon, Kevin Munger, Katherine Ognyanova, & Jason Radford grappled … Continued
New publication: Ms. Categorized
Women are disproportionately subject to erroneous nominations for deletion from Wikipedia. Dr. Francesca Tripodi gathered data on articles that were flagged for removal under the site’s notability requirements but were ultimately found to be notable and not deleted. She found … Continued
Morally Motivated Networked Harassment as Normative Reinforcement
This week, Alice Marwick published a new piece in Social Media & Society. “Morally Motivated Networked Harassment as Normative Reinforcement” explores how communities band together to reinforce their shared moral norms by harassing perceived violations of those norms. She sums … Continued
Launching the Critical Disinformation Syllabus
Many of the stories that pundits, journalists, and scholars tell about disinformation begin with the 2016 US presidential election and focus on the role of social media platforms in spreading and generating false content. At their worst, these narratives imply … 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 themes
Coding inequality
New technologies frequently recreate and reinvent historical inequalities. We explore the interplay of technology and bias and contextualize the effects of new platforms in light of broader social, economic, and political shifts. Our work on inequality includes research into “the boys’ club” in the political technology field, how “the hustle economy’s” definition of entrepreneurship represents a predatory form of inclusion for women of color.
Featured work
Networked publics
Social media enable new forms of collaboration and connection. We study how people come together, coordinate, organize, and move on- and offline. Research on digitally-organized protest movements, the origins and uses of hashtags for social movements, and the differences in how opposing political movements operate on social media paint a more complete picture of public life as it plays out online.
Featured work
Identity & disinformation
Social media amplifies content that triggers strong emotion, while political discourse increasingly appeals to audience identity. Our research examines how mis- and disinformation play on deeper social narratives.
Featured work
Platform Governance
Given the significant role social platforms play in politics and journalism, we consider how technology companies amplify and regulate user speech, set and enforce internal policies, and how these decisions shape public discourse.
Featured work
