Lots of updates in our latest newsletter, including: -a Sept 10 event on LLMs + Content Moderation -🚨a Research Analyst job posting🚨 -3 new Knight Fellows @ Penn -our partnerships with AC DFR Lab & GNI -MOAR RESEARCH t.e2ma.net/webview/tukv...

Deepening Digital Investigations with New Fellows, Research & Partnerships + A Job Opportunity

Logo for Penn Center on Media, Technology, and Democracy ### Deepening Digital Investigations with New Fellows, Research & Partnerships + A Job Opportunity Hello friends and colleagues- Over the past ...

t.e2ma.net

AN A-EYE FOR AN A-EYE? Ask an AI model what happens when someone breaks a social norm, and it predicts retaliation. Ask humans, and the answer is usually forgiveness. According to new research from Lyle Ungar, LLMs consistently imagine a harsher social world than humans. (1/6)

Research Compendium - Center on Media, Technology and Democracy

News, announcements, and insights from the Penn Center on Media, Technology, and Democracy.

infodem.upenn.edu

We're thrilled to welcome three new Knight Fellows (joining us this fall) to our community of researchers studying the information ecosystem and its impact on democracy - Postdoc Thomas Chamberlain; Postdoc Burak Ozturan; and PhD Student Jacky Liang. infodem.upenn.edu/blog/#knight...

📣 We're hiring for two part-time positions at Penn MEDIATED! We have two openings for people who want to help communicate essential science of the information ecosystem to the journalists, policymakers, and civil society organizations who need it most. (1/3)

How did the narrative “DEI is discrimination against white people” gain traction? Well, new research from Matt Levendusky has the answer and our research compendium covered it and lots more! 🧵

We're excited to share the full program for IC2S2 2026! We're looking forward to learning and networking with a wonderful community of interdisciplinary scholars, and we're proud of the incredible line up of talks and posters. Registration is open through July 3rd: ic2s2-2026.org/program/

Program — International Conference on Computational Social Science | Burlington, VT 2026

Join us for IC2S2 2026 — the 12th International Conference on Computational Social Science. Burlington, Vermont, July 28-31.

ic2s2-2026.org

🚨@asc.upenn.edu is hiring a a tenure-track Assistant Professor in Media Industry Studies starting fall 2027!🚨 --focus on media policy, political economy & surveillance; --familiarity w/ the historical and shifting structural and material conditions transforming apply.interfolio.com/187239

We are delighted to announce that Penn MEDIATED is now a member of the @thegni.bsky.social! It's an honor to be a part of the community advancing a free and democratic technological future, and we are enthused to contribute Penn’s science of the information ecosystem to GNI’s vital discussions.

Global Network Initiative @thegni.bsky.social · 2mo ago

📣 GNI is pleased to welcome the Penn Center on Media, Technology and Democracy (Penn MEDIATED) to its academic constituency as a member. globalnetworkinitiative.org/gni-welcomes...

📣 GNI is pleased to welcome the Penn Center on Media, Technology and Democracy (Penn MEDIATED) to its academic constituency as a member. globalnetworkinitiative.org/gni-welcomes...

GNI Welcomes New Member: Penn MEDIATED - Global Network Initiative

GNI is pleased to welcome Penn MEDIATED to its academic constituency as a member.

globalnetworkinitiative.org

🤔 How often will an AI search engine cite AI slop? This answer and more in our updated LLM & Civic Discourse dashboard: (1/5) infodem.upenn.edu/llm-civic-di...

LLM Civic Discourse - Center on Media, Technology and Democracy

News, announcements, and insights from the Penn Center on Media, Technology, and Democracy.

infodem.upenn.edu

It’s been the highlight of our week to see all the announcements from defenders of democracy accepted into the Atlantic Council Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab)'s Digital Sherlocks! We're proud to partner on this essential effort to counter autocratic manipulation of the information ecosystem

PIK Professor Dolores Albarracín and Penn Psychology doctoral student Yubo Zhou studied the relative persuasive impact of messages expressing attitudes, describing behaviors, or combining both:

What Makes Messages Persuasive?

asc.upenn.edu

🧵Is church and state truly separate in the U.S.? New research suggests, not so much. Penn's Yphtach Lelkes analyzed 88,546 sermons across three election cycles—14.7% of evangelical churches engaged in political advocacy, spiking right before Election Day. 6 new studies. A thread: 👇

Research Compendium - Center on Media, Technology and Democracy

News, announcements, and insights from the Penn Center on Media, Technology, and Democracy.

infodem.upenn.edu

I'm excited to contribute to this June 5th workshop on building a healthier information ecosystem in the age of AI - consider applying if you're working on building authentication or verification tools.

Penn Center on Media, Technology, and Democracy (MEDIATED)@penn-mediated.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Exciting Princeton CITP / NYU workshop on 6/5 for journalists and fact-gatherers to discuss the threats posed by AI to information integrity. If you are a technologist / company building authentication or verification tools and would like to attend, apply here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Exciting Princeton CITP / NYU workshop on 6/5 for journalists and fact-gatherers to discuss the threats posed by AI to information integrity. If you are a technologist / company building authentication or verification tools and would like to attend, apply here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Day 25 of the Penn MEDIATED-DFRLab partnership: Dolores Albarracín, a world-renowned social psychologist and the Amy Gutmann Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor, will lead a module for the Digital Sherlocks 2026 cohort!

Penn MEDIATED's new LLMs & Civic Discourse Research Dashboard is live! 📚71 curated papers on LLMs and the information ecosystem. 🤖Focus areas: chatbots, content moderation, fact-checking. 📝Succinct summaries for researchers, advocates & policymakers. Explore → infodem.upenn.edu/llm-civic-di...

Penn President Emerita and Annenberg Professor Amy Gutmann will serve as faculty advisor for @penn-mediated.bsky.social. She shared with the DP why its work to advance understanding of the information ecosystem and its impact on democracy is important to her: www.thedp.com/article/2026...

Amy Gutmann to serve as faculty advisor for Penn center on media and democracy

In a statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian, Amy Gutmann wrote that she was drawn to the center’s mission, which supports her long-standing work on “the relationship between education and democracy.”

thedp.com

“Our health and that of our democracy depends on the health of our information ecosystem,” Gutmann wrote. “For education and democracy to serve the people, we must join in searching for truth and understanding.” More in the coverage from the Daily Pennsylvanian: www.thedp.com/article/2026...

Amy Gutmann to serve as faculty advisor for Penn center on media and democracy

In a statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian, Amy Gutmann wrote that she was drawn to the center’s mission, which supports her long-standing work on “the relationship between education and democracy.”

thedp.com

Penn Center on Media, Technology, and Democracy (MEDIATED)@penn-mediated.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Penn MEDIATED is honored to appoint @upenn.edu President Emerita Amy Gutmann as a Faculty Advisor. A pioneering scholar of deliberative democracy and Penn's longest-serving president—she brings extraordinary expertise to the Center's leadership. Read more: infodem.upenn.edu/blog/#amy-gu...

Penn MEDIATED's new LLMs & Civic Discourse Research Dashboard is live! 📚71 curated papers on LLMs and the information ecosystem. 🤖Focus areas: chatbots, content moderation, fact-checking. 📝Succinct summaries for researchers, advocates & policymakers. Explore → infodem.upenn.edu/llm-civic-di...

Duncan Watts, the Co-Director of @penn-mediated.bsky.social, and Director of the CSS Lab, and the 23rd @upenn.edu Integrates Knowledge (PIK) Professor has been elected to the Academy of Arts & Sciences in the Social & Behavioral Sciences Class Congratulations Duncan!!

Michael E. Mann@michaelemann.bsky.social · 3mo ago

"Five from Penn elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences--Mark G. Allen, Sara Cherry, Provost John L. Jackson, Jr., Michael E. Mann & Duncan Watts recognized for contributions to bio, social, natural, physical & behavioral sciences" via @upenn.edu News: penntoday.upenn.edu/news/five-pe...

We're still amped about the Penn MEDIATED and DFRLab Partnership for the 2026 Digital Sherlocks! So, we're just leave this here for people... infodem.upenn.edu/blog/#dfrlab-partnership

Amy Gutmann, Professor at the Annenberg School for Communication and the School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania, is joining the Penn Center on Media, Technology and Democracy (Penn MEDIATED) as a Faculty Advisor:

Feed - Center on Media, Technology and Democracy

News, announcements, and insights from the Penn Center on Media, Technology, and Democracy.

infodem.upenn.edu

Penn MEDIATED is honored to appoint @upenn.edu President Emerita Amy Gutmann as a Faculty Advisor. A pioneering scholar of deliberative democracy and Penn's longest-serving president—she brings extraordinary expertise to the Center's leadership. Read more: infodem.upenn.edu/blog/#amy-gu...

🚨Penn MEDIATED is hiring for a summer AI Auditing Engineer as part of our LLM Civic Discourse project - a great fit for a passionate PhD student or Postdoc.🚨 The engineer will develop and deploy a software tools for longitudinal monitoring of LLM political outputs infodem.upenn.edu/job-openings/

We're excited to introduce our blog, A MEDIATED Feed (DO YOU GET WHAT WE’RE DOING WITH THE BRANDING!?!) where we will share Center updates and also contextualize new computational research within the big debates of the day. infodem.upenn.edu/blog/

Feed - Center on Media, Technology and Democracy

News, announcements, and insights from the Penn Center on Media, Technology, and Democracy.

infodem.upenn.edu

1/ I have exciting news: @dfrlab.bsky.social ‘s Digital Sherlocks is back! 🎉 This one is personal — as a #DigitalSherlocks alumna myself, managing and relaunching the program is a special moment. For the first time, we are also partnering with @penn-mediated.bsky.social !

Penn MEDIATED is thrilled to partner with @atlanticcouncil.bsky.social @dfrlab.bsky.social to 🚀 re-launch 🚀 the free Digital Sherlocks training program. @upenn.edu faculty will deliver modules on cutting-edge data, tools, science, & methods of countering information manipulation. Apply! Share!

DFRLab@dfrlab.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Applications are now open for Digital Sherlocks 2026 🕵️‍♀️ Join a global cohort learning how to investigate online information, track influence operations, and strengthen information integrity. 🗓 Apply by April 14 🔗 bit.ly/47JLw02

🧵 At our MEDIATED Research Seminar, students presented lightning talks on how information ecosystems shape politics, media, and AI. (1/4)

Erik Santoro is a new Wharton professor with a great research portfolio on the impact on interpersonal conversations on political beliefs and polarization, and an affiliated faculty member with @penn-mediated.bsky.social infodem.upenn.edu/faculty/