1/ Our new paper in Political Communication asks: does YouTube's algorithm push users into echo chambers, rabbit holes, or radicalization pathways? 🧵
Megan Brown
@m-dot-brown.bsky.social
PhD Student University of Michigan School of Information & Michigan Institute for Computational Discovery and Engineering | formerly engineering @csmapnyu.org | NYU ‘19
Wanna learn how the new #DSA EU data access to platform works for you, even outside Europe? Join our #ICA26 Bluesky workshop on Sat June 6 at 9:00 am in CTICC1, Lev 1, 1.52 with @claesdevreese.bsky.social @dscheykopp.bsky.social @jolukito.bsky.social @kwelle.bsky.social Daniel Angus, Megan Brown
🚨 Did you know that researchers can now apply for access to platform data under the EU’s Digital Services Act? Join our #ICA26 Bluesky Workshop on Saturday (9:00–10:15) to learn how DSA data access works in practice, what infrastructures are available, and how to get started. #DSA40
Ulrike Klinger@ulrikeklinger.bsky.social · 2mo agoWanna learn how the new #DSA EU data access to platform works for you, even outside Europe? Join our #ICA26 Bluesky workshop on Sat June 6 at 9:00 am in CTICC1, Lev 1, 1.52 with @claesdevreese.bsky.social @dscheykopp.bsky.social @jolukito.bsky.social @kwelle.bsky.social Daniel Angus, Megan Brown
New from me, @yunkangyang.bsky.social @jolukito.bsky.social @jasong.bsky.social @m-dot-brown.bsky.social @beccalew.bsky.social: analyzing sales data released from InfoWar's court case, we find that certain styles (linguistic and auditory) used by Alex Jones on his radio show predict next-day sales
Really exicted to finally see our paper in print: “Web scraping for research: Legal, ethical, institutional, and scientific considerations” A great interdisciplinary effort with @m-dot-brown.bsky.social, @orangechair.org, Gabe Maldoff, @solmg.bsky.social, @zevesanderson.com doi.org/10.1177/2053...
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doi.org
Thrilled to have a new article published in @bigdatasoc.bsky.social! 🥳🎉📊 With scraping becoming a more common data collection strategy for internet researchers, we cover the legal, ethical, institutional, and scientific ramifications researchers should consider. doi.org/10.1177/2053...
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
doi.org
🚨New publication in Social Media + Society🚨 Candidates Be Posting: Multi-Platform Strategies and Partisan Preferences in the 2022 U.S. Midterm Elections And it's open access! journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
Candidates Be Posting: Multi-Platform Strategies and Partisan Preferences in the 2022 U.S. Midterm Elections - Josephine Lukito, Maggie Macdonald, Bin Chen, Megan A. Brown, Stephen Prochaska, Yunkang ...
In this multi-platform, comparative study, we analyze social media messages from political candidates (N = 1,517) running for Congress during the 2022 U.S. Midt...
journals.sagepub.com
Can large language models (LLMs) fairly annotate data on contentious topics? Our new paper dives into this question—looking at whether LLM-generated labels reflect diverse viewpoints or skew toward majority perspectives. The results are surprisingly nuanced. 🧵
I am thrilled to share a new article in Sociological Methods & Research, “Quantifying Narrative Similarity Across Languages”. My co-first author Sol Messing and our collaborators developed a new approach to measuring “narrative similarity” between texts: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Quantifying Narrative Similarity Across Languages - Hannah Waight, Solomon Messing, Anton Shirikov, Margaret E. Roberts, Jonathan Nagler, Jason Greenfield, Megan A. Brown, Kevin Aslett, Joshua A. Tuck...
How can one understand the spread of ideas across text data? This is a key measurement problem in sociological inquiry, from the study of how interest groups sh...
journals.sagepub.com
[New WP] With the closure of major social media APIs and the new data access mandates under DSA, we enter what we call the "post-post-API" era. But have researchers obtained the data they need? Our recent survey (180) + interview (19) study suggests a stark reality. 🔗 arxiv.org/abs/2505.09877 1/3
So thrilled to have worked on this important piece with @yang3kc.bsky.social @m-dot-brown.bsky.social and Kayo Mimizuka. Data access for independent researchers is at such a critical juncture
Kevin Yang@yang3kc.bsky.social · last yr.[New WP] With the closure of major social media APIs and the new data access mandates under DSA, we enter what we call the "post-post-API" era. But have researchers obtained the data they need? Our recent survey (180) + interview (19) study suggests a stark reality. 🔗 arxiv.org/abs/2505.09877 1/3
Special thanks to Mango Brown and Taylor Swift's 'Mr. Perfectly Fine' for their help in getting this paper over the finish line
So excited to finally see this out! It was the first paper I started during my postdoc at @csmapnyu.org
NYU's Center for Social Media, AI, and Politics@csmapnyu.org · last yr.It's well known that politicians take more extreme positions during primaries. In @electoralstudies.bsky.social, we find this shift is much more likely when incumbents in safe seats face a well-funded primary challenger. 🧵👇 authors.elsevier.com/a/1kn5KxRaZn...
It's well known that politicians take more extreme positions during primaries. In @electoralstudies.bsky.social, we find this shift is much more likely when incumbents in safe seats face a well-funded primary challenger. 🧵👇 authors.elsevier.com/a/1kn5KxRaZn...
@adambonica.bsky.social showed ideology predicts which agencies experience DOGE layoffs. But what other factors could be driving this? Using a generative LLM-derived measure, I find agencies perceived as knowledge institutions are more likely to experience layoffs, even controlling for ideology. 🧵
🚨New Publication in New Media & Society🚨 Co-First-Authored w/ @m-dot-brown.bsky.social @meredithpruden.bsky.social & @markriedl.bsky.social Making academia suck less: Supporting early career researchers studying harmful content online through a feminist ethics of care. jlukito.com/s/brown-et-a...
They don’t need an excuse. They’ll claim we gave them an excuse no matter what we do. “Be careful what you say” is precisely how authoritarians achieve compliance w/o lifting a finger. And yet, even w/ compliance, they will still attack. Instead, may I suggest taking a look at researchersupport.org
Researcher Support Consortium
researchersupport.org
E.J. Fagan@ejfagan.com · 2y agoI strongly urge my colleagues to be careful with your public statements for the next four years. Our academic institutions will be under attack. They want you to give them an excuse. Don’t make it easy on them.
Excited to share a pre-print about web scraping for research! We're happy to receive feedback on how we frame this issue and try to build some paths forward for researchers. w/ @orangechair.org, Gabe Maldoff, @solmg.bsky.social, Zeve Sanderson, & @michaelzimmer.bsky.social arxiv.org/abs/2410.23432
Web Scraping for Research: Legal, Ethical, Institutional, and Scientific Considerations
Scientists across disciplines often use data from the internet to conduct research, generating valuable insights about human behavior. However, as generative AI relying on massive text corpora becomes...
arxiv.org
I’ll keep working with academics, civil society researchers, and journalists—including via the Coalition for Independent Technology Research—to continue these important accountability efforts. 12/ (independenttechresearch.org/introducing-...)
Introducing the DSA Data Access Audit - Coalition for Independent Technology Research
In a year of more than 70 global elections, the need for independent researchers to have access to social media data has never been greater. That’s why the Coalition for Independent Technology Researc...
independenttechresearch.org
🚨Our new paper in Political Analysis presents a novel, cross-platform method for estimating the ideology of YouTube videos. What we found: it is possible to do this at scale with an efficient, automated method! 🧵1/
Great coverage of the ongoing challenge of researcher data access on Twitter! Thanks @sheiladang.bsky.social for the great piece! www.reuters.com/technology/e...
Elon Musk's X restructuring curtails disinformation research, spurs legal fears | Reuters
Social media researchers have canceled, suspended or changed more than 100 studies about X, formerly Twitter, as a result of actions taken by Elon Musk that limit access to the social media platform, ...
reuters.com