Media Consumption
Social media has altered the way we consume and interact with different forms of media. CSMaP experts analyze the real-world implications of our online consumption, and how it impacts the political landscape.
Academic Research
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Journal Article
Estimating the Ideology of Political YouTube Videos
Political Analysis, 2024
We present a method for estimating the ideology of political YouTube videos. As online media increasingly influences how people engage with politics, so does the importance of quantifying the ideology of such media for research. The subfield of estimating ideology as a latent variable has often focused on traditional actors such as legislators, while more recent work has used social media data to estimate the ideology of ordinary users, political elites, and media sources. We build on this work by developing a method to estimate the ideologies of YouTube videos, an important subset of media, based on their accompanying text metadata. First, we take Reddit posts linking to YouTube videos and use correspondence analysis to place those videos in an ideological space. We then train a text-based model with those estimated ideologies as training labels, enabling us to estimate the ideologies of videos not posted on Reddit. These predicted ideologies are then validated against human labels. Finally, we demonstrate the utility of this method by applying it to the watch histories of survey respondents with self-identified ideologies to evaluate the prevalence of echo chambers on YouTube. Our approach gives video-level scores based only on supplied text metadata, is scalable, and can be easily adjusted to account for changes in the ideological climate. This method could also be generalized to estimate the ideology of other items referenced or posted on Reddit.
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Journal Article
Testing the Effect of Information on Discerning the Veracity of News in Real Time
Journal of Experimental Political Science, 2023
Despite broad adoption of digital media literacy interventions that provide online users with more information when consuming news, relatively little is known about the effect of this additional information on the discernment of news veracity in real time. Gaining a comprehensive understanding of how information impacts discernment of news veracity has been hindered by challenges of external and ecological validity. Using a series of pre-registered experiments, we measure this effect in real time. Access to the full article relative to solely the headline/lede and access to source information improves an individual's ability to correctly discern the veracity of news. We also find that encouraging individuals to search online increases belief in both false/misleading and true news. Taken together, we provide a generalizable method for measuring the effect of information on news discernment, as well as crucial evidence for practitioners developing strategies for improving the public's digital media literacy.
Reports & Analysis
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Analysis
Latinos Who Use Spanish-Language Social Media Get More Misinformation
That could affect their votes — and their safety from covid-19.
November 8, 2022
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Analysis
Echo Chambers, Rabbit Holes, and Ideological Bias: How YouTube Recommends Content to Real Users
We find that YouTube’s recommendation algorithm does not lead the vast majority of users down extremist rabbit holes, although it does push users into increasingly narrow ideological ranges of content in what we might call evidence of a (very) mild ideological echo chamber.
October 13, 2022
News & Commentary
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Commentary
People Trust Themselves More Than They Trust the News. They Shouldn’t.
New research finds that Americans’ skepticism about news, which often drives people to use search engines to “do their own research,” could actually make them more misinformed.
March 12, 2024
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Policy
Why the Texas and Florida Social Media Cases are Important for Research Transparency
Two cases before the Supreme Court will address Texas & Florida laws aiming to restrict content moderation on social media. The Court's rulings could also have widespread implications for the government's ability to mandate transparency and data access from platforms.
February 23, 2024