Abstract

Jeremy Foote’s research focuses on understanding the processes by which online groups succeed or fail in meeting their goals, and how individuals shape and are shaped by the groups they participate in. His work is at the intersection of communication and computer science, exploring why people start new communities, the pathways they take to join and participate, and the conditions that promote cooperation and knowledge construction. He also investigates how automated systems, such as algorithms and bots, influence social cognition. Much of his research uses computational and statistical tools to analyze large datasets.

Bio

Jeremy Foote is an Assistant Professor in the Brian Lamb School of Communication at Purdue University and a faculty affiliate of the Community Data Science Collective, a multi-university research group studying online communities. His research examines the dynamics of online communities, focusing on the factors that influence their growth, sustainability, and impact. He is particularly interested in the social and technical conditions that foster cooperation, knowledge creation, and the role of automated systems in shaping social interactions.

The One Star Chef

November 19, 2023

“The customer is always right - or are they? Matthew Syed and Ewa Maslowska look into the the story of a unique Italian restaurant and the world of online reviews.”

Abstract

When chef and independent restaurateur Davide Cerretini first opened his restaurant, it was a dream come true. But that dream quickly soured when he came head to head with ever more pushy and demanding customers. And then online reviews came along…

In this story of how one man took on his critics, Matthew Syed examines the role of online reviews - good and bad- in modern consumer culture and delves into whether the customer really is “always right”.

Featuring Davide Cerretini, restaurant critic Jay Rayner, Dr Jo Cohen and Ewa Maslowska. Listen to the podcast here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001rym0

Bio

Ewa earned her Ph.D. in Communication Science from the Persuasive Communication program at the University of Amsterdam. Her dissertation explored how personalized marketing communication influences consumers, taking situational and personal factors into account. She completed a postdoc in the Medill IMC Spiegel Digital & Database Research Center at Northwestern University, after which she became an Assistant Professor in the Amsterdam School of Communication Research. Ewa has been published in International Journal of Advertising, Computers in Human Behavior, Journal of Marketing Management, Decision Support Systems, and others. She is on the Editorial Review Boards of the International Journal of Advertising and the Journal of Interactive Advertising.

Ewa’s research centers around marketing communication and consumer behavior, specifically consumer-brand interactions in the context of new technologies. Her current research and teaching interests include personalized advertising, brand engagement, social media advertising, eWOM, consumer decision making, digital analytics and computational advertising. In her research she often takes a data-driven approach to investigate the effectiveness of marketing communications and the relations between various forms of consumer engagement and purchase behaviors. Trained as a psychologist and communication scientist, she also applies experimental and psychophysiological research methods. Her focus is on conducting research that advances theory, but also produces actionable insights.

Guest Speaker - Ignacio Siles

April 11, 2023

“Living with Algorithms: Agency and User Culture in Costa Rica”

Abstract

What does it mean to live in a “datafied” society? Life in media-saturated contexts implies the increasing transformation of people’s experiences, relations, and identities into data. To make sense of this process, scholars have focused mostly on how algorithms give rise to new forms of power and control. Alternatively, in this talk I ask not what algorithms are doing to society but rather what people are doing with algorithms. I present research on the use of such algorithmic platforms as Netflix, Spotify, and TikTok in an understudied region of the global south (Costa Rica). I develop the framework of “mutual domestication” by examining the personal relationships that have formed between users and algorithms as Latin Americans have integrated these systems into the structures of everyday life, enacted them ritually, participated in public with and through them, and thwarted them. In this way, I provide a new perspective on the commonalities and differences among users within a global ecology of technologies.

Bio

Ignacio Siles (PhD, Northwestern University) is a professor of media and technology studies in the School of Communication and researcher in the Centro de Investigación en Comunicación (CICOM) at Universidad de Costa Rica. He is the author of “Living with Algorithms: Agency and User Culture in Costa Rica” (MIT Press, 2023), “A Transnational History of the Internet in Central America, 1985–2000” (2020, Palgrave Macmillan) and “Networked Selves: Trajectories of Blogging in the United States and France” (2017, Peter Lang), along with several articles on the relationship between technology, communication, and society.

Who's Watching What on Indian TV? It's Complicated

October 29, 2024

Abstract

The Indian television landscape is a complex and diverse ecosystem, reflecting the country’s vast cultural, linguistic, and regional diversity. However, current audience measurement systems are falling short in capturing the full spectrum of viewership patterns. This article explores the challenges of assessing exposure diversity in India, particularly in underrepresented regions such as small towns, rural areas, and states like Kashmir and the northeastern regions. It highlights the limitations of existing sample sizes, the influence of socio-economic demographics on advertising rates, and the need for local audience measurement systems to ensure regional content receives adequate attention. The article also discusses the implications of policy interventions and the role of regulatory frameworks in fostering a media environment that serves the public good. Check out the article at this link: https://thewire.in/media/whos-watching-what-on-indian-tv-its-complicated/?mid_related_new

Bio

Harsh Taneja is an Associate Professor of New and Emerging Media at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His research focuses on media audiences, digital platforms, and the intersection of technology and society. With a keen interest in understanding how media consumption patterns reflect broader social and cultural trends, Taneja has contributed to numerous studies on audience measurement and media diversity. He holds a PhD in Communication and has published extensively on the challenges of measuring media audiences in diverse and rapidly evolving media landscapes.

Guest Speaker - Nick Hagar

November 9, 2022

"Complexity in the Digital News Media Ecosystem" # Abstract Structures drive the macro-level characteristics we observe in digital news media. Complex interactions among news production, distribution, and consumption create emergent structural pressures, shaping the system as a whole in unpredictable ways. In this work, I aim to highlight consequential emergent characteristics in familiar news processes. I argue that blending communication theory with complexity science provides a powerful analytic lens, revealing novel explanations for long-observed behaviors in journalists, platforms, and audiences. Using a case study of news dissemination on TikTok, I further explore the implications of this complexity framework for designing real-world platform interventions. # Bio Nick Hagar is a PhD candidate in the Computational Journalism Lab at Northwestern University. He researches collective attention problems on digital platforms, with a focus on news media. His current projects include auditing news prevalence on TikTok and developing a framework for robust sampling of digital news archives. He recently completed research internships at Patreon and Meta Core Data Science.

Guest Speaker - Dr. Janaki Srinivasan

October 19, 2022

“The Political Lives of Information: Information and the Production of Development in India”

Abstract

Information has fundamentally reshaped development discourse and practice. This talk will examine the political implications ofthe ideaof informationfor poverty alleviation. Drawing on ethnographic and archival research on threecases from India—the circulation of price information in a fish market in Kerala, government information in information kiosks operated by a nonprofit in Puducherry, and a political campaign demanding a right to information in Rajasthan—the talk will counter claims that information is naturally and universally empowering. It will demonstrate, instead, how the definition, production, and leveraging of information are alwaysbeen shapedby caste, class, and gender.

Bio

Janaki Srinivasan is associate professor at the International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIITB) and the convenerof the Institute’s Centre for Information Technology and Public Policy (CITAPP). Her research examines the politics of information technology-based development. Currently, she is exploring privacy, algorithmic control and fairness in platform work. Janaki earned her Ph.D. from the UC Berkeley School of Information.

Guest Speaker - Michael Reiss

October 12, 2022

"Challenges to investigating online news consumption and online news avoidance using computational methods" # Abstract A growing availability of digital behavioral data as well as an increase in computing power has made many online phenomena accessible for quantitative study. This also applies to online news consumption and the avoidance thereof. A first part of this talk will present such an inquiry, covering the systematic investigation of non-use of online news by combining tracking and automated text classification. Relying on tracking data of Swiss Internet users, two computational approaches were applied to identify news consumption at the domain and article level. This led to a precise picture of Swiss online news use and on the extent of non-users of online news. A special focus is on the methodical aspects of the work. Building on these insights, a second part of the talk goes beyond the article and discusses implications and challenges for the current research of news consumption as well as limitations to computational methods in the context of researching news consumption online.
# Bio Michael Reiss has been a PhD candidate in the Media Change & Innovation Division at the Department of Communication and Media Research, University of Zurich (Switzerland) since September 2018. Previously he completed the master’s programs Socio-Ecological Economics and Policy at the Vienna University of Economics (Austria) and Social Research Methods at the London School of Economics and Political Science (United Kingdom). Currently he is engaged in a Swiss National Science Foundation research project on algorithmic selection in everyday life. His research interests involve news consumption and methods of computational social science.