Title: Critical Platforms Studies for understanding digital media and democracy
Abstract: Increasing interconnectedness has led to more self-organized public debates, platforms and their algorithms have gained new power over discourse, and generative AI has made content fabrication easier than ever. But it has also given research new tools to quantify precisely these systemic changes. Detailed data from social media allows us to measure and model their network structures and dynamics. Against this background, we ask: What is really changing, what does science know about the connection between the crises of democracy and the worldwide use of digital and social media? A number of political behaviors appear to be influenced by the use of digital media, such as increasing polarization or declining trust in institutions. Our findings show that while there is agreement in the literature on some of the relationships, these vary across the world and, above all, the underlying mechanisms by which these dimensions are linked are still unknown. A better understanding of these systems is critical for civil society in democracies worldwide, and I will conclude with a methodological outlook on how we are currently trying to explore these missing puzzle pieces.
Biography: Philipp leads the junior research group “Computational Social Science” within SynoSys and ScaDS.AI. He and his team are researching the societal impact of digitalization, in particular how the increasingly complex online discourse affects democracies worldwide. His aim is to better understand the interplay between human behaviour and the connectivity and functioning of online platforms, in particular how this affects our public discourse and thus our democracy. But also to question the current status quo and explore how this technology offers untapped opportunities for an improved information landscape and participatory democracy lived online.
Location: Zoom (Meeting ID: 918 4661 2733 / Passcode: 133337) or in-person (Northeastern University London Campus, exact location to be decided)
