Advertise on podcast: Social Media and Politics

Bruce Schneier and Dr. Nathan Sanders discuss Rewiring Democracy: How AI Will Transform Our Politics, Government, and Citizenship (MIT Press).  Bruce and Nathan share how AI becomes viable for governments when the speed, scale, scope, and sophistication of computational systems surpasses human capacity. We also discuss the relationship between AI and the Internet of Things, how AI interacts with lobbying and legislation, and how values can be construed in an automated context. Current examples of AI implementation are shared from political campaigning, public administration, and civil society. 

Jacob Ward, accomplished journalist and host of The Rip Current, joins the podcast to discuss independent journalism in today’s fragmented media environment. We begin with a conversation about whether the “news cycle” still makes sense, before turning to how platforms like YouTube and TikTok enable journalists to build direct relationships with audiences. Jacob reflects on sourcing, livestreaming, journalistic ethics, and the differences between working as an independent journalist versus reporting within major news organizations.

Dr. Betto van Waarden, Assistant Professor of History at Maastricht University, discusses his new book Politicians and Mass Media in the Age of Empire.  We begin by charting the technological developments of the 19th century and how it influenced the speed and scale of news production. Then, we discuss the rise of public opinion and how it affected the media's role in the political system. We spend the rest of the episode discussing publicity politicians, the transnational media system, and how many of the political dynamics we see today can be traced to the Age of Empire. 

The 10th Annual Social Media and Politics Year in Review!  This year, we cover the platforms’ year in review reports, the EU's regulation on transparency of targeted ads, meta approaches to platforms, and implications of the synthetic public sphere.  Here are links to reports discussed in the episode, and see you in 2026! Google YouTube TikTok Snap Pinterest Pornhub Zoom

Ivan Pardo, Founder of Solidarity Tech, shares how tech can solve organizing bottlenecks for political campaigns. We discuss how Solidarity Tech was used for digital organizing in Zohran Mamdani's mayoral campaign in New York and Catherine Connelly's presidential win in Ireland.  Beyond tech functionality, we discuss how CRM platforms can give campaigns a human touch, how tech integrates with the culture of a campaign, and the potential downsides of gamification for volunteer organizing.  You can read more about Solidarity Tech's origins and functionality here. 

Dr. Kevin Munger, Assistant Professor and Chair of Computational Social Science in the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the European University Institute, discusses the concept of temporal validity in social media research. Dr. Munger breaks down why thinking about time is an important component of meta-science, particularly when it comes to evaluating the methodologies of social media research.  We also discuss the Meta 2020 Election Research partnership, new pathways in social media research, the logic of quantitative description, and the challenges of political communication in the current grant funding and interdisciplinary landscape of political research.  Here are the two articles we discuss in the episode:  Temporal Validity as Meta-Science (2023) What Did We Learn about Political Communication from the Meta2020 Partnership? (2024) And links to Dr. Munger's latest books: The YouTube Apparatus (2024) The Generation Gap: Why the Baby Boomers Still Dominate American Politics and Culture (2022)

Frank A. Spring, founding partner at Altum Insight and managing partner of Undaunted Ventures, shares how qualitative methods can understand the stories voters tell themselves about politics. Frank discusses his work using AI-moderated interviews (AIMI) and digital ethnography to analyze citizens' understanding of democracy, and how these insights can be used to inform political storytelling.  We also discuss generalizability from this type data, the importance of cultural context, and the ethics of stories' relationship to facts.

In this episode, I share some initiatives to help in improving the teaching and learning of political communication. Political Communication Teaching Database and the upload page.    Meta Oversight Board Game  Counterfactual Case Study

Professor Matthew Wall and Dr. Louis Bromfield, both at the Department of Politics, Philosophy, and International Relations at Swansea University, discuss election forecasting. We cover different types of political forecasting, such as polls and prediction models, and dive into prediction markets like Polymarket. We then discuss the concept of the 'wisdom of the crowd' and what attributes make a good forecaster, before turning to how betting market odds, forecasting platforms, and gamification can be used in research.  Resources: Horse Race Politics Podcast on YouTube and Spotify Horse Race Politics Platform Professor Wall's study on the 2007 Irish Elections Dr. Bromfield's Doctoral Thesis

Thomas Hughes, CEO of Appeals Centre Europe, explains out-of-court dispute settlement bodies (ODS bodies) and the role they play in the Digital Services Act.  We discuss Appeals Centre Europe's first Transparency Report*, which provides an initial glimpse into how Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube are handling requests from ODS bodies. We cover some top line descriptives from the Centre's first year: how many disputes were submitted, from which platform, and what types of content they were about. We also talk about 'signposting' and how the platforms are communicating their digital rights to users. *Just a friendly heads up that the report is 25MB, so you may want to download it on WiFi! 

Jakub Szymik, Founder of CEE Digital Democracy Watch, discusses the EU's ongoing initiatives to fight disinformation, regulate political advertising, and protect election integrity on social media. Jakub shares his insights on the Digital Services Act, the European Democracy Shield, and how these initiatives relate to digital political advertising on social media. We also discuss the latest Polish Presidential elections in terms of digital ad spending, Gen AI content, and political influencers. Links: CEE Digital Democracy Watch has just published a new report outlining how 60 stakeholder from CEE countries perceive the effectiveness of EU tech regulation and what challenges remain moving forward. Read more about CEE Digital Democracy Watch's proposed policy actions for the European Democracy Shield, including the disinformation monitoring service mentioned in the episode. 

Dan Brahmy, Co-Founder and CEO at Cyabra, discusses the cutting-edge in disinformation monitoring. Dan shares some of Cyabra's work around the new pope, the tariff war, and narratives following the Trump assassination attempt. We discuss how monitoring works technically, what type of attributes are used to classify accounts as inauthentic, and how source attribution can be identified through patterns.  Special thanks to Jill Burkes, PR and Communications lead at Cyabra, for setting up and contributing to the episode!   Here's the link to Cyabra's newsletter.

Dr. Neta Kligler-Vilenchik and Dr. Ioana Literat share research from their new book Not Your Parent's Politics: Understanding Young People's Political Expression on Social Media. We discuss how young people use social media such as TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube to experiment with their political identity, even if they are too young to vote.  Examples from the 2016 US election, Black Lives Matter protests, and climate anxiety help illustrate the various ways that youth express their political opinions across social media platforms. We also discuss how to approach these expressions from a democratic and citizenship perspective.  Dr. Kligler-Vilenchik is Associate Professor of Communication and Journalism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Dr. Literat is an Associate Professor in the Communication, Media and Learning Technologies Design program at Teachers College, Columbia University.

Neil Brown, President of the Poytner Institute for Media Studies, discusses the challenges facing journalism. We discuss the concept of media trust, changing revenue models, and the challenges for journalism posed by digital fragmentation. Neil also shares his thoughts on fact-checking and Politifact.com, and we end with a discussion of AI's implications for journalism. 

Dr. Michael D. Cohen, CEO of Cohen Research Group and author of Modern Political Campaigns, shares how artificial intelligence is impacting political campaigns. We discuss how AI is like an automated staffer, and what types of human involvement is still needed to craft a winning strategy. We also examine AI's role in generating copy like social media posts and speeches, as well as how it can be used for qualitative data analysis such as focus groups. In addition, we consider how AI relates to trending concepts such as authenticity and political polarization.  Get a copy of the 2nd edition of Modern Political Campaigns on Amazon or directly through the publisher. And you can listen to a broader discussion of the book in an earlier episode.