A lot of recent research pays attention to the psychological and cognitive factors that explain engagement with political information (including misleading content). This work offers important insights that help design interventions at the level of individuals. However, more systemic approaches are also needed to capture the aggregate characteristics of the information environment individuals navigate – and help create. In this talk, I will discuss recent research that uses networks to map information environments based on exposure behaviors. These networks help us identify pockets of problematic content and the types of audiences more likely to engage with that material. They also help us compare (and differentiate) modes of exposure and the different layers that structure the current media environment.
About the speaker
About the speaker
Sandra González-Bailón is the Carolyn Marvin Professor of Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication, and Director of the Center for Information Networks and Democracy (CIND). She also has a secondary appointment in the Department of Sociology at Penn. Prior to joining Penn, she was a Research Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute (2008-2013). She completed her doctoral degree in Nuffield College (University of Oxford) and her undergraduate studies at the University of Barcelona. Her research agenda lies at the intersection of computational social science and political communication. Her applied research looks at how online networks shape exposure to information, with implications for how we think about political engagement, mobilization dynamics, information diffusion, and the consumption of news. Her articles have appeared in journals like PNAS, Science, Nature, Political Communication, the Journal of Communication, and Social Networks, among others. She is the author of the book Decoding the Social World (MIT Press, 2017) and co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of Networked Communication (OUP, 2020).
Sandra González-Bailón is the Carolyn Marvin Professor of Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication, and Director of the Center for Information Networks and Democracy (CIND). She also has a secondary appointment in the Department of Sociology at Penn. Prior to joining Penn, she was a Research Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute (2008-2013). She completed her doctoral degree in Nuffield College (University of Oxford) and her undergraduate studies at the University of Barcelona. Her research agenda lies at the intersection of computational social science and political communication. Her applied research looks at how online networks shape exposure to information, with implications for how we think about political engagement, mobilization dynamics, information diffusion, and the consumption of news. Her articles have appeared in journals like PNAS, Science, Nature, Political Communication, the Journal of Communication, and Social Networks, among others. She is the author of the book Decoding the Social World (MIT Press, 2017) and co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of Networked Communication (OUP, 2020).
