Social Media and Politics

Jochen König , Co-Founder and CEO of Cosmonauts & Kings, discusses the Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising (TTPA) regulation. We break down the current state of TTPA implementation and its implications for digital political communication in Europe. Jochen shares his thoughts on the definition of political advertising, alternative solutions to increase political visibility online, a...

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 l...

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...

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 spe...

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...

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 med...

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. ...

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 g...

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...

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 Polis...

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 patt...

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...

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...

Doug Kaplan, President of Kaplan Strategies , discusses the utility of political polling for local, state, and national races. We discuss the value of polls when partisanship is high, the changing political communication landscape, and Florida as a Republican stronghold (for now). 

Dr. Johan Farkas and Dr. Marcus Maloney discuss how the language used to describe digital media frames our understanding and the actions of policymakers. We break down how terms like "toxic", "trolls", and "filter bubbles" are often used uncritically and limit how we understand the relationships between digital media and social problems like misogyny, racism, and harassment.  Here's a link to the...

The 9th Annual Social Media and Politics Year in Review!  This year, we cover the platforms’ year in review reports, election interference in Romania, the battle over text and the "eXodus", and social media bans for teenagers.  Here are links to resources discussed in the episode, and see you in 2025! Platform Reports: Meta TikTok Snap Pinterest Twitch Google Pornhub

Ryan Davis, Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer at People First , guests for a debrief on content creators in the 2024 US election. We discuss content creator strategies between the two parties, how influencers have become professionalized, and what this means for communications and elections going forward.  Advertising, authenticity, and power flows are constantly in flux in this environment,...

Professor Daniel C. Hallin , Distinguished Professor of Communication at UC San Diego, shares his thoughts on media systems and how digital media relates to the concept. We discuss the components of a 'system' and current debates around the concept of 'hybridity' in media studies. This leads to a broader discussion of conceptual stretching, media capture, and how single case studies can be made co...

Kindred Motes, Founder and Managing Partner at KM Strategies Group (KMSG) , shares his advocacy work  to counter the online reach of Project 2025. Working with the  Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, KMSG launched a paid campaign on Google Search before Project 2025 became mainstream. Kindred shares how TikTok played a role in catalyzing Project 2025 as a political issue, as well as some o...

Prof. Sebastian Stier , Scientific Director of Computational Social Science at GESIS and Professor of CSS at the University of Mannheim, discusses how web tracking data can inform social science questions.  We discuss the data structure of web browsing data, how it is collected, and the types of incentives used to recruit participants. Prof. Stier also shares his insights and research integrating...

Ryan Davis, Co-Founder of People First , discusses how "micro-influencers" or "micro-creators" are being used in political campaigns. We discuss the benefits of using micro-influencers for engagement, as well as how they can be used to target specific blocks of voters. Ryan also shares how these creators can inform the political strategy of campaigns through panels and focus groups, and how the co...

Dr. Eviane Leidig , Marie Curie postdoctoral fellow at Tilburg University, discusses her book " The Women of the Far Right: Social Media Influencers and Online Radicalization ."  We break down the role of social media for the alt-right movement, and how platforms like Instagram and YouTube work to mainstream extremist views. These insights come from Dr. Leidig's research conducting digital ethnogr...