The Social Science and Social Media Collaborative
Have established models of social and political processes lost their predictive power?
Recent events, such as incorrect predictions of the 2016 election outcome and the spread of misinformation, present an opportunity to challenge old models with new sources of data.
The abundance of data from social media presents an opportunity to understand social and political trends better.
But first, researchers must address issues concerning the use of this data. Is it representative? Are users honest about their thoughts? Is the collection and processing of the data unbiased and accurate?
This study incorporates three parallel projects to address these issues and harness the opportunity to use new data to gain a better understanding of social and political phenomena.
Methodology
Political Communication
Political communication patterns and their effects on political choices and behavior in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections
Parenting
Each of the three projects have specific substantive focus areas, but are linked through the use of data science methods, big data resources, and the use of high performance computing.
What’s New
New Book: Words That Matter
What do voters really learn from the media about presidential candidates? A new book based on research from the S3MC Political Communication project, Words That Matter: How the News Media Environment Allowed Trump to Win the Presidency, offers in-depth analysis and...
Jonathan Ladd interviewed for The Science of Politics podcast
In advance of the May release of Words That Matter: How the News and Social Media Shaped the Presidential Campaign, Jonathan Ladd spoke with Matt Grossman on his podcast The Science of Politics. The book takes an interdisciplinary approach to studying media coverage...
S3MC Researchers Awarded NSF Convergence Research Grant
Members of the S3MC research team were awarded a $3.4 million National Science Foundation Convergence Research grant that will allow them to build on the innovative and interdisciplinary work conducted as part of S3MC. These grants were awarded to teams proposing...
Study Design Convergence Meeting Held at Georgetown University
S3MC Researchers working on The Future of Quantitative Research in Social Science: Integrating Social Science and Computer Science Methods project held their first workshop about social media methodology in February at Georgetown University. To learn more about this...
MIDAS Accepting Applicants for Data Science Fellows Program
The Michigan Institute for Data Science (MIDAS), which funds S3MC, is seeking applications for its Michigan Data Science Fellows (DS Fellows) Program. The DS Fellows Program offers an outstanding opportunity for postdoctoral researchers to develop skills in data...
ISR launches Data Science Portal
S3MC is featured on the newly-launched ISR Data Science Portal, which will serve as a hub for the data science and big data research being conducted at ISR. The site highlights both the Parenting project and the Political Communication project, each of which is...