Social Science Research Council Research AMP Just Tech

Dataset Library

Welcome to MediaWell’s Dataset Library, a curated collection of tools, guides, and resources to support evidence-based solutions to digital mis- and disinformation. Our library is made up of three sections: Datasets & Data Repositories offers access to raw data, and includes details on the update status (active/archived), data type, time period, and access type (open/restricted) of each resource; Social Media APIs Guides & Toolkits helps navigate the shifting landscape of requesting data from social media platforms; and Peer Resources & Partner Organizations provides a list of cutting-edge labs, centers, and think tanks working at the intersections of democracy and technology.

Book Interview

Digital Unsettling: Decoloniality and Dispossession in the Age of Social Media

In this interview with the SSRC, anthropologists Sahana Udupa and Ethiraj Gabriel Dattatreyan discuss their book Digital Unsettling: Decoloniality and Dispossession in the Age of Social Media (New York University Press.2023).  Their work explores the intricate ways that digital networks shape – and are shaped by – ongoing struggles against coloniality, through the lens of student-led antiracism protests, data capture, academic practices, and a rise in right-wing extreme speech around the world. Udupa and Dattatreyan offer insight into the fieldwork that informed their findings and the implications for power hierarchies in the contemporary digital environment.

Navigating Data Politics at the Heart of AI Policy: A Workshop Summary

As AI continues to dominate public attention and private investment worldwide, regulatory scrutiny of every point in the “AI stack” becomes more pressing. The data that defines many AI products differs from that of other computing technologies, requiring a new set of policy interventions. Data raises fundamental questions on the sustainability of the “bigger is better” paradigm, the worldview of the models, the standards of development, and the capturing of human preferences in feedback. Questions about regulation and policy are essential when the paradigms driving AI development incentivize the reckless and often invasive collection of data about people and communities.

Webinar Transcript

Media Policy for an Informed Citizenry: Revisiting the Information Needs of Communities for Democracy in Crisis

This article provides a transcript of a webinar hosted by the SSRC to discuss a new, open-access issue of the ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. The four panelists contributed pieces to the special issue that shed light on the specific information needs of marginalized communities, and discussed how information systems might be changed in order to meet those needs. The transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Literature Review

“Vicious, Hateful, and Divisive” Partisans: Understanding and Countering Antidemocratic Political Polarization

The topic of American political partisanship and polarization has become a staple of both academic research and the political news cycle. A search for the word “polarization” in any major newspaper or news magazine turns up dozens of articles, op-eds, and think pieces either decrying the phenomenon or wholeheartedly endorsing it. We see it in family members at the dinner table, in our celebrities on Twitter, and in our politicians on the podium. Definitions may vary by field, by frame, and sometimes by convenience to an argument, but the consensus is this: Political polarization exists, and it’s increasing.

Research Topics

  • Algorithms and Automation

    Researchers are exploring how disinformation campaigns use bots and automation tools, and how algorithms can encode and reproduce biases and ideologies.
  • Polarization and Political Manipulation

    In recent years, the consequences of ideological polarization have increased dramatically within the rise of political manipulation from mis- and disinformation spread both online and off. This research topic explores the causes of growing polarity and divides among ideological communities and searches for solutions.

Research Reviews

Articles


Profiles

  • Computer Scientist, Scholar & Public Interest Technologist | University of Washington
    Workshop Participant

News Items


Upcoming Events