We study how language, social connections, and AI shape influence.
Stories and social connections
We examine why some stories reach people while others go unheard.
Why it matters
Newsrooms, platforms, and other institutions help determine which accounts receive attention. AI adds new ways to select, summarize, and generate those accounts. Understanding the relationship between these choices and public knowledge requires looking at both language and distribution: what a story says, who encounters it, and whose perspective is missing.
Questions we ask
- How do language and social connections affect which accounts gain visibility?
- How might AI change the representation of people and institutions in public discussion?
- When does a change in exposure correspond to a change in what people understand or believe?
Our approach
We connect language analysis, network science, and social research. These approaches can help distinguish differences in what people see from differences in how they respond. The effects of an information system depend on its users, its setting, and the period studied; a pattern in one platform or community may not carry over to another.
Support this research
Support could enable students and faculty to examine how accounts circulate, compare methods for studying representation, and investigate questions across institutional settings. A funding discussion can identify an information problem, the communities affected, and what evidence would help make sense of it.
Discuss supporting this researchUpdated