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Social Media
Brain signals can predict how often a news article is shared online
Brain signals can predict how often a news article is shared online
A new study from the Communication Neuroscience Lab finds that, even across cultures, neural models can reliably predict whether an article is popular on Facebook.
How social media platforms lean left or right, and its users follow
How social media platforms lean left or right, and its users follow
Brendan Mahoney, a doctoral candidate at the Annenberg School for Communication, examines the ways we communicate online and the corporations that host those conversations.
Social scientists must address ChatGPT’s ethical challenges before using it for research
Social scientists must address ChatGPT’s ethical challenges before using it for research
Outlining challenges that ChatGPT pose, researchers from Penn’s School of Social Policy & Practice and Annenberg School for Communication have written recommendations in five areas for ethical use of the technology in a new paper.
First findings from U.S. 2020 Facebook and Instagram election study
First findings from U.S. 2020 Facebook and Instagram election study
Research by Annenberg School for Communication professor Sandra González-Bailón and colleagues reveals the influence of Facebook’s algorithms on political news exposure.
Meta’s Threads takes on Twitter
Meta’s Threads takes on Twitter
Meta’s new social platform, Threads, is off to an impressive start, but can it continue its initial success against Twitter? Wharton’s Pinar Yildirim weighs in.
What TikTok reveals about Gen Z dating
What TikTok reveals about Gen Z dating
In an honors thesis for Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies, 2023 grad Talia Fiester examines “Neoliberal Love and the Pathology of Gen Z’s Singledom.”
To spread important messages about teen mental health, make community connections
To spread important messages about teen mental health, make community connections
After creating memes and TikToks with Philly high schoolers, Jeffrey Fishman’s honors thesis explores how those messages can effectively reach their audience.
Why COVID misinformation continues to spread
Why COVID misinformation continues to spread
Penn Medicine’s Anish Agarwal discusses why false claims about the virus and vaccines arise and persist, plus what he hopes will come from NIH-funded research he and Penn Engineering’s Sharath Chandra Guntuku have recently begun.
Is social media good or bad for social unity?
Is social media good or bad for social unity?
Annenberg professors Sandra González-Bailón and Yphtach Lelkes reviewed all of the previous literature to determine what scholars have discovered to date.
What the Twitter upheaval means to Penn health services researchers
What the Twitter upheaval means to Penn health services researchers
LDI senior fellows weigh in on Twitter’s current upheaval, and whether they think the situation at the social media company will impact how they disseminate research in the future.
In the News
The Washington Post
AI fake nudes are booming. It’s ruining real teens’ lives
Doctoral candidate Sophie Maddocks in the Annenberg School for Communication says that AI fake nudes are targeting girls and women who aren’t in the public eye.
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MSNBC
Why I’m not expecting my friends to make social media posts about Israel
A study from the Annenberg School for Communication found that people primarily share information on social media that they feel is meaningful to themselves or to the people they know.
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The New York Times
What social media does to the teen brain
Frances Jensen of the Perelman School of Medicine examines the impact that social media is having on the brains of teenagers, the first “truly digital generation.”
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The New York Times
Trump attacked me. Then Musk did. It wasn’t an accident
In an Op-Ed, Yoel Roth of the Annenberg School for Communication says that his experience of public attacks and harassment while working at Twitter was part of a larger, targeted political campaign to erode online safety and strengthen misinformation.
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CNBC
Trump uses Facebook to fund presidential run, two years after Meta banned him
Andrew Arenge of the School of Arts & Sciences says that higher social media impressions can be a key factor for bringing in waves of cash for political campaigns.
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Today
Elon Musk blames school for rift with daughter: ‘She doesn’t want to spend time with me’
A 2022 study by Sandra González-Bailón of the Annenberg School for Communication found that Twitter, now X, gives more visibility to those with conservative ideologies than those who tend to express more progressive views.
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