Exciting news! We’ve officially launched our new research group, “Dynamics of Digital Mobilization” with two kick-off meetings on January 19th and February 16th, 2023. Our research program will focus on analyzing the impact of digital connectivity on politics and society, both within and between European democracies, as well as in other international societies. Our goal is to understand how these processes affect public debate, information quality, and democracy in Europe – both the intended and unintended consequences. We also want to explore measures that can be taken from political, civil society, and journalistic perspectives to counteract any negative effects.
Just in time for the kick-off, we had an amazing guest, Nicola Righetti, from the Department of Communication of the University of Vienna, who joined us during the week of February 13-17. He shared insights from his research, which uses computational and statistical methods to study digital communication in relevant political and social contexts. His talk on developing a theory that explains conditions and processes that enable the online dissemination of ideas that challenge inclusive European democracies by focusing on the exemplary case of traditionalism was fascinating! We also engaged in interesting discussions with him on issues surrounding computational measurement and analysis of coordinated inauthentic behavior online, as well as theoretical debates around traditionalism.
We’re thrilled to continue our research in these areas and keep you updated on our progress.
