Projects
Unpublished works in the research pipeline either currently being developed, written or reviewed
/Research projects
Mapping Influencer Media Logic using
Multimodal Computational Methods
I theorize that social media influencers have established distinct communication forms and practices reified as "Influencer Media Logic" that influencers and actors in other social domains such as politics and science emulate to generate media visibility. This research agenda is operationalized into three projects:
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Influencer Media Logic (Under review, Communication Theory)
Theory piece that outlines the logics of authenticity, everydayness, relatability, intimacy, accountability, community building, platform expertise, and vernacular expertise as popularized by influencers but engaged by actors in other domains in the process of mediatization.
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Visual logic of social media influencers (Manuscript writing stage)
Empirical study that determine the visual logic of influencer media through the extraction and categorization of compositional, objective, and semantic visual features of TikTok social media influencers. The visual logic derived from the large-scale analysis (n = 33,187) is used to predict social media engagement as a form of media incentive.
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Influencer visual logic predicting perceived authenticity and perceived intimacy (Data collection stage)
Empirical study that investigates the relationship between the visual logic of influencer videos and two of the influencer media logic----authenticity and intimacy----through large-scale crowd-source participant ratings of the influencer videos and their visual features.​​​
Network approach to news polarization
(Manuscript writing stage)
Empirical study proposing a robust network approach to analyze news polarization among news media outlets using their exogenous attributes (partisan bias, credibility, audience engagement) and endogenous structural processes (preferential attachment, closure, etc.).
Co-authored with Erik C. Nisbet, Yu Xu, Chloe Mortenson (Northwestern), and Ayse Lokmanoglu (Boston U).
Political attitudes and media behavior of
Alt-tech platform users
(Manuscript writing stage)
Empirical study analyzing the political and media behavior correlates of alt-tech platform users (i.e., Truth Social, Gab, and Rumble) from a survey of nationally representative sample of US adults during the 2022 US Elections (n = 2000). Coauthored with Erik C. Nisbet (Northwestern).
/Writing projects
Computational Methods in Communication Research: A Comparative Framework
Book chapter offering comparative perspectives in computational communication research by developing a framework for evaluating complex methodological trade-offs rather than simple method selection. Writing with Kaiping Chen (UW-M) and Yingdan Lu (Northwestern) for the ICA Handbook of Computational Communication Research.
Proxies of Disinformation: Trolls, Influencers, and other Gray Intermediaries
This chapter discusses the proxy actors that orchestrate the disinformation on behalf of their political clients. It elucidates the
process of outsourcing disinformation campaigns and influence
operations to three types of actors: bots and trolls, social media influencers, and a plethora of of 'gray actors.' Writing for the ICA Handbook on Disinformation and the Media.
Let's Work Together
Open to collaborating on topics related to influencers, alt-tech, and propaganda!
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Reach out to me here.