And that's a wrap on graduation weekend; I am officially done with my PhD 🥳

We are so excited to announce that @overbye.bsky.social has been awarded the James J. Bradac Award for Outstanding Graduate Student Research from the UCSB Department of Communication! 🏆 This honor recognizes significant contributions to the field of human communication. Congratulations! 🎉

Hey #ICA26! Tomorrow, catch our student Sylo de Vegvar present her work "Transgender and Cisgender Social Media Users through a Diffusion of Innovations Lens": 15:00–16:15 in Room 1.43 (CTICC1, Level 1). It's her first ICA, so stop by and say hi! 👋🥳

For those who are interested, here is an 8-minute TED talk style talk that I (Greg Hancock) gave a couple of months ago on using your quantitative aptitude and attitude — your Quantitude. youtu.be/jWxfHsRyLEk?...

Hey y'all! Very pleased to announce that we'll be hosting Communication Science Futures again in East Lansing later this year. The conference in 2024 was a blast, and we're looking forward to running it back! Keynote speaker: James Pennebaker Submission deadline: June 5th. → commscifutures.com

Fabulous work by @rachaelkee.bsky.social and @richardhuskey.bsky.social

Does “mass communication” still exist — and if so, what should it mean today? In this Forum for @jmcquarterly.bsky.social, we reflect on that question: "The Necessary Evolution of Mass Communication Research in a Fragmenting Media Landscape." Open-access: doi.org/10.1177/1077...

Good news! 🎉 The registration issue has been resolved — everything should now work smoothly. 🔗 Direct link: www.icahdq.org/event/Hackat... 🗓 Registration is open until April 5, 2026 Looking forward to seeing you at the ICA Hackathon 2026 @SU School for Data Science and Computational Thinking! 🚀💡

🚨New pub alert!🚨 Now available open-access in @hcr-journal.bsky.social, I show how endorsements of entertainment media from ingroup members, particularly inpartisans, affect exposure intentions, with differential effects across racial lines. #PolComm #PoliSci #Politics #MediaStudies 🧵

New year, new chapter! I am incredibly excited to share that starting in fall 2026, I'll be joining Michigan State University as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in Advertising + PR. A big thank you to everyone who has been extra kind during my job market year & Go Green! 💚🤍

I've noticed w/research it's often hard to find validated measures of constructs without hobbling together scales from multiple papers; now when possible I try to contribute by validating scales. Below is a scale that I hope is helpful that measures the perceptual attributes of DOI + reinvention 🧪

Fabulous study by @felix-dietrich.de @aliciaernst.bsky.social @rkreling.bsky.social et al., examining how algorithmic curation affects music streaming UX. Key finding: More algorithmic recommendations = less enjoyment, BUT listening sessions w/algorithmic curation were perceived as more novel 🧪

New study (2025) examines how AI autonomy affects user agency and attitudes. Key finding: AI autonomy triggers psychological reactance through threats to freedom, BUT personalization benefits cancel this out + users with higher agency feel more threatened by autonomous AI 🧪 doi.org/10.1080/0883...

New study (2025) examines if people can detect bias in AI training data. Key finding: Training data cues were largely ineffective; users relied on AI performance instead to judge bias + consistent with prior work on AI bias, the majority of participants failed to notice any bias in training data 🧪

New paper (2025) by @len-s.bsky.social proposes the PMSIS model: parents can use racially diverse entertainment media + "foreground co-viewing" + active mediation to improve children's intergroup socialization 🧪 doi.org/10.1093/annc... Great work Sovannie 👏👏👏 #commsky

New study by @janadreston.bsky.social @anneo.bsky.social & @germanneubaum.bsky.social reveals how users understand algorithms. Key findings: 71% have a basic understanding of algorithms but only 33% can explain how they work; users see themselves as passive actors when interacting with algorithms 🧪

Excited to share my new paper with @garciaerick.bsky.social Xinyi Zhang & @laurentwang.bsky.social. We ask: Do people see algorithmic bias as a risk—and do they feel capable of addressing it? Answer... It depends! More below 👇🧪 #commsky doi.org/10.1080/1044...

New study by Aquino et al. provides a fabulous look at differing opinions about algorithmic bias held by healthcare professionals. 72 experts had 3 key disagreements: whether bias exists (most say yes, some no), who's responsible for fixing it & whether to include race/ethnicity data in AI systems 🧪

New study by @drjt.bsky.social examines if attention control explains the 🔗 between inspection time tasks and intelligence. Key finding: attention control fully mediated the inspection time-intelligence relationship + people with better sustained attention showed less performance decline over time 🧪

🎉 Huge congrats to our team @overbye.bsky.social, Kristy Hamilton and @jacobtfisher.online for receiving a Top Student Paper award in the Communication & Social Cognition Division at #NCA25! 🏆

After a great summer teaching Social Networks at UCSB, I wanted to share 4 of my favorite network examples we explored in class 🧪🧵 1. Who Will Be the Next Pope? 2. The Hidden Network of Trees 🌳 3. The Beer Graph 🍺 4. The Oracle of Bacon 🥓🎬

New from @kyliewoodman.bsky.social "baseline levels of psychopathology were significantly associated with an increased risk of developing gaming disorder 1 year later. However, there was no significant association between gaming disorder and the development or worsening of psychopathology." 🧪

New study (Campbell & Hawkins, 2025) examines why people expect news to find them on social media (vs seeking it out). Key finding: when people habitually scroll social media w/out thinking + believe algorithms/lack of control drive SM usage, they're more likely to rely on incidental news exposure 🧪

Excited to share my new work aimed at making algorithmic bias easier to study w/3 key contributions • Clear overview of how/where algorithmic bias arises • Workarounds as a concept for user adaptation • Framework for analyzing bias that is real, perceived, or absent 1/5 🧵🧪 doi.org/10.1007/s001...

For anyone on the Communication job market this year S. Rutherford McEwan has put together an excellent spreadsheet for 2025-2026 openings. Highly recommend checking it out (whether you're applying or hiring): docs.getgrist.com/rHppfvPrMDQd... #commsky #academicsky #communication

Paper by @oriplonsky.bsky.social et al., introduces BEAST-GB, merging behavioral decision theory with XGBoost to predict choices under risk/uncertainty. Key finding: behavioral features are critical even with abundant training data, suggesting theory-guided ML beats purely data-driven approaches 🧪

🚨 New publication alert 🚨 Aqsa Farooq and I explore how aesthetic realism and emotional salience influence authenticity judgements of AI-generated disinformation images. #GenAI #disinformation #authenticity #commsky link.springer.com/article/10.1...

New paper by Zhang et al. examines algorithmic management (AM) systems identifying 5 perspectives: surveillance/control, neutral tool, agentic boss, socio-technical process, and contradictory unity. AM creates tensions between control vs autonomy, transparency vs opacity & efficiency vs fairness 🧪

New study (2025) introduces the Capability-Personalization Framework to explain when people prefer AI vs humans. Meta-analysis reveals AI appreciation occurs only when AI seems more capable AND personalization is unnecessary; otherwise people show AI aversion 🧪 doi.org/10.1037/bul0...

Want to learn about drift diffusion modeling (DDM) but not sure where to begin? I put together a short, non-technical intro + curated links to help you get started 👇🧪 🔗 www.hannahoverbye.com/home/drift-d...

Very happy to see that @overbye.bsky.social’s fantastic work on detecting bias in human-in-the-loop algorithms was awarded a top paper in @icacsab.bsky.social this year. Incredibly interesting, rigorous, and timely research! #ica25

Everyone go see Erick present our work on algorithmic bias and risk. He is fantastic! #ICA25

Important Notice!! 😳 Due to @overbye.bsky.social receiving a Top Paper Award from the Communication Science and Biology (CSAB) Interest Group at #ICA25, I’ll now be presenting on behalf of her and our wonderful mixed-methods team: Ceciley Zhang and @laurentwang.bsky.social. Drop by and say hi! 👋🏽

@rachaelkee.bsky.social blowing us all away with her project at @hackingcommsci.bsky.social. Super impressive project with the goal of collecting high-throughput sleep and media data ✨😴📺 #ICA25

Great presentation by @kyliewoodman.bsky.social on fMRI analysis at @hackingcommsci.bsky.social. I am always blown away by how clearly Kylie is able explain complex topics #ICA25

📢 UCSB Communication is hiring a temporary lecturer! Check it out here 👇 recruit.ap.ucsb.edu/JPF02966 #CommSky #AcademicSky

Headed to #ICA25? I’d love to connect over research! DM me or say hi if you're around 👋 Let’s find time to chat 📚☕

🌟 A huge congratulations to @overbye.bsky.social for earning the Edwin Schoell Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching, the department’s top recognition for exceptional teaching. A deserved recognition of her contributions across the board, supporting undergrads, grads, and faculty 👏📘

Looking forward to sharing our findings on when people perceive algorithmic bias as a risk and how that shifts depending on the type of algorithm involved #ICA25

Excited to share some thoughts about how we can use media effects theories to understand the impact of algorithmic bias at #ICA25. Hope to see some of you there!

So excited to share my research on how algorithmic bias influences decision making in human-in-the-loop contexts at #ICA25. Read more about it here 👇

Absolutely brilliant paper by @wankepan.bsky.social that solves a major barrier to drift-diffusion modeling by introducing dockerHDDM: a user-friendly Docker environment with easy installation, Apple chip compatibility, and modern Bayesian tools. The paper is also an excellent introduction to DDMs 🧪

New study (2025) shows computer access is the strongest predictor of beneficial internet use, surpassing smartphones & in-home internet. Households with a computer but no internet still fared better than those with internet but no computer; device quality explained additional variance 🧪 #commsky

Incredibly honored to receive the UCSB GSA Excellence in Teaching Award — and even more proud that a third of the winners came from UCSB COMM! Congrats to @musamalik.bsky.social , Lindsay Miller, and Alan Crawley 👏

Our final graduate student in our Meet the Lab series is @overbye.bsky.social. Hannah's work focuses on improving human-algorithm partnerships, understanding workarounds to AI bias, and building appropriate trust in algorithmic systems 🤖 You can read more about her work at www.hannahoverbye.com

Study by @janpfa.bsky.social found people can tell true from false news across 40 countries, n=194,438; true news was rated as more accurate than false news. Political concordance didn't affect discernment; people are not gullible of news they agree with but are skeptical of news they disagree with🧪

🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Interesting take by the late Daniel Kahneman that algorithmic bias is preferable to human bias because it eliminates noise (i.e., random inconsistency in judgment). But given that many algorithms aren’t static (i.e., LLMs), how true is that? open.spotify.com/episode/3slK...

New study (2025) shows political affiliation is the strongest predictor of immigration views in 2020 election. High-income states and areas with more foreign residents showed more pro-immigration views. Anti-immigration tweets cited threats while pro-immigration focused on humanitarian concerns 🧪

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