📢Publication alert 📢 LLMs are an awesome technology, but they come with trade-offs! Paul Balluff, @justinho.bsky.social, @seanhp.bsky.social, Alexis Palmer, @lrossi.bsky.social, Irina Shklovski, Chung-hong Chan and I commented on these trade-offs in #commsky research. Out now and open access!

First DDC Brown Bag Lunch talk of 2026: This Thursday (Feb 19th), @curdknupfer.bsky.social and @andre-k-rodarte.bsky.social present ideas and ongoing research on "Connective Factions". If you are at SDU, grab some lunch and join us in Dynamo, at 12!

4 𝐎𝐩𝐞𝐧 𝐏𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 (𝐏𝐡𝐝, 𝐏𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐝𝐨𝐜, 𝐅𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐫) 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐃𝐂!!! 😯🤩 The DDC is expanding its team with *4* new opportunities for researchers passionate about the intersection of AI, media, democracy, & society. Deadline: 📅 Feb 15 for 3 of these roles! The Professorship deadline follows in March.🧵👇

New @gesis.org data set publication: "Social Media Accounts of German Candidates from the German Federal Election 2025" doi.org/10.4232/1.14...

Identifying #SyntheticDisinformation: @nilsvief.bsky.social, @boesch.bsky.social, @mshu.bsky.social, Johanna Klapproth, @zwizwasvens.bsky.social, @thorstenquandt.bsky.social, & @christianstoecker.de investigated detection strategies of German elite actors. doi.org/10.5771/2192...

We’re kicking off the year with the announcement of our 2025 special issue on how #SyntheticMedia challenge epistemic institutions. Many thanks to Alexander Godulla and @cphoffmann.bsky.social for their excellent work as guest editors. doi.org/10.5771/2192...

Such important work! Men across the globe publish around 40% of articles in communication and get almost 60% of the citations. Women publish almost 60% but get only a little over 40% of the citations. This gap has remained almost constant since 2000. #frozen #comsky academic.oup.com/anncom/advan...

📢 New #OpenAccess! Why do some professors appear in the media far more than others? #RH_Heiberger @BasHofstra #S_Unger find both patterns of cumulative advantage & gender inequality, with men more likely to become “short-listed”! ➡️ Read it ungated at: doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcaf037 image.png

After a long time in development, {traktok} #rstats is now finally on CRAN! Whether you have access to the Research API or just want to scrape some pages, traktok has you covered jbgruber.github.io/traktok/

What gets professors into the media? 📢 New open access publication in @europeansocreview.bsky.social together with Raphael Heiberger from @s7css.bsky.social and @bashofstra.bsky.social! 👉 doi.org/10.1093/esr/...

📣 Come work with us!

✨ New open-access paper ✨ We explored language similarity between Querdenken (Telegram) and German politicians (Twitter). In short: AfD’s communication most similar, but parts of FDP and CDU/CSU also find common ground through discrediting left-wing politics. Full paper: 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/1369...

New publication, out in Political Analysis: There is an increasing array of tools to measure facets of morality in political language. But while they ostensibly measure the same concept, do they actually? I and @fhopp.bsky.social set out to see what happens.

😅 Late to share this one (summer + other projects got in the way), but this #aBitOfCCS episode with @ellamcloughlin.bsky.social is too good to skip. How do you measure something as complex as uncertainty in political speech? 🎙️ 🎧 Listen here: aboutccs.net/abitofccs/ #PoliticalSpeech #CSS

My first academic paper is out (open access). It's a study of the organisation of Prigozhin's Patriot Media Group, based on a dataset of 818 CVs of its employees downloaded shortly after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. doi.org/10.1080/1075... The main findings are in the thread below.

Thinking about using #CSS methods to study #racism, #stereotypes or #hate speech in text? 📐 👉 Check out my first dissertation paper co-authored by @fabiennelind.bsky.social and @hajoboo.bsky.social just published in Annals of the ICA! @icahdq.bsky.social 🥳 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/annc...

✨New Publication in JEPOP✨ How do societal stakeholders understand and detect disinformation? www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Still confused, but uber-happy. The news came out right after #ICA25 has ended: The European Research Council #ERC has awarded me an ERC Advanced Grant! Project DANCE on "Dark Nerd Communities" runs for 5 years with 2.5 million Euros funding. Immensely grateful! erc.europa.eu/.../erc-2024...

Der Kommunikationswissenschaftler Prof. Thorsten Quandt erhält einen mit 2,5 Mio. € dotierten „ERC Advanced Grant“ des Europäischen Forschungsrats. Damit wird er in den kommenden 5 Jahren erforschen, wie bestimmte Online-Gruppen, die vorw. aus jungen Männern bestehen, zu gefährlichen Milieus werden.

@jbgruber.bsky.social & @vanatteveldt.com argue that as data become more difficult to collect (no APIs, scraping more difficult) we need to share existing data more. And how non-consumptive research is a way to do that without goi g to jail! #ica25

You want to study German covid-19 protests? @maxzehring.bsky.social, @hdschulze.bsky.social and @buehling.bsky.social got you covered with their dataset! #ica25

@mshu.bsky.social & @jbgruber.bsky.social presenting great work showing that scraping TikTok yields similar results to using the API (although it is a lot slower and doesn't work as well with larger accounts).

Happening now #ica25: how high is the quality of the data you get from the TikTok research API? @mshu.bsky.social , me, @zwizwasvens.bsky.social, Johanna Klapproth, and @thorstenquandt.bsky.social have an answer: it's bad!

It's the last day of #ICA25! We hope you'll join us at today's Computational Methods panels. We're looking forward to sessions on polarization, data access, and sentiment

For example, for this panel at 10:30 where @mshu.bsky.social will present our audit of the TikTok Research API and I will talk about non-consumptive research in #commsky (#ica25)

Today at #ica25 - panel "Retrospectives on 30 years of digital transformation in the journalism industry and media policy". Interview study with retired top managers and editors. With @hermida.bsky.social, Helle Sjovaag, Raul Ferrer, Mary Lynn Young. CU at Centennial B Regency 3 at 1.30 p.m.

How can you test effects of platform mechanics? One option is to build your own social network 😎. @damiantrilling.net and colleagues did just that and populated the platform with LLMs and real people! #ica25

This year's #ica25 hackathon was a blast! A huge thank you to @hackingcommsci.bsky.social for making it a reality! With 13 other great participants, we explored +2 million of Telegram messages around the 2024 US election. I can really recommend checking out the data! dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1...

Had a fantastic time at my first hackathon learning lots of new things from some amazing researchers! #hackica25 #ica25

The best start into a conference 😎

Institute of Communication Studies at @uni-muenster.de very busy at #ICA25 with 23 presentations. Overview here: www.uni-muenster.de/Kowi/en/mitt... My first presentation is on Friday in the 25 years retrospective panel of the journals Journalism Studies and Journalism. 😇 CU there.

#hackica25 at #ica25 is in full swing. One of my favourite events of the year. A room full of nerds working on data and tools, learning new things and having fun 🤓

Welcome to #hackica25 & #ica25 everyone! We‘re starting the morning with our project pitches. Big thanks to @kyliewoodman.bsky.social for designing our awesome stickers again! 💛🧡❤️

On the way to #ICA25. Team members @mshu.bsky.social, Sofie Beisemann and me will present seven papers, ranging from interviews studies with retired media managers to religious fringe groups on the internet. Also, some disinfo stuff. CU there!

Pro tips #ica25 & Bluesky: 1️⃣ Pin the feed below (👍 @vkarnowski.bsky.social) 2️⃣ SHARE stuff, no algorithmic amplification so if you see something colleagues should see, SHARE it ♾️ 3️⃣ Be considerate when sharing research, get presenter consent 👏 Share this msg 🦋 Go #ica25 🚀 bsky.app/profile/did:...

Arrived yesterday in Denver for #ICA25 and already look forward to #hackica25 in Boulder (although not to the early busride...).

📣 We have a new publication outlining the “AI turn” in journalism — one that forces a rethink about the role, identity, and audience dynamics of news amid the distinctive nature of AI tech. 🔗 Read (and please share) the full piece (it's free with open access 🔓): journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Welcome @sethclewis.bsky.social as the latest fellow of the Münster institute of comm studies! Looking forward to an exciting guest lecture and a very important online event - as well as personal talks, discussing research projects and sharing ideas. www.uni-muenster.de/Kowi/en/mitt...

The real relevance 🔥 of @bsky.app will show itself in the coming hours and days #eurovision #eurovision2025 🎤🕺

Autocratic attacks on free speech and science are a growing concern - in academia and beyond. Join us for an online symposium with world-class experts like Robert Sternberg & @sethclewis.bsky.social. Wednesday, 28. May, 6 p.m. CET. Open to everybody, register via link. t1p.de/muenster-sym...

Are you interested in social science methods training? Take a look at the Methods Ticker, a regularly updated overview of methods-related training courses coming up in the next months, provided by the Methods Lab at @weizenbauminstitut.bsky.social: methodslab.weizenbaum-institut.de/program/meth...

The study simulated a Facebook-like interface using ModSimulator, an open-source mock social media tool designed to test the effectiveness of two common soft moderation techniques—footnote warning labels and blur filters—in reducing the spread of misinformation. socialmedialab.ca/2024/09/11/n...

And Johanna Klapproth is already getting into the details :)

@Marcus Bösch at the national IT security conference, energetic as always. #itskonf25

🚀 New Episode Alert! 🎙️ In this special episode of #aBitOfCCS, I talk to @marvins.bsky.social about the role of software tools in CCS. Tune in for our thoughts on research practices & how we can improve transparency! 🎧 🔗 Listen now: aboutccs.net/abitofccs/ #Transparency #ResearchTools

I was recently a guest on the great #aBitOfCCS podcast, to talk with @janabernhard.bsky.social about our new paper on citing software in text analysis journal articles. Have a listen, or, if you prefer reading: www.aup-online.com/content/jour...

Deadline looming on March 15. If you're working in Computational Social Science, please consider submitting to our special volume (Sonderband) of the journal Soziale Welt! It's only an abstract for now ...

🚀 #hackica25 registration is open! 🚀 Register now! Hack with us and join the free sunset mountain bus tour 🌄👩‍💻 Join the hack, and get to see a lot more than hotels and convention centers at this ICA!

👩‍💻 We offer a workshop on working with web tracking data 📊 2-3 June @gesis.org in Cologne 👇

🚀 #hackica25 registration is open! 🚀 Spots are limited—secure yours now: forms.gle/ssZFtZmfWYaC... 📅 June 11-12, 2025 📍 UC Boulder (shuttle from Denver available) No coding skills required! Join us to explore methodological & substantive challenges in communication science. See you there! 🍻