(How) can AI help build better online spaces? ✨ Last week, 16 researchers from 8 institutions gathered in Vienna to explore exactly that question. Between the Christmas markets, the WHAT-IF team discussed how LLMs can power agent-based simulations to tackle online hostility and harmful content 👇

Misinformation research has a causality problem: lab experiments are limited; observational studies confounded. We used causal inference on 9.9M tweets, quantifying effects in the wild while blocking backdoor paths. Does misinfo get higher engagement? Are following discussions more emotional? 🧵

we have 5 positions open at @goetheuni.bsky.social in Frankfurt - a 4,5 year postdoc in my @erc.europa.eu project on the educational cleavage - 2 postdoc & 2 PhD positions, 4 years, in a research group on Reconfiguration & Internalization of Social Structure www.uni-frankfurt.de/48794784/FB0...

The Call for Papers and Panels for #COMPTEXT2026 in Birmingham (23-25 April) is out; feel free to circulate: shorturl.at/gRg0p! Deadline: January 16!

After 3 years and 5,322 emails (and counting) our Encyclopedia of Political Communication is finally out at @elgarpublishing.bsky.social 📚 Three volumes ⭐ 431 entries 🎓 581 wonderful authors from across the world A very short 🧵

CCL contributions to the new #ElgarEncyclopedia of #PoliticalCommunication, edited by @alessandronai.bsky.social, @maxgroemping.bsky.social, & @dominiquewirz.bsky.social! 🤝 CCL authors include @hosseinkermani.bsky.social, @marvins.bsky.social, @fabiennelind.bsky.social, & @jamoeberl.bsky.social 📝

Excellent job opportunity: Full professorship in Digital Society and Democracy @ddc-sdu.bsky.social and @d-ias.bsky.social. Top conditions, environment & colleagues. Candidates welcome across places and disciplines. 🗓️ DL: March 15, 2026 fa-eosd-saasfaprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

Great opportunity at @fasosmaastricht.bsky.social: we have 4-year postdoc position on disinformation and European democracy. Possible disciplinary focus includes, e.g., political science and computational social science. Interdisciplinary approaches to disinformation are encouraged.

It was a wonderful week: insightful keynotes, high-quality presentations, and lots of food for thought 🤩 Very grateful for the opportunity to present @what-if-horizon.bsky.social and for the amazing organization of the event! 🙌

Time to share some news I've been sitting on: starting in January, I will lead a @dfg.de Emmy Noether Group at @weizenbauminstitut.bsky.social! We will investigate how local public spheres are constituted under conditions of digitalization & globalization. www.weizenbaum-institut.de/en/research/...

Good morning from Graz winter school on modeling opinion dynamics and social change ☕️☀️

Preprint alert! 🥳 How are social bias and CSS interconnected? 🤔 @aytalina.bsky.social, @janabernhard.bsky.social, @valeriehase.bsky.social, and I argue that social bias shapes CSS as a field and as a methodology. Progress in CSS depends on engaging with both dimensions! osf.io/preprints/so...

Thrilled to share my new article in Political Psychology: “The psychology of political attitudinal volatility.” In it, I attempt to answer why do some people change their political views more than others? Open access at: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.... @ispp-pops.bsky.social

Fabulous online seminar organized by @algosoc.org Algorithmic Effects on #Elections: Using Social Media Data Donations to Study Elections 🗓️ Fri 12 Dec, 14:00–15:30 CET @ernesto-deleon.com @favstats.eu @antmandan.bsky.social @simonchauchard.bsky.social Registration ⬇️ algosoc.org/events/algos...

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/

Are you applying computational methods in your research or thinking about starting a lab? Join us for the first Computational Methods Labs Showcase by the ICA CM Division @icacm.bsky.social 🌟 Online on Feb 16, 2026, 4:00–5:30 pm CET / 10:00–11:30 am EST 📆 Register 👇 forms.office.com/e/zHBkwUWNFw

📣 Join us at the 4th ICA Science Communication Preconference “The Dark Side of Social Conversations Around Science - Contemporary challenges and potential solutions for science communication” 🗓 2 June 2026, Stellenbosch, South Africa We invite theoretical, empirical & practice-based contributions:

"Digital Authoritarianism in the Making" examines how the Russian Internet space has transformed into the Runet, a censored & surveilled instrument of Russian national sovereignty, imperialism, and repression. Available #OpenAccess: mitpress.mit.edu/978026255367...

I’m very honored to be elected as International Liaison of the ICA CM Division and to serve our vibrant community! 🙏 Looking forward to starting the work very soon 🙌

Have a multilingual cross-country text analysis project? We just published a paper in @computationalcommunication.org with advice for validating your empirics! 👉 doi.org/10.5117/CCR2....

We currently have the pleasure of hosting Karolina Garančovská & @lise-loresteeman.bsky.social for a research stay at the CCL! Both presented their fascinating ongoing work – from EU crisis communication to media representations & discrimination. 🧩 Thank you for sharing your insights with us! 🤗

❗️Our next workshop will be on Oct 30, 2 pm CEST titled Data Literacy in Julia for Rtists by @dwinkl.bsky.social Register or sponsor a student by donating to support Ukraine! Details: bit.ly/3wBeY4S Please share! #AcademicSky #EconSky #RStats

Now out in Party Politics 🎉 Our study (@jbpilet.bsky.social)suggests that when a mainstream right-wing party signals willingness to rule with the radical right, support for the radical right rises — while the mainstream gains nothing. 👉 A legitimisation effect. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

🕰️ Think you know history? Think again & join our next webinar to learn what's going on ✨ 𝐖𝐞𝐚𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐭: 𝐇𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐞 𝐚𝐠𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬 ✨ 6 Nov | 14:30 CET 🎙️Chiara Torrisi. Register here: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Attention graduate students! The 15th annual Communication & Technology / Mobile Doctoral Consortium is now accepting student proposals to participate at #ICA26 in Cape Town. Proposals are due 2 Feb. Please read the requirements closely. sites.google.com/view/2026ica...

For >1yr, I've been part of a @erc.europa.eu pilot to help implement #Article40 #DSA This isn't just another law, it's key for transparency and democratic oversight Please join us 22/10, register here⬇️ erc.europa.eu/news-events/events/erc-workshop-data-access-under-digital-services-act-dsa-article

#DataMethods #OpenScience #GESISMethodsHub: An open portal for computational social science research—find tools, tutorials, and code, directly usable in your browser. Methods Hub makes it easy to learn, apply, and reproduce computational methods in the Social Sciences. methodshub.gesis.org/#DataMethods#OpenScience#GESISMethodsHub:

🚨 New episode out now! #aBitOfCCS with Aditi Dutta (University of Exeter) dives into how AI moderation systems can misread anti-sexist speech as harmful — and why that matters for fairness and democracy online. 🎧 Listen here: aboutccs.net/abitofccs/ 📄 Read the paper: arxiv.org/abs/2508.114... #CCS

Join us as postdoc at the Inequality Discourse Observatory at the University of Konstanz: stellen.uni-konstanz.de/jobposting/7... We will do epic research between Linguistics and Computational Social Science at the Cluster of Politics of Inequality. Feel free to DM if you have any questions.

2/2 And I am excited to announce that we are hiring a PostDoc and a PhD student to work with us on these topics. Group description: www.weizenbaum-institut.de/en/research/... PhD position: www.weizenbaum-institut.de/news/detail/... PostDoc position: www.weizenbaum-institut.de/news/detail/...

Call for Research Proposals: GESIS Panel.dbd We offer researchers the opportunity to conduct their studies for free! We grant: Access to ~ 7,000 participants Free participation in surveys & web tracking Deadline: Nov 1, 2025 Details: www.gesis.org/en/gesis-pan... We look forward to your proposals!

Young Republicans / TPUSA MAGAs proven to be actual genocidal racist-incel-trolls, a very shocking and unforeseen development. www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

🔔 Join at tomorrow's PolCom ECR Club! 📅 Tue 14 Oct | 12:00–13:00 CEST 💻 Online: shorturl.at/Sax2j "Domestic opinion vs international obligations: how governing centre-left parties in Australia responded to Trump’s re-election" 🎤 Daniel Casey (Australian CU) Disc.: Johannes Karremans (U C. de Lille)

This workshop is tomorrow, don't miss your chance to register! Register or sponsor a student by donating to support Ukraine! Details: bit.ly/3wBeY4S Please share! #AcademicSky #EconSky #RStats

We're hiring! 📢 Senior Lecturer in ‘Quantitative Methods and the Political System of Austria’ for 23 hours per week The position is to be filled from September 1, 2026, and is limited until August 31, 2030 Deadline: 27 October 2025 More details: jobs.univie.ac.at/job/Senior-L...

New publication out in #IJPP! 📑 We study how audience expectations of journalism 📰 shifted during COVID-19 in Austria 🇦🇹 – showing both short-term rally effects & longer-term recalibration 🔄. Led by @clmron.bsky.social & @danielwiesner.bsky.social , w/ @andreasriedl.bsky.social & me. 1/n

Come work with us 🚨 We are looking for a #postdoc in our @aimediademlab.bsky.social lab. Profile: Comm sci / poli sci/ computational social science. Great team, timely topocs, fabulous city, good conditions. DL 🗓️ November 1 werkenbij.uva.nl/en/vacancies...

“It actually doesn’t take much to be considered a difficult woman. That’s why there are so many of us.” ― Jane Goodall 💙 RIP to a real one. My childhood hero

🚨 Thrilled to release the official repository of the @comunelab.bsky.social! It centralizes access to decade-long research outputs, including 57 data sets and 22 code libraries. A titanic effort: 28,000 lines of code We hope to accelerate #openScience in #ComplexSystems 👉 github.com/CoMuNeLab

Misinformation researchers benefit from real-world insights. Practitioners benefit from scientific evidence on what interventions actually work. Our partnership with the media literacy & fact-checking organizations Learn to Check! and @maldita.es combines both 🤝 🧵 below

1/ I’m thrilled (and a little proud 🤗) to share my first single-authored publication! It’s now out open access in Information, Communication & Society: 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/1369...

For those on the #polcomm academic job market this year, I am sharing the job market material folder that I put together a few years back. drive.google.com/drive/folder...

Proud to congratulate you, @azadekakavand.bsky.social, on your PhD defense – “Technology Affordances, Social Media Platforms & the Networked Far Right.” A remarkable achievement that combines years of hard work & building of skills that you now use at @bredowinstitut.bsky.social. Missing u already🥳

Happening today :)

Every strong team needs time to pause, reset, and grow together. #TeamRetreat #DientenAmHochkönig

🚨Very honored to receive the Future Leaders Fellowship from @ukri.org I’ll use this 2.3 million £ investment to create the London Social Media Observatory, for cutting-edge research on social media and politics, and novel computational tools for social science research. www.ukri.org/news/ukri-an...

NEW: Tonight, this is all that remains of Nepal's seat of government in Kathmandu. Singha Durbar was the largest palace in Asia; home to the Prime Minister & government offices. A 48-hour revolution, led by Gen Z protestors, has toppled the government & left large parts of the capital in flames.

In case you are an ECR and you are already in Innsbruck 🏔️ for ECREA PolComm section conference, consider attending this preconference organized by the ECR representatives @amplanitzer.bsky.social & Andreea Stancea 🙂

It’s the final day at #SSC2025 ☕️ Let’s go!

Presented the @what-if-horizon.bsky.social project today at #SSC2025 in Delft 🙌 Very grateful for the helpful feedback from the social simulation community! Looking forward to implementing it w/ @anniewald.bsky.social and Taehee Kim ✨