Social Media and Politics

Kindred Motes, Founder and Managing Partner at KM Strategies Group (KMSG), shares his advocacy work  to counter the online reach of Project 2025. Working with the  Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, KMSG launched a paid campaign on Google Search before Project 2025 became mainstream. Kindred shares how TikTok played a role in catalyzing Project 2025 as a political issue, as well as some of the challenges that nonprofits face in running digital ad campaigns. We also discuss the benefits and trade-offs of social media for advocacy work, and end with some practical tips for how nonprofits can effectively communicate in today's fragmented media landscape. 

Prof. Sebastian Stier, Scientific Director of Computational Social Science at GESIS and Professor of CSS at the University of Mannheim, discusses how web tracking data can inform social science questions.  We discuss the data structure of web browsing data, how it is collected, and the types of incentives used to recruit participants. Prof. Stier also shares his insights and research integrating web browsing data with survey data, as well as how LLMs are opening up new methodological avenues in simulated data.Here are the resources mentioned in the episode: Analysis of Web Browsing Data: A Guide (2023)Integrating Survey Data and Digital Trace Data: Key Issues in Developing an Emerging Field (2020)Post Post-Broadcast Democracy? News Exposure in the Age of Online Intermediaries (2022)The two R packages: webtrackR and adaR

Ryan Davis, Co-Founder of People First, discusses how "micro-influencers" or "micro-creators" are being used in political campaigns. We discuss the benefits of using micro-influencers for engagement, as well as how they can be used to target specific blocks of voters. Ryan also shares how these creators can inform the political strategy of campaigns through panels and focus groups, and how the comments to creators' content can reveal themes and sentiments important for the campaign. Here's a list of resources on micro-influencers written by Ryan and People First: White paper on micro-influencers 2024 election guide on micro-influencersIn-and-outs of influencer outreachAn overview of influencer trends

Dr. Eviane Leidig, Marie Curie postdoctoral fellow at Tilburg University, discusses her book "The Women of the Far Right: Social Media Influencers and Online Radicalization." We break down the role of social media for the alt-right movement, and how platforms like Instagram and YouTube work to mainstream extremist views. These insights come from Dr. Leidig's research conducting digital ethnography on women influencers prominent on the American Right.