WHAT: Research workshop
WHEN: Wednesday, December 1st, 2021
WHERE: Hosted on ZOOM, Registration required:
https://bit.ly/3nGronBHOW TO PRESENT: Read on and fill out the below form with your proposed topic
New revelations related to the role of social media in advancing the “Stop the Steal” movement in the documents brought forward by Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, as well as recent developments with the House Select Committee’s investigation into the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol point to the opportunity to uncover facts, interrogate data and generate analysis about the events that day and leading up to it. In many ways, January 6 is a prism through which to look at a range of problems in American society.
When it comes to the interplay between tech, media, political polarization and extremism, and American elections there are a lot of known unknowns. For instance, we do not yet have a solid understanding of the impact of information flows between social media platforms and legacy media. We don’t know how influence works on fringe platforms themselves or how data flows between fringe and mainstream platforms impact the overall Internet ecosystem. We know even less about how Russia, China and other state actors leverage tech to amplify polarization and extremism, and particularly how their influence affects political campaigns during elections across the United States. To get to solutions we need to know more about what happened online and offline leading up to and on January 6. More evidence-based research will also help lead to the policy changes in the tech sphere necessary to sustain American democracy.
Building on New America’s efforts to grow a network of journalists, academics, policy analysts and independent researchers focused on analyzing the events of January 6 and their implications for tech policy, New America’s Future Frontlines program is hosting a research symposium series in partnership with with Tech Policy Press, Just Security and the Bridging Divides Initiative at Princeton University.
The first event in the series will be a limited admissions virtual event on Dec.1, 2021. The goal will be to provide a venue for journalists, academic and independent researchers to workshop their research on the role of tech, social media, and media manipulation in fueling online and offline counterfactual and extremist movements centered on false election fraud claims and polarizing misinformation/disinformation related to the 2020 presidential election.
Select researchers interested in showcasing and getting feedback on their ongoing work are invited to apply to present on their research in brief during a Lightning Round Session at the event. Researchers who present during that session will have an opportunity to dive into the data in depth in breakout sessions during the workshop and may later be selected to present their work publicly to a broader audience for a symposium to be held during the week of the first anniversary of the Capitol siege on January 6.
The full 90-minute virtual workshop event will be held from 12:00 pm EST to 1:30 pm EST on Wednesday, Dec.1. The program plan is as follows:
• Introductions & Partner Organization Presentations - 20 Minutes
• Lighting Round Research Presentations - 40 Minutes Introductory presentations (5-7 minutes each) to detail who you are, and what relevant work you are doing in this space;
• Breakout Sessions - 20 Minutes Breakout sessions are designed to allow participants to engage more deeply in open-ended discussion, to explore a theme, or synthesize ideas.
• Wrap Up-10 minutes.
Registration is open but requires approval by the conveners. Please register here:
https://bit.ly/3nGronBIf you wish to present during the Lightning Round Session on Dec.1, please submit your proposed session details here:
