Shows
Diaries of Social Data Research20. Navigating the Shores of Computational Text Analysis Validity with Christian Baden, Christian Pipa, and Mariken van der VeldenIn this episode, we speak to Christian Baden, Christian Pipal, and Mariken van der Velden about their 2022 journal paper in Communications Methods and Measures, titled, “Three Gaps in Computational Text Analysis Methods for Social Sciences: A Research Agenda”. They co-authored this paper with Martijn Schoonvelde, and the authors span several disciplines, from communication to political science.
We discuss the challenges and joys of writing for a cross-disciplinary audience, how their frustrations with the validity of computational methods are shared across fields with different methodological conventions, and how this paper laid the groundwork for a larger project on Euro...2023-10-3057 minDiaries of Social Data Research19. Constructing a Taxonomy of Implicit Hate Speech Grounded in Social Theory with Diyi Yang and David MuchlinskiOur guests on this episode are Diyi Yang, assistant professor at the School of Interactive Computing, and David Muchlinski, assistant professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, both at Georgia Tech. We discuss their EMNLP 2021 paper, "Latent Hatred: A Benchmark for Understanding Implicit Hate Speech." This paper is co-authored with Mai ElSherief, Caleb Ziems, Vaishnavi Anupindi, Jordyn Seybolt, and Munmun De Choudhury.
Diyi and David reveal that the annotation process behind this paper took two years and incorporated domain expertise on the broader context around hateful language. That is, an understanding of the social groups...2022-07-0956 min
Diaries of Social Data Research18. Gender Patterns in English-Language Fiction and Interrogating Data with Ted Underwood and David BammanThis episode features Ted Underwood, a professor in the School of Information Sciences and Department of English at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and David Bamman, an associate professor at UC Berkeley’s School of Information. We discuss their 2018 Cultural Analytics paper co-authored with literary studies PhD student Sabrina Lee, titled “The Transformation of Gender in English-Language Fiction.”
We trace how Twitter brought Ted and David together as collaborators, and the email that sparked the beginnings of this project. They describe how this paper uses predictive modeling for an unconventional purpose, and various “means of interrogating data.” They also...2022-05-1053 minDiaries of Social Data Research17. Hashtag Network Analysis and Interwoven Research Ethics with Ryan Gallagher and Brooke Foucault WellesOur guests in this episode are Ryan Gallagher, a PhD Candidate in Network Science at Northeastern University, and Brooke Foucault Welles, an Associate Professor in Communication Studies and the Network Science Institute at Northeastern University. We discuss their 2019 CSCW paper, "Reclaiming Stigmatized Narratives: The Networked Disclosure Landscape of #MeToo" with co-authors Elizabeth Stowell and Andrea G. Parker.
We talk about their substantive motivation for focusing on #metoo, the networked counter public, and hashtags' influence on social change. Ryan and Brooke also walk us through the advantages of pairing qualitative and quantitative work, weaving ethics throughout every stage...2022-04-2455 minDiaries of Social Data Research16. Measuring Uptake in Classroom Conversations and Using NLP to Support Teachers with Dora DemszkyThis episode features Dora Demszky, a PhD student in Linguistics at Stanford University. Dora works at the intersection of natural language processing and education. We discuss her ACL 2021 paper titled "Measuring Conversational Uptake: A Case Study on Student-Teacher Interactions", co-authored with Jing Liu, Zid Mancenido, Julie Cohen, Heather Hill, Dan Jurafsky, and Tatsunori Hashimoto.
Dora's work is motivated by creating tools that are useful for educators, so her research is not only descriptive or predictive, but also applicable to classrooms. She talks about managing large interdisciplinary teams, approaching research with care, and working with actual teachers to...2022-03-2050 minDiaries of Social Data Research15. Race in Computational Disinformation Analysis and Deep Reading with Deen FreelonOur guest in this episode is Deen Freelon, Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina in the School of Journalism and Media. We chat about his 2020 Social Science Computer Review Paper "Black Trolls Matter: Racial and Ideological Asymmetries in Social Media Disinformation" with co-authors Michael Bossetta, Chris Wells, Josephine Lukito, Yiping Xia, and Kirsten Adams.
Deen also talks about writing a "behind the scenes" book chapter about the process of making this paper, being one of the first movers in the discipline of computational methods for communication studies, and how he learns programming best when it...2022-03-0651 minDiaries of Social Data Research14. The Past Decade of Computational Social Science Research with David LazerIn this episode, we talk with David Lazer, the University Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Computer Sciences at Northeastern University and the Co-Director of the NULab for Texts, Maps, and Networks. We discuss two seminal papers in computational social science he co-authored a decade apart: "Life in the network: the coming age of computational social science" (Science 2009) and "Computational social science: Obstacles and opportunities" (Science 2020).
David shares with us events in his long and distinguished CSS research career. In the early 2000s, he helped gather a small group of people working on new "data streams" and h...2022-02-2052 minDiaries of Social Data Research13. Finding (Mis)alignments in Public Opinion and Wisdom in Collaboration Management with Kenneth Joseph and Sarah ShugarsOur guests on this episode are Kenneth Joseph, an assistant professor in Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Buffalo, and Sarah Shugars, a Faculty Fellow at New York University’s Center for Data Science. We discuss the process behind their EMNLP 2021 paper, “(Mis)alignment Between Stance Expressed in Social Media Data and Public Opinion Surveys,” co-authored with Ryan Gallagher, Jon Green, Alexi Quintana Mathé, Zijian An, and David Lazer.
Kenneth and Sarah offer tips around communication, collaboration, and project management, especially for papers written during a pandemic. Kenneth talks about “privileging ethics” when making decisions around data...2022-02-1049 minDiaries of Social Data Research12. Understanding Conversational Patterns in Police Community Interactions with Vinodkumar Prabhakaran and Camilla GriffithsOur guests on this episode are Vinodkumar Prabhakaran, who was a computer science postdoc at Stanford and now a senior research scientist at Google, and Camilla Griffiths, who is a postdoc at Stanford SPARQ (Social Psychological Answers to Real-world Questions). With Hang Su, Prateek Verma, Nelson Morgan, Jennifer Eberhardt, and Dan Jurafsky, they are co-authors on a TACL 2018 paper, "Detecting Institutional Dialog Acts in Police Traffic Stops".
Vinod and Camilla share with us how this collaboration formed over a common goal and a deep respect for each other’s disciplines. We discuss the considerations that went into fo...2022-01-1849 minDiaries of Social Data Research11. The Effects of Friend-to-Friend Texting on Voter Turnout and Overcoming Project Setbacks with Aaron ScheinThis episode features Aaron Schein, a computer scientist and postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University. We discuss his WWW 2021 paper "Assessing the Effects of Friend-to-Friend Texting on Turnout in the 2018 US Midterm Elections", co-authored with Keyon Vafa, Dhanya Sridhar, Victor Veitch, Jeffery Quinn, James Moffet, David Blei, and Donald Green.
Aaron shares with us how he collaborated with industry partners, overcame the discovery of a confounder that challenged the experiment’s original design, and responded to public feedback. He also mapped his interdisciplinary journey through linguistics, political science, and computer science, and shared his twist on imposter syndrome.2022-01-0156 minDiaries of Social Data Research10. Political Discourse and Substantive-Methodological Intersections with Justine Zhang and Arthur SpirlingIn this episode, we talk with Justine Zhang and Arthur Spirling. Justine is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University and Arthur is a Professor of Politics and Data Science at New York University. We discuss their 2017 EMNLP paper, with Cristian Danescu-Niculescu-Mizil, "Asking too much? The rhetorical role of questions in political discourse."
Justine and Arthur touch on how collaborations can provide real insight into other disciplines as well as their different paces and writing norms. We also discuss substantive validation for unsupervised learning methods, marinating in "fun" data, the responsibility of studying political institutions that touch...2021-12-1043 minDiaries of Social Data Research9. Reddit Debates and Interdisciplinary Multilingualism with Emaad ManzoorOur guest on this episode is Emaad Manzoor, an Assistant Professor of Operations and Information Management at the University of Wisconsin Madison. Along with George H. Chen, Dokyun Lee, and Michael D. Smith, he wrote "Influence via Ethos: On the Persuasive Power of Reputation in Deliberation Online" which is currently under review at Management Science.
Emaad illuminates this project's long journey, from manually-labeling argumentation schemas, to using observational data from Reddit, to designing experiments. He talks with us about how Economics and NLP can learn from one another and the importance of "interdisciplinary multilingualism" in highlighting different...2021-11-2852 minDiaries of Social Data Research8. The Evolution of Computational Social Science from a Sociology Perspective with Chris BailThis unique episode centers on a "meta" discussion on interdisciplinary work involving large-scale social data. We interview Chris Bail, a Professor of Sociology and Public Policy at Duke University. Last year, Chris and co-authors Achim Edelman, Tom Wolff, and Danielle Montagne published an overview paper titled "Computational Social Science and Sociology" in the Annual Review of Sociology.
We discuss the challenges of defining this large research area, the benefits of making "lateral connections" with potential colleagues as a graduate student, and taking risks in pursuing new research directions. We also highlight the process behind the creation and...2021-09-2751 minDiaries of Social Data Research7. The Power of Birth Stories’ Narratives and Intellectual Generosity with Maria Antoniak and Karen LevyThis episode features Maria Antoniak, a PhD student, and Karen Levy, an assistant professor, who are both in the Department of Information Science at Cornell. Maria, who has a background in computational linguistics, and Karen, who has a background in law and sociology, are co-authors, along with David Mimno, on the CSCW 2019 paper "Narrative Paths and Negotiation of Power in Birth Stories".
We discuss the formation of identity in online communities, approaches for protecting the privacy of users, the different submission and review processes in computing venues, and balancing new methodology and applications. Within an interdisciplinary department...2021-09-1753 minDiaries of Social Data Research6. Extracting Events from Text and Grad School Memories with Brendan O'Connor and Brandon StewartOur guests in this episode are Brendan O'Connor, Associate Professor of Computer Science at UMass Amherst, and Brandon Stewart, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Princeton University. We talk with them about their 2013 ACL paper (with co-author Noah Smith) “Learning to Extract International Relations from Political Context” which presents a probabilistic model for extracting events between countries and international organizations from news articles.
Brendan and Brandon also discuss how their collaboration grew from "saying nice things" about each other's work to 30-page written research memos sent back and forth. We also discuss the "ballooning and focusing" scope of rese...2021-09-071h 10Diaries of Social Data Research5. Opioid Use Recovery on Social Media and Mentoring Undergrad Collaborators with Stevie ChancellorIn this episode, we talked to Stevie Chancellor, who is the lead author on a 2019 CHI paper titled "Discovering Alternative Treatments for Opioid Use Recovery in Social Media". Along with Stevie, who is a computer scientist, the team of authors included clinical psychologist and addiction researcher George Nitzburg, Stevie’s advisor Munmun De Choudhury, and two undergraduate students, Andrea Hu and Francisco Zampieri.
Stevie shared with us her strategies for successful student mentoring, working with page limits, and using milestones and reflection points in this project’s timeline to help it reach completion.2021-07-1249 minDiaries of Social Data Research4. COVID-19 Mobility Networks and Post-Publication Scientific Communication with Serina ChangWe discuss the paper "Mobility network models of COVID-19 explain inequities and inform reopening" with first author and Stanford computer science PhD student Serina Chang. This paper's team of interdisciplinary authors include other computer scientists (Emma Pierson, Pang Wei Koh, and Jure Leskovec), sociologists (Beth Redbird and David Grusky), and an epidemiologist (Jaline Gerardin).
Serina shared with us challenges in navigating post-publication scientific communication and translating scientific research into real-world policy tools, as well as the success of grounding research questions in supporting the needs of real people.2021-06-2849 minDiaries of Social Data Research3. Digital Health Communication and Punk Rock Academics with Ethan ZuckermanIn this episode, we talk to Ethan Zuckerman, associate professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he teaches public policy, communication, and information. We discuss his paper "Digital Health Communication and Global Public Influence: A Study of the Ebola Epidemic" which was published in the Journal of Health Communication in 2017. His co-authors on this paper include technical and visualization experts (Hal Roberts and Sands Alden Fish II), a global public health expert (Brittany Seymour), and expert in education policy (Emily Robinson).
Ethan talks about creating Media Cloud--an open-source platform for media analysis that tracks millions of...2021-06-1541 minDiaries of Social Data Research2. Analyzing Menstrual Cycle Data and Math Transcending Boundaries with Emma PiersonWe talk with Emma Pierson, PhD in Computer Science from Stanford and incoming assistant professor of Computer Science at Cornell Tech, about her paper "Daily, weekly, seasonal and menstrual cycles in women’s mood, behaviour and vital signs" published in Nature Human Behavior, 2021. This was joint work with fellow computer scientists (Tim Althoff and Jure Leskovec), head of data science at a partner company (Daniel Thomas), and professor of obstetrics and gynecology (Paula Hillard).
Emma shared with us strategies for normalizing research on women's health and the menstrual cycle and creating trust with industry partners. She emphasized th...2021-06-1244 minDiaries of Social Data Research1. Abolitionist Newspapers and Maintaining 8-Year Project Momentum with Lauren Klein and Sandeep SoniThis episode features two guests: Lauren Klein, an associate professor of English and Quantitative Theory & Methods at Emory University, and Sandeep Soni, a PhD candidate in Computer Science at Georgia Tech. Their Cultural Analytics paper, "Abolitionist Networks: Modeling Language Change in Nineteenth-Century Activist Newspapers", was published earlier this year in 2021, with an additional co-author, computational linguist Jacob Eisenstein.
Sandeep and Lauren discuss the challenges involved in this project---a project that began with a conversation between Lauren and Jacob over dim sum---from gathering and cleaning noisy data to maintaining research momentum over the project’s eight year lif...2021-06-1154 min