Zizi Papacharissi

I finally get to speak to the UN Libya mission tomorrow, including local journalists and news folk (via zoom). My talk was postponed three times due to political turmoil. Here’s a couple of my va slides that they translated for tomorrow - excited!

Tην Παρασκευή 06.06 οργανώνουμε τη 2η διαδικτυακή συζήτηση του Εργαστηρίου Πολιτικής Επικοινωνίας και Μέσων Πληροφόρησης. Θα έχουμε τη χαρά να συζητήσουμε με την @zizip.bsky.social και τους Νικόλα Βουλέλη και Νίκο Κωνσταντάρα εάν η άνοδος του πολιτικού αυταρχισμού σχετίζεται με τα μέσα πληροφόρησης.

AI is moving fast. Climate policy provides valuable lessons for how to keep it in check Existing efforts to regulate AI share a limitation: they’re built around intended use, not the messy, creative and often unintended ways it is actually being used.

🚨 New research! With Milly Stilinovic & @dhutchman.bsky.social, we explore how AI is being creatively misused in experimental online spaces we call Underspheres — and why current regulation can’t keep up.

New Media & Society
doi.org/10.1177/1461...

Conversation
theconversation.com/ai-is-moving...

YouTube video by Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy Spotlight Speech: What AI Can and Cannot Do for Democracy, with Zizi Papacharissi

Thank you to the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy and the luminous Gina Neff at the U of Cambridge for hosting me, along with featured speakers and longtime thinking pals Safiya Noble and Audrey Tang. Here’s my keynote on What AI Can and Cannot Do for Democracy:

youtu.be/xw7XN-lh0rk?...

Like all information technology, AI:
- does not democratize, it pluralizes
- does not equalize, it amplifies

@zizip.bsky.social

Super punchy start to @mctd.bsky.social Technology and Democracy Conference by @ginasue.bsky.social, followed by @zizip.bsky.social. Can’t wait for the next two days here in beautiful Cambridge—

Performative politics:

If it doesn’t play in TV, it did not happen.

It is all public theater. There are 3 congressional seats up on special elections this year, and they can decide majority leadership. It’s only a slim majority lead in House. It’s drama; designed as a play for these votes. The media are falling for it, because drama is the top news value.

It’s all political theater.

Still, for the sake of argument and assuming Trump takes away all the federal dollars in the name of efficiency: Where does he plan to deposit it? Other people’s pockets? His own?

A question for all the startled reporters to press on.

Victimhood politics is top of Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s agenda. They are not interested in victims but in power. And victimhood creates “good us” and “bad them”, moral outrage against “them” and support for “our” strongman. That’s the far-right playbook right there👇 @lsemedia.bsky.social

Hi friends! Now that the inauguration and its theatre of power, privilege and white supremacy is over, @kat-hig.bsky.social and I wrote something on Trump’s victimhood politics in his era of absolute power. @lseblogs.bsky.social and @lsemedia.bsky.social

PLAY Playlist · zizipapacharissi · 39 items

Always make playlists to match projects I am working on- here’s PLAY:

open.spotify.com/playlist/4CD...

There’s not fully developed AI, there’s AI claiming to be generative but not really, and there is dumb AI.

Grok is next level dumb.

What happens when you collect all the Kevin Costner bot accounts on Bluesky?

Fun answers only, obvs

Dems. I donated. At a moment of weakness and despite the fact that I am against political donations.

I did not sign away my cute iPhone mini life rights to receive frantic, desperately worded messages in all caps.

I said it before, I will say it as often as I need to.

What bullies hate the most is being ignored, then laughed at.

Day 1: Vivek’s out.

Who’s next in the broligarch-hood?

🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿

Trump’s Surprise Billionaire Guests: Bernard Arnault And Mukesh Ambani Attend Inauguration Events Arnault is the world’s fifth wealthiest person while Ambani is the eighteenth richest.

Reliance and LVMH in the house also

www.forbes.com/sites/antoni...

My inclination is to think that he is a little less worried about venture capital threats to his stock prospects

Just noting that Bill Gates managed to survive and stay out of the broligarch group on the platform yesterday.

Sen. John Fetterman wears shorts and a hoodie to Trump inauguration While the presidential inauguration was moved inside Monday due to the bitter cold outside, Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) didn’t let the cold bother him. Fetterman arrived to the U.S. Capitol for the sw...

www.nbcnewyork.com/news/sen-joh...

Oh come on.

Measles Cases in the U.S. – and Illinois – Are on the Rise Measles cases are rising in the U.S. as a result of fewer parents getting their children vaccinated. It can lead to more serious health issues, such as pneumonia.

#Measles cases are rising in the U.S. How has it spread in Illinois?

buff.ly/4ityyHk

@zizip.bsky.social

Map: Teen Birth Rates Increasing in Several U.S. States Data show that states with low socioeconomic status are significant contributors to higher teen birth rates. Education plays a key role as well.

Teen birth rates increasing in several U.S. states

buff.ly/49Bm64a

#birthrates @zizip.bsky.social

Networked framing research (e.g. Meraz & @zizip.bsky.social) has argued that user discussion on social media actively transforms frames in news coverage. By contrast, network agenda setting argues that the media transfers bundles of associations more-or-less unchanged.

Which do we find?

Our results look much more like the networked framing story.

While media outlets set the broad agenda (COVID, BLM, election), commenters consistently introduce conspiracy theories and emotional rhetoric absent from the original videos.

For example, videos on BLM protests focused on news events. But commenters added entirely new associations-- "antifa," "marxist," etc.--the videos never mentioned.

There is also a big Trump effect: he becomes the central node in comment networks despite a modest presence in the original coverage.

Where does extreme right-wing rhetoric come from?

In a new article in Communication Research, Yuan Hsiao and I analyze 19K videos & 661M comments on conservative YouTube channels to trace how extreme rhetoric forms.
BLUF: it comes mostly from users themselves.
doi.org/10.1177/0093...

This is a really great issue, and I'd encourage folks have a look at the 'artificial' issue of the M/C Journal: journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mc...

(Yes, I've got a co-authored paper in it and think it's worth your time, but even if I didn't there's quite a few real gems to be found!)

Bringing in all your old tweets from the year 2009 to this place is Hoarder Behavior

Apply now for the 2025 MSRNE summer internship in sociotechnical systems Microsoft Research New England is looking for advanced Ph.D. students who are bringing sociotechnical perspectives to analyze critical issues of our time, to apply for our summer internship. They w…

We are seeking advanced PhD students for a well-paid and nurturing research internship on topics that we can meaningfully mentor. Apps due Dec 6 socialmediacollective.org/2024/11/01/2...