Marcelo Santos

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...

Totally agreed

Interested in the MediaPsych Best Paper Award 2025? 🏆 🎉
We’re looking for the best media psychological article published between 2023 and now. @mepsy.bsky.social
Members of the German DGPs MediaPsych division can apply.
👉 www.dgps.de/fachgruppen/...

Help me... Should this be to the "How NOT to Write a Headline (NYTimes...)" class or the "How NOT to Be a President" class? I'm wondering... Basically, it doesn't say anything 😣

🚨🚨 Only a few days left to submit a paper for the Political Communication Preconference at APSA! 🚨🚨

@ashleymuddiman.bsky.social @stecula.bsky.social and I are looking forward to your submissions!

DEADLINE: May 25th, 11.59pm PDT (GMT-7). CFP here: u.osu.edu/apsa2025/

🤣🤣🤣

Muy contento de compartir los resultados de nuestro informe sobre las capacidades y necesidades de las radios comunitarias en Chile, proyecto desarrollado en la Escuela de Periodismo de la Universidad Diego Portales.
Descárgalo👇

periodismo.udp.cl/vinculacion-...

My personal thanks to
@anid-chile.bsky.social and Nucleo MEPOP who support this research and my colleagues who believed this insight all the way through.

"The long-term effects of latent bombs of disinformation are evident, as seen in the Capitol
riots in the US and their recurrence in Brazil. Persistent disinformation campaigns, like those in Brazil, may fuel widespread distrust in electoral processes and democratic institutions"

Amongst other analyzed data, we found clear patterns of coordinated activity to publicize the false electoral fraud narratives in Brazil, not so much in Chile. Both meso and macro factores could explain the different outcomes.

We compare two electoral fraud conspiracy narratives in presidential elections in Brazil (2022) and Chile (2021). Building on media content and Telegram fringe groups from the losing parties, we apply the framework to detect combinations of factors that trigger the "latent bomb"

We operationalize in three levels: macro, meso and micro, understanding disinformation (in particular, medium- to long-term) as a multilevel and complex phenomenon that stems from individual to social to structural conditions

In the article we conceptualize, operationalize and empirically test the "Latent Bombs of Disinformation": a long-term antidemocratic political strategy
involving the persistent dissemination of misleading information, designed to be activated under specific conditions.

Latent bombs of disinformation This study builds on the literature on disinformation and conspiracy theories to propose the concept of Latent Bombs of Disinformation (LBD). LBD refers to a long-term antidemocratic political stra...

🚨 New Publication alert! "Latent Bombs of Disinformation", recently published on Information, Communication and Society in collaboration with Chang Sup Park, João Guilherme B. Santos, Athus Cavalini and Homero Gil de Zúñiga. 50 eprints on the link (1/n) www.tandfonline.com/eprint/G7ZVC...

Silicon Valley crosswalk buttons hacked to imitate Musk, Zuckerberg's voices | TechCrunch The crosswalk buttons, which include audio alerts, were hacked over the weekend.

This is just soooo funny, what the hack!!??
techcrunch.com/2025/04/14/s...

@polcommjournal.bsky.social

Join this conversation by reading and sharing your own thoughts with us. Hopefully this sort of positivity spreads through our so questioned democratic systems and institutions (many times in an unjustified manner).

A personal note: as a polcomm researcher dealing with a lot of antidemocratic practices lately, it was quite a gulf of pure democratic air to be nurtured by the YouTube Caucus’ enthusiastic, inclusive, dialogic and participatory environment. We all have something to learn from that.

We feel privileged and thankful to the “Bandada”, sharing their experience was heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time, since the constitutional proposition was rejected in a national referendum in September 2022. An intense and constructive shared experience.

A couple of images display the customization, moderation through roles and the organization of content in Discord channels to enable users to successfully follow such a complex process as a constitutional debate and the voting procedures that emanated daily.

The results are quite an interesting display of the appropriation of a commercial platform, subverting it, instrumentalizing it to afford their political needs. In that line, we identified four main affordances: Coordination, Cooperativism, Moderation, Customization.

The group opened a Discord server, an interesting selection of platform to fulfill their needs. Our study is based on a 2 month Netnography w/ a participatory component, complemented with interviews and a focus group, where we were welcomed into their world, a beautiful and inclusive environment.

They first met as frequent users of YouTube chat of the deliberative sessions of the constitutional process, and they began to relate and recognize each other, communicate and bond. The chat, though, disappeared when there was no voting, so they decided to "migrate" - hence the title ;-).

Among those, we came across a heavily motivated group of regular citizens, not very excited about institutional politics, but that felt the process was being led by new voices, of “people like them”.

This is a story worthy of telling, beyond the academic dimension. During Chile's recent constitutional process (2021-2), there was plenty of hope in marginalized sectors. New energy was put into the political arena, especially by some not-really-political actors.

So proud to be part of this team with @karengheza.bsky.social
and Sebastián Rivera, joining a special issue edited by @mollyscudder.bsky.social and Michael Neblo << tks guys for the support and for trusting our work!!!

Migrating a Flock of Outsiders: Platform Affordances and Political Goals in the Chilean Constitutional Reform Nowadays social media platforms are popular venues for political participation, especially for those more distrustful of traditional institutions. However, the specific dynamics between users’ moti...

New Pub Alert on Political Communication: “Migrating a Flock of Outsiders: Platform Affordances and Political Goals in the Chilean Constitutional Reform”. Behind paywall here, but if you need it, just shout out. Opening thread. doi.org/10.1080/1058...

Thanks to all co-authors: @sebavalenz.bsky.social @cel00.bsky.social @tobiasrothmund.bsky.social & Tobias Schreyer & Lena Iwertowski / All materials and data can be found here: osf.io/q79p6/?view_...