Two faculty members at the School of Information Studies (iSchool), along with their doctoral researchers, will host a panel discussion on election night. The team is part of the Illuminating 2016 project, a computational journalism project that empowers journalists covering the 2016 presidential campaign.
Led by Professor Jennifer Stromer-Galley and Assistant Professor Bryan Semaan, the panel will also feature Ph.D. students Feifei Zhang, Jerry Robinson, and Sam Jackson.
The panel begins at 7:00 PM in 347 Hinds Hall (Katzer Room) on Tuesday night, November 8.
The Illuminating 2016 project seeks to understand what indicators on social media can be used to determine support for presidential candidates. The researchers have found that journalists tend to look at the most easily observable metrics, such as followership rates. Yet, there are likely better indicators that can help determine electoral success
To achieve this objective, the project has been collecting Facebook and Twitter messages and images posted by major party presidential candidates. They have also collected Facebook comments, and retweets and mentions on Twitter.
Tuesday night’s panel discussion will examine some of the data collected by the project researchers, and provide interpretation about what the candidates and their supporters are saying across social media.
After the panel discussion concludes, attendees will be invited to stay and participate in an election night return watch party. Refreshments will be served.
Illuminating 2016 is supported by the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University and the Center for Computational and Data Sciences at the iSchool.