The Social Media and Democracy research group is a student-faculty research collaborative focused on the study of user-created digital media and its political and social implications. It is broadly concerned with the implications of the Internet for Democracy, with particular attention to the blogosphere, social networking, and peer-to-peer communication in online settings. Our research seeks to examine the connection between digital media and civic and political life. We take a variety of approaches to explore these issues. In Fall 2006, we collected multi-level survey data from a cross-section of the top political bloggers and thousands of visitors to these blogs. This nested data allowed us to explore the interplay between the authors and audience of political blogs and examine the consequences of these interactions. In Spring and Summer 2007, we conducted a series of online survey experiments concerning online incivility and formal features of political blogs to understand how these factors influence perceptions and judgments. In Spring and Fall 2008 we have conducted a number of national panel surveys, both from a random sample of American adults and from the readership of top political blogs -- to look at change over time in the links between new media use and various forms of election engagement.

Descriptions of our studies, papers we have written and contact information for our members are available on this site.