Speaker:

David Lazer, Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Computer Sciences, Northeastern University

Title:

The Emergent Structure of the Online Information Ecosystem

Abstract:

This presentation examines the emergent and sometimes paradoxical logic of the internet news ecosystem, in particular: (1) collectively, news diets have become far more concentrated in a small number of outlets; (2) however, individuals have relatively diverse news diets-- almost certainly far more diverse than was plausible pre-Internet (as measured by number of unique content producers); (3) the social-algorithmic curation system of the Internet tends to point people to content with their preferences, sometimes in unlikely places. The greater diversity of consumption of news measured by number of unique outlets may not actually result in diversity of content.

Speaker Bio:

David Lazer is University Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Computer Sciences at Northeastern University. He has published widely on topics in computational social science, democratic deliberation, collective intelligence, and misinformation. He is cofounder and coleader of the Civic Health and Institutions Project (CHIP50), an ongoing 50 state survey evaluating the state of US democracy, and lead PI of the National Internet Observatory, a large ($16m) NSF supported data collection/sharing infrastructure designed to support the research on the platforms of the internet.

Location:

In person: Chambers Hall, 600 Foster Street, Lower Level
Remote option: https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/93154752168
Passcode: NICO25

About the Speaker Series:

Wednesdays@NICO is a vibrant weekly seminar series focusing broadly on the topics of complex systems, data science and network science. It brings together attendees ranging from graduate students to senior faculty who span all of the schools across Northwestern, from applied math to sociology to biology and every discipline in-between. Please visit: https://bit.ly/WedatNICO for information on future speakers.

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