The Algorithms and Culture Research Group (ACRG) led by Associate Professor Brian Ekdale brings together faculty and graduate students from the humanities, social sciences, and computational sciences to explore the political, social, and cultural implications of algorithms used by social media platforms. The group is currently engaged in two large-scale research projects funded by the Minerva Research Initiative: the first studies the relationship between personalization algorithms and online radicalization and the second examines the spread of strategic information operations on social media.
ACRG was formed in 2015 as an interdisciplinary reading group based at the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies. Over time, ACRG evolved into a research group committed to true interdisciplinarity, guided by the belief that their work is strengthened by incorporating insights, theories, and methodologies from a variety of academic paradigms.
Members of the ACRG come from five universities (University of Iowa, Penn State University, Drake University, Washington University in St. Louis, Appalachian State University) and several different academic departments, including Journalism & Mass Communication, Communication Studies, Computer Science, African and African American Studies, and Film and Media Studies.
Publications
Dunna, A., Keith, K., Zuckerman, E., Vallina-Rodriguez, N., O’Connor, B., and Nithyanand, R. (2022) Paying attention to the algorithm behind the curtain: Bringing transparency to YouTube’s demonetization algorithms. Proceedings of 2022 ACM SIGCHI Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW 2022).
Habib, H., Musa, M., Zaffar, F., and Nithyanand, R. (2022) Are proactive interventions for Reddit communities feasible. Proceedings of 2022 AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM 2022).
Habib, H., and Nithyanand, R. (2022) Exploring the magnitude and effects of media influence on Reddit. Proceedings of 2022 AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM 2022).
Habib, H., Srinivasan, P., and Nithyanand, R. (2022) How participation, interaction, and perception in online communities increase radical behavior. Proceedings of 2022 ACM SIGCHI Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW 2022).
Le, H., Maragh, R., Ekdale, B., High, A., Havens, T., & Shafiq, Z. (2019) Measuring political personalization of Google news search. Proceedings of the 2019 The World Wide Web Conference (WWW 2019).
Peterson, A., High, A., Maragh-Lloyd, R., Stoldt, R., & Ekdale, B. (2022) Trust in online search results during uncertain times. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 66(5): 751-771.
Stoldt, R., Maragh-Lloyd, R., Havens, T., Ekdale, B., & High, A. C. (2023). Using racial discourse communities to audit personalization algorithms. Communication, Culture & Critique. 13(3), 158–165.
Biddle, K., Ekdale, B., High, A., Stoldt, R., & Maragh-Lloyd, R. (2024). Beyond ‘lulz’ and ‘keyboard warriors’: Exploring the relationship between trolling and radicalization. Information, Communication & Society. Advanced online publication.