RESEARCH

My research examines how digital technologies are reshaping our communication and information environment. My work spans visual and multimodal media, the distribution of attention on digital platforms, and public responses to emerging technologies. I also develop computational methods for social science, including computer vision for large-scale visual analysis and AI-assisted approaches to theory development. Across these projects, I am interested in how media and technology shape what becomes visible, credible, and consequential in public life.

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Visual Media, Credibility, and Influence

Images and videos are increasingly how people encounter news, politics, and science. My work examines both the production and effects of visual content: why some images and videos gain visibility, how visual features make content appear trustworthy or persuasive, and how audiences respond to visual misinformation. With the rise of AI-generated media, I also investigate how synthetic content affects trust in visual media and what interventions help address these challenges. This research spans political communication, social movements, climate change, and data visualization.

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Media, Attention, and Digital Platforms

My work also examines how digital platforms organize and distribute attention. I am especially interested in the interplay among media producers, platform algorithms, and audiences: how outlets pursue visibility and engagement, how algorithms allocate attention, and how audiences choose their media diets. A recurring theme is the attention economy, the incentives it creates for news production, and its consequences for democratic discourse.

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Computational Methods for Social Science

My methodological work develops computational approaches for computational social science. I focus on visual and multimodal data, and develop and apply computer vision methods to the study of visuals at scale. Recently, I examine the use of AI for social science research, including how large language models generate hypotheses, advance theories, and interpret complex media messages. I also develop open-source tools and workflows that make computational methods more accessible to other researchers.

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Science, Technology, and Public Opinion

I study how people form opinions about emerging technologies and contested scientific issues. I examine how political values and worldviews shape responses to technologies such as facial recognition and self-driving cars, particularly when questions of fairness and collective welfare are involved. I have also examined how these same forces shape public responses to COVID-19, vaccination, and other politically contested areas of science.