Sandra González-Bailón, Ph.D.
- Associate Professor of Communication
Sandra González-Bailón's research areas include network science, data mining, computational tools, and political communication. Her applied research focuses on the analysis of social media, political protests, mobilization dynamics, information diffusion, and news consumption.
Sandra González-Bailón is an Associate Professor at the Annenberg School for Communication, and affiliated faculty at the Warren Center for Network and Data Sciences. Prior to joining Penn, she was a Research Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute (2008-2013). She completed her doctoral degree in Nuffield College (University of Oxford) and her undergraduate studies at the University of Barcelona.
Her research lies at the intersection of network science, data mining, computational tools, and political communication. Her applied research looks at how online networks shape exposure to information, with implications for how we think about political engagement, mobilization dynamics, information diffusion, and news consumption.
Her articles have appeared in journals like PNAS, Nature, Science, Political Communication, The Journal of Communication, and Social Networks, among others. She is the author of the book Decoding the Social World (MIT Press, 2017) and co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Networked Communication (OUP, 2020). She serves as Associate Editor for the journals Social Networks, EPJ Data Science, and The International Journal of Press/Politics, and she is a member of the Board of Reviewing Editors for Science. She leads the research group DiMeNet (/daɪmnet/) — acronym for Digital Media, Networks, and Political Communication.
Education
- M.S., University of Oxford, 2004
- Ph.D., University of Oxford, 2007
Selected Publications
“Meaningful measures of human society in the twenty-first century.” Nature, 2021.
“Computational social science: Obstacles and opportunities.” Science, 2020.
Her full list of publications can be found here.
Courses
- COMM 2130 (formerly 213) Social Media and Social Life
- COMM 3670 (formerly 367) Communication in the Networked Age
- COMM 4070 (formerly 407) Understanding Social Networks
- COMM 5940 (formerly 594) Introduction to Networks
- COMM 6840 (formerly 684) Data Visualization for Research
- COMM 8010 (formerly 801) Filter Bubbles, Long Tails, & Information Cascades: Methodology for a Fragmented Media Environment
- COMM 8510 (formerly 851) Social Media and Political Information
- COMM 4360 (formerly 436) Data Literacy in the Algorithmic Society
- COMM 6120 Meaningful Measures in a Data-Driven World
Annenberg Presentations at ICA 2022
The International Communication Association will be hosting a hybrid conference this year with the in-person sessions in Paris.
Sandra González-Bailón on Video
In this faculty profile, Sandra González-Bailón talks about her research on networks and how the composition of our social media feeds increasingly shape our lives.
In her newest book, "Decoding the Social World," Sandra González-Bailón explains how new tools allow us to understand social life through the lens of digital data.
González-Bailón's team developed a new methodology for understanding the communication dynamics that underlie large scale social action.
González-Bailón's research finds that peripheral "slacktivists" around a social protest double the reach of the core protesters' message.