Democracy and Information Group
Exploring the impact of political communication and other forms of information on civil society, with an emphasis on the impact of new media on polarization and incivility
The Democracy and Information Group (DIG) explores the impact of political communication and other forms of information on civil society. In researching these questions, we bring insights from political behavior, political communication, and political psychology and tools from across the social sciences, including experiments, survey research, network analyses, and computational social science. Recent projects from DIG members examine whether search engines are biased against local news, the roots of polarization, and whether social media platforms can be redesigned to promote higher quality political discussions.
DIG meets every two weeks, and if you're a Penn graduate student interested in these topics and joining the conversation, please contact Professor Yphtach Lelkes.
Photo Credit (top image): RoBird / Shutterstock
Cable News Networks Have Grown More Polarized, Study Finds
An analysis of 10 years of cable TV news reveals a growing partisan gap as networks like Fox and MSNBC have shifted to the right or the left of the political spectrum, especially in their primetime programming.
Joint Doctoral Student Tyler Leigh Studies the Impact of Social Media on Politics
DIG on Video
Yphtach Lelkes explains why probabilistic political polling is misleading to the public, and can even swing the results of an election.
Lelkes explains the history and growth of affective polarization - the degree to which Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. don't just disagree on policy, but actually dislike one another as groups.