Drew Margolin
Biographic Data
| ID | 4448714 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Drew Margolin |
| GIVEN NAMES | Drew |
| FAMILY NAME | Margolin |
| SIGNATURE | MARGOLIN D |
| AFFILIATIONS | Cornell University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0257-6217 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 124 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 22 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Testing the effects of segmented crowdsource-selected messages to improve intentions to follow colorectal cancer screening recommendations
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a leading cause of cancer-related morbidity and mortality in the United States (U.S.). CRC screening (CRCS) is an important method of cancer prevention and early detection, but often receives less public attention than other cancer and screening types. Regular CRCS is recommended for most individuals aged 45–75, though screening rates are lower than desired in the U.S. Despite similar screening rates, Black Americans ex…
Time to politicization
Collective Information Seeking During a Health Crisis
This article approaches collective health information seeking from computational method by investigating patterns of Google Trends data in the United States during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyzed factors that prompted a community's curiosity, and information that communities were most curious about. The results of our cross-sectional and time-series-based analyses reveal a few salient findings: (1) Republican leaning states…
Investigating the Coverage of China’s Vaccine Crisis on YouTube
This study investigates how China’s domestic vaccine crisis in 2018 was politicized within Chinese video content on YouTube. The analysis, employing the Structural Topic Model, uncovered a notable hyper-politicization of the vaccine crisis in video comments, often diverging from the issue frames presented in video titles. Furthermore, inferential network analysis using the Exponential Random Graph Model revealed the hyper-politicized comments can…
Topic territoriality and the cost of civility
This article introduces the concept of “topic territoriality,” a mechanism that governs participation in conversational spaces. When a discussion becomes prone to territorialization, individuals are more likely to claim topics (participating in discussions about topics they own as “stakeholders”) and defer (reducing participation in topics owned by others). They are also more likely to patrol topic boundaries (monitoring who is participating and …
Standing up to problematic content on social media
Problematic content on social media can be countered through objections raised by other community members. While intended to deter offenses, objections can influence the surrounding audience observing the interaction, leading to their collective approval or disapproval. The results of an experiment manipulating seven types of objections against common types of offenses indicate audiences’ support for objections that implore via appeals and disapp…
Bursts of contemporaneous publication among high- and low-credibility online information providers
In studies of misinformation, the distinction between high- and low-credibility publishers is fundamental. However, there is much that we do not know about the relationship between the subject matter and timing of content produced by the two types of publishers. By analyzing the content of several million unique articles published over 28 months, we show that high- and low-credibility publishers operate in distinct news ecosystems. Bursts of news…
Heightened scrutiny
The success of the public display of restaurant hygiene scores has encouraged online review sites to display these scores digitally on their platforms. By investigating 225,252 Yelp reviews toward 1,937 restaurants in Charlotte, North Carolina, we find that while displaying hygiene scores digitally can inform consumers in a way that reduces bias in reviews, it paradoxically can also promote the creation of more reviews that are biased, something …
Sharing inequalities
Online reviews are found to mitigate racial discrimination in the sharing economy, but we argue that the chance of getting reviews is unequal for suppliers/workers of difference races. We test this logic with 16,674 hosts and 396,923 reviews on Airbnb in New York City. We find that the majority hosts (i.e. White) acquire their first review and third review (enough to trigger the publication of aggregate rating) more quickly than minority hosts (i…
Testing Strategies to Increase Source Credibility through Strategic Message Design in the Context of Vaccination and Vaccine Hesitancy
Health communicators in the United States face substantial challenges in their efforts to increase parent uptake of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine for their children. One major set of challenges involves low levels of trust in medical science behind vaccination safety and effectiveness, pharmaceutical companies who produce these vaccines, and government health agencies who promote vaccination. We conducted a two-wave randomized exp…
Food “taste” on Yelp
Styles of consumption indicate social status. This study aims to understand the influence of external constraints on status displays via two consumption styles – cultural omnivorousness and authenticity. Using a large-scale dataset of Yelp restaurant reviews and the 2015 American Community Survey, we find evidence that the ease – travel distance, neighborhood wealth, and the availability of culturally unique and authentic restaurants – with which…
Bigbirds Never Die
We examine the growth, survival, and context of 256 novel hashtags during the 2012 U.S. presidential debates. Our analysis reveals the trajectories of hashtag use fall into two distinct classes: "winners" that emerge more quickly and are sustained for longer periods of time than other "also-rans" hashtags. We propose a "conversational vibrancy" framework to capture dynamics of hashtags based on their topicality, interactivity, diversity, and prom…
Tweeting About Climate
This study examines tweets ( N = 1,103,119) sent by 638 US politicians regarding climate change ( N = 10,135). Using data reflecting the risks faced and opinions held by their constituents, the extent to which politicians lead-tweeting about climate change for those most at risk, called trusteeship-or follow-tweeting about climate change for those who are already concerned, called playing to the crowed-is examined. Results reveal that while Democ…
The Theory of Informative Fictions
This article derives a theory of informative fictions (TIF). Common forms of misinformation—fake news, rumors, and conspiracy theories—while dysfunctional for communicating property information—information about the state and operation of things—can actually be valuable for communicating character information—information about the motivations of social agents. It is argued that narratives containing “false facts” can effectively portray a speaker…
Computational Contributions
Though there is growing enthusiasm for computational research methods in the field of communication, research using computational methods is not yet integrated into mainstream communication research. This paper promotes such integration by highlighting niche for computational research within communication – the specialized roles it can play in symbiosis with researchers using other methods in the field. This paper articulates this niche via the c…
Twitter and climate change
Twitter provides a useful tool for studying public conversations about climate change, an issue that crosses international boundaries and stirs political and scientific debate. This review presents what is currently known about the way climate change is discussed on Twitter, acknowledging advantages and limitations and suggesting future areas for study. As an accessible platform, Twitter allows public expression of opinions on climate change and …
The emotional antecedents of solidarity in social media crowds
This study examines the organizational dynamics of social media crowds, in particular, the influence of a crowd’s emotional expression on its solidarity. To identify the relationship between emotions expressed and solidarity, marked by sustained participation in the crowd, the study uses tweets from a unique population of crowds—those tweeting about ongoing National Football League games. Observing this population permits the use of game results …
Political Fact-Checking on Twitter
Research suggests that fact checking corrections have only a limited impact on the spread of false rumors. However, research has not considered that fact-checking may be socially contingent, meaning there are social contexts in which truth may be more or less preferred. In particular, we argue that strong social connections between fact-checkers and rumor spreaders encourage the latter to prefer sharing accurate information, making them more like…
Wiki-worthy
The use of socio-technical data to predict elections is a growing research area. We argue that election prediction research suffers from under-specified theoretical models that do not properly distinguish between ‘poll-like’ and ‘prediction market-like’ mechanisms understand findings. More specifically, we argue that, in systems with strong norms and reputational feedback mechanisms, individuals have market-like incentives to bias content creatio…
Why so Similar
Communication Network Evolution in Organizational Communities
Organizational communities are typically defined as populations of organizations that are tied together by networks of communication and other relations in overlapping resource niches. Traditionally, evolutionary theorists and researchers have examined organizational populations that comprise organizational communities by focusing on their properties rather than on the networks that link them. However, a full understanding of the evolution of org…
New Technologies and International Broadcasting
International broadcasters, like all media institutions, adjust to reflect the existence of new distribution technologies. Technological change is part of a new media landscape that has rendered older definitions and contexts of international broadcasting insufficient. The pace and extent of adjustment differs among the players. Adaptations range from the superficial to the highly integrative and, on the other hand, from the merely adaptive to th…
Political Fact-Checking on Twitter
Research suggests that fact checking corrections have only a limited impact on the spread of false rumors. However, research has not considered that fact-checking may be socially contingent, meaning there are social contexts in which truth may be more or less preferred. In particular, we argue that strong social connections between fact-checkers and rumor spreaders encourage the latter to prefer sharing accurate information, making them more like…
Communication Network Evolution in Organizational Communities
Organizational communities are typically defined as populations of organizations that are tied together by networks of communication and other relations in overlapping resource niches. Traditionally, evolutionary theorists and researchers have examined organizational populations that comprise organizational communities by focusing on their properties rather than on the networks that link them. However, a full understanding of the evolution of org…
Twitter and climate change
Twitter provides a useful tool for studying public conversations about climate change, an issue that crosses international boundaries and stirs political and scientific debate. This review presents what is currently known about the way climate change is discussed on Twitter, acknowledging advantages and limitations and suggesting future areas for study. As an accessible platform, Twitter allows public expression of opinions on climate change and …
New Technologies and International Broadcasting
International broadcasters, like all media institutions, adjust to reflect the existence of new distribution technologies. Technological change is part of a new media landscape that has rendered older definitions and contexts of international broadcasting insufficient. The pace and extent of adjustment differs among the players. Adaptations range from the superficial to the highly integrative and, on the other hand, from the merely adaptive to th…
The emotional antecedents of solidarity in social media crowds
This study examines the organizational dynamics of social media crowds, in particular, the influence of a crowd’s emotional expression on its solidarity. To identify the relationship between emotions expressed and solidarity, marked by sustained participation in the crowd, the study uses tweets from a unique population of crowds—those tweeting about ongoing National Football League games. Observing this population permits the use of game results …
Tweeting About Climate
This study examines tweets ( N = 1,103,119) sent by 638 US politicians regarding climate change ( N = 10,135). Using data reflecting the risks faced and opinions held by their constituents, the extent to which politicians lead-tweeting about climate change for those most at risk, called trusteeship-or follow-tweeting about climate change for those who are already concerned, called playing to the crowed-is examined. Results reveal that while Democ…
Bigbirds Never Die
We examine the growth, survival, and context of 256 novel hashtags during the 2012 U.S. presidential debates. Our analysis reveals the trajectories of hashtag use fall into two distinct classes: "winners" that emerge more quickly and are sustained for longer periods of time than other "also-rans" hashtags. We propose a "conversational vibrancy" framework to capture dynamics of hashtags based on their topicality, interactivity, diversity, and prom…
Computational Contributions
Though there is growing enthusiasm for computational research methods in the field of communication, research using computational methods is not yet integrated into mainstream communication research. This paper promotes such integration by highlighting niche for computational research within communication – the specialized roles it can play in symbiosis with researchers using other methods in the field. This paper articulates this niche via the c…
Bursts of contemporaneous publication among high- and low-credibility online information providers
In studies of misinformation, the distinction between high- and low-credibility publishers is fundamental. However, there is much that we do not know about the relationship between the subject matter and timing of content produced by the two types of publishers. By analyzing the content of several million unique articles published over 28 months, we show that high- and low-credibility publishers operate in distinct news ecosystems. Bursts of news…
Sharing inequalities
Online reviews are found to mitigate racial discrimination in the sharing economy, but we argue that the chance of getting reviews is unequal for suppliers/workers of difference races. We test this logic with 16,674 hosts and 396,923 reviews on Airbnb in New York City. We find that the majority hosts (i.e. White) acquire their first review and third review (enough to trigger the publication of aggregate rating) more quickly than minority hosts (i…
The Theory of Informative Fictions
This article derives a theory of informative fictions (TIF). Common forms of misinformation—fake news, rumors, and conspiracy theories—while dysfunctional for communicating property information—information about the state and operation of things—can actually be valuable for communicating character information—information about the motivations of social agents. It is argued that narratives containing “false facts” can effectively portray a speaker…
Food “taste” on Yelp
Styles of consumption indicate social status. This study aims to understand the influence of external constraints on status displays via two consumption styles – cultural omnivorousness and authenticity. Using a large-scale dataset of Yelp restaurant reviews and the 2015 American Community Survey, we find evidence that the ease – travel distance, neighborhood wealth, and the availability of culturally unique and authentic restaurants – with which…
Communication Network Evolution in Organizational Communities
Organizational communities are typically defined as populations of organizations that are tied together by networks of communication and other relations in overlapping resource niches. Traditionally, evolutionary theorists and researchers have examined organizational populations that comprise organizational communities by focusing on their properties rather than on the networks that link them. However, a full understanding of the evolution of org…
New Technologies and International Broadcasting
International broadcasters, like all media institutions, adjust to reflect the existence of new distribution technologies. Technological change is part of a new media landscape that has rendered older definitions and contexts of international broadcasting insufficient. The pace and extent of adjustment differs among the players. Adaptations range from the superficial to the highly integrative and, on the other hand, from the merely adaptive to th…
Why so Similar
Wiki-worthy
The use of socio-technical data to predict elections is a growing research area. We argue that election prediction research suffers from under-specified theoretical models that do not properly distinguish between ‘poll-like’ and ‘prediction market-like’ mechanisms understand findings. More specifically, we argue that, in systems with strong norms and reputational feedback mechanisms, individuals have market-like incentives to bias content creatio…
Twitter and climate change
Twitter provides a useful tool for studying public conversations about climate change, an issue that crosses international boundaries and stirs political and scientific debate. This review presents what is currently known about the way climate change is discussed on Twitter, acknowledging advantages and limitations and suggesting future areas for study. As an accessible platform, Twitter allows public expression of opinions on climate change and …
The emotional antecedents of solidarity in social media crowds
This study examines the organizational dynamics of social media crowds, in particular, the influence of a crowd’s emotional expression on its solidarity. To identify the relationship between emotions expressed and solidarity, marked by sustained participation in the crowd, the study uses tweets from a unique population of crowds—those tweeting about ongoing National Football League games. Observing this population permits the use of game results …
Political Fact-Checking on Twitter
Research suggests that fact checking corrections have only a limited impact on the spread of false rumors. However, research has not considered that fact-checking may be socially contingent, meaning there are social contexts in which truth may be more or less preferred. In particular, we argue that strong social connections between fact-checkers and rumor spreaders encourage the latter to prefer sharing accurate information, making them more like…
Computational Contributions
Though there is growing enthusiasm for computational research methods in the field of communication, research using computational methods is not yet integrated into mainstream communication research. This paper promotes such integration by highlighting niche for computational research within communication – the specialized roles it can play in symbiosis with researchers using other methods in the field. This paper articulates this niche via the c…
The Theory of Informative Fictions
This article derives a theory of informative fictions (TIF). Common forms of misinformation—fake news, rumors, and conspiracy theories—while dysfunctional for communicating property information—information about the state and operation of things—can actually be valuable for communicating character information—information about the motivations of social agents. It is argued that narratives containing “false facts” can effectively portray a speaker…
Testing Strategies to Increase Source Credibility through Strategic Message Design in the Context of Vaccination and Vaccine Hesitancy
Health communicators in the United States face substantial challenges in their efforts to increase parent uptake of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine for their children. One major set of challenges involves low levels of trust in medical science behind vaccination safety and effectiveness, pharmaceutical companies who produce these vaccines, and government health agencies who promote vaccination. We conducted a two-wave randomized exp…
Food “taste” on Yelp
Styles of consumption indicate social status. This study aims to understand the influence of external constraints on status displays via two consumption styles – cultural omnivorousness and authenticity. Using a large-scale dataset of Yelp restaurant reviews and the 2015 American Community Survey, we find evidence that the ease – travel distance, neighborhood wealth, and the availability of culturally unique and authentic restaurants – with which…
Bigbirds Never Die
We examine the growth, survival, and context of 256 novel hashtags during the 2012 U.S. presidential debates. Our analysis reveals the trajectories of hashtag use fall into two distinct classes: "winners" that emerge more quickly and are sustained for longer periods of time than other "also-rans" hashtags. We propose a "conversational vibrancy" framework to capture dynamics of hashtags based on their topicality, interactivity, diversity, and prom…
Tweeting About Climate
This study examines tweets ( N = 1,103,119) sent by 638 US politicians regarding climate change ( N = 10,135). Using data reflecting the risks faced and opinions held by their constituents, the extent to which politicians lead-tweeting about climate change for those most at risk, called trusteeship-or follow-tweeting about climate change for those who are already concerned, called playing to the crowed-is examined. Results reveal that while Democ…
Heightened scrutiny
The success of the public display of restaurant hygiene scores has encouraged online review sites to display these scores digitally on their platforms. By investigating 225,252 Yelp reviews toward 1,937 restaurants in Charlotte, North Carolina, we find that while displaying hygiene scores digitally can inform consumers in a way that reduces bias in reviews, it paradoxically can also promote the creation of more reviews that are biased, something …
Sharing inequalities
Online reviews are found to mitigate racial discrimination in the sharing economy, but we argue that the chance of getting reviews is unequal for suppliers/workers of difference races. We test this logic with 16,674 hosts and 396,923 reviews on Airbnb in New York City. We find that the majority hosts (i.e. White) acquire their first review and third review (enough to trigger the publication of aggregate rating) more quickly than minority hosts (i…
Standing up to problematic content on social media
Problematic content on social media can be countered through objections raised by other community members. While intended to deter offenses, objections can influence the surrounding audience observing the interaction, leading to their collective approval or disapproval. The results of an experiment manipulating seven types of objections against common types of offenses indicate audiences’ support for objections that implore via appeals and disapp…
Bursts of contemporaneous publication among high- and low-credibility online information providers
In studies of misinformation, the distinction between high- and low-credibility publishers is fundamental. However, there is much that we do not know about the relationship between the subject matter and timing of content produced by the two types of publishers. By analyzing the content of several million unique articles published over 28 months, we show that high- and low-credibility publishers operate in distinct news ecosystems. Bursts of news…
Collective Information Seeking During a Health Crisis
This article approaches collective health information seeking from computational method by investigating patterns of Google Trends data in the United States during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyzed factors that prompted a community's curiosity, and information that communities were most curious about. The results of our cross-sectional and time-series-based analyses reveal a few salient findings: (1) Republican leaning states…
Investigating the Coverage of China’s Vaccine Crisis on YouTube
This study investigates how China’s domestic vaccine crisis in 2018 was politicized within Chinese video content on YouTube. The analysis, employing the Structural Topic Model, uncovered a notable hyper-politicization of the vaccine crisis in video comments, often diverging from the issue frames presented in video titles. Furthermore, inferential network analysis using the Exponential Random Graph Model revealed the hyper-politicized comments can…
Topic territoriality and the cost of civility
This article introduces the concept of “topic territoriality,” a mechanism that governs participation in conversational spaces. When a discussion becomes prone to territorialization, individuals are more likely to claim topics (participating in discussions about topics they own as “stakeholders”) and defer (reducing participation in topics owned by others). They are also more likely to patrol topic boundaries (monitoring who is participating and …
Time to politicization
Testing the effects of segmented crowdsource-selected messages to improve intentions to follow colorectal cancer screening recommendations
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a leading cause of cancer-related morbidity and mortality in the United States (U.S.). CRC screening (CRCS) is an important method of cancer prevention and early detection, but often receives less public attention than other cancer and screening types. Regular CRCS is recommended for most individuals aged 45–75, though screening rates are lower than desired in the U.S. Despite similar screening rates, Black Americans ex…
Computer Science (15 works) · Sociology (14 works) · Political science (13 works) · Psychology (13 works) · Social Media and Politics (12 works) · Economics (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Politics (6 works) · Social media (6 works) · Social Psychology (6 works)