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Josephine Lukito

Biographic Data

ID106294
NAMEJosephine Lukito
GIVEN NAMESJosephine
FAMILY NAMELukito
SIGNATURELUKITO J
AFFILIATIONSThe University of Texas at Austin
ORCID0000-0002-0771-1070
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS37
TOTAL CITATIONS369
AUTHOR COUNT37
EDITOR COUNT0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR2015
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2026
H-INDEX10
  • Cross-platformization

    Open Access•Josephine Lukito, Yini Zhang et al.•ARTICLE•New Media & Society•2026

    This study examines how seven right-leaning media organizations utilize cross-platformization strategies to reach audiences across multiple platforms; in this case, Twitter and Truth Social. Focusing on both content volume and story packaging, we collect right-leaning media organizations’ social media posts and content from the 2022 U.S. midterm election. Combining computational and qualitative methods, we find that outlets posted only a small sh…

  • New Tech, Same Goals

    Josephine Lukito•ARTICLE•Journal of Media Ethics•2026

    From the printing press to social media, political leaders and elected officials have long sought to use technology to persuade citizens. Artificial intelligence (and, specifically, generative AI)

  • Price, proficiency, or permission

    Open Access•Josephine Lukito, Kayo Mimizuka•ARTICLE•Information Communication & Society•2026

  • Political Communication Special Issue Introduction

    Josephine Lukito, Meredith L Pruden et al.•ARTICLE•Political Communication•2026

    In this introduction to the Multi-Platform Research Special Issue, we continue a field-wide discussion regarding how political communication scholars conduct multi-platform research. Despite the continued challenges to develop both robust methods and longstanding theoretical frameworks, political communication research that accounts for multiple platforms has continued to grow. In addition to noting these challenges, we outline a framework to dis…

  • Style and substance on The Alex Jones Show predict InfoWars sales

    Ross Dahlke, Yunkang Yang et al.•ARTICLE•Information Communication & Society•2026

  • Making academia suck less

    Open Access•Megan A Brown, Josephine Lukito et al.•ARTICLE•New Media & Society•2026•Cited by: 1•References: 67

    Early career researchers (ECR) in communication and media research face increasing problems and stressors due to systemic challenges in academia, including the precarity of being an ECR and the politicization of research and targeting of researchers. For researchers studying harmful content online (HCO), research-related trauma (RRT) can compound these stressors. In this study, we present results from interviews with 18 ECRs from communication st…

  • Candidates Be Posting

    Open Access•Josephine Lukito, Maggie Macdonald et al.•ARTICLE•Social Media + Society•2025•References: 31

    In this multi-platform, comparative study, we analyze social media messages from political candidates ( N = 1,517) running for Congress during the 2022 U.S. Midterm election. We collect data from seven social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Truth Social, Gettr, Instagram, YouTube, and Rumble over the 4 weeks before and after election day. With this unique dataset of posts, we apply computational methods to identify messages that sought to mob…

  • The consequences of “The Bird is Free”

    Open Access•Gyo Hyun Koo, Josephine Lukito et al.•ARTICLE•New Media & Society•2025•References: 10

    This research uses Twitter discourse about LGBTQIA+ people as a case study to investigate how changes in social media platform management and policies affect conversations about marginalized communities in digital spaces. We examine Twitter discourse before and after Elon Musk’s acquisition and the immediate dismantling of content moderation efforts to identify changes in aversiveness in conversations about LGBTQIA+ people and users’ engagement w…

  • Does Social Media Level the Political Field or Reinforce Existing Inequalities? Cartographies of the 2022 Brazilian Election

    André K Rodarte, Josephine Lukito•ARTICLE•Political Communication•2025•Cited by: 2•References: 48

  • Audio-as-Data Tools

    Open Access•Josephine Lukito, Jason Greenfield et al.•ARTICLE•Media and Communication•2024

    The rise of audio-as-data in social science research accentuates a fundamental challenge: establishing reproducible and reliable methodologies to guide this emerging area of study. In this study, we focus on the reproducibility of audio-as-data preparation methods in computational communication research and evaluate the accuracy of popular audio-as-data tools. We analyze automated transcription and computational phonology tools applied to 200 epi…

  • Connective action in Myanmar

    Josephine Lukito, Taeyoung Lee et al.•ARTICLE•Information Communication & Society•2024

    While scholars have studied democratic backsliding in the West, rapid democratic backsliding in the Global South is relatively underexplored, and the role of social media is unclear. Through a mixed-methods analysis of pro and anti-military Facebook and Telegram posts and offline protests and state violence in the backsliding democracy of Myanmar, our research expands current understandings of connective action in the Global South. Supported by b…

  • The Manifestation of Affective Polarization on Social Media

    Open Access•Christian Staal Bruun Overgaard, Josephine Lukito et al.•ARTICLE•Proceedings of the International…•2024

    This project explores how affective polarization, hostility towards people’s political adversaries, manifests on social media. Whereas prior attempts have relied on sentiment analysis and bag-of-word approaches, we use supervised machine learning to capture the nuances of affective polarization in text on social media. Specifically, we fine-tune BERT to build a classifier that identifies expressions of affective polarization in posts shared on Fa…

  • Trump, Twitter, and Truth Social

    Yini Zhang, Josephine Lukito et al.•ARTICLE•Journal of Information Technology…•2024•Cited by: 9•References: 7

    Former President Donald Trump is well-known for dominating the attention-driven hybrid media system through his controversial tweets, which spurred social media user engagement and news media attention. The removal of Trump from Twitter/X raises questions about his continued ability to drive news attention through his alt-tech platform, Truth Social. Our analysis shows that the retweets and "retruths" Trump gained predicted related news attention…

  • Critical computation

    Open Access•Josephine Lukito, Meredith L Pruden•ARTICLE•Review of Communication•2023

    In this theoretical piece, we discuss the limitations of using purely computational techniques to study big language data produced by people online. Instead, we advocate for mixed-method approaches that are able to more critically evaluate and consider the individual and social impact of this data. We propose one approach that combines qualitative, traditional quantitative, and computational methods for the study of language and text. Such approa…

  • Attacks Against Journalists in Brazil

    Open Access•Joao V S Ozawa, Josephine Lukito et al.•ARTICLE•The International Journal of…•2023•Cited by: 2•References: 25

    Attacks on journalists have become a growing concern in democracies around the world. Past scholarship suggests that such attacks could lead to a chilling effect of journalists self-censoring their reporting. However, there is limited empirical work that substantiates the effects of attacks on journalists. To empirically test the existence of chilling effects, this mixed-methods study uses the conditions of journalism under Jair Bolsonaro’s gover…

  • No Reason[.] [I]t /Should/ Happen here”

    Josephine Lukito, Jacob Gursky et al.•ARTICLE•Political Communication•2023•Cited by: 2•References: 6

    As digitally organized, conspiratorial extremist groups gain more attention in the United States, researchers face increasing calls to better understand their in-group and out-group communication strategies. Using the QAnon conspiracy community as a case study, we use data from news coverage, social media, and ethnographic field work surrounding a prominent QAnon conference to analyze the uptake and aftermath of a controversial comment made by a …

  • Scholarly Solidarity

    Josephine Lukito•ARTICLE•Political Communication•2023•References: 15

    The goal of this reflective essay is to highlight challenges that junior and minority political communication researchers face and to advocate for scholarly solidarity practices, defined as actions that maintain social ties between researchers. In particular, I would like to thank Dr. Yunkang Yang, Dr. Meredith Pruden, Dr. Anita Varma, Dr. Yini Zhang, Megan Brown, and Dr. Riedl for their feedback on earlier versions of this piece.Disclosure state…

  • Network Amplification of Politicized Information and Misinformation about Covid-19 by Conservative Media and Partisan Influencers on Twitter

    Yini Zhang, Fan Chen et al.•ARTICLE•Political Communication•2023•Cited by: 18•References: 81

    Social media amplification is both a mechanism to attract public attention and a process of information diffusion shaped by the online social network structure. This study focuses on amplification by elites on social media and examines the extent to which traditional media and emerging partisan influencers engage in “network amplification.” Defined as like-minded elites sharing similar or/and mutual messages, network amplification highlights the …

  • Comparing the #StopTheSteal Movement across Multiple Platforms

    Open Access•Bin Chen, Josephine Lukito et al.•ARTICLE•Social Media + Society•2023•Cited by: 5•References: 59

    Given that political groups are dispersed across platforms, resulting in different discourses, there is a need for more studies comparing communication across platforms. In this study, we compared posts about #StopTheSteal from three social media platforms after the 2020 US Presidential election and preceding the January 6 Capitol Riot. To do so, we utilized Snow and Benford's typology of social movement frames-diagnostic, prognostic, and motivat…

  • Representing 'The People

    Open Access•André K Rodarte, Torie Hyunsik Kim et al.•ARTICLE•Social Media + Society•2023•Cited by: 1•References: 50

    This study explores the visual content posted by far-right populist parliamentarians in Brazil, asking how 'the people' are represented through imagery. Scholars have previously argued that populists have failed to foster the voice of 'the people' in Latin America, but have they also failed to signify and cultivate an authentic visual representation of them? To answer this question, we collected the social media imagery posted by federal deputies…

  • Political Influencers on Social Media

    Open Access•Martin J Riedl, Josephine Lukito et al.•ARTICLE•Social Media + Society•2023•Cited by: 11•References: 34

    Influencers are omnipresent on social media platforms. They occupy important digital real estate across a range of topical domains including beauty, fashion, and gaming. While researchers have contributed important work on the respective role that authenticity plays for influencers' success and have described a burgeoning industry within the larger domain of social media entertainment, comparably little is known about what happens when influencer…

  • States vs. Social Movements

    Open Access•Josephine Lukito, Zhe Cui et al.•ARTICLE•Media and Communication•2022

    This study considers how governments use state-sponsored propaganda and state violence in tandem to repress social movements and, in so doing, exacerbate polarization. We specifically focus on cases in young and non-democracies in East and Southeast Asia: China and Hong Kong, the Free Papua Movement in Indonesia, and Myanmar’s more recent coup. Using a time series analysis, our analysis reveals a temporal relationship between state propaganda and…

  • Algorithmic Agents in the Hybrid Media System

    Open Access•Z Duan, Jianing Li et al.•ARTICLE•Human Communication Research•2022

    Social bots, or algorithmic agents that amplify certain viewpoints and interact with selected actors on social media, may influence online discussion, news attention, or even public opinion through coordinated action. Previous research has documented the presence of bot activities and developed detection algorithms. Yet, how social bots influence attention dynamics of the hybrid media system remains understudied. Leveraging a large collection of …

  • Competing for attention on Twitter during the 2012 and 2016 U.S. presidential debates

    Josephine Lukito, Jon Pevehouse et al.•ARTICLE•Journal of Information Technology…•2022•Cited by: 1•References: 28

    This study explores how Presidential candidates compete for Twitter attention during a televised debate using two datasets of tweets posted during the first 2012 and 2016 U.S. Presidential debates. Using a time series analysis, we find that both debates exhibited zero-sum attention dynamics such that when one candidate gained attention, the other lost attention. However, our error correction models also revealed that the attention dynamics of Rom…

  • Assembling the Networks and Audiences of Disinformation

    Open Access•Yini Zhang, Josephine Lukito et al.•ARTICLE•Journal of Communication•2021

    This study investigates how successful Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA) Twitter accounts constructed the followings that were central to their disinformation campaigns around the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Treating an account’s social media following as both an ego network and an audience critical for information diffusion and influence accrual, we situate IRA Twitter accounts’ accumulation of followers in the ideologically polarized,…

Next
  • How Trump Drove Coverage to the Nomination

    Caroline Wells, Chris Wells et al.•ARTICLE•Political Communication•2016•Cited by: 95•References: 12

    Keywords: political communicationpresidentcampaignTrumphybridTwittertweet2016electionpublic opinionnewspaperdigital

  • Coordinating a Multi-Platform Disinformation Campaign

    Josephine Lukito•ARTICLE•Political Communication•2019•Cited by: 58•References: 48

    Though nation-states have long utilized disinformation to influence foreign audiences, Russia’s 2015 to 2017 campaign against the U.S.—executed by the Internet Research Agency (IRA) —is unique in its complexity and distribution through the digital communication ecology. The following study explores IRA activity on three social media platforms, Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit, to understand how activities on these sites were temporally coordinated. …

  • Trump, Twitter, and news media responsiveness

    Open Access•Caroline Wells, Dhavan V Shah et al.•ARTICLE•New Media & Society•2020•Cited by: 40•References: 20

    How populists engage with media of various types, and are treated by those media, are questions of international interest. In the United States, Donald Trump stands out for both his populism-inflected campaign style and his success at attracting media attention. This article examines how interactions between candidate communications, social media, partisan media, and news media combined to shape attention to Trump, Clinton, Cruz, and Sanders duri…

  • Black Trolls Matter

    Open Access•Deen Freelon, Michael Bossetta et al.•ARTICLE•Social Science Computer Review•2020•Cited by: 33•References: 7

    The recent rise of disinformation and propaganda on social media has attracted strong interest from social scientists. Research on the topic has repeatedly observed ideological asymmetries in disinformation content and reception, wherein conservatives are more likely to view, redistribute, and believe such content. However, preliminary evidence has suggested that race may also play a substantial role in determining the targeting and consumption o…

  • Performing populism

    Open Access•Erik P Bucy, Jordan Foley et al.•ARTICLE•New Media & Society•2020•Cited by: 26•References: 19

    Populism, as many have observed, is a communication phenomenon as much as a coherent ideology whose mass appeal stems from the fiery articulation of core positions, notably hostility toward “others,” bias against elites in favor of “the people,” and the transgressive delivery of those messages. Yet much of what we know about populist communication is based on analysis of candidate pronouncements, the verbal message conveyed at political events an…

  • The Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing

    Open Access•Josephine Lukito, J Suk et al.•ARTICLE•The International Journal of…•2019•Cited by: 20•References: 29

    The Russian-sponsored Internet Research Agency’s (IRA) use of social media to influence U.S. political discourse is undoubtedly troubling. However, scholarly attention has focused on social media, overlooking the role that news media within the country played in amplifying false, foreign messages. In this article, we examine articles in the U.S. news media system that quoted IRA tweets through the lens of changing journalism practices in the hybr…

  • Network Amplification of Politicized Information and Misinformation about Covid-19 by Conservative Media and Partisan Influencers on Twitter

    Yini Zhang, Fan Chen et al.•ARTICLE•Political Communication•2023•Cited by: 18•References: 81

    Social media amplification is both a mechanism to attract public attention and a process of information diffusion shaped by the online social network structure. This study focuses on amplification by elites on social media and examines the extent to which traditional media and emerging partisan influencers engage in “network amplification.” Defined as like-minded elites sharing similar or/and mutual messages, network amplification highlights the …

  • The rise of the dragon? Framing China’s global leadership in elite American newspapers

    Open Access•Guy J Golan, Josephine Lukito•ARTICLE•International Communication Gazette•2015•Cited by: 16•References: 38

    The current study analyzes the framing of China’s emergence as a global power in the opinion pages of two elite newspapers. The study expands upon previous studies examining newspaper opinion gatekeepers’ use of the editorial and opposite-editorial pages as salient platforms for the expression of diverse opinion regarding foreign affairs. Results show that the New York Times framed China as a global power undermined by structural limitations, whi…

  • Whose Lives Matter? Mass Shootings and Social Media Discourses of Sympathy and Policy, 2012–2014

    Open Access•Yini Zhang, Dhavan V Shah et al.•ARTICLE•Journal of Computer-Mediated…•2019•Cited by: 12•References: 11

    This study focuses on the outpouring of sympathy in response to mass shootings and the contestation over gun policy on Twitter from 2012 to 2014 and relates these discourses to features of mass shooting events. We use two approaches to Twitter text analysis—hashtag grouping and supervised machine learning (ML)—to triangulate an understanding of intensity and duration of “thoughts and prayers,” gun control, and gun rights discourses. We conduct pa…

  • Political Influencers on Social Media

    Open Access•Martin J Riedl, Josephine Lukito et al.•ARTICLE•Social Media + Society•2023•Cited by: 11•References: 34

    Influencers are omnipresent on social media platforms. They occupy important digital real estate across a range of topical domains including beauty, fashion, and gaming. While researchers have contributed important work on the respective role that authenticity plays for influencers' success and have described a burgeoning industry within the larger domain of social media entertainment, comparably little is known about what happens when influencer…

  • Trump, Twitter, and Truth Social

    Yini Zhang, Josephine Lukito et al.•ARTICLE•Journal of Information Technology…•2024•Cited by: 9•References: 7

    Former President Donald Trump is well-known for dominating the attention-driven hybrid media system through his controversial tweets, which spurred social media user engagement and news media attention. The removal of Trump from Twitter/X raises questions about his continued ability to drive news attention through his alt-tech platform, Truth Social. Our analysis shows that the retweets and "retruths" Trump gained predicted related news attention…

  • Modeling the Formation of Attentive Publics in Social Media

    Caroline Wells, Chris Wells et al.•ARTICLE•Mass Communication & Society•2019•Cited by: 9•References: 10

    Previous research has shown the importance of Donald Trump’s Twitter activity, and that of his Twitter following, in spreading his message during the primary and general election campaigns of 2015–2016. However, we know little about how the publics who followed Trump and amplified his messages took shape. We take this case as an opportunity to theorize and test questions about the assembly of what we call “attentive publics” in social media. We s…

  • The Dash for Gas

    Jordan Neil, Jordan M Neil et al.•ARTICLE•Journalism Studies•2016•Cited by: 8•References: 19

    Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is the process of extracting reserves of natural gas and oil from shale formations deep underground. This process, initially met with public support in the United Kingdom, has since become a highly contentious issue primarily debated between government, industry, and anti-fracking advocacy groups. Through the employment of three levels of agenda-building as a theoretical lens of examination (object, attribute, a…

  • Comparing the #StopTheSteal Movement across Multiple Platforms

    Open Access•Bin Chen, Josephine Lukito et al.•ARTICLE•Social Media + Society•2023•Cited by: 5•References: 59

    Given that political groups are dispersed across platforms, resulting in different discourses, there is a need for more studies comparing communication across platforms. In this study, we compared posts about #StopTheSteal from three social media platforms after the 2020 US Presidential election and preceding the January 6 Capitol Riot. To do so, we utilized Snow and Benford's typology of social movement frames-diagnostic, prognostic, and motivat…

  • Does Social Media Level the Political Field or Reinforce Existing Inequalities? Cartographies of the 2022 Brazilian Election

    André K Rodarte, Josephine Lukito•ARTICLE•Political Communication•2025•Cited by: 2•References: 48

  • Attacks Against Journalists in Brazil

    Open Access•Joao V S Ozawa, Josephine Lukito et al.•ARTICLE•The International Journal of…•2023•Cited by: 2•References: 25

    Attacks on journalists have become a growing concern in democracies around the world. Past scholarship suggests that such attacks could lead to a chilling effect of journalists self-censoring their reporting. However, there is limited empirical work that substantiates the effects of attacks on journalists. To empirically test the existence of chilling effects, this mixed-methods study uses the conditions of journalism under Jair Bolsonaro’s gover…

  • No Reason[.] [I]t /Should/ Happen here”

    Josephine Lukito, Jacob Gursky et al.•ARTICLE•Political Communication•2023•Cited by: 2•References: 6

    As digitally organized, conspiratorial extremist groups gain more attention in the United States, researchers face increasing calls to better understand their in-group and out-group communication strategies. Using the QAnon conspiracy community as a case study, we use data from news coverage, social media, and ethnographic field work surrounding a prominent QAnon conference to analyze the uptake and aftermath of a controversial comment made by a …

  • Making academia suck less

    Open Access•Megan A Brown, Josephine Lukito et al.•ARTICLE•New Media & Society•2026•Cited by: 1•References: 67

    Early career researchers (ECR) in communication and media research face increasing problems and stressors due to systemic challenges in academia, including the precarity of being an ECR and the politicization of research and targeting of researchers. For researchers studying harmful content online (HCO), research-related trauma (RRT) can compound these stressors. In this study, we present results from interviews with 18 ECRs from communication st…

  • Representing 'The People

    Open Access•André K Rodarte, Torie Hyunsik Kim et al.•ARTICLE•Social Media + Society•2023•Cited by: 1•References: 50

    This study explores the visual content posted by far-right populist parliamentarians in Brazil, asking how 'the people' are represented through imagery. Scholars have previously argued that populists have failed to foster the voice of 'the people' in Latin America, but have they also failed to signify and cultivate an authentic visual representation of them? To answer this question, we collected the social media imagery posted by federal deputies…

  • Competing for attention on Twitter during the 2012 and 2016 U.S. presidential debates

    Josephine Lukito, Jon Pevehouse et al.•ARTICLE•Journal of Information Technology…•2022•Cited by: 1•References: 28

    This study explores how Presidential candidates compete for Twitter attention during a televised debate using two datasets of tweets posted during the first 2012 and 2016 U.S. Presidential debates. Using a time series analysis, we find that both debates exhibited zero-sum attention dynamics such that when one candidate gained attention, the other lost attention. However, our error correction models also revealed that the attention dynamics of Rom…

  • The rise of the dragon? Framing China’s global leadership in elite American newspapers

    Open Access•Guy J Golan, Josephine Lukito•ARTICLE•International Communication Gazette•2015•Cited by: 16•References: 38

    The current study analyzes the framing of China’s emergence as a global power in the opinion pages of two elite newspapers. The study expands upon previous studies examining newspaper opinion gatekeepers’ use of the editorial and opposite-editorial pages as salient platforms for the expression of diverse opinion regarding foreign affairs. Results show that the New York Times framed China as a global power undermined by structural limitations, whi…

  • The Dash for Gas

    Jordan Neil, Jordan M Neil et al.•ARTICLE•Journalism Studies•2016•Cited by: 8•References: 19

    Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is the process of extracting reserves of natural gas and oil from shale formations deep underground. This process, initially met with public support in the United Kingdom, has since become a highly contentious issue primarily debated between government, industry, and anti-fracking advocacy groups. Through the employment of three levels of agenda-building as a theoretical lens of examination (object, attribute, a…

  • How Trump Drove Coverage to the Nomination

    Caroline Wells, Chris Wells et al.•ARTICLE•Political Communication•2016•Cited by: 95•References: 12

    Keywords: political communicationpresidentcampaignTrumphybridTwittertweet2016electionpublic opinionnewspaperdigital

  • Disinformation, performed

    Yiping Xia, Josephine Lukito et al.•ARTICLE•Information Communication & Society•2019

    How disinformation campaigns operate and how they fit into the broader social communication environment – which has been described as a 'disinformation order' [Bennett & Livingston, (2018). The disinformation order: Disruptive communication and the decline of democratic institutions. European Journal of Communication, 33(2), 122–139] – represent critical, ongoing questions for political communication. We offer a thorough analysis of a highly succ…

  • The Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing

    Open Access•Josephine Lukito, J Suk et al.•ARTICLE•The International Journal of…•2019•Cited by: 20•References: 29

    The Russian-sponsored Internet Research Agency’s (IRA) use of social media to influence U.S. political discourse is undoubtedly troubling. However, scholarly attention has focused on social media, overlooking the role that news media within the country played in amplifying false, foreign messages. In this article, we examine articles in the U.S. news media system that quoted IRA tweets through the lens of changing journalism practices in the hybr…

  • Whose Lives Matter? Mass Shootings and Social Media Discourses of Sympathy and Policy, 2012–2014

    Open Access•Yini Zhang, Dhavan V Shah et al.•ARTICLE•Journal of Computer-Mediated…•2019•Cited by: 12•References: 11

    This study focuses on the outpouring of sympathy in response to mass shootings and the contestation over gun policy on Twitter from 2012 to 2014 and relates these discourses to features of mass shooting events. We use two approaches to Twitter text analysis—hashtag grouping and supervised machine learning (ML)—to triangulate an understanding of intensity and duration of “thoughts and prayers,” gun control, and gun rights discourses. We conduct pa…

  • Modeling the Formation of Attentive Publics in Social Media

    Caroline Wells, Chris Wells et al.•ARTICLE•Mass Communication & Society•2019•Cited by: 9•References: 10

    Previous research has shown the importance of Donald Trump’s Twitter activity, and that of his Twitter following, in spreading his message during the primary and general election campaigns of 2015–2016. However, we know little about how the publics who followed Trump and amplified his messages took shape. We take this case as an opportunity to theorize and test questions about the assembly of what we call “attentive publics” in social media. We s…

  • Coordinating a Multi-Platform Disinformation Campaign

    Josephine Lukito•ARTICLE•Political Communication•2019•Cited by: 58•References: 48

    Though nation-states have long utilized disinformation to influence foreign audiences, Russia’s 2015 to 2017 campaign against the U.S.—executed by the Internet Research Agency (IRA) —is unique in its complexity and distribution through the digital communication ecology. The following study explores IRA activity on three social media platforms, Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit, to understand how activities on these sites were temporally coordinated. …

  • Performing populism

    Open Access•Erik P Bucy, Jordan Foley et al.•ARTICLE•New Media & Society•2020•Cited by: 26•References: 19

    Populism, as many have observed, is a communication phenomenon as much as a coherent ideology whose mass appeal stems from the fiery articulation of core positions, notably hostility toward “others,” bias against elites in favor of “the people,” and the transgressive delivery of those messages. Yet much of what we know about populist communication is based on analysis of candidate pronouncements, the verbal message conveyed at political events an…

  • Black Trolls Matter

    Open Access•Deen Freelon, Michael Bossetta et al.•ARTICLE•Social Science Computer Review•2020•Cited by: 33•References: 7

    The recent rise of disinformation and propaganda on social media has attracted strong interest from social scientists. Research on the topic has repeatedly observed ideological asymmetries in disinformation content and reception, wherein conservatives are more likely to view, redistribute, and believe such content. However, preliminary evidence has suggested that race may also play a substantial role in determining the targeting and consumption o…

  • Trump, Twitter, and news media responsiveness

    Open Access•Caroline Wells, Dhavan V Shah et al.•ARTICLE•New Media & Society•2020•Cited by: 40•References: 20

    How populists engage with media of various types, and are treated by those media, are questions of international interest. In the United States, Donald Trump stands out for both his populism-inflected campaign style and his success at attracting media attention. This article examines how interactions between candidate communications, social media, partisan media, and news media combined to shape attention to Trump, Clinton, Cruz, and Sanders duri…

  • Assembling the Networks and Audiences of Disinformation

    Open Access•Yini Zhang, Josephine Lukito et al.•ARTICLE•Journal of Communication•2021

    This study investigates how successful Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA) Twitter accounts constructed the followings that were central to their disinformation campaigns around the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Treating an account’s social media following as both an ego network and an audience critical for information diffusion and influence accrual, we situate IRA Twitter accounts’ accumulation of followers in the ideologically polarized,…

  • Chiming In

    Open Access•Josephine Lukito, Luis Loya et al.•ARTICLE•Social Media + Society•2021•References: 30

    While music as an artistic form is well studied, the individuals behind the art receive relatively less attention. In this article, we provide evidence of celebrity advocacy with a systematic examination of musicians' political engagement on Twitter. This study estimates the extent to which musicians use Twitter for political purposes, with particular attention to whether such engagement varies across music genres. Through a computational-assiste…

  • States vs. Social Movements

    Open Access•Josephine Lukito, Zhe Cui et al.•ARTICLE•Media and Communication•2022

    This study considers how governments use state-sponsored propaganda and state violence in tandem to repress social movements and, in so doing, exacerbate polarization. We specifically focus on cases in young and non-democracies in East and Southeast Asia: China and Hong Kong, the Free Papua Movement in Indonesia, and Myanmar’s more recent coup. Using a time series analysis, our analysis reveals a temporal relationship between state propaganda and…

  • Algorithmic Agents in the Hybrid Media System

    Open Access•Z Duan, Jianing Li et al.•ARTICLE•Human Communication Research•2022

    Social bots, or algorithmic agents that amplify certain viewpoints and interact with selected actors on social media, may influence online discussion, news attention, or even public opinion through coordinated action. Previous research has documented the presence of bot activities and developed detection algorithms. Yet, how social bots influence attention dynamics of the hybrid media system remains understudied. Leveraging a large collection of …

  • Competing for attention on Twitter during the 2012 and 2016 U.S. presidential debates

    Josephine Lukito, Jon Pevehouse et al.•ARTICLE•Journal of Information Technology…•2022•Cited by: 1•References: 28

    This study explores how Presidential candidates compete for Twitter attention during a televised debate using two datasets of tweets posted during the first 2012 and 2016 U.S. Presidential debates. Using a time series analysis, we find that both debates exhibited zero-sum attention dynamics such that when one candidate gained attention, the other lost attention. However, our error correction models also revealed that the attention dynamics of Rom…

  • Critical computation

    Open Access•Josephine Lukito, Meredith L Pruden•ARTICLE•Review of Communication•2023

    In this theoretical piece, we discuss the limitations of using purely computational techniques to study big language data produced by people online. Instead, we advocate for mixed-method approaches that are able to more critically evaluate and consider the individual and social impact of this data. We propose one approach that combines qualitative, traditional quantitative, and computational methods for the study of language and text. Such approa…

  • Attacks Against Journalists in Brazil

    Open Access•Joao V S Ozawa, Josephine Lukito et al.•ARTICLE•The International Journal of…•2023•Cited by: 2•References: 25

    Attacks on journalists have become a growing concern in democracies around the world. Past scholarship suggests that such attacks could lead to a chilling effect of journalists self-censoring their reporting. However, there is limited empirical work that substantiates the effects of attacks on journalists. To empirically test the existence of chilling effects, this mixed-methods study uses the conditions of journalism under Jair Bolsonaro’s gover…

  • No Reason[.] [I]t /Should/ Happen here”

    Josephine Lukito, Jacob Gursky et al.•ARTICLE•Political Communication•2023•Cited by: 2•References: 6

    As digitally organized, conspiratorial extremist groups gain more attention in the United States, researchers face increasing calls to better understand their in-group and out-group communication strategies. Using the QAnon conspiracy community as a case study, we use data from news coverage, social media, and ethnographic field work surrounding a prominent QAnon conference to analyze the uptake and aftermath of a controversial comment made by a …

  • Scholarly Solidarity

    Josephine Lukito•ARTICLE•Political Communication•2023•References: 15

    The goal of this reflective essay is to highlight challenges that junior and minority political communication researchers face and to advocate for scholarly solidarity practices, defined as actions that maintain social ties between researchers. In particular, I would like to thank Dr. Yunkang Yang, Dr. Meredith Pruden, Dr. Anita Varma, Dr. Yini Zhang, Megan Brown, and Dr. Riedl for their feedback on earlier versions of this piece.Disclosure state…

  • Network Amplification of Politicized Information and Misinformation about Covid-19 by Conservative Media and Partisan Influencers on Twitter

    Yini Zhang, Fan Chen et al.•ARTICLE•Political Communication•2023•Cited by: 18•References: 81

    Social media amplification is both a mechanism to attract public attention and a process of information diffusion shaped by the online social network structure. This study focuses on amplification by elites on social media and examines the extent to which traditional media and emerging partisan influencers engage in “network amplification.” Defined as like-minded elites sharing similar or/and mutual messages, network amplification highlights the …

  • Comparing the #StopTheSteal Movement across Multiple Platforms

    Open Access•Bin Chen, Josephine Lukito et al.•ARTICLE•Social Media + Society•2023•Cited by: 5•References: 59

    Given that political groups are dispersed across platforms, resulting in different discourses, there is a need for more studies comparing communication across platforms. In this study, we compared posts about #StopTheSteal from three social media platforms after the 2020 US Presidential election and preceding the January 6 Capitol Riot. To do so, we utilized Snow and Benford's typology of social movement frames-diagnostic, prognostic, and motivat…

  • Representing 'The People

    Open Access•André K Rodarte, Torie Hyunsik Kim et al.•ARTICLE•Social Media + Society•2023•Cited by: 1•References: 50

    This study explores the visual content posted by far-right populist parliamentarians in Brazil, asking how 'the people' are represented through imagery. Scholars have previously argued that populists have failed to foster the voice of 'the people' in Latin America, but have they also failed to signify and cultivate an authentic visual representation of them? To answer this question, we collected the social media imagery posted by federal deputies…

  • Political Influencers on Social Media

    Open Access•Martin J Riedl, Josephine Lukito et al.•ARTICLE•Social Media + Society•2023•Cited by: 11•References: 34

    Influencers are omnipresent on social media platforms. They occupy important digital real estate across a range of topical domains including beauty, fashion, and gaming. While researchers have contributed important work on the respective role that authenticity plays for influencers' success and have described a burgeoning industry within the larger domain of social media entertainment, comparably little is known about what happens when influencer…

  • Audio-as-Data Tools

    Open Access•Josephine Lukito, Jason Greenfield et al.•ARTICLE•Media and Communication•2024

    The rise of audio-as-data in social science research accentuates a fundamental challenge: establishing reproducible and reliable methodologies to guide this emerging area of study. In this study, we focus on the reproducibility of audio-as-data preparation methods in computational communication research and evaluate the accuracy of popular audio-as-data tools. We analyze automated transcription and computational phonology tools applied to 200 epi…

Political science (27 works) · Sociology (25 works) · Politics (24 works) · Social Media and Politics (24 works) · Law (21 works) · Social media (18 works) · Media studies (17 works) · Law (16 works) · Misinformation and Its Impacts (13 works) · Computer Science (11 works)

Ethnos_APP • Open Source Project • MIT License • Frontend v2.0.0 • Privacy and Cookies • API Documentation: api.ethnos.app/docs • API Source Code: GitHub • DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17049435 • Frontend Source Code: GitHub • DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17050053 • cruz.rio.br • Expectantes Misericordiae