Simon Hegelich
Biographic Data
| ID | 2744348 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Simon Hegelich |
| GIVEN NAMES | Simon |
| FAMILY NAME | Hegelich |
| SIGNATURE | HEGELICH S |
| AFFILIATIONS | Technical University of Munich |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1245-3782 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 23 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 41 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 22 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
There was coordinated inauthentic user behavior in the Covid-19 German X-discourse, but did it really matter
This study examines the role of coordinated inauthentic user behavior (CIUB) in the German COVID-19 discourse, focusing on the # nocovid hashtag. We analyze CIUB in relation to three dimensions of social media: communication, networks, and platforms. While our findings confirm the presence of coordinated behavior within the discourse, our analysis shows that CIUB itself did not significantly influence the debate. Instead, platform policies appear…
Understanding and evaluating harms of AI-generated image captions in political images
The use of AI-generated image captions has been increasing. Scholars of disability studies have long studied accessibility and AI issues concerning technology bias, focusing on image captions and tags. However, less attention has been paid to the individuals and social groups depicted in images and captioned using AI. Further research is needed to understand the underlying representational harms that could affect these social groups. This paper i…
Twitter as political acclamation
Acclamation as political form of communication has been used to understand political phenomena by a range of 20th century thinkers and recently has been used to analyze social media. However, if the notion of social media as acclamation is to be fruitful, it should be closely connected to inherent features of social media as technology and should be available to empirical analysis. To do so, this study follows a mixed-method approach. First, we o…
Are Social Bots on Twitter Political Actors? Empirical Evidence from a Ukrainian Social Botnet
A considerable amount of data in social networks like Twitter is not generated by humans but by automatic programs (bots). Some of these bots are mimicking humans (socialbots) and can hardly be identified. In this article, we analyze a social botnet involved in the Ukrainian/Russian conflict. Based on text mining and unsupervised learning, we can identify three different behaviors: mimicry, window dressing, and reverberation
Dancing to the Partisan Beat
TikTok is a video-sharing social networking service, whose popularity is increasing rapidly. It was the world’s second-most downloaded app in 2019. Although the platform is known for having users posting videos of themselves dancing, lip-syncing, or showcasing other talents, user-videos expressing political views have seen a recent spurt. This study aims to perform a primary evaluation of political communication on TikTok. We collect a set of US …
Political communication on social media
A segment of the political discussions on Online Social Networks (OSNs) is shaped by hyperactive users. These are users that are over-proportionally active in relation to the mean. By applying a geometric topic modeling algorithm (GTM) on German users’ political comments and parties’ posts and by analyzing commenting and liking activities, we quantitatively demonstrate that hyperactive users have a significant role in the political discourse: The…
Understanding Detrimental Aspects of Social Media Use
OPINION article Front. Sociol., 01 December 2020Sec.Public Mental Health https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2020.599270
Social media and microtargeting
Amongst other methods, political campaigns employ microtargeting, a specific technique used to address the individual voter. In the US, microtargeting relies on a broad set of collected data about the individual. However, due to the unavailability of comparable data in Germany, the practice of microtargeting is far more challenging. Citizens in Germany widely treat social media platforms as a means for political debate. The digital traces they le…
R for Social Media Analysis
Decision Trees and Random Forests
The article introduces machine learning algorithms for political scientists. These approaches should not be seen as a new method for old problems. Rather, it is important to understand the different logic of the machine learning approach. Here, data is analyzed without theoretical assumptions about possible causalities. Models are optimized according to their accuracy and robustness. While the computer can do this work more or less alone, it is t…
The Gas Game
The article introduces a simulation model to analyze the external natural gas policy of Germany, Italy, France, Spain, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and the EU Commission. The model is constructed to meet the accuracy of the game-theoretic model predictioneer's game (hereinafter called “PG”) by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, but it relies on real world data, simple heuristics, and numerical optimization. The a…
The Communication Behavior of German MPs on Twitter
What effect does the communication of politicians on Twitter have? Is it reinforcing existent ideologies because users get messages of politicians mostly from their own ideological cluster? Or is Twitter exposing the users to cross ideological content as well? We argue that both is the case. We show that politicians use the different communication channels. Twitter provides to distinguish between communication within their own ideological cluster…
Point Predictions and the Punctuated Equilibrium Theory
In Punctuated Equilibrium Theory (PET), information processing under the constraints of limited attention and bounded rationality leads to stick‐slip dynamics in policy outcomes. Empirical work in this field often focuses on the macro level. Using the case of nuclear energy policy in the U nited S tates as proof of concept, we demonstrate how decisive budget changes in a specific policy subsystem can be linked to attention of Congress and the pre…
Herrschaft - Staat - Mitbestimmung
Herrschaft - Staat - Mitbestimmung
Agenda 2010
The Handbook of European Welfare Systems
Europäische Wohlfahrtssysteme
Konflikt, Verhandlung, Sozialer Friede
Seit der schrittweisen Etablierung sozialstaatlicher Strukturen fanden in Deutschland eine Reihe gesellschaftlicher Umbrüche und Regimewechsel, schwere Wirtschaftskrisen sowie zwei Weltkriege statt. Dennoch wird das deutsche Wohlfahrtssystem oft in einer grundlegenden Kontinuität zu seinen Ursprüngen unter dem Reichskanzler Otto von Bismarck gesehen. Zwar ist das deutsche Wohlfahrtssystem nach wie vor eng mit den sozialpolitischen Reformma\nahmen…
Europäische Wohlfahrtssysteme
In diesem Handbuch wird die Sozial- und Wohlfahrtspolitik der EU-25-Staaten und die wohlfahrtspolitische Entwicklung der EU dargestellt und analysiert. Weiterhin wird die sozial- und politikwissenschaftliche Debatte über die Entwicklung der Wohlfahrtssysteme in Europa rekapituliert und fortgesetzt. Das Buch dient somit als umfassende Einführung in die sozial- und wohlfahrtspolitische Praxis der europäischen Länder.
Reformkorridore des Deutschen Rentensystems
Reformkorridore des deutschen Rentensystems
Can welfare expansion result in disintegration? The integration of East Germany into the German pension system
An expansion of the welfare state is often expected to cause a strengthening of the identification of ‘the people’ with the state. It is the aim of this article to show that the integration of the pension system of the former GDR into the pension system of the FRG has to be seen as an expansion of the welfare state that did not have this positive effect. To this purpose, the German pension systems and their unification are analysed. It is argued …
Point Predictions and the Punctuated Equilibrium Theory
In Punctuated Equilibrium Theory (PET), information processing under the constraints of limited attention and bounded rationality leads to stick‐slip dynamics in policy outcomes. Empirical work in this field often focuses on the macro level. Using the case of nuclear energy policy in the U nited S tates as proof of concept, we demonstrate how decisive budget changes in a specific policy subsystem can be linked to attention of Congress and the pre…
Are Social Bots on Twitter Political Actors? Empirical Evidence from a Ukrainian Social Botnet
A considerable amount of data in social networks like Twitter is not generated by humans but by automatic programs (bots). Some of these bots are mimicking humans (socialbots) and can hardly be identified. In this article, we analyze a social botnet involved in the Ukrainian/Russian conflict. Based on text mining and unsupervised learning, we can identify three different behaviors: mimicry, window dressing, and reverberation
Social media and microtargeting
Amongst other methods, political campaigns employ microtargeting, a specific technique used to address the individual voter. In the US, microtargeting relies on a broad set of collected data about the individual. However, due to the unavailability of comparable data in Germany, the practice of microtargeting is far more challenging. Citizens in Germany widely treat social media platforms as a means for political debate. The digital traces they le…
Understanding Detrimental Aspects of Social Media Use
OPINION article Front. Sociol., 01 December 2020Sec.Public Mental Health https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2020.599270
The Communication Behavior of German MPs on Twitter
What effect does the communication of politicians on Twitter have? Is it reinforcing existent ideologies because users get messages of politicians mostly from their own ideological cluster? Or is Twitter exposing the users to cross ideological content as well? We argue that both is the case. We show that politicians use the different communication channels. Twitter provides to distinguish between communication within their own ideological cluster…
The Gas Game
The article introduces a simulation model to analyze the external natural gas policy of Germany, Italy, France, Spain, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and the EU Commission. The model is constructed to meet the accuracy of the game-theoretic model predictioneer's game (hereinafter called “PG”) by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, but it relies on real world data, simple heuristics, and numerical optimization. The a…
Can welfare expansion result in disintegration? The integration of East Germany into the German pension system
An expansion of the welfare state is often expected to cause a strengthening of the identification of ‘the people’ with the state. It is the aim of this article to show that the integration of the pension system of the former GDR into the pension system of the FRG has to be seen as an expansion of the welfare state that did not have this positive effect. To this purpose, the German pension systems and their unification are analysed. It is argued …
Can welfare expansion result in disintegration? The integration of East Germany into the German pension system
An expansion of the welfare state is often expected to cause a strengthening of the identification of ‘the people’ with the state. It is the aim of this article to show that the integration of the pension system of the former GDR into the pension system of the FRG has to be seen as an expansion of the welfare state that did not have this positive effect. To this purpose, the German pension systems and their unification are analysed. It is argued …
Reformkorridore des deutschen Rentensystems
Reformkorridore des Deutschen Rentensystems
Europäische Wohlfahrtssysteme
Konflikt, Verhandlung, Sozialer Friede
Seit der schrittweisen Etablierung sozialstaatlicher Strukturen fanden in Deutschland eine Reihe gesellschaftlicher Umbrüche und Regimewechsel, schwere Wirtschaftskrisen sowie zwei Weltkriege statt. Dennoch wird das deutsche Wohlfahrtssystem oft in einer grundlegenden Kontinuität zu seinen Ursprüngen unter dem Reichskanzler Otto von Bismarck gesehen. Zwar ist das deutsche Wohlfahrtssystem nach wie vor eng mit den sozialpolitischen Reformma\nahmen…
Europäische Wohlfahrtssysteme
In diesem Handbuch wird die Sozial- und Wohlfahrtspolitik der EU-25-Staaten und die wohlfahrtspolitische Entwicklung der EU dargestellt und analysiert. Weiterhin wird die sozial- und politikwissenschaftliche Debatte über die Entwicklung der Wohlfahrtssysteme in Europa rekapituliert und fortgesetzt. Das Buch dient somit als umfassende Einführung in die sozial- und wohlfahrtspolitische Praxis der europäischen Länder.
The Handbook of European Welfare Systems
Agenda 2010
Herrschaft - Staat - Mitbestimmung
Herrschaft - Staat - Mitbestimmung
Point Predictions and the Punctuated Equilibrium Theory
In Punctuated Equilibrium Theory (PET), information processing under the constraints of limited attention and bounded rationality leads to stick‐slip dynamics in policy outcomes. Empirical work in this field often focuses on the macro level. Using the case of nuclear energy policy in the U nited S tates as proof of concept, we demonstrate how decisive budget changes in a specific policy subsystem can be linked to attention of Congress and the pre…
The Communication Behavior of German MPs on Twitter
What effect does the communication of politicians on Twitter have? Is it reinforcing existent ideologies because users get messages of politicians mostly from their own ideological cluster? Or is Twitter exposing the users to cross ideological content as well? We argue that both is the case. We show that politicians use the different communication channels. Twitter provides to distinguish between communication within their own ideological cluster…
R for Social Media Analysis
Decision Trees and Random Forests
The article introduces machine learning algorithms for political scientists. These approaches should not be seen as a new method for old problems. Rather, it is important to understand the different logic of the machine learning approach. Here, data is analyzed without theoretical assumptions about possible causalities. Models are optimized according to their accuracy and robustness. While the computer can do this work more or less alone, it is t…
The Gas Game
The article introduces a simulation model to analyze the external natural gas policy of Germany, Italy, France, Spain, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and the EU Commission. The model is constructed to meet the accuracy of the game-theoretic model predictioneer's game (hereinafter called “PG”) by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, but it relies on real world data, simple heuristics, and numerical optimization. The a…
Social media and microtargeting
Amongst other methods, political campaigns employ microtargeting, a specific technique used to address the individual voter. In the US, microtargeting relies on a broad set of collected data about the individual. However, due to the unavailability of comparable data in Germany, the practice of microtargeting is far more challenging. Citizens in Germany widely treat social media platforms as a means for political debate. The digital traces they le…
Dancing to the Partisan Beat
TikTok is a video-sharing social networking service, whose popularity is increasing rapidly. It was the world’s second-most downloaded app in 2019. Although the platform is known for having users posting videos of themselves dancing, lip-syncing, or showcasing other talents, user-videos expressing political views have seen a recent spurt. This study aims to perform a primary evaluation of political communication on TikTok. We collect a set of US …
Political communication on social media
A segment of the political discussions on Online Social Networks (OSNs) is shaped by hyperactive users. These are users that are over-proportionally active in relation to the mean. By applying a geometric topic modeling algorithm (GTM) on German users’ political comments and parties’ posts and by analyzing commenting and liking activities, we quantitatively demonstrate that hyperactive users have a significant role in the political discourse: The…
Understanding Detrimental Aspects of Social Media Use
OPINION article Front. Sociol., 01 December 2020Sec.Public Mental Health https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2020.599270
Are Social Bots on Twitter Political Actors? Empirical Evidence from a Ukrainian Social Botnet
A considerable amount of data in social networks like Twitter is not generated by humans but by automatic programs (bots). Some of these bots are mimicking humans (socialbots) and can hardly be identified. In this article, we analyze a social botnet involved in the Ukrainian/Russian conflict. Based on text mining and unsupervised learning, we can identify three different behaviors: mimicry, window dressing, and reverberation
Understanding and evaluating harms of AI-generated image captions in political images
The use of AI-generated image captions has been increasing. Scholars of disability studies have long studied accessibility and AI issues concerning technology bias, focusing on image captions and tags. However, less attention has been paid to the individuals and social groups depicted in images and captioned using AI. Further research is needed to understand the underlying representational harms that could affect these social groups. This paper i…
Twitter as political acclamation
Acclamation as political form of communication has been used to understand political phenomena by a range of 20th century thinkers and recently has been used to analyze social media. However, if the notion of social media as acclamation is to be fruitful, it should be closely connected to inherent features of social media as technology and should be available to empirical analysis. To do so, this study follows a mixed-method approach. First, we o…
There was coordinated inauthentic user behavior in the Covid-19 German X-discourse, but did it really matter
This study examines the role of coordinated inauthentic user behavior (CIUB) in the German COVID-19 discourse, focusing on the # nocovid hashtag. We analyze CIUB in relation to three dimensions of social media: communication, networks, and platforms. While our findings confirm the presence of coordinated behavior within the discourse, our analysis shows that CIUB itself did not significantly influence the debate. Instead, platform policies appear…
Political science (13 works) · Law (9 works) · Politics (9 works) · Computer Science (8 works) · Social media (8 works) · Social policy (8 works) · Law (6 works) · German (5 works) · Social Media and Politics (5 works) · Sociology (5 works)