Kate Starbird
Biographic Data
| ID | 354726 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Kate Starbird |
| GIVEN NAMES | Kate |
| FAMILY NAME | Starbird |
| SIGNATURE | STARBIRD K |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Washington |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1661-4608 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 21 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 12 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
How Strategic Information Operations Affect Peacekeeping
Legislating Uncertainty
Can state election policies affect the spread of misinformation? This paper studies the role played by ballot processing policies, which determine when ballots can be examined and organized, in the online spread of political misinformation. We present evidence from the 2020 U.S. presidential election cycle linking the spread of misinformation in the aftermath of the election to the uncertainty created by these restrictions. Specifically, using a …
Typology of household adaptations to infrastructure system service interruptions
Searching for signal and borrowing wi-fi
Disaster events can expose the vulnerability of telecommunications infrastructure to service disruptions. During these traumatic events, when connectivity is most needed, it sometimes takes days, or even weeks or months, for normal service to return. Affected people and communities attempt to adapt to these disruptions in creative ways, but this can lead to changing demands on other parts of the infrastructure. To understand the societal impacts …
Influence and Improvisation
The 2020 US election was accompanied by an effort to spread a false meta-narrative of widespread voter fraud. This meta-narrative took hold among a substantial portion of the US population, undermining trust in election procedures and results, and eventually motivating the events of 6 January 2021. We examine this effort as a domestic and participatory disinformation campaign in which a variety of influencers-including hyperpartisan media and pol…
Combining interventions to reduce the spread of viral misinformation
Misinformation online poses a range of threats, from subverting democratic processes to undermining public health measures. Proposed solutions range from encouraging more selective sharing by individuals to removing false content and accounts that create or promote it. Here we provide a framework to evaluate interventions aimed at reducing viral misinformation online both in isolation and when used in combination. We begin by deriving a generativ…
Rejecting Science With Science
The COVID-19 pandemic has been marked by a controversy in the United States over the public health benefits of mask-wearing, especially on social media. Many have contested the scientific consensus that masks are an effective method to prevent and slow the spread of COVID-19 infections, often along explicitly political lines. Here, we investigate specifically how Twitter users engaging in arguments about mask-wearing invoke scientific principles …
Disinformation as Collaborative Work
In this paper, we argue that strategic information operations (e.g. disinformation, political propaganda, and other forms of online manipulation) are a critical concern for CSCW researchers, and that the CSCW community can provide vital insight into understanding how these operations function-by examining them as collaborative "work" within online crowds. First, we provide needed definitions and a framework for conceptualizing strategic informati…
Rumors, False Flags, and Digital Vigilantes
The Boston Marathon bombing story unfolded on every possible carrier of information available in the spring of 2013, including Twitter. As information spread, it was filled with rumors (unsubstantiated information), and many of these rumors contained misinformation. Earlier studies have suggested that crowdsourced information flows can correct misinformation, and our research investigates this proposition. This exploratory research examines three…
Journalists as Crowdsourcerers
"Voluntweeters"
This empirical study of "digital volunteers" in the aftermath of the January 12, 2010 Haiti earthquake describes their behaviors and mechanisms of self-organizing in the information space of a microblogging environment, where collaborators were newly found and distributed across continents. The paper explores the motivations, resources, activities and products of digital volunteers. It describes how seemingly small features of the technical envir…
Microblogging during two natural hazards events
We analyze microblog posts generated during two recent, concurrent emergency events in North America via Twitter, a popular microblogging service. We focus on communications broadcast by people who were "on the ground" during the Oklahoma Grassfires of April 2009 and the Red River Floods that occurred in March and April 2009, and identify information that may contribute to enhancing situational awareness (SA). This work aims to inform next steps …
Influence and Improvisation
The 2020 US election was accompanied by an effort to spread a false meta-narrative of widespread voter fraud. This meta-narrative took hold among a substantial portion of the US population, undermining trust in election procedures and results, and eventually motivating the events of 6 January 2021. We examine this effort as a domestic and participatory disinformation campaign in which a variety of influencers-including hyperpartisan media and pol…
Combining interventions to reduce the spread of viral misinformation
Misinformation online poses a range of threats, from subverting democratic processes to undermining public health measures. Proposed solutions range from encouraging more selective sharing by individuals to removing false content and accounts that create or promote it. Here we provide a framework to evaluate interventions aimed at reducing viral misinformation online both in isolation and when used in combination. We begin by deriving a generativ…
Microblogging during two natural hazards events
We analyze microblog posts generated during two recent, concurrent emergency events in North America via Twitter, a popular microblogging service. We focus on communications broadcast by people who were "on the ground" during the Oklahoma Grassfires of April 2009 and the Red River Floods that occurred in March and April 2009, and identify information that may contribute to enhancing situational awareness (SA). This work aims to inform next steps …
"Voluntweeters"
This empirical study of "digital volunteers" in the aftermath of the January 12, 2010 Haiti earthquake describes their behaviors and mechanisms of self-organizing in the information space of a microblogging environment, where collaborators were newly found and distributed across continents. The paper explores the motivations, resources, activities and products of digital volunteers. It describes how seemingly small features of the technical envir…
Rumors, False Flags, and Digital Vigilantes
The Boston Marathon bombing story unfolded on every possible carrier of information available in the spring of 2013, including Twitter. As information spread, it was filled with rumors (unsubstantiated information), and many of these rumors contained misinformation. Earlier studies have suggested that crowdsourced information flows can correct misinformation, and our research investigates this proposition. This exploratory research examines three…
Journalists as Crowdsourcerers
Disinformation as Collaborative Work
In this paper, we argue that strategic information operations (e.g. disinformation, political propaganda, and other forms of online manipulation) are a critical concern for CSCW researchers, and that the CSCW community can provide vital insight into understanding how these operations function-by examining them as collaborative "work" within online crowds. First, we provide needed definitions and a framework for conceptualizing strategic informati…
Rejecting Science With Science
The COVID-19 pandemic has been marked by a controversy in the United States over the public health benefits of mask-wearing, especially on social media. Many have contested the scientific consensus that masks are an effective method to prevent and slow the spread of COVID-19 infections, often along explicitly political lines. Here, we investigate specifically how Twitter users engaging in arguments about mask-wearing invoke scientific principles …
Combining interventions to reduce the spread of viral misinformation
Misinformation online poses a range of threats, from subverting democratic processes to undermining public health measures. Proposed solutions range from encouraging more selective sharing by individuals to removing false content and accounts that create or promote it. Here we provide a framework to evaluate interventions aimed at reducing viral misinformation online both in isolation and when used in combination. We begin by deriving a generativ…
Typology of household adaptations to infrastructure system service interruptions
Searching for signal and borrowing wi-fi
Disaster events can expose the vulnerability of telecommunications infrastructure to service disruptions. During these traumatic events, when connectivity is most needed, it sometimes takes days, or even weeks or months, for normal service to return. Affected people and communities attempt to adapt to these disruptions in creative ways, but this can lead to changing demands on other parts of the infrastructure. To understand the societal impacts …
Influence and Improvisation
The 2020 US election was accompanied by an effort to spread a false meta-narrative of widespread voter fraud. This meta-narrative took hold among a substantial portion of the US population, undermining trust in election procedures and results, and eventually motivating the events of 6 January 2021. We examine this effort as a domestic and participatory disinformation campaign in which a variety of influencers-including hyperpartisan media and pol…
How Strategic Information Operations Affect Peacekeeping
Legislating Uncertainty
Can state election policies affect the spread of misinformation? This paper studies the role played by ballot processing policies, which determine when ballots can be examined and organized, in the online spread of political misinformation. We present evidence from the 2020 U.S. presidential election cycle linking the spread of misinformation in the aftermath of the election to the uncertainty created by these restrictions. Specifically, using a …
Computer Science (8 works) · Political science (7 works) · Social media (7 works) · Misinformation and Its Impacts (6 works) · Sociology (6 works) · Complex Network Analysis Techniques (5 works) · World Wide Web (5 works) · Business (4 works) · Computer security (4 works) · Law (4 works)