Megan A Brown
Biographic Data
| ID | 3718021 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Megan A Brown |
| GIVEN NAMES | Megan A |
| FAMILY NAME | Brown |
| SIGNATURE | BROWN M A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Michigan |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1338-8054 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 46 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 14 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Cross-platformization
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…
Evaluating Echo Chambers, Rabbit Holes, and Radicalization Pathways on YouTube
To what extent does the YouTube recommendation algorithm push users into echo chambers, rabbit holes, or radicalization pathways? Using a novel method to estimate the ideology of YouTube videos and an original audit design, we demonstrate that YouTube users are in mild ideological echo chambers, but this is primarily driven by user behavior. We also demonstrate that the recommendation algorithm prioritizes content that is similar to what the user…
Style and substance on The Alex Jones Show predict InfoWars sales
Making academia suck less
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…
Web scraping for research
Scientists across disciplines often use data from the internet to conduct research, generating valuable insights about human behavior. However, as generative artificial intelligence relying on massive text corpora becomes increasingly valuable, platforms have greatly restricted access to data through official channels. As a result, researchers will likely engage in more web scraping to collect data, introducing new challenges and concerns for res…
Candidates Be Posting
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…
Reaching across the political aisle
To moderate, or not to moderate
Quantifying Narrative Similarity Across Languages
How can one understand the spread of ideas across text data? This is a key measurement problem in sociological inquiry, from the study of how interest groups shape media discourse, to the spread of policy across institutions, to the diffusion of organizational structures and institution themselves. To study how ideas and narratives diffuse across text, we must first develop a method to identify whether texts share the same information and narrati…
Audio-as-Data Tools
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…
Patient preference and acceptability of self-sampling for cervical screening in colposcopy clinic attenders
Low vaginal self-sampling has been pioneered as an important development to improve uptake of cervical screening globally. Limited research is available in specific patient groups in the UK exploring views around self-sampling to detect high-risk human papillomavirus (hrHPV) DNA. Therefore, we explored patient views to support development of a novel point-of-care self-sampling cervical cancer screening device, by undertaking a cross-sectional sem…
Estimating the Ideology of Political YouTube Videos
We present a method for estimating the ideology of political YouTube videos. The subfield of estimating ideology as a latent variable has often focused on traditional actors such as legislators, while more recent work has used social media data to estimate the ideology of ordinary users, political elites, and media sources. We build on this work to estimate the ideology of a political YouTube video. First, we start with a matrix of political Redd…
Cross-Platform State Propaganda
This paper investigates online propaganda strategies of the Internet Research Agency (IRA)—Russian “trolls”—during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. We assess claims that the IRA sought either to (1) support Donald Trump or (2) sow discord among the U.S. public by analyzing hyperlinks contained in 108,781 IRA tweets. Our results show that although IRA accounts promoted links to both sides of the ideological spectrum, “conservative” trolls were…
I shall tell just such stories as I please’
Discusses Mary Fortune's contributions to the Australian Journal, 'a trailblazer for the production of colonial literature'. Focusing on Fortune's essays 'The Tressless Bride' (6 June 1868) and 'The Last Scene' (November 1970), Brown shows how Fortune's work exemplifies the Journal's 'breadth of views on gender
Cross-Platform State Propaganda
This paper investigates online propaganda strategies of the Internet Research Agency (IRA)—Russian “trolls”—during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. We assess claims that the IRA sought either to (1) support Donald Trump or (2) sow discord among the U.S. public by analyzing hyperlinks contained in 108,781 IRA tweets. Our results show that although IRA accounts promoted links to both sides of the ideological spectrum, “conservative” trolls were…
Estimating the Ideology of Political YouTube Videos
We present a method for estimating the ideology of political YouTube videos. The subfield of estimating ideology as a latent variable has often focused on traditional actors such as legislators, while more recent work has used social media data to estimate the ideology of ordinary users, political elites, and media sources. We build on this work to estimate the ideology of a political YouTube video. First, we start with a matrix of political Redd…
To moderate, or not to moderate
Making academia suck less
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…
I shall tell just such stories as I please’
Discusses Mary Fortune's contributions to the Australian Journal, 'a trailblazer for the production of colonial literature'. Focusing on Fortune's essays 'The Tressless Bride' (6 June 1868) and 'The Last Scene' (November 1970), Brown shows how Fortune's work exemplifies the Journal's 'breadth of views on gender
Cross-Platform State Propaganda
This paper investigates online propaganda strategies of the Internet Research Agency (IRA)—Russian “trolls”—during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. We assess claims that the IRA sought either to (1) support Donald Trump or (2) sow discord among the U.S. public by analyzing hyperlinks contained in 108,781 IRA tweets. Our results show that although IRA accounts promoted links to both sides of the ideological spectrum, “conservative” trolls were…
Audio-as-Data Tools
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…
Patient preference and acceptability of self-sampling for cervical screening in colposcopy clinic attenders
Low vaginal self-sampling has been pioneered as an important development to improve uptake of cervical screening globally. Limited research is available in specific patient groups in the UK exploring views around self-sampling to detect high-risk human papillomavirus (hrHPV) DNA. Therefore, we explored patient views to support development of a novel point-of-care self-sampling cervical cancer screening device, by undertaking a cross-sectional sem…
Estimating the Ideology of Political YouTube Videos
We present a method for estimating the ideology of political YouTube videos. The subfield of estimating ideology as a latent variable has often focused on traditional actors such as legislators, while more recent work has used social media data to estimate the ideology of ordinary users, political elites, and media sources. We build on this work to estimate the ideology of a political YouTube video. First, we start with a matrix of political Redd…
Web scraping for research
Scientists across disciplines often use data from the internet to conduct research, generating valuable insights about human behavior. However, as generative artificial intelligence relying on massive text corpora becomes increasingly valuable, platforms have greatly restricted access to data through official channels. As a result, researchers will likely engage in more web scraping to collect data, introducing new challenges and concerns for res…
Candidates Be Posting
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…
Reaching across the political aisle
To moderate, or not to moderate
Quantifying Narrative Similarity Across Languages
How can one understand the spread of ideas across text data? This is a key measurement problem in sociological inquiry, from the study of how interest groups shape media discourse, to the spread of policy across institutions, to the diffusion of organizational structures and institution themselves. To study how ideas and narratives diffuse across text, we must first develop a method to identify whether texts share the same information and narrati…
Cross-platformization
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…
Evaluating Echo Chambers, Rabbit Holes, and Radicalization Pathways on YouTube
To what extent does the YouTube recommendation algorithm push users into echo chambers, rabbit holes, or radicalization pathways? Using a novel method to estimate the ideology of YouTube videos and an original audit design, we demonstrate that YouTube users are in mild ideological echo chambers, but this is primarily driven by user behavior. We also demonstrate that the recommendation algorithm prioritizes content that is similar to what the user…
Style and substance on The Alex Jones Show predict InfoWars sales
Making academia suck less
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…
Social media (6 works) · Social Media and Politics (6 works) · Computer Science (5 works) · Political science (5 works) · Sociology (4 works) · Computational and Text Analysis Methods (3 works) · Engineering (3 works) · Ideology (3 works) · Media studies (3 works) · Misinformation and Its Impacts (3 works)