Ryan Mcgrady
Biographic Data
| ID | 385692 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ryan Mcgrady |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ryan |
| FAMILY NAME | Mcgrady |
| SIGNATURE | MCGRADY R |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Massachusetts Amherst |
| ORCID | 0009-0007-5916-2580 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 8 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 10 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 8 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
TubeStats and TokStats
YouTube and TikTok are two of the most popular digital communications platforms in the world, playing a disproportionately large role in global communications infrastructure in general and the consumption and dissemination of information in particular. As neither platform provides adequate mechanisms to produce representative samples of the content they host, researchers largely depend on opportunistic samples of popular, recommended, or otherwis…
The wisdom of clawds
The Quotidian Web and the Accidental Archive
Video hosting sites like YouTube are commonly understood through their professional creators and viral content, but they are also rich, global repositories of cultural memory and everyday life. However, their opaque, algorithmically optimized, commercial structure poses challenges to research. We argue that such platforms function as “accidental archives” that capture details of quotidian life that often escape curatorial intention. To consider t…
The Ethics of Accidental Vlogs
Introduction A teenage girl wishes her friend a happy birthday in German. Two American kids test a camera and upload the results. Colleagues upload a recording of a meeting for the benefit of employees who cannot attend. A man sends a "good morning" message to his extended family in Hindi. These are not participants in the "Creator Economy" using YouTube to – as its tagline suggests – broadcast themselves; these are videos meant for a small audie…
The block log
This study examines two decades of user blocking on the English Wikipedia to understand how a volunteer-run, non-profit platform has adapted its content moderation practices in response to increasing visibility amid declining participation. Analyzing more than 20 million block log entries from 2004 to 2024, the study identifies shifts in block frequency, duration, and stated rationales. A significant increase in preemptive, automated blocking of …
One Platform, Four Languages
This study presents a comparative analysis of language-specific random samples of YouTube videos, focusing on English, Spanish, Hindi, and Russian. We produce a large random sample, retrieve metadata, calibrate and deploy language-detection software, and extract four high-confidence language samples. Through an analysis of upload dates, popularity, duration, and category metadata, we highlight patterns and anomalies among our samples. For example…
Trump, Twitter, and Truth Social
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…
Gaming against the greater good
Wikipedia has grown to be one of the most visited Web sites in the world. Despite its influence on popular culture and the way we think about knowledge production and consumption, the conversation about why and how it works - or whether it's credible at all - is ongoing. This paper began as an examination of what the concept of "authority" means in Wikipedia and what role rhetoric might play in manufacturing this authority. Wikipedia's editors ha…
Trump, Twitter, and Truth Social
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…
One Platform, Four Languages
This study presents a comparative analysis of language-specific random samples of YouTube videos, focusing on English, Spanish, Hindi, and Russian. We produce a large random sample, retrieve metadata, calibrate and deploy language-detection software, and extract four high-confidence language samples. Through an analysis of upload dates, popularity, duration, and category metadata, we highlight patterns and anomalies among our samples. For example…
Gaming against the greater good
Wikipedia has grown to be one of the most visited Web sites in the world. Despite its influence on popular culture and the way we think about knowledge production and consumption, the conversation about why and how it works - or whether it's credible at all - is ongoing. This paper began as an examination of what the concept of "authority" means in Wikipedia and what role rhetoric might play in manufacturing this authority. Wikipedia's editors ha…
Trump, Twitter, and Truth Social
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…
The Ethics of Accidental Vlogs
Introduction A teenage girl wishes her friend a happy birthday in German. Two American kids test a camera and upload the results. Colleagues upload a recording of a meeting for the benefit of employees who cannot attend. A man sends a "good morning" message to his extended family in Hindi. These are not participants in the "Creator Economy" using YouTube to – as its tagline suggests – broadcast themselves; these are videos meant for a small audie…
The block log
This study examines two decades of user blocking on the English Wikipedia to understand how a volunteer-run, non-profit platform has adapted its content moderation practices in response to increasing visibility amid declining participation. Analyzing more than 20 million block log entries from 2004 to 2024, the study identifies shifts in block frequency, duration, and stated rationales. A significant increase in preemptive, automated blocking of …
One Platform, Four Languages
This study presents a comparative analysis of language-specific random samples of YouTube videos, focusing on English, Spanish, Hindi, and Russian. We produce a large random sample, retrieve metadata, calibrate and deploy language-detection software, and extract four high-confidence language samples. Through an analysis of upload dates, popularity, duration, and category metadata, we highlight patterns and anomalies among our samples. For example…
TubeStats and TokStats
YouTube and TikTok are two of the most popular digital communications platforms in the world, playing a disproportionately large role in global communications infrastructure in general and the consumption and dissemination of information in particular. As neither platform provides adequate mechanisms to produce representative samples of the content they host, researchers largely depend on opportunistic samples of popular, recommended, or otherwis…
The wisdom of clawds
The Quotidian Web and the Accidental Archive
Video hosting sites like YouTube are commonly understood through their professional creators and viral content, but they are also rich, global repositories of cultural memory and everyday life. However, their opaque, algorithmically optimized, commercial structure poses challenges to research. We argue that such platforms function as “accidental archives” that capture details of quotidian life that often escape curatorial intention. To consider t…
Misinformation and Its Impacts (3 works) · Accidental (2 works) · Everyday life (2 works) · Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection (2 works) · Political science (2 works) · Social media (2 works) · Sociology (2 works) · Wikis in Education and Collaboration (2 works) · Affordance (1 work) · Architecture (1 work)