Jacob N. Shapiro

Nov 13, 2024 | nature.com | Jacob N. Shapiro

AbstractA growing concern is that as local newspapers disappear, communities lose trusted gatekeepers and develop information voids, creating openings for misinformation to thrive. Previous work has not evaluated whether residents of news deserts have developed different information acquisition habits.

Sep 16, 2024 | chronicle.com | Jacob N. Shapiro |Sean Norton |Mitch Therieau |Len Gutkin

The AAUP’s recent reversal of its longstanding opposition — formalized in 2006 — to academic boycotts has occasioned a great deal of debate, including dueling opinion essays in our pages by Cary Nelson and Joan W. Scott. But the practical consequences of the change in policy remain to be seen. Should we anticipate an explosion of academic-boycott activity in the coming year? What, exactly, does the AAUP’s new policy permit?

Sep 10, 2024 | chronicle.com | Jacob N. Shapiro |Sean Norton

Vladimir Putin is waging yet another influence campaign. New intelligence shows that Russian actors are using fake media websites and social media accounts, some enhanced by artificial intelligence, to shape the November election by targeting voters in U.S. swing states. And Russia is not alone: China and Iran are also spreading falsehoods online to sway votes to their preferred outcomes. We are unable to fully display the content of this page.

Mar 1, 2024 | thebulletin.org | Sean Norton |Jacob N. Shapiro |Sara Goudarzi

Social media has been a connector of people near and far, but it has also fueled political conflict, threatened democratic processes, contributed to the spread of public health misinformation, and likely damaged the mental health of some teenagers.

Sep 25, 2023 | nature.com | Jacob N. Shapiro

AbstractAnti-vaccine content and other kinds of misinformation are hypothesized to be more heavily monetized than other kinds of online content. We test this hypothesis by applying several novel and scalable measures of website monetization strategies to more than 400,000 links shared by 261 anti-vaccine Facebook pages and 190 pro-vaccine ones. Contrary to expectations, websites promoted in pro-vaccine venues do more to monetize attention than those promoted in anti-vaccine venues.