Research Associate: How Dialogue Fractures: The Social Dynamics of Misinformation in the Digital Age (UMRI Funded)

A Research Associate is required to work on the UMRI-funded project, directed by Mihaela Popa-Wyatt in the Department of Philosophy, University of Manchester [UoM].

The project starts on October 2024 and the contract is for one year. The Research Associate will be based in the Department of Philosophy, in the School of Social Sciences.

Public discourse suffers from mis- and dis-information. We have reached a tipping point in multiple dialogues: from climate change and vaccines, to flat-Earth theories and the 2020 US Election result. In each case, conversational communities are unable to establish common ground. We will use computational network modelling and data scraping (X, Telegram, Gab, YouTube comments, Reddit) to build a data set of utterances on the 2024 US election and the 2024 UK elections.

We will use these to understand the extent of and the dynamics of mis/dis-information spread. The test of the network model will be to show how an initial society where core beliefs are shared can evolve, through mis-information injection, into two or more sub-groups with altered and mutually incompatible core beliefs. The data set complements this by showing how utterances support mis/dis-information uptake. Finally, we will perform an analysis of the argumentation used in the corpus, to assess why dis-information works. The objectives are:

• To gather and analyze utterances in one of the above domains of public discourse.
• To create a network model of the spread of mis/dis-information as a complex contagion.
• To analyse the argumentation used in the chosen domain.

Working under the guidance of the PI, you will have overall responsibility for objectives 1 and 2. Objective 1 will be carried out working with others. You will build scripts to automate gathering of utterances from at least one public platform. You will work with linguists to analyze the utterances in the corpus. In objective 2 you will work with the PI to conceive and build a network model of the spread of dis/mis- information. You will run experiments with the model to test hypotheses about how to minimize or boost the rate of spread. You will also work with the PI and other colleagues to author papers for journal publication.

As an equal opportunities employer we welcome applicants from all sections of the community regardless of age, sex, gender (or gender identity), ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation and transgender status.  All appointments are made on merit.

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Hybrid working arrangements may be considered.

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Enquiries about the vacancy, shortlisting and interviews:

Name: Mihaela Popa-Wyat

Email: Mihaela.Popa-Wyatt@manchester.ac.uk

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