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Research

Duncan Watts and CSSLab’s New Media Bias Detector

Researchers at the Computational Social Science Lab have developed the Media Bias Detector, which uses artificial intelligence to analyze news articles, examining factors like tone, partisan lean, and fact selection.

A road sign with "FACT" pointing in one direction and "OPINION" in another.
Research

Mapping Media Bias: How AI Powers the Computational Social Science Lab’s Media Bias Detector

The CSSLab’s Media Bias Detector empowers users to analyze bias in major news outlets, not just based on the outlets’ political leaning, but on the topics they choose to cover.

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Research

Mapping How People Get Their (Political) News

New data visualizations from the Computational Social Science Lab show how Americans consume news.

Matt O'Donnell talks to a student in his class
Undergraduate News

A New Class Has Students Use AI To Do Their Homework

Lecturer Matt O’Donnell’s course “Talking with AI: Computational and Communication Approaches” encourages undergraduates to play with AI.

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Research

The YouTube Algorithm Isn’t Radicalizing People

A new study from the Computational Social Science Lab finds that the YouTube recommendation system is less influential on users’ political views than is commonly believed.

Telecommunication tower with cellular antennas for 5g mobile internet network stands in a forest with a blue sky background
Research

The Mission to Get Pennsylvanians Online

The Pennsylvania Broadband Research Institute, a collaboration between Penn and Penn State, looks for ways to bridge the digital divide in the state — and the rest of the nation.

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Research

The Commonalities of Common Sense

PIK Professor Duncan Watts and Computational Social Science Lab senior researcher Mark Whiting address a critical gap in how knowledge is understood.

Desmond Patton seated at a desk in an office
Faculty News

Desmond Patton and the Science of Being Human

Patton discusses his research in social media and violence, finding an interdisciplinary career in social work, communication, data science, and psychiatry, and why his open-mindedness never stops.

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Research

First Findings from US 2020 Facebook & Instagram Election Study Released

Unprecedented research by Prof. Sandra González-Bailón and colleagues reveals the influence of Facebook's algorithms on political news exposure.

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Graduate Student News

At the National Liberty Museum, People’s Browsing History Is on Display Through Art

Recent Ph.D. Roopa Vasudevan created a browser extension that transforms a person’s portrait based on the websites they visited.