UCLA Communication

“Fostering Connections Between Present and Future Selves, From the Lab to the Field” w/Hal Hershfield (UCLA Anderson)
2025-04-24 11:00 - 12:15 (America/Los_Angeles) | Rolfe 2303

“Spontaneous Coordination Through Intentional Commitment: How Adults and Children Resolve Conflicting Desires in Sequential Decision-Making” w/ Shaozhe Cheng (Duke University)
2025-04-10 11:00 - 12:15 | Rolfe 2303

CPS Speakers Series: Kevin Arceneaux (Sciences Po)
2025-04-09 10:30 - 12:00 | Rolfe 2125, Rolfe Hall, Los Angeles, United States
The Political and Social Influence of Social Media: The Case of Facebook
Kevin Arceneaux, Sciences Po
Wednesday April 9, 10:30-12:00, Rolfe 2125
ABSTRACT: Popular discourse about social media presumes that social media platforms play an
outsized role in shaping public opinion and political behavior. The social nature of these
platforms allow people to learn about politics from a tailored set of trusted sources, making
them a potentially powerful influence, while also making them notoriously difficult to study.
Deactivation experiments, which incentivize users to forgo using social media, offer a blunt
instrument for estimating the overall impact of social media platforms. This talk will consider
what we have learned about the effects of Facebook from several deactivation experiments
conducted in the US and France. Despite its potential to shape public opinion and political
behavior, these experiments suggest that it has relatively modest effects.

Colloquium Speaker- Mathilde Massenet
2025-02-27 11:00 - 12:15 | Rolfe 2303

Comm Undergraduate Information Session
2025-02-19 10:00 - 11:00, 2024-02-21 10:00 - 11:00
Rolfe 3134

Colloquium Speaker- Amir Ghasemian
2025-01-23 11:00 - 12:15 | Rolfe 2303

"Stop Censorship, Collaborate, and Listen!" w/Cory Clark (University of Pennsylvania)
2025-01-16 11:00 - 12:15 | Rolfe 2303

Building a shared infrastructure to study the internet: The National Internet Observatory, with David Lazer
2025-01-14 15:00 - 16:30 | Comm Conference Room – Rolfe 2303
Organized by the Communication and Politics Group…
ABSTRACT: The National Internet Observatory (NIO) is an NSF-funded project aimed to help researchers study online behavior. Participants install a browser extension and/or mobile apps to donate their online activity data along with comprehensive survey responses. The infrastructure, housed at Northeastern University, starting in 2025, will offer approved researchers access to a suite of structured, parsed content data for selected domains to enable analyses and understanding of Internet use in the US. This is all conducted within a robust research ethics framework, emphasizing ongoing informed consent, and multiple layers, technical and legal, of interventions to protect the values at stake in data collection, data access, and research. This talk will provide a brief overview of the NIO infrastructure, the data collected, the participants, and the researcher intake process.

"Adjusting the Margins: Political Communication Efforts by Marginalized Communities Over Time" Ben Epstein (DePaul University)
2024-11-18 14:00 | Comm Project Room – 2310 Rolfe

The Evolution of Social Paradoxes w/ David Pinsof (UCLA Social Minds Lab)
2024-11-14 11:00 - 12:15 | Rolfe 2303

Comm Information Session - Undergraduate Major
2024-11-13 10:00 - 11:00 | Royce 150

"Generative AI and politics: what is next after the 2024 super election year" Claes de Vreese (University of Amsterdam)
2024-11-05 11:00 | Comm Project Room – 2310 Rolfe

"Measuring Resilience to Misinformation: A Global Multilevel Framework" Peter Van Aelst (University of Antwerp)
2024-11-01 13:30 | Comm Project Room – 2310 Rolfe

Depression and Democratic Backsliding: Depression, Conspiracy Beliefs, and Support for Political Extremism w/ Matthew Baum (Harvard University)
2024-10-24 11:00 - 12:15 | Rolfe 2303

Citizens’ Perceptions on How Misinformation Distorts the News Environment w/ Toni Van der Meer (University of Amsterdam)
2024-10-10 11:00 - 12:15 | Rolfe 2303

The 2024 Presidential Election and the State of American Politics w/ Lynn Vavreck (UCLA)
2024-10-03 12:30 - 13:45 | Pritzker 3572

2024 UCLA Department of Communication Commencement Keynote Address
2024-06-25 08:00 - 17:00

Natalie Kahn Talk, Department Speaker Series: Muniba Saleem (UCSB, Communication)
2024-05-30 11:00 - 12:15 | Comm Conference Room – Rolfe 2303
Title: Media Representations and Their Broader Implications for Intergroup Relations

Abstract: This talk highlights the role of media as an ecosystem in cultivating societal divisions within multicultural contexts. Utilizing correlational, experimental, and longitudinal research methodologies, I provide a comprehensive analysis of the nuanced effects on both racial majority and minority audiences. The findings reveal three broader implications of media depictions of racial minorities. First, exposure to negative media portrayals of racial minorities adversely affects the attitudes and behaviors of racial majority members towards these groups. Second, such negative depictions harm racial minorities’ self-esteem and group esteem, while reinforcing their perceived disadvantaged status in mainstream society relative to other groups. Finally, mainstream media representations undermine the sense of belonging, inclusion, and integration of racial minority members within mainstream society, culture, and politics.

Department Speaker Series: Megan Burkhardt-Reed (UCLA, Communication)
2024-05-16 11:00 - 12:15 | Comm Conference Room – Rolfe 2303
Title: The emergence of communication in infancy: Development and evolution

Abstract:
Do gestures truly precede vocalization in modern human development and in the evolutionary origin of language? Or is vocalization more foundational for communication? Recent years have seen a resurgence of interest in the evolutionary origins of language. Speculations on the evolution of language have evoked comparisons across human and non-human primate communication. However, many argue that the origins of language relate closely to the origins of modern human infantbehavior. To the extent that the issue of language origins has been raised, most recent published opinions exploring evolutionary possibilities have leaned toward a “gesture-first”hypothesis. But much empirical information does not accord with the gestural claims.

In this talk, I will present findings from two of my longitudinal studies that systematically compare rates of gestural and vocal communication across the first two years of life. The findings from this research reveal that the bulk of activity in the first and second year of life are in the vocal domain rather than gestural, suggesting a more foundational role of voice. I will propose a framework to allow comparable counting of communicative and/or potentially communicative events of both infant gesture and vocalization. To date, clear definitions and criteria for classification have not been a major focus of empirical investigation on gesture and vocalization as language foundations in prior research. I will also outline my current study on understanding the ways older infants continue to babble and speak and the ways caregivers respond to these communications and then present some of the methodology for conducting this work. I will conclude with thoughts on the broader implications of my findings and future directions of my program of research.

Comm Information Session
2024-05-15 10:00 - 11:00 | Rolfe 1200

POSTPONES: CPG: Ben Epstein (DePaul)
2024-05-10 15:00 - 16:30 | Comm Conference Room – Rolfe 2303
Title: Exploring Political Communication Strategies of Women’s Rights and LGBTQ+ Communities Over Time

Abstract: This study uses a mixed methods approach to explore the communication approaches of organizations advocating for greater political power, access, and representation for women and LGBTQ+ Americans over time. First, I identify a diverse sample of organizations and publications advocating for greater political inclusion for women and LGBTQ+ Americans over the past two centuries, with particular attention to those in the contemporary digital era. Next, various print and digital communications efforts are analyzed, applying a framework developed over a number of studies to compare the varied communication approaches of organizations advocating for marginalized communities. Finally, content analysis is used to evaluate newspapers, magazines, social media posts and websites from these organizations and publications. Through these approaches I explore the rhetorical strategies and goals of political messages communicated by these groups by centering their words, and find that while many notable changes have occurred, much is remarkably consistent over time.

CPG: Nikki Usher (USD)
2024-04-30 11:00 - 12:30 | Comm Project Room – 2310 Rolfe
Title: How and why American journalism (accidentally) amplifies anti-democratic actors: Small town extremists, media storms, and a broken news industry

Abstract: Within a week, a no-name Republican state representative from a town of 384 people in Illinois catapulted from obscurity to a prime-time appearance on Fox News’ Ingraham Angle. This newly-empowered politician, Darren Bailey, would go on to hijack the pro-business Republican party in Illinois toward extremism. Democratic backsliding emerges across all levels of politics, but the threats posed by small town politicians to the rule of law have been overlooked. This research asks, first what features of local political ecologies that might facilitate the rise of small town anti-democratic extremists? Second, how does the political economy of the contemporary news ecosystem–local, regional, national, and partisan media–serve to amplify these bad actors? Ultimately, this case study considers how small-town extremists are enabled by the structural, cultural, and normative dimensions of democratic life that they seek to undermine, especially the difficulty the institutional news media faces in covering anti-democratic actors.

Department Speaker Series: Dana Mastro (UCSB, Communication)
2024-04-25 11:00 - 12:15 | Comm Conference Room – Rolfe 2303
Title: Threat in the form of News: Examining the ways that news coverage of immigration constrains systemically marginalized groups

Abstract: Although U.S. media portrayals of racial, ethnic, and other historically excluded identities vary based on the group, platform, and genre, generally speaking these groups have tended to be both underrepresented and, at times, unfavorably depicted across the media landscape. The current talk addresses this issue with a particular focus on coverage of immigration in the news. Specifically, the manner in which U.S. news characterizes immigration and immigrants will be addressed followed by a discussion of empirical research investigating how variations in the themes in this content affect opinions about, feelings toward, and behaviors regarding immigration and immigrants among both ‘dominant’ and traditionally marginalized groups.

Department Speaker Series: Emilio Ferrara (USC, Communication & Computer Science)
2024-04-11 11:00 - 12:15 | Comm Conference Room – Rolfe 2303
TITLE: AI & Social Manipulation

ABSTRACT: In this talk, I will overview my decadelong journey into understanding the implications of online platform manipulation. I’ll start from detecting malicious bots and other forms of manipulation including troll accounts, coordinated campaigns, and disinformation operations. The impact of my work will be corroborated with examples of findings enabled by our technology, e.g., our unveiling of the “Russian bots” operation prior to the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, which informed official Senate investigations and new regulations. I will then illustrate similar issues with the 2020 U.S. Election, as well as COVID-related conspiracies and public health misinformation. I’ll conclude by discussing the ML tools we developed to model online mis/disinformation, reveal the malicious adversaries behind the curtains, and characterize their activity, behavior, and strategies, suggesting how they are changing the way researchers and study online platforms in the era of automation and artificial intelligence.

Dan Costanzo (NORC at the University of Chicago)
2024-04-08 15:00 - 16:00 | Comm Conference Room – Rolfe 2303
ABSTRACT: Researchers who conduct population surveys face escalating costs and declining response rates, as they aim to collect data that is representative, trustworthy, and publishable. Sample recruitment is often prohibitively expensive to researchers, and cheap convenience samples are fraught with representation and quality issues. NORC at the University of Chicago has built a survey panel called
AmeriSpeak to help researchers navigate these choppy waters. AmeriSpeak is a probability (random) sample of US households recruited to take surveys for NORC. Dan Costanzo, a Director of Business Development at NORC, will talk about AmeriSpeak’s novel approach to sample recruitment, which includes sending field interviewers located throughout the US to the homes of non-responders. The
result of NORC’s rigorous efforts is a panel that delivers higher response rates and a more representative sample of US adults than mail and phone recruitment efforts alone provide. AmeriSpeak is commercially available to academic, government, media, and other researchers. Costanzo will also talk about the Time-sharing Experiments for the Social Sciences (TESS), a federally funded program through
Northwestern University that enables academic researchers to use AmeriSpeak for free.

CPG: Davin Phoenix (UCI, Political Science)
2024-03-06 15:00 - 16:30 | Comm Conference Room – Rolfe 2303
Title: Emotional Representation: Identifying the Characteristics and Consequences of Elected Officials Mirroring the Emotions of Their Constituents (with Christopher Stout, Gregory Leslie, and Elizabeth Schroeder)

Abstract: In this study, we identify a previously overlooked component of representation, which we label ‘emotional representation.’ Emotional representation occurs when elected officials mirror the dominant emotional state of a constituent group through their public outreach. First, to explore the existence of emotional representation, we examine the degree to which members of Congress mirrored Black people’s documented increase in expressions of anger following the murder of
George Floyd in the Summer of 2020. Using a regression discontinuity design and sentiment analysis including 305,358 tweets, 190,192 Facebook Posts, and 35,409 press releases, we show that descriptively representative MCs provide the highest levels of emotional representation. Second, to examine the impact of emotional representation, we deploy a two-stage experiment to 390 Black respondents. We find that Black people who increased in anger after being primed with images of police violence view elected officials who engage in emotional representation as more
favorable, empathetic, and trustworthy.

Department Speaker Series: Carolyn Parkinson (UCLA, Psychology)
2024-02-29 11:00 - 12:15 | Comm Conference Room – Rolfe 2303
Title: The brain in the social world: Integrating approaches from psychology, neuroscience, and social network analysis

Abstract: This talk will cover work integrating theory and methods from psychology, neuroscience, and social network analysis to examine how people track, encode, and are influenced by the social networks that they inhabit. One set of studies tests if, when, and how people retrieve knowledge of familiar others’ positions in their real-world social networks when encountering them. Related research tests how this knowledge, once retrieved, shapes downstream processing and behavior. A second set of studies tests if human social networks exhibit assortativity in how their members perceive, interpret, and respond to their environment. Consistent with this possibility, we find that proximity between people within their social networks is linked to similar neural responses to naturalistic stimuli, similar subjective construals of such stimuli, and similar patterns of brain connectivity. A final set of studies examines how shared understanding relates to overall levels of social connectedness within communities. We find that people who process the world in a manner that is more reflective of community norms have greater overall levels of subjective and objective social connection. All human cognition is embedded within social networks, but research on information processing within individuals has progressed largely separately from research on the social networks in which individuals are embedded. The set of findings to be reviewed in this talk suggests that integrating approaches from psychology, neuroscience, and social network analysis can provide new insights into how individuals perceive, shape, and are shaped by the structure of their social world.

Department Speaker Series: Scott Page (University of Michigan, Business, Political Science, Complex Systems, and Economics)
2024-01-25 11:00 - 12:15 | Comm Conference Room – Rolfe 2303
Speaker: Scott E. Page (University of Michigan, Santa Fe Institute). (website)
Title: Organizations and Cultural Coherence
Abstract: I construct a mathematical framework to elucidate and analyze the interdependence between structural features of an organization and some of its cultural attributes. By the structure of an organization, I mean whether individual actions are assigned hierarchically, agreed upon through a more equal democratic process, or encouraged through incentives. By culture, I will focus on standard measurable features such as tightness, individualism, trust, risk taking, and uncertainty avoidance. I show that congruence – the alignment of organization structure and culture – though an often articulated organizational goal does not, except in rare cases, imply efficiency. The creation of a healthy, constructive culture and not congruence should therefore be the goal of organizations.

CPG: Marlon Twyman (USC, Communication & Computer Science)
2024-01-24 15:00 - 16:30 | Comm Conference Room – Rolfe 2303
Title: Metawisdom of the Crowd: How Choice Within Aided Decision Making Can Make Crowd Wisdom Robust

Abstract: Quality information can improve individual judgments but make group decisions less accurate; if individuals attend to the same information, the predictive diversity that underlies crowd wisdom may be lost. We explore this tension within the context of decision support systems that provide the choice of decision aids and before then primary judgments. We argue that whenever a set of decision aids induce diverse errors, this structure leads to higher group accuracy because aid choice will exhibit predictive diversity itself. In two experiments—the prediction of inflation (N=1907, pre-registered) and a tightly controlled bean-count estimation task (N=1198)—we find strong evidence for this.
