Projekt

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Online social networks have become an integral part of the public sphere, but they are also criticized for contributing to the crisis in Western democracies by facilitating the emergence of echo chambers, amplifying conflicts, and enabling manipulations of public opinion via social bots. This state of affairs is the result of a complex interplay of technical systems, human actors, and partisan agendas that cannot be understood by one discipline alone. Interdisciplinary understanding of these phenomena needs to be based on theoretical expertise in computer science and the social sciences, empirical analysis and psychological experiments, plus a dialogue with civil society stakeholders. The focus of the project is on three levels of analysis of political communication online: the detection of social bots and their strategies to manipulate communication (actor level); conflictual discussions among users (interaction level); and the emergence of echo chambers (structural level). Based on a deeper understanding of the issues at each level, the 3B project will develop tools and methods that monitor and support political deliberation online. Our tools and methods will (1) discover manipulative social bots, (2) monitor the quality and diversity of political discussions, and (3) build bridges between digital communities in order to contribute to the diversification of opinions in echo chambers.

• Prof. Dr. Philipp Cimiano

  Universität Bielefeld
  Technische Fakultät
  Institut für Informatik
  AG Semantic Computing / CITEC
  Bielefeld
  

• Dr. Florian Muhle

  Universität Bielefeld
  Fakultät für Soziologie
  Arbeitsbereich Mediensoziologie
  Bielefeld
  

• Dr. Ole Pütz

  Universität Bielefeld
  Technische Fakultät
  CITEC
  Semantic Computing Group
  Bielefeld
  

• Dr. Birte Schiffhauer

  Katholische Hochschule
  Nordrhein-Westfalen
  Paderborn
  

• Prof. Dr. Elena Esposito

  Universität Bielefeld
  Fachbereich Soziologie
  Bielefeld
  

• Dr. Robert Ackland

  Australian National University
  School of Sociology
  Canberra
  Australien
  

• Prof. Dr. Udo Seelmeyer

  Fachhochschule Bielefeld
  Fachbereich Sozialwesen
  Bielefeld
  

• Prof. Dr. Tony Veale

  University College Dublin
  National University of Ireland
  School of Computer Science
  Dublin
  Irland
  

• Does Explainability Require Transparency?

• Have I Got Views For You! Generating Fair and Balanced Interventions into Online Debates.

• The Funhouse Mirror Has Two Sides: Visual Storification of Debates with Comics.

• Echo Chambers without Conversation? Enriching Research on Polarization and Fragmentation on Twitter with the Analysis of Reciprocal Communication