MIDaS Lab

The Media Information, Data, and Society (MIDaS) Lab at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication is an interdisciplinary lab that explores how the public navigates and makes sense of social, political, and global issues in a contemporary data and information-rich media environment. The lab produces socially impactful studies through data-intensive as well as theory-driven media research projects.

News

• Chun Shao, a graduate student research fellow at the MIDaS Lab, successfully defended his dissertation defense. He will begin his new position as Assistant Professor at Marquette University in Fall 2023. 
• The journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking announced a press release on the recent article published by the MIDaS Lab, titled “A Dynamic Analysis of Conspiratorial Narratives on Twitter During the Pandemic”. 
• MIDaS Lab members Qian Li, Chun Shao, and K. Hazel Kwon co-authored a paper titled “Making Gun Control Agendas in Networked Digital Environment: An Intermedia Comparison between Activism Websites, News Outlets, and Ephemeral Media during the U.S. Gun Control Movement”. The paper was accepted as the Top Faculty Debut paper in the Interactive Media & Emerging Technologies division of the 2023 Broadcast Education Association (BEA) Conference.
• Chun Shao, a fellow at the MIDaS Lab, co-authored with colleagues at University of Florida a paper titled “Conceptualizing Trust: Causes, Components, and Consequences.” It was accepted as the second top paper in the Research division of the 2023 Broadcast Education Association (BEA) Conferences.
• Dr. Anatoliy Gruzd and Mr. Philip Mai (Directors at Social Media Lab at Toronto Metropolitan University) visited the MIDaS Lab in April 2023, and delivered a talk titled “The Battle for Truth: Examining the Spread of Disinformation in the Russia-Ukraine War.” 

Recent Projects

1. Public understanding of gun politics: This project explores how gun politics like gun control movement, mass shooting violence, and related conspiracy theories are told and spread in networked news and social media environments. This project has been supported by Social Science Research Council –Digital Media and Democracy Grant and the ASU Institute for Social Science Research. For more information, check out the project site.
2. Anti-Asian misinformation and networked counterpublic: This project explores asian-targeting hate speech and misinformation in Twitter, as well as the formation of networked counterpublics that protest Asian hate. This project has been supported by the National Science Foundation (Award number 22101373). For more information, check out the project site here 
3. Immigrants and news trust: This project examines immigrants’ perception and own definition of trustworthy news, mis/disinformation, and propaganda. This interview study has been supported by the ASU Center for Narrative, Disinformation and Strategic Influence. For more information, check out the project site here 
4. Influencers and democracy: This project explores the role and impact of social media influencers on nurturing informed public and political awareness. For more information, check out the project site here 
5. Fake Social Engagement (FSE) Operation: This project utilized a large-scale click stream data in the context of a proven disinformation operation case, to understand the impact of falsely amplified social engagement metrics on shaping online users’ political expressions and news search behaviors. This project was in partnership with faculty at W.P. Carey School of Business, and supported by the MIT-Lincoln Laboratory (Award Number: PO 7000506684). For more information, check out the project site here 
6. Misinformation, Rumors, and Conspiracy Theories: This project includes a series of research work that investigates cyber-rumors, misinformation, and conspiracy theories spread in networked environments, both online and offline. The project has been supported by the National Science Foundation (Award number 2027387) and the MIT-Lincoln Laboratory (Award Number: PO 7000506684). For more information, check out the project site here 
7. (Illicit) Community of Practice in Dark Web: This project examines the illicit online communities in the Dark Web, to understand ways in which they build and share collective “knowledge” bases and how they sustain them during moments of community disruption. This project was supported by the U.S. Department of Defense DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory-Army Research Office (Award Number: W911NF1910066).For more information, check out the project site here 

Faculty

Graduate Research Fellows