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2025

CCC hosts its second Tech-Enhanced Student Assembly

MIT undergraduates use a Citizens’ Assembly format to draw on their individual values and experiences to offer options for improved sustainability efforts on the MIT campus...
03.31.2025
MIT Center for Constructive Communication
MIT Center for Constructive Communication | 03.31.2025

CCC launches a inaugural student advisory board

MIT CCC is launching a student advisory board to help shape its ongoing research as well as student programming via realtalk@MIT. This group of undergraduates will contribute to the development of stu...
03.20.2025
MIT Center for Constructive Communication
MIT Center for Constructive Communication | 03.20.2025

CCC Newsletter, Issue 10

Bridging Dictionary Launch, realtalk@MIT Pilot, Welcome Audrey Tang and Michiel Bakke, & more. ...
01.09.2025
MIT Center for Constructive Communication
MIT Center for Constructive Communication | 01.09.2025

MIT Center for Constructive Communication’s Work Featured on Night Owls Podcast

MIT Center for Constructive Communication (CCC) and its nonprofit collaborator Cortico are at the forefront of using technology and dialogue to foster deeper connections and strengthen civic life. Th...
01.06.2025
MIT Center for Constructive Communication
MIT Center for Constructive Communication | 01.06.2025
2024

Study: Some language reward models exhibit political bias

Large language models (LLMs) that drive generative artificial intelligence apps, such as ChatGPT, have been proliferating at lightning speed and have improved to the point that it is often impossible ...
12.12.2024
MIT News
MIT News | 12.12.2024

CCC and DemNext take the first step towards developing a more transparent, inclusive democratic process

In a landmark achievement, MIT CCC and DemocracyNext have collaborated on the first-of-its-kind, tech-enhanced citizens’ assembly in Deschutes County, Oregon. 12,750 invitation letters were mailed t...
12.11.2024
MIT Center for Constructive Communication
MIT Center for Constructive Communication | 12.11.2024

Introducing the Bridging Dictionary

On January 7, CCC launched the Bridging Dictionary (BD), an interactive web-based prototype that uses natural language processing to identify the different ways two media outlets – foxnews.com on th...
12.06.2024
Andrew Heyward
Andrew Heyward | 12.06.2024

realtalk@MIT: Using AI to bring human conversation to life

In today’s digital age, words and information are everywhere—flooding our feeds, congesting our inboxes, and pinging us with text messages. Yet, written words can never bring life to words the way...
11.21.2024
The Tech
The Tech | 11.21.2024

CCC and FRONTLINE launched a listening experiment to build a social dialogue network with youth

In collaboration with FRONTLINE, the PBS documentary series produced at GBH in Boston, the MIT Center for Constructive Communication (CCC) has been exploring how small group facilitated conversations...
10.09.2024
MIT Center for Constructive Communication
MIT Center for Constructive Communication | 10.09.2024

CCC launched realtalk@MIT for incoming students to connect, learn, and share their experiences

In August, CCC trained over 70 students to effectively facilitate small-group conversations, also recording and highlighting many of these conversations on the newly developed Fora app. By sharing the...
09.19.2024
MIT Center for Constructive Communication
MIT Center for Constructive Communication | 09.19.2024

How to make social media, online life less of ‘dumpster fire’

Popular social media platforms were once a place to connect with old and new friends, post life updates, and share photos of your kids. But they have become fraught with misinformation, an algorithm-...
09.17.2024
Harvard Gazette
Harvard Gazette | 09.17.2024

Second annual CCC in-person event: Trust and Human Connection in the Age of Social Networks and AI

On May 7, 2024 more than 150 attendees, including many from CCC’s closely affiliated non-profit, Cortico, spent a full day at MIT engaging in conversation and exploration related to the rapidly chan...
07.30.2024
MIT Center for Constructive Communication
MIT Center for Constructive Communication | 07.30.2024

MIT CCC graduate students and research staff present at the 10th International Conference for Computational Social Science (IC2S2)

CCC graduate students Belén Saldías, Hope Schroeder, Elinor Poole-Dayan, Will Brannon, Hang Jiang, and CCC research engineer Doug Beeferman, presented at the 10th International Conference for Comput...
07.25.2024
MIT Center for Constructive Communication
MIT Center for Constructive Communication | 07.25.2024

CCC Newsletter, Issue 9

Second annual CCC Symposium, realtalk@MIT and realtalk@Boston Updates, & more. ...
06.27.2024
MIT Center for Constructive Communication
MIT Center for Constructive Communication | 06.27.2024

CCC gathered local community-based organizations to explore: How might we transform Boston into Listening City?

The MIT Center for Constructive Communication, with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is growing a network of local key stakeholders that will invite members of their diverse communitie...
05.30.2024
MIT Center for Constructive Communication
MIT Center for Constructive Communication | 05.30.2024

CCC graduate students Belén Saldías and Cassandra Lee featured in exhibition on art, AI, & work at Museum for Communication Berlin

Belén Saldías (CCC, PhD candidate) and Cassandra Lee (CCC, Masters candidate) are featured in New Realities. Stories of Art, AI & Work, an exhibition at the Museum for Communication Berlin. They we...
05.20.2024
MIT Center for Constructive Communication
MIT Center for Constructive Communication | 05.20.2024

CCC Newsletter, Issue 8

RealTalk@MIT: Moving Toward a “Listening Campus," Deb Roy article in The Atlantic, Three successful CCC course offerings during MIT IAP ...
03.06.2024
MIT Center for Constructive Communication
MIT Center for Constructive Communication | 03.06.2024

How to Tackle Truth Decay | The Atlantic | Deb Roy

The next stage of truth decay is that those who no longer trust the scientists and technocrats search for alternative sources of information, “truth” from outside the network of elite expertise. T...
03.03.2024
The Atlantic
The Atlantic | 03.03.2024

CCC and DemocracyNext hosted the First-Ever Tech-Enhanced Student Assembly

The MIT Center for Constructive Communication (CCC) and the non-profit DemocracyNext came together to design and implement the first tech-enhanced and student-focused version of a Citizens’ Assembly...
02.01.2024
MIT Center for Constructive Communication
MIT Center for Constructive Communication | 02.01.2024

The key to constructive communication on charged topics

We reached out to Deb Roy, an MIT professor who heads the MIT Center for Constructive Communication, to understand how its frameworks could be applied in workplaces. MIT’s administration has asked R...
01.14.2024
Charter Newsletter
Charter Newsletter | 01.14.2024
2023

CCC and DemocracyNext Announce Tech-Enhanced Pop-Up Lab to Advance Citizens’ Assemblies

In an era of technological transformation in which social media and generative AI are disrupting our processes of communication and democracy, the MIT Center for Constructive Communication (CCC) and t...
12.15.2023
MIT Center for Constructive Communication
MIT Center for Constructive Communication | 12.15.2023

CCC’s RealTalk@MIT Part of Campus-Wide Efforts to Encourage Civil Discourse

MIT Chancellor Melissa Nobel notes CCC's RealTalk@MIT efforts as part of the Institute's response to addressing antisemitism and Islamophobia through MIT's new "Standing Together Against Hate" initia...
12.04.2023
MIT News
MIT News | 12.04.2023

2023 CCC Annual Offsite

Every year, MIT CCC students, staff, and collaborators head to Cape Cod, MA for three days to delve into research discussions and learn, imagine, and share with one another outside the constraints of ...
11.08.2023
MIT Center for Constructive Communication
MIT Center for Constructive Communication | 11.08.2023

Big Tech’s Effect on Democracy | Democracy360

The relationship between technology and democracy has become increasingly complex from the proliferation of social media to recent advances in AI. Kara Swisher moderates a lively conversation with CC...
10.19.2023
Democracy 360
Democracy 360 | 10.19.2023

Deb Roy’s Atlantic article proposes healthy social networks

In The Atlantic, CCC Director Deb Roy writes about the very real threat today’s social media platforms pose to our democracy, and presents a far less toxic alternative: a social network that surface...
10.17.2023
The Atlantic
The Atlantic | 10.17.2023

CCC Newsletter, Issue 7

CCC at Ars Electronica 2023, Josh Flax joins CCC, Five new graduate students, DemocracyNext collaboration, and more....
10.04.2023
MIT Center for Constructive Communication
MIT Center for Constructive Communication | 10.04.2023

Who Owns the Truth? CCC at Ars Electronica

When the Ars Electronica festival (September 6 – 10) took a deep dive into examining what “truth” means in today’s world, organizers invited broad participation from CCC and Cortico. ...
09.05.2023
MIT Center for Constructive Communication
MIT Center for Constructive Communication | 09.05.2023

Aspen Ideas Festival 2023 Opening Session: Crossing Divides

CCC Director Deb Roy kicked off the prestigious 2023 Aspen Ideas Festival with a talk on how to bridge divides, featuring the latest updates on the collaboration between Cortico and the MIT Center fo...
06.25.2023
Aspen Ideas Festival
Aspen Ideas Festival | 06.25.2023

CCC Newsletter, Issue 6

On May 10, CCC hosted its first in-person event: Real Talk, Real Listening, and Trust in the Age of Social Media and Generative AI, New Initiative Announced, Cited on Capitol Hill, Robert Wood Johnson...
06.15.2023
MIT Center for Constructive Communication
MIT Center for Constructive Communication | 06.15.2023

MIT’s Center for Constructive Communication takes aim at the destructive nature of social media

The MIT Center for Constructive Communication (CCC) and the closely affiliated nonprofit Cortico today announced the launch of a broad-based effort that draws on expertise in face-to-face human dialo...
05.10.2023
MIT News
MIT News | 05.10.2023

CCC Newsletter, Issue 5

FRONTLINE’s Raney Aronson-Rath Joins CCC, Facilitated Conversations at Freeport High in Maine: Making a Difference, Deb Roy on ChatGPT...
04.27.2023
MIT Center for Constructive Communication
MIT Center for Constructive Communication | 04.27.2023

Moving Evidence to Action

Freeport High School, located in a small coastal city in Maine, has an enrollment of 639 students. The socioeconomic and demographic makeup of the student body is diverse, with 16 percent of Freeport ...
04.26.2023
MIT Center for Constructive Communication
MIT Center for Constructive Communication | 04.26.2023

GBH’s Raney Aronson-Rath Joins MIT Center for Constructive Communication as Journalist-in-Residence

Raney Aronson-Rath, editor-in-chief and executive producer of FRONTLINE, the award-winning PBS investigative documentary series housed at GBH in Boston, has been named journalist-in-residence at MIT�...
02.27.2023
MIT Center for Constructive Communication
MIT Center for Constructive Communication | 02.27.2023

Aroostook County students using AI research to improve their education

Students in Aroostock County want to see a change in how classwork is given because they feel overwhelmed and that their voices aren’t being heard. Central Aroostook Junior/Senior High School in Mar...
02.20.2023
Bangor Daily News
Bangor Daily News | 02.20.2023

Exploring the Future of Public Engagement — ICYMI with Ceasar McDowell

MIT professor Ceasar McDowell discusses his work through the Center for Constructive Communication — designing tools, methods and systems to connect us and create a healthier society....
02.20.2023
Government Technology
Government Technology | 02.20.2023
2022

Martha Minow and Ceasar McDowell on the Constitution, Built-in Inequities, and More

We are now grappling with some of the most serious threats to democracy since our nation’s founding, with many across the political spectrum agreeing that America’s “experiment in democracy” i...
10.25.2022
MIT Center for Constructive Communication
MIT Center for Constructive Communication | 10.25.2022

CCC Newsletter, Issue 4

Martha Minow and Ceasar McDowell on the Constitution, Built-in Inequities, and Where We Go From Here…, Offering Solutions: Local News as an Antidote to Toxic Social Media...
10.25.2022
MIT Center for Constructive Communication
MIT Center for Constructive Communication | 10.25.2022

MIT launches Center for Constructive Communication

The cross-campus effort will design human-machine systems that improve communication across divides and increase opportunity for underheard communities. The interdisciplinary Center for Constructive C...
09.19.2022
MIT News
MIT News | 09.19.2022

Local journalism can bring divided communities together

"Trust in virtually all institutions has been on a half-century-long decline," writes CCC's Deb Roy, "with one significant exception: local news media. This positions journalism uniquely to leverage i...
09.16.2022
The Seattle Times
The Seattle Times | 09.16.2022

Can Technology Help Humans Listen?

The impact of social media—both positive and negative—demonstrates the great power of the underlying technologies. Technologists can design communication systems that foster and scale age-old prac...
09.08.2022
MIT Alumni
MIT Alumni | 09.08.2022

In the Lab: Researchers Work on What’s Next in Tech

The latest and greatest technologies often start as projects in university laboratories across the country. Here are a handful of innovations in the works that could transform gov tech in the coming y...
08.08.2022
Government Technology
Government Technology | 08.08.2022

PROOF POINTS: Computer scientists create tool that can desegregate schools – and shorten bus routes

A team of six computer scientists and designers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Georgia Institute of Technology proved this by building a tool to optimize school zoning ma...
07.05.2022
The Hechinger Report
The Hechinger Report | 07.05.2022

CCC Newsletter, Issue 3

A Message from Deb Roy, Director: Thoughts on Elon Musk and Twitter // For me, Elon Musk’s impending takeover of Twitter is a wake-up call. It’s a very real reminder that to preserve our increasi...
06.30.2022
MIT Center for Constructive Communication
MIT Center for Constructive Communication | 06.30.2022

Thoughts on Elon Musk and Twitter

It’s not surprising that over the past few months I’ve frequently been asked for my take on Elon Musk’s proposed acquisition of Twitter. After all, for the past decade I’ve had a close connect...
06.28.2022
Deb Roy
Deb Roy | 06.28.2022

University of Oregon students test a new framework for dialogue-driven reporting

“As the reporter, whether or not you agree, this is the best way to get the most honest, reliable information… It’s incredible how much you can learn about people and about the world when you le...
06.19.2022
Agora Journalism Center
Agora Journalism Center | 06.19.2022

The Internet Needs You-Are-Here Maps

We spend so much of our time online without knowing where we are—or how fragmented we've become. Locating ourselves can help us leave our bubble. ...
06.13.2022
Wired
Wired | 06.13.2022

Obama praises CCC’s “great work” in “making online conversations more civil and productive”

"We need to figure out how to give [ourselves] a chance to build up civic muscles,” said Barack Obama in his April 2022 speech on disinformation, mentioning the “great work” being done CCC in �...
04.25.2022
MIT Center for Constructive Communication
MIT Center for Constructive Communication | 04.25.2022

CCC Newsletter, Issue 2

In coordination with MIT's Values Statement Committee, CCC is launching RealTalk@MIT, a cross-campus pilot program that will solicit honest perspectives from staff, students and faculty....
04.13.2022
MIT Center for Constructive Communication
MIT Center for Constructive Communication | 04.13.2022

CCC Newsletter, Issue 1

Welcome to the first issue of the MIT Center for Constructive Communication’s newsletter! ...
03.17.2022
MIT Center for Constructive Communication
MIT Center for Constructive Communication | 03.17.2022
2021

Better democracy through technology

The way we’re speaking with others is fundamentally broken. In every measurable way, things are getting more fractured and polarized.' For more than two decades, Roy has been deeply immersed in stu...
12.17.2021
MIT Technology Review
MIT Technology Review | 12.17.2021

Real Talk for Change, Boston Mayoral Candidate Forum with Michelle Wu [video]

Boston Neighborhood Network and Real Talk for Change host a conversation with 2021 Boston Mayoral Candidate Michelle Wu. ...
10.29.2021
Boston Neighborhood Network Media
Boston Neighborhood Network Media | 10.29.2021

Real Talk for Change, Boston Mayoral Candidate Forum with Annissa Essaibi-George [video]

Boston Neighborhood Network and Real Talk for Change host a conversation with 2021 Boston Mayoral Candidate Michelle Wu. ...
10.29.2021
Boston Neighborhood Network Media
Boston Neighborhood Network Media | 10.29.2021

Some Bostonians feel largely unheard. With MIT’s ‘Real Talk’ portal now public, here’s a chance to really listen

In a community dialogue in East Boston this summer, a man named Alejandro inquired about whether the city’s high schools would receive the funding they need to thrive.In West Roxbury, a resident nam...
10.25.2021
Boston Globe
Boston Globe | 10.25.2021

MIT’s ‘Real Talk’ campaign gives likely voters a voice in Boston’s race for mayor

For the past several months, Boston residents have heard a lot from the candidates running for mayor about their aspirations for leading this city.But on Monday, a half-dozen residents came together a...
08.24.2021
Boston Globe
Boston Globe | 08.24.2021

Deb Roy on Trust, Society and Democracy

Deb Roy speaks at the Chautauqua Institution. ...
08.06.2021
Chautauqua Institution
Chautauqua Institution | 08.06.2021

Ceasar McDowell named associate director of MIT Center for Constructive Communication

Ceasar McDowell, MIT professor of the practice of civic design and associate head of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP), has been named associate director for civic design at MIT’s ...
05.06.2021
MIT News
MIT News | 05.06.2021

What’s Up Holmes? [podcast]

Love it or hate it, the freedom to say obnoxious and subversive things is the quintessence of what makes America America. But our say-almost-anything approach to free speech is actually relatively rec...
04.02.2021
Radiolab
Radiolab | 04.02.2021

Now is an opportunity to reimagine and rebuild online spaces through real world design

Thanks to prolonged isolation, we now experience much of our lives online, but disinformation, polarization over the reality of the pandemic, and politics have led to a less than healthy virtual envir...
04.02.2021
CBC Radio
CBC Radio | 04.02.2021

How to Put Out Democracy’s Dumpster Fire

To read the diary of Gustave de Beaumont, the traveling companion of Alexis de Tocqueville, is to understand just how primitive the American wilderness once seemed to visiting Frenchmen. In a single m...
04.01.2021
The Atlantic
The Atlantic | 04.01.2021

‘We weren’t wealthy. But we were rich.’ Black residents of St. Pete reflect on generational wealth

They came together late last year, about a dozen Black residents of St. Petersburg, to talk to each other and to the Tampa Bay Times about generational wealth. Generational wealth — financial assets...
03.25.2021
Tampa Bay Times
Tampa Bay Times | 03.25.2021

The Local Voices Network | Future of Democracy [video]

We live in an age of social media and polarized broadcast media in which the loudest voices and most extreme opinions — often about issues that are distant from everyday concerns of most people — ...
03.21.2021
Institute for Public Knowledge, New York University
Institute for Public Knowledge, New York University | 03.21.2021

Study shows online school reviews reflect school demographics more than effectiveness

MIT researchers analyzed more than 800,000 online school reviews using advanced natural language processing, determining that reviews were largely associated with schools’ test scores — a measure ...
03.03.2021
MIT News
MIT News | 03.03.2021

Here’s how often election fraud has come up on right-wing radio talk shows

While President Trump’s baseless accusations of election fraud are losing steam with some Republicans, interest in the topic on the biggest right-wing talk shows has only grown.In the eight days sin...
02.17.2021
The New York Times
The New York Times | 02.17.2021

Biden Wants to Unite the Country. How Can He Do It?

When Joe Biden assumes control of the White House on Wednesday, his message of “unity” will crash into the hard reality of a nation dented by a deadly pandemic and being pulled apart by historic f...
01.20.2021
Politico
Politico | 01.20.2021

Aspen Institute Launches Commission on Information Disorder to Develop Actionable Public-Private Responses to the Disinformation Crisis

Washington, DC, January 13, 2021 — Amid a period of unprecedented challenge to American democracy, Aspen Digital, the Aspen Institute’s program on the intersection of media, technology, and securi...
01.13.2021
Aspen Institute
Aspen Institute | 01.13.2021
2020

Community members sound off on Madison police chief candidates, search process

Ramon Batista, a former police chief from Arizona, rose to the top as a favored candidate for the permanent Madison police chief position among members of the public who spoke at Wednesday’s Police...
12.10.2020
The Cap Times
The Cap Times | 12.10.2020

Local Voices Network contributes public input to Madison’s police chief search

As the Police and Fire Commission considers who will be Madison’s next police chief, members of the public will have the chance to weigh in at two upcoming meetings. The five-member PFC interviewed...
12.08.2020
The Cap Times
The Cap Times | 12.08.2020

We Should All Know Less About Each Other

In 2017, after the shock of Brexit and then Donald Trump’s election, Christopher Bail, a professor of sociology and public policy at Duke University, set out to study what would happen if you forced...
11.13.2020
New York Times
New York Times | 11.13.2020

A Matter of Facts podcast: MIT’s Deb Roy on Twitter

In a world with Facebook, Twitter, 24/7 news channels, talk radio, citizen journalism, fake news, real news, audiences are drowning in an overwhelming overload of information. Clearly a guidepost is ...
10.27.2020
Delaware Public Media
Delaware Public Media | 10.27.2020

MIT Media Lab and The Task Force Pilot COVID-19 Campaign in Atlanta

The Task Force for Global Health and the Lab for Social Machines (LSM) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Media Lab are collaborating to develop and test a health campaign against ...
10.20.2020
NewsBreak
NewsBreak | 10.20.2020

Meadowview Counts: What’s On Your Mind This Election?

For the 2020 elections, CapRadio is asking people who live, work and worship in one South Sacramento neighborhood — Meadowview — to share their questions and concerns to guide our election reporti...
09.30.2020
CapRadio
CapRadio | 09.30.2020

Journalists, business leaders consider roles in creating a more equitable, resilient local economy

As RJI continues to explore the links between rebuilding local economies and futureproofing local media, we want to better understand how to incentivize local conversations and experiments that help n...
08.17.2020
Reynolds Journalism Institute
Reynolds Journalism Institute | 08.17.2020

Cortico will Advance “Local Voices Network” with $2 million from Knight Foundation

Cortico, a nonprofit organization with the mission of fostering constructive public conversation in communities and the media, today announced it had received an additional $2 million in funding from ...
08.17.2020
Bloomberg Business
Bloomberg Business | 08.17.2020

Join us to talk about how we cover criminal justice

Throughout Alabama, thousands of people peacefully protested systemic racism after George Floyd’s death. Those protests prompted conversations about the criminal justice system and what our expectat...
08.06.2020
AL.com
AL.com | 08.06.2020

We’re Tackling Questions on Rent, Jobs and Food Access at the Next Open Newsroom

Throughout Alabama, thousands of people peacefully protested systemic racism after George Floyd’s death. Those protests prompted conversations about the criminal justice system and what our expectat...
08.03.2020
The City
The City | 08.03.2020

Listening to Rural and Urban Voices [Podcast]

Opinions about the coronavirus crisis have quickly polarized along partisan and rural/urban lines. But how are Americans experiencing and understanding the crisis? The fact that small towns are not ex...
05.29.2020
SNF Agora Institute, Johns Hopkins University
SNF Agora Institute, Johns Hopkins University | 05.29.2020

How journalists are working together to cover the COVID-19 pandemic

Having access to accurate information can mean the difference between life and death during a crisis. That’s why right now, journalists around the globe are working around the clock to make sure peo...
03.16.2020
Nieman Lab
Nieman Lab | 03.16.2020
2019

Listen deeper with the Local Voices Network

When the 2016 presidential election left pundits and pollsters stunned over how they could have been so off base about the concerns of rural America, they came looking for Kathy Cramer. The UW–Madis...
12.19.2019
Madison Magazine
Madison Magazine | 12.19.2019

Editorial: Aiding the search for a new police chief

First of all we appreciate the Madison Police and Fire Commission’s commitment to gathering citizen input in the search for a new police chief. It’s important both in terms of building trust in th...
12.12.2019
Channel 3000
Channel 3000 | 12.12.2019

10 Civic Tech Startups Working to Streamline Government Processes

In our current age of political scandal, Twitter drama and “fake news,” most people’s trust in our state and national governments is wavering. In fact, in an April poll, only 17 percent of thos...
11.11.2019
BostInno
BostInno | 11.11.2019
2018

Let’s gather around the “digital hearth”: How Cortico + MIT are using technology to foster community conversations in an age of polarization.

Technology has potential to bring us closer together, but we’re experiencing quite the opposite: a world where people are splintered by technology into insular tribes where hateful discourse, false ...
11.09.2018
Medium
Medium | 11.09.2018

Technologists are trying to fix the “filter bubble” problem that tech helped create

Last fall, Deb Roy, one of the US’s foremost experts on social media, attended a series of roundtables in small towns in middle America—places like Platteville, Wisconsin, and Anamosa, Iowa. It wa...
08.22.2018
MIT Technology Review
MIT Technology Review | 08.22.2018

We finally know for sure that lies spread faster than the truth. This might be why

Mark Twain is said to have remarked that a lie can travel around the world and back while the truth is still lacing up its boots. In these modern times, of course, a lie can spread just about as fast...
03.14.2018
The Washington Post
The Washington Post | 03.14.2018

The Grim Conclusions of the Largest-Ever Study of Fake News

Falsehoods almost always beat out the truth on Twitter, penetrating further, faster, and deeper into the social network than accurate information....
03.08.2018
The Atlantic
The Atlantic | 03.08.2018

It’s True: False News Spreads Faster and Wider And Humans Are to Blame

What if the scourge of false news on the internet is not the result of Russian operatives or partisan zealots or computer-controlled bots? What if the main problem is us?People are the principal culpr...
03.08.2018
The New York Times
The New York Times | 03.08.2018
2017

AI in storytelling: Machines as cocreators

Sunspring debuted at the SCI-FI LONDON film festival in 2016. Set in a dystopian world with mass unemployment, the movie attracted many fans, with one viewer describing it as amusing but strange. But ...
12.11.2017
McKinsey & Company blog
McKinsey & Company blog | 12.11.2017

AI Could Help Reporters Dig Into Grassroots Issues Once More

Last year’s divisive American presidential race highlighted the extent to which mainstream media outlets were out of touch with the political pulse of the country. Deb Roy, the director of the Labo...
11.09.2017
MIT Technology Review
MIT Technology Review | 11.09.2017

Our left-right media divide told through Charlottesville

After violence erupted in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Aug. 12, media coverage differed on what aspect of the event to cover.Using analyses from Cortico and the Laboratory for Social Machines at the ...
08.24.2017
Politico
Politico | 08.24.2017

Trump’s tweets aren’t rocketing quite like they used to

His “FAKE NEWS” tweets don’t rocket like they once did. His exclamation points (!) don’t excite quite the same old way.Donald Trump’s 140-character volleys helped define the first 100 days o...
04.28.2017
Associated Press
Associated Press | 04.28.2017

How to Escape Your Political Bubble for a Clearer View

As the media class struggles to understand an election result few foresaw, some have blamed a quirk of modern technology.“The ‘Filter Bubble’ Explains Why Trump Won and You Didn’t See It Comin...
03.03.2017
The New York Times
The New York Times | 03.03.2017

White House releases new Obama social media archive tools

The Obama administration's social media archive plan includes everything from GIFs to Vines, the White House revealed Thursday.In a post, the White House shared links to several platforms that allow ...
01.05.2017
The Hill
The Hill | 01.05.2017
2016

Journalists and Trump voters live in separate online bubbles, MIT analysis shows

When Donald Trump rode to victory in the Electoral College on Nov. 8, perhaps no group was more surprised than journalists, who had largely bought into the polls showing Hillary Clinton was consisten...
12.08.2016
VICE News
VICE News | 12.08.2016

Twitter users are saying #ImWithHer when it comes to early voting

In case you hadn't noticed, early voting is a thing this year. It's been underway in some states for weeks ahead of Election Day. And like everything else election-related, it's popping up all over so...
11.08.2016
Fusion
Fusion | 11.08.2016

The horse race of ideas at the finish line: Tracking the issues Americans did (and didn’t) talk about in the 2016 election

For decades, news coverage of U.S. presidential elections has been focused on the so-called “horse race” — polls, predicted outcomes, fundraising — rather than on the policy issues that ultima...
11.07.2016
Medium
Medium | 11.07.2016

Make Jobs Great Again

The next President will face serious questions about the future of work in a technology-driven and increasingly automated economy. Advances in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and robotics a...
11.04.2016
Medium
Medium | 11.04.2016

Brexit here? People on both sides of the US election are talking about it but in very different ways

As the election draws to a close, Trump supporters are forecasting victory. Their model: Britain’s decisive vote earlier this year in favor of the Brexit referendum. The product of a popular revolt ...
11.04.2016
Medium
Medium | 11.04.2016

Twitter Election Bots Hide Tons of Reply Spam Behind Boring Themed Accounts

A much-discussed research paper out of Oxford this month concluded that millions of tweets about the presidential election are generated by highly automated Twitter accounts. According to the authors'...
11.04.2016
Motherboard/Tech by VICE
Motherboard/Tech by VICE | 11.04.2016

Might at the Newseum: The Evolving Power of Issues in Campaign 2016

How long was this election campaign, anyway? If it feels like years to you, you’re right; we’ve been analyzing it since the beginning of 2015. So as a public service, we’re about to give you a c...
11.02.2016
Medium
Medium | 11.02.2016

Trump is all the talk on Twitter in battleground states but the focus on issues ranges widely

A new 15-state SurveyMonkey poll conducted with The Washington Post finds Hillary Clinton with a commanding lead over Donald Trump across battleground states three weeks before Election Day. We wonde...
10.29.2016
The Washington Post
The Washington Post | 10.29.2016

Time to talk about the issues — NOT!

Traditionally the presidential debates are a time for voters to focus on the substance of the campaign and for the nominees to air their differences on policy across a wide range of issues.But this ca...
10.13.2016
Medium
Medium | 10.13.2016

Speaking of Taxes

Saturday’s New York Times exclusive about Donald Trump’s $916 million tax loss in 1995 and its potential implications for how much federal tax he paid (or didn’t) for years afterward sent conver...
10.03.2016
Medium
Medium | 10.03.2016

MIT aims to makes sense of Twitter’s presidential debate firehose

With Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump set to face off in the first debate of a contentious presidential election tonight, the MIT Media Lab is set to make sense of the firehose of chatter expected to ...
09.26.2016
Computerworld
Computerworld | 09.26.2016

Once on the fringe, Twitter speculation about Clinton’s health has gone mainstream

On Sunday, as Hillary Clinton left a 9/11 memorial ceremony and entered her van, she buckled, stumbled, and nearly fell. Later, the Clinton campaign revealed that the Democratic presidential nominee h...
09.15.2016
Medium
Medium | 09.15.2016

Commission on Presidential Debates Announces Social Media, Technology and Voter Education Initiatives

The CPD has collaborated with technology, academic and media organizations to engage the American public in substantive conversations before, during and after the debates....
09.14.2016
The Commission on Presidential Debates
The Commission on Presidential Debates | 09.14.2016

Gender gap? What gender gap?

Who’s more likely to support Donald Trump on Twitter — men, or women? And what about Hillary Clinton? It turns out that while Clinton’s support is slightly more balanced between the genders, men...
09.13.2016
Medium
Medium | 09.13.2016

Immigration is dominating the election conversation on Twitter

Immigration, a major topic throughout this presidential campaign, has dominated the election-related conversation on Twitter in the past week.According to the Electome — a project of the Laboratory ...
09.05.2016
The Washington Post
The Washington Post | 09.05.2016

The Race Card — Back in Play

After receding to a relatively low simmer earlier this month, Race has boiled up again as a campaign issue, coinciding with Donald Trump’s attempt to reach out to minority voters. And Immigration, a...
08.26.2016
Medium
Medium | 08.26.2016

The Most Widely Shared Election News? Nasty, Brutish and Short …

What makes some election news stories go viral online, and others fall flat? Is it simply due to which presidential candidate has a greater (and more vocal) following?Here at the Electome, we analyzed...
08.22.2016
Medium
Medium | 08.22.2016

Shooting from the Lip: How a single comment can shift the focus of the election online

Whatever you think of Trump’s now notorious comments, they present a case study in the power of social media to alter the national conversation with astonishing force and speed. And Trump’s new ca...
08.19.2016
Medium
Medium | 08.19.2016

Look Who’s Talking: Whose followers tweet more about this election

It turns out Donald Trump is not the only one with an itchy Twitter finger — his followers are also eager tweeters. And even though you might think that Trump’s stumbles since the conventions woul...
08.12.2016
Medium
Medium | 08.12.2016

Rude Awakening: Who sparks more UNcivil conversations on Twitter — Trump or Clinton?

Just how crude and insulting is the social conversation around Election 2016? And how does it vary by candidate?Electome, a set of algorithms created by data scientists here at MIT’s Laboratory for ...
08.05.2016
Medium
Medium | 08.05.2016

“It’s national security, stupid.” As Election 2016 enters a new phase, Clinton and Trump supporters agree on at least one thing

Political strategist James Carville created the mantra “It’s the economy, stupid” to exhort the staff in Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign against George Bush. But as Hillary tries to become the s...
07.29.2016
Medium
Medium | 07.29.2016

Twitter Talks Kaine

Democratic vice-presidential candidate Tim Kaine’s convention speech last night had the Internet abuzz with dad jokes.At the Laboratory for Social Machines, we like to focus on the issues driving t...
07.28.2016
Medium
Medium | 07.28.2016

2016 Election: Topical Storms: The Top Issues for Trump and Clinton Supporters

Coming out of the Republican Convention, Foreign Policy/National Security and Race are the hot-button issues for both Trump and Clinton supporters.Here at the Laboratory for Social Machines, part of ...
07.22.2016
Medium
Medium | 07.22.2016

A Trump-Pence “chat-scan.” What’s Twitter saying about the ticket?

It’s official: a Donald Trump-Mike Pence 2016 GOP ticket for the White House. VP nominee Pence, unveiled to the public by Trump last week, will speak at the Republican National Convention this even...
07.20.2016
Medium
Medium | 07.20.2016

Veepstakes Visualized

Lately, it often seems the biggest question on the minds of American voters is who Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will choose as running mates.That’s because one very influential group of people h...
07.06.2016
Medium
Medium | 07.06.2016

How the Orlando attack showed the potential of an October Surprise

Nobody knows what issues will decide the 2016 election, because nobody knows what will happen over the next four and a half months. The things people care and talk about may depend heavily on world a...
06.18.2016
The Washington Post
The Washington Post | 06.18.2016

Here’s evidence that Donald Trump has made us dumber as a country on immigration

It's hard to remember now, but there was once a time when even Republicans talked about the need for "comprehensive immigration reform."It was a time when immigration was viewed as a complex issue tha...
06.16.2016
Fusion
Fusion | 06.16.2016

Warning: This election contains language some people may find offensive

When Andrew Jackson ran against incumbent John Quincy Adams in 1828, things got nasty. Adams accused Jackson of adultery and his wife of bigamy. Jackson's supporters countered by calling Adams a 'pimp...
05.25.2016
Fusion
Fusion | 05.25.2016

Missing From 2016 Race: More Urgency Over US Budget Gaps

In almost every stump speech, Republican presidential candidate John Kasich mentions his six years on the House Budget Committee and his work to produce a budget surplus. He brings a national-debt clo...
05.12.2016
Bloomberg
Bloomberg | 05.12.2016

Just how uncivil is Election 2016? MIT’s Media Lab has some charts you should see

We’ve heard a lot of … let’s say, colorful rhetoric this election cycle from US presidential candidates and their supporters.Now, a team of data scientists at MIT say they can actually quantify ...
04.28.2016
PRI
PRI | 04.28.2016

Introducing “Tonar”: An Incivility Index for Election 2016

Hilary Clinton’s “disgusting” bathroom break. The size of Donald Trump’s hands and other appendages. An unsubtle allusion to Megyn Kelly’s menstrual cycle. Little Marco. Lyin’ Ted. Getting...
04.25.2016
Medium
Medium | 04.25.2016

Twitter users definitely see the Supreme Court vacancy as an election issue

It's an election year, and so basically everything that happens in Washington is election-related. And that includes the Supreme Court vacancy and nomination.Our friends at MIT's Laboratory for Socia...
03.20.2016
The Washington Post
The Washington Post | 03.20.2016

Twitter’s political debate focuses on much different issues than Americans at large do

A national Washington Post-ABC News poll earlier this month asked Americans what issue is most important in their vote — with no options provided — and found 28 percent naming the economy and jobs...
03.13.2016
The Washington Post
The Washington Post | 03.13.2016

2016 Front-Runners Top List of Election Influencers on Social Media

When it comes to who is influencing the election online, the list looks much like the people who are leading the polls.Ahead of Super Tuesday, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology released a st...
03.01.2016
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal | 03.01.2016

Who’s Influencing Election 2016?

With Super Tuesday just around the corner, we know one thing about this election: it’s the most riveting in years. But why? What makes it so different from everything that came before?The obvious an...
02.23.2016
Medium
Medium | 02.23.2016

Time to check your candidate’s “chat-scan”

When Iowans gather in their caucuses tonight, how important will the actual campaign issues be in determining the winners? And which issues in particular?...When I last wrote about this on Medium in D...
02.01.2016
Medium
Medium | 02.01.2016

Here’s how Twitter reacted to the Iowa Brown & Black Forum

Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Martin O'Malley were asked a lot of questions they hadn't heard before at Fusion's presentation of the Iowa Brown & Black Forum, where presidential candidates resp...
01.15.2016
Fusion
Fusion | 01.15.2016
2015

Enter the Electome

However, at this early moment in the 2016 presidential campaign, the broccoli rule has been suspended. Consumers are gobbling up coverage of how the candidates stand on national security and immigrati...
12.28.2015
Medium
Medium | 12.28.2015

The ever-changing issues of the 2016 campaign as seen on Twitter

As the Republican candidates and the media gather in Las Vegas for a CNN debate tonight -- the fifth GOP debate of this election season -- terrorism and foreign policy promise to be a big new focus.Bu...
12.15.2015
The Washington Post
The Washington Post | 12.15.2015

Laboratory for Social Machines Building an Alternative to Horse-Race Journalism

The world has changed dramatically in the last two decades. Across every imaginable industry and sector of society, digital technologies have flattened old institutions and hierarchies.The change is e...
10.29.2015
Knight Foundation Blog
Knight Foundation Blog | 10.29.2015

New elections project developed by the MIT Media Lab will unlock social media data to track voter perceptions with $648,000 from Knight Foundation

The Electome, a new project developed by the Laboratory for Social Machines at the MIT Media Lab, aims to use data science to help journalists, the public and candidates capture and analyze social me...
10.29.2015
The Washington Post
The Washington Post | 10.29.2015

How Digital Transparency Became a Force of Nature
03.01.2015
Scientific American
Scientific American | 03.01.2015
2014

Twitter Backs New MIT Media Lab Program

Thanks to Twitter, something new is hatching over at the MIT Media Lab.According to MIT News, the California-based social media site saw the potential to do something huge in terms of breaking down an...
10.01.2014
Boston Magazine
Boston Magazine | 10.01.2014

MIT launches Laboratory for Social Machines with major Twitter investment: Program aims to develop collaborative technologies to tackle complex social problems

The MIT Media Lab today announced the creation of the Laboratory for Social Machines (LSM), funded by a five-year, $10 million commitment from Twitter. As part of the new program, Twitter will also pr...
10.01.2014
MIT News
MIT News | 10.01.2014