Garrett at Colloquium on Friday

For those who aren't out of town attending the NCA conference, Kelly Garrett will be giving a talk on Friday during colloquium that will be of interest to COPS members.

Social media and the U.S. Presidential Election

In the wake of the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, controversy about the role of social media in the political process has been intense.  These technologies have been blamed for promoting disinformation and incivility, contributing to political polarization, and creating echo chambers.  This talk will bring empirical evidence to bear on these sometimes hyperbolic claims. Using three-wave panel data collected from representative samples of Americans in 2012 and 2016, I examine evidence of both the harms and benefits of social media, paying particular attention to the role of Facebook.