COMMColloquium

Disinformation and Deceit: Coordinated Sharing Behavior in Meta Ads Around the 2024 Presidential Campaign

Jennifer Stromer-Galley, Professor, Syracuse University

1:30 pm in 102 Mann

Disinformation may be one of the most pressing communication challenges of our time (Freelon & Wells, 2020). Methodologically, challenges persist in effectively studying this phenomenon. This talk unpacks the utility of studying coordinated sharing behavior as a means to identifying problematic information around the 2024 U.S. presidential election by extended party networks, the loose coalition of party-aligned actors (from political action committees to shady organizations; Kolodny & Dwyer, 2017). Given challenges with data access, the analysis is limited to political ads that ran on Meta platforms (Facebook and Instagram). Findings suggest several networks of coordinated behaviors that reveal problematic information sharing practices, including scams. The lack of governmental regulations and inadequacy of platform policies around political influence campaigns leave citizens vulnerable and the U.S. democracy fragile and fractured.

Jennifer Stromer-Galley is Professor in the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University, USA. She is author of Presidential Campaigning in the Internet Age (2^nd. Ed., 2019), which provides an in-depth analysis of the ways U.S. presidential candidates have used digital technologies for strategic communication between 1996 and 2016. She’s been principal investigator of over $15 million in grants to support research on cognitive biases, complex reasoning, and strategic messaging during political campaigns, and has published over 70 peer-reviewed journal articles and conference proceedings. Her current research project studies misinformation in the 2024 presidential election with a grant from Neo4j. An interactive dashboard of the projects’ analysis of paid ads on Facebook and Instagram can be found at: https://electiongraph.ischool.syr.edu