Digital societies, digital misinformation and social media

Data from our social existence are generated, gathered and tracked like never before.

Trends towards digitisation have been sharply accelerated by the pandemic, changing the way we live in the twenty-first century.

Our research looks at how this social data is changing how people interact with friends, businesses, employers, politics and democracy.

Current DSI activity

 

DSI Staff

Professor Ken Benoit

Professor of Computational Social Science

DSI Affiliates

Dr Siân Brooke

LSE Fellow in Computational Social Science / Leverhulme ECR Fellowship - Department of Methodology

Women in data science and AI (2021)

Dr Florian Foos

Assistant Professor in Political Behaviour

Dr Joshua Loftus

Assistant Professor - Department of Statistics

I am interested in statistical and mathematical theory to support applications in the regulation, explanation, and control of machine learning and AI systems, especially in order to reduce social or environmental harms of the proliferation of such systems.

Disaggregated Interventions to Reduce Inequality (2021)

Dr Blake Miller

Assistant Professor - Department of Methodology

Dr Mathias Poertner

Assistant Professor in Political Science - Department of Government 

My recent data science related publications in the area of political behavior and comparative politics have drawn on design-based and model-based research.

Metaketa V: Women's Political Participation in Hybrid Regimes (2019-)

Dr Alison Powell

Associate Professor - Department of Media and Communications 

JUST AI Network (2022)

Milena Tsvetkova

Assistant Professor of Computational Social Science - Department of Methodology

I study human behaviour and social interactions with online experiments and digital trace data.

I am currently working on a new method to estimate individual socio-economic status of social media users from the accounts they follow and cultural interests they express.

DSI Visiting Staff

Are you working on this topic? See your research published here by submitting an application to become a DSI Affiliate or to join our Visiting Appointment Scheme.

All applications are welcomed to these schemes that allow staff from across LSE and from other institutions to benefit from special access to DSI resources. Find out more here or via email.

Related LSE research

The strong research community at the London School of Economics also takes an interest in this research theme. As the cornerstone of data science at LSE, the DSI acts as a nexus for research and learning, working alongside other Departments and Institutes across the School.

The Department of Government is a world leading centre for research in politics and government. Find out about our research activities and the work of our internationally respected experts.