Understanding the unfolding of the Cambridge Analytica scandal
Shreeharsh Kelkar, Professor
Interdisciplinary Studies Field (ISF)
Closed. This professor is continuing with Spring 2024 apprentices on this project; no new apprentices needed for Fall 2024.
For many ordinary people, the term "Cambridge Analytica"--even if they are not sure exactly what the controversy is about--brings forth some association with the topics of election interference, psychological manipulation, illicit hacking, Russian disinformation, and Facebook, even though it has very little do with any of these except Facebook and its data-oversight policies for third-party app developers.
This project seeks to understand how the meaning of the scandal morphed in public discourse and which events and actors were most responsible for the shift in its meaning. It starts with the hypothesis that the scandal which unfolded in the aftermath of Donald Trump's presidential victory was framed as much by some of the revelations as it was by the the internal struggles between various progressive-leaning institutions in the US (including among journalists and employees working within social media companies like Facebook).
The project will use archival work and framing analysis to construct a historical narrative documenting the changing meaning of the scandal in public discourse. In the first phase of this project to be carried out over Spring 2023, we will carry out a framing analysis of articles about Cambridge Analytica published in The New York Times (a mainstream journalistic outlet), The Guardian (a left-wing newspaper), and National Review (a right-wing news magazine in the US), and Wired (a technology-based publication). In later semesters, we will expand this framing analysis to social media discourse on Twitter.
Qualifications: Learning outcomes:
Over the course of this project, the student will be able to:
- articulate the history of political polarization in the US and its relationship to social media
- develop and hone research skills that involve archival work and framing analysis.
- develop and hone writing skills through writing a report that describes clearly the research findings and justifications for methods
Tasks
Over Spring 2023, the student will have to carry out the following tasks:
- use online databases and web searching skills to build a database of articles in the NYT, The Guardian, National Review, and Wired about Cambridge Analytica.
- read and summarize these articles in an Excel sheet
- carry out some basic framing analysis of the changing meaning of the scandal.
- writing a report describing the findings.
Student qualifications:
Desirable but not essential:
- the student should have some background and interest in the topic and history of social media, public opinion, and social movements.
- the student should have some experience in working with qualitative research methods: doing searches in library databases for news articles as well as being able to summarize and analyze them.
- ideally, the student should be either a junior or a senior; those majoring in ISF, media studies, american studies, history, anthropology, sociology, rhetoric, political science/economy, computer science, and data science are especially encouraged to apply.
Hours: 3-5 hrs
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