We are happy to announce that two new and very talented PhD students will join CCS.amsterdam team in September:
Marieke van Hoof will be researching Polarizing Issue Publics: the interplay of human choice and algorithmic selection, as part of the Digital Society initiative at the Amsterdam School of Communication Research, UvA. In this we will study the role of the digital media environment and AI in causes and effects of polarizing and radicalizing issue publics using two case studies, for example, the anti-5G movement, and the vaccination movement. Marieke has already been a part of CSS Amsterdam during her research master in Social Science, and we are very happy to welcome her back. She will be supervised by Judith Möller, Corine Meppelink, and Damian Trilling.
Nicolas Mattis will work on the NWO funded project Rethinking News Algorithms, where he will use lab and field experiments to model how news users react to news recommendations: what stories do they actually read, does it matter how the stories are presented, and how can we fine-tune the recommender algorithm to nudge them to consume a more balanced news diet? Nicolas is originally from Germany and did a research master in Communication Science at the UvA. During his research master, he focused on using automated research methods to study how digitalisation and commercialisation impact journalism and society. He will be supervised by Wouter van Atteveldt and Judith Möller.
Welcome both to the team and we are very much looking forward to working with you to answer the pressing questions you will be working on!