Join us for the OSU School of Communication’s inaugural computational communication research mini-conference on April 12-13. Delve into the forefront of communication research as we explore using computational methods to tackle measurement challenges and investigate research problems in health, science, and political communication in the digital era. Eight renowned speakers will join us here at OSU from Annenberg School at Upenn, UW-Madison, UT-Austin, UC-Davis, MSU, Weizenbaum Institute, Rogers and Northwestern University. This is a two-day event featuring a day of public talks and invite-only workshop focused on discussions and collaboration. We invite members of School of Communication, Departments of Political Science, Sociology, and Psychology at OSU to join us for this exciting event pushing the boundaries of computational communication research.
Conference Agenda
April 12 Friday Public Day
Location: Pomerene Hall Room 320
| 8: 45 am – 9: 00 am EST | Registration (sign-in and name tag) |
| 9: 00 am – 9: 05 am EST | Welcome by OSU faculty member |
| 9: 05 am – 10: 30 am EST | Panel1: Measurement Challenges |
| Dr. Sandra Gonzales Networks as Maps of the Information Environment Dr. Winson Peng Questioning, questing, and quizzing: A journey through public opinion measurement Dr. Jihye Lee Big data and deep data: Exploring challenges and opportunities in automated observation of daily media use among disadvantaged individuals | |
| 10: 30 am – 10: 50 am EST | Discussion and Q&A for Panel 1 |
| 10: 50 am – 11: 00 am EST | Break for refreshments |
| 11: 00 am – 11: 50 am EST | Panel 2: Societal Challenges |
| Dr. Jingwen Zhang AI for persuasion and health promotion: Potentials and Challenges Dr. Kaiping Chen Using computational methods and technologies to examine and enhance equity in science communication | |
| 11: 50 am – 12: 10 pm EST | Discussion and Q&A for Panel 2 |
| 12: 15 pm – 1: 30 pm EST | Lunch |
| 1: 30 pm – 3: 00 pm EST | Panel 3: Digital News |
| Dr. Katherine Ognyanova Trust, misperceptions, and the role of digital platforms Dr. Jakob Ohme Attention and learning from news on a smartphone Dr. Yingdan Lu Crossing Digital Borders: Computational Understandings of Multilingual Cross-Platform Information Flows | |
| 3: 00 pm – 3: 20 pm EST | Discussion and Q&A for Panel 3 |
| 3: 20 pm – 4: 00 pm EST | General discussion and audience Q&A |
| 4: 00 pm – 4: 45 pm EST | COSMOS Lab tour and campus walking tour |
| 4: 45 pm – 6: 30 pm EST | Break time (back to hotel) |
| 6: 30 pm EST | Dinner |
April 13 Saturday Workshop Day
Location: Pomerene Hall Room 301
| 8: 45 am – 9: 00 am EST | Welcome and Arrival |
| 9: 00 am – 9: 50 am EST | Panel 1 |
| Speaker 1: Dr. Yingdan Lu (12-minute each) Speaker 2: Dr. Joyce Wang (12-minute each) Speaker 3: Dr. Jakob Ohme (12-minute each) | |
| 9: 50 am – 10: 30 am EST | Round-Table Discussion (Three tables setup) |
| Speaker 1: interested participants Speaker 2: interested participants Speaker 3: interested participants | |
| 10: 30 am – 10: 40 am EST | Break for refreshments |
| 10: 40 am – 11: 30 am EST | Panel 2 |
| Speaker 1: Dr. Sandra Gonzales (12-minute each) Speaker 2: Dr. Winson Peng (12-minute each) Speaker 3: Dr. Kaiping Chen (12-minute each) | |
| 11: 30 am – 12: 10 pm EST | Round-Table Discussion (Three tables setup) |
| Speaker 1: interested participants Speaker 2: interested participants Speaker 3: interested participants | |
| 12: 10 pm – 1: 00 pm EST | Lunch |
| 1: 00 pm – 2: 00 pm EST | Panel 3 |
| Speaker 1: Dr. Katherine Ognyanova (12-minute each) Speaker 2: Morgan Quinn (12-minute each) Speaker 3: Dr. Jingwen Zhang (12-minute each) | |
| 2: 00 pm – 2: 40 pm EST | Round-Table Discussion (Three tables setup) |
| Speaker 1: interested participants Speaker 2: interested participants Speaker 3: interested participants | |
| 2: 40 pm – 3: 30 pm EST | Closing Discussion and Remarks |
Speakers
Kaiping Chen
Kaiping Chen (PhD, Stanford University) is an Assistant Professor in Computational Communication at the Department of Life Sciences Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research expertise is in science and technology communication, public deliberation, and computational social science. Her work was published in flagship journals across disciplines, including American Political Science Review, Journal of Communication, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Public Opinion Quarterly, PNAS and others. You can find more information about her work at: https://www.kaipingchen.com
Sandra González-Bailón
Sandra González-Bailón is the Carolyn Marvin Professor of Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication, and Director of the Center for Information Networks and Democracy (CIND). She studies communication networks and how they shape exposure to information, with implications for how we think about political engagement, mobilization dynamics, information diffusion, and the consumption of news.
Jihye Lee
Dr. Jihye Lee (Ph.D., Stanford University, 2022) is an assistant professor in Stan Richards School of Advertising and Public Relations at UT Austin’s Moody College of Communication. She studies social and economic inequality in the digital realm. Her ongoing academic research explores the experience of poverty and its psychological consequences in various communication contexts such as targeted ads and interactions with government public benefits. Her work draws methods from social and computer sciences to explore individuals’ information lives in their everyday environments.
Yingdan Lu
Yingdan Lu (PhD, Stanford University) is an Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at Northwestern University. Her research focuses on digital technology, political communication, and information manipulation in authoritarian and democratic contexts. Her research employs both computational and qualitative methods to understand how governments use digital media and artificial intelligence to maintain their rule, and how individuals experience visual media in different media environments. Her work has appeared in peer-reviewed journals such as Political Communication, New Media & Society, Human-Computer Interaction, Computational Communication Research, and among other peer-reviewed journals. For more information, see her website: https://yingdanlu.com/.
Katherine Ognyanova
Katherine Ognyanova is an Associate Professor at the School of Communication and Information, Rutgers University. She studies the effects of social influence on civic and political behavior, confidence in institutions, information exposure/evaluation, and public opinion formation. Her methodological expertise is in computational social science, network science, and survey research. Katherine’s recent work examines the links between misinformation exposure and political trust.
Jakob Ohme
Dr. Jakob Ohme holds the Head of the Research Group position at the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society in Berlin. In this capacity, he directs the efforts of the “”Digital News Dynamics”” research group. His team’s research primarily investigates the complexities surrounding the perception, dissemination, and role of professional journalistic content on digital platforms in comparison to information propagated by other sources such as political entities, influencers, or artificial intelligence. Dr. Ohme’s academic interests are focused on the implications of digital and mobile communications for news consumption and political engagement within the framework of digital democracies, emphasizing the differences in media usage and political socialization across generations. He has shown particular dedication to enhancing digital methodologies in political communication and journalism research, primarily through the innovative use of digital trace data collected via data donations. Additionally, Dr. Ohme is actively involved as a Co-Principal Investigator in the #DSA40 Collaboratory, which aims to foster collaborative initiatives related to accessing platform data, an opportunity enabled by the Digital Services Act of the European Union.
Winson Peng
Dr. Winson Peng is a Professor in the Department of Communication, Michigan State University. His research interests include audience analysis, computational social science, health communication, and political communication. He is currently the associate editor of the Journal of Communication and serves on the editorial board of several other scholarly journals.
Jingwen Zhang
Jingwen Zhang is an Associate Professor of the Department of Communication and an Affiliate Faculty of the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of California Davis. Dr. Zhang’s research focuses on understanding, designing, and testing emerging persuasive technologies in shaping public attitudes and behaviors. She received the Ayman El-Mohandes Young Professional Public Health Innovation Award and the Everett M. Rogers Award from the American Public Health Association. Dr. Zhang’s research have been published in a wide range of top journals, including PNAS, Nature Communications, Journal of Communication, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, etc.
The Computational and Statistical Models Group 