Abstract
Responding to an environment of panic surrounding social media's effect on democracy, regulators and other political actors are rushing to fill the policy void with proposals based on anecdote and folk wisdom emerging from whatever is the most recent scandal. The need for real-time production of rigorous, policy-relevant scientific research on the effects of new technology on political communication has never been more urgent. This book represents a clarion call for making social media data available for research, with results concomitantly released in the public domain, even while recognizing the importance of privacy and the business interests of the firms. We hope this concluding chapter, as well as the entire volume, can be helpful in providing a path to do so.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Social Media and Democracy |
| Subtitle of host publication | The State of the Field, Prospects for Reform |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| Pages | 313-331 |
| Number of pages | 19 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9781108890960 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781108835558 |
| State | Published - Sep 3 2020 |
Keywords
- Academic research
- Data
- Datasets
- Democracy
- Policy
- Political communication
- Privacy
- Research
- Scientific research
- Social media
- Technology
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Social Sciences