Publications & Reports
Reverse-engineering political protest: the Russian Internet Research Agency in the Heart of Texas
For a new study recently published in Information, Communication & Society, TIPI looked at protests in Houston, Texas that occurred prior to the 2016 elections and which had been connected to the Russian Internet Research Agency-sponsored Facebook page ‘Heart of Texas.’
Mind games: A temporal sentiment analysis of the political messages of the Internet Research Agency on Facebook and Twitter
Drawing on the Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA)’s propaganda campaign on social media platforms during the 2016 presidential election, the TIPI research team analyzed 3.5K Facebook ads and 3M tweets to examine sentiment and content appeals.
Behind the Scenes Efforts of Disaster Knowledge Workers
We are excited to announce the publication of our latest article “A different type of disaster response volunteer: Looking behind the scenes to reveal coordinating actions of disaster knowledge workers” in the Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management.
Digital Inequalities and Homework Gap in Austin, Texas
As schools rely more and more on digital tools for teaching and learning, concerns over universal access to broadband Internet and computers start to emerge. The homework gap refers to the challenges school-age children experience completing their homework due to lack...
New Disinformation Research
Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election has expanded discussions about the role of misinformation in politics as well as people’s information behavior. While many studies have been conducted to unravel the strategies and impacts of the Russian IRA’s...
Library Hotspot Lending: Report to the Tocker Foundation
Based on our work with libraries in in other parts of the country (see: NYPL Hotspot Assessment and IMLS Rural Hotspots), we wanted to partner with Texas libraries in to pilot hotspot programs. We believe libraries, as anchor institutions, have an outsize role to play...
At the Edges of the National Digital Platform: COMMUNITY ATTITUDES TOWARD RURAL LIBRARIES
STROVER, SHARON, PI; BRIAN WHITACRE, COLIN RHINESMOTH, CO-PI; ALEXIS SCHRUBBE AND GERMAN ALVAREZ, RESEARCHERS Supported by the Institute for Museum and Library Services, Grant #31-16-0014-16Introduction The Technology & Information Policy Institute at the...
Scoping New Policy Frameworks for Local Broadband Networks
Sharon Strover, Martin J. Riedl and Selena Dickey submitted a paper to TPRC47: Research Conference on Communications, Information and Internet Policy. The paper is an outgrowth of the TIPI's Facebook Community Networks project. The team will present on Friday,...
Report: Digital Inclusion in Austin
A team of researchers under the supervision of professors Joseph Straubhaar and Sharon Strover conducted the Austin Digital Assessment Survey for the City of Austin to assess internet usage in Austin. The team sent 11,000 surveys to random Austin addresses and...
Report: The digital inclusion role of rural libraries: social inequalities through space and place
Abstract: A great deal of scholarship on broadband deployment and federal policies has positioned rural America through a deficit framework: rural parts of the country have older populations (and therefore not tech savvy), are poor (and therefore justifiably ignored by the market), too remote (therefore outside of legitimate profit-making enterprise), and losing population (and therefore significance). This research examines rural Internet connectivity through the lens of local libraries lending hotspots for Internet connectivity. Qualitative data gathered in 24 rural communities in Kansas and Maine undercut simplistic notions regarding how communication systems operate in environments ignored by normative market operations. Financial precarity and pressures from social and economic institutions compel rurally based individuals and families to assemble piecemeal Internet presence and connectivity. The public library plays a crucial role in providing Internet resources and stands out in the rural environment as a site that straddles public trust and local.