Scott Cunningham (Technological University of Delft) will be here next week to present on "The Influence of Digitization on Dutch Democracy". He will be presenting on January 16th from 16:00-17:00 in McCance 318.
"The Influence of Digitization on Dutch Democracy"
The democratic system is being transformed by the presence and availability of new digital technologies. There are multiple vectors of influence including different forms of online persuasion, a variety of human and automated accounts, and a wide variety of institutional actors. This talk discusses advisory work performed to the Dutch Parliament. The work assesses the scope of these digital influences on the 2018 Dutch municipal elections. A variety of forms of analysis are applied to this problem including algorithmic analyses, content analysis, and network modeling. The medium strongly shapes the message; most of the platforms investigated are not ideologically neutral. Some political actors in the Netherlands nonetheless hope to harness this transformation to create pillars or platforms of political content.