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PODCAST

What is it about computational communication science?

Emese Domahidi & Mario Haim

As "big data" and "algorithms" affect our daily communication, lots of new research questions arise at the intersection between societies and technologies, asking for human wellbeing in times of permanent smartphone usage or the role of huge platforms for our news environment. The growing discipline of Computational Communication Science (CCS) takes on a combinatory perspective between social and computer science. In this podcast, Emese Domahidi (@MissEsi) and Mario Haim (@DrFollowMario) open this

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All Episodes

00:31:18

#aBitOfCCS on Performance vs. Sustainability in Text...

What is it about computational communication science? ·

2025/11/19

Tune in to the #aBitOfCCS Podcast as we dig into the growing tension between performance and sustainability in computational text analysis. Sean Palicki, a researcher at TUM, joins us to discuss his recent paper Don’t Look Up: Evaluating the Tradeoff between Performance and Sustainability of LLMs for Text Analysis.In this episode, we explore how large language models (LLMs) compare to lighter methods such as dictionaries and task-specific classifiers when applied to sentiment analysis,

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00:24:58

Observing Opinions: What is Machine Learning?

What is it about computational communication science? ·

2025/11/11

In this episode, we’re joined by Prof. Damian Trilling from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, who opens the door to the world of machine learning for opinion research. Damian explains how citizens consume and share news today — and how machine learning helps us make sense of these patterns at scale. We unpack the difference between supervised and unsupervised machine learning and explore how blending both can strengthen research projects. Damian also shares why these methods hold so much promise for the

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00:29:13

#aBitOfCCS on Safeguarding Anti-Sexist Speech Online...

What is it about computational communication science? ·

2025/10/15

Tune into the #aBitOfCCS Podcast as we explore how large language models classify online political speech about sexism. Aditi Dutta, a doctoral researcher at the University of Exeter, joins us to discuss her study on how automated moderation systems often misclassify anti-sexist speech as harmful—raising important questions about fairness, resistance, and digital democracy.CONTENT WARNING: This episode includes discussions and examples of sexist language online, which may be offensive or upsetting

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00:18:36

Observing Opinions: What are Dictionaries?

What is it about computational communication science? ·

2025/10/14

In this episode, we’re joined by Dr. Valerie Hasse from LMU Munich to demystify one of the most widely used tools in computational text analysis: the dictionary. Valerie explains how computational dictionaries relate (or don’t!) to the everyday dictionaries we know, and breaks down how they actually work behind the scenes. We explore what dictionaries are good for, when to build your own versus using ready-made ones, and where they shine — especially for studying opinions, emotions, and media

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00:19:10

Observing Opinions: What is Pre-Processing?

What is it about computational communication science? ·

2025/09/09

In this episode, Prof. Jamal Abdul Nasir from the University of Galway reveals why pre-processing is the backbone of all text analysis. He breaks down key steps like defining documents, tokenization, removing stop words, unification, and stemming vs. lemmatization. Jamal also explains unigrams vs. bigrams and how modern NLP techniques like byte-pair encoding are changing the game. Plus, he shares practical tips for making your pre-processing transparent and reproducible, helping your research stand

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00:17:48

Observing Opinions: Thinking About Text Computationally

What is it about computational communication science? ·

2025/08/12

In this episode, we’re joined by Dr. Fabienne Lind from the University of Vienna, who sheds light on how computational methods transform the way we study opinionated communication. Fabienne shares her experience researching political emotions on social media in the CIDAPE project and explains what it really means to “code” when we’re working with text. We explore how computational tools help us find patterns and insights that traditional reading might miss — and why this matters for understanding

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00:35:12

#aBitOfCCS on Measuring Uncertainty in Political...

What is it about computational communication science? ·

2025/07/14

Tune in to the #aBitOfCCS Podcast as we explore how to measure something as abstract and slippery as uncertainty in political speech. Ella MacLaughlin, a PhD candidate at Utrecht University, joins us to discuss her ongoing research on how politicians in the US, UK, Germany, and the Netherlands express uncertainty in public communication.In this episode, we dive into the challenges of capturing uncertainty in political language, how it differs from other domains like biomedical science, and how we

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00:17:13

Observing Opinions: Why Should we Care About...

What is it about computational communication science? ·

2025/07/08

In this episode, we are joined by Prof. Helle Sjøvaag, journalism researcher and founding member of the OPINION Network. She shares how the network came to life and why it’s vital for studying how opinions form and spread online. We explore how digital spaces — from social media to news sites — shape what we think and how we express it. Helle unpacks the hidden influence of technology, power, and money on online discourse. Tune in to hear why building supportive networks is crucial in navigating

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00:25:41

#aBitOfCCS on training data for classifying hateful...

What is it about computational communication science? ·

2025/06/16

In this episode of #aBitOfCCS, Jana Bernhard-Harrer sits down with Denise Roth, a PhD student at the Strategic Communication Group at Wageningen University & Research. Denise’s research focuses on how science is communicated by political elites and the implications for the relationship between science and society.Her study, "In the Crossfire: Online Hostility Towards Public Figures Amid Politicized Science Communication" , investigates how large language models (LLMs) can be leveraged to

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00:29:02

Observing Opinions: What is opinionated communication?

What is it about computational communication science? ·

2025/05/26

In the first episode, Wendo King'ang'i and Christian Baden dive into the concept of opinionated communication — what it is, how it shows up in our daily lives, and why it matters. They also touch on the current state of research and what the future holds for this fascinating topic. In this podcast we aim to introduce and discuss the OPINION COST Action CA21129. The network convenes early- and mid-career researchers from over 35 European countries, Israel, and the US, integrating

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00:28:30

#aBitOfCCS on strategic political communication on...

What is it about computational communication science? ·

2025/04/23

Join us on the #aBitOfCCS Podcast as we dive into political agenda-setting with Daniel Sandvej Eriksen, Post-Doc at the University of Aarhus, Department of Political Science.In this episode, we discuss Daniel’s latest research, "Initiate and Elevate! How Political Parties Can Set an Agenda." His study introduces The Issue Initiation Model, which explains how political parties proactively shape discussions . . Using computational methods, Daniel analyzes over 5.5 million tweets and 750,000

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00:30:39

#aBitOfCCS on the Role of Software Tools in...

What is it about computational communication science? ·

2025/03/17

In this special episode of #aBitOfCCS, Jana Bernhard-Harrer sits down with Marvin Stecker, a PhD student at the Computational Communication Science Lab at the University of Vienna. Marvin is part of the AUTHLIB project, which focuses on illiberal challenges to democracy.Unlike our usual focus on specific computational methods, this episode explores a study Marvin conducted with colleagues from OPTED: "Tools of the Trade – When Are Software Tools Mentioned in Computational Text Analysis Research?"

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00:27:39

#aBitOfCCS on neural network for scaling party...

What is it about computational communication science? ·

2025/02/17

In this episode of #aBitOfCCS, Jana Bernhard-Harrer chats with Hung Nguyen, a research fellow at the German Institute for Adult Education – the Leibniz Centre for Lifelong Learning. Hung shares insights from his study, "A Sentiment-Based Approach to Measuring Multidimensional Party Positions with Transformer."The study introduces ContextScale, a framework that uses AI to analyze party positions by separating political sentiments from rhetorical styles. Built on the XLM-RoBERTa model, ContextScale

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00:29:32

#aBitOfCCS on ABM with Said Unger hosted by Jana...

What is it about computational communication science? ·

2025/01/20

In this episode of #aBitOfCCS, Jana Bernhard-Harrer interviews Said Unger from the University of Münster about his research on combating disinformation through prebunking interventions. Said’s study, "Immunize the Public against Disinformation Campaigns: Developing a Framework for Analyzing the Macrosocial Effects of Prebunking Interventions," explores how Agent-Based Modeling (ABM) can help identify key turning points for preventing the spread of disinformation at a societal level. Don’t

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00:29:18

#aBitOfCCS on Misinformation Detection with Lotte...

What is it about computational communication science? ·

2024/12/12

Tune in to the #aBitOfCCS Podcast as we discuss misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic with Lotte Schrijver, a PhD candidate in Strategic Communication at Wageningen University and the Pandemic and Disaster Preparedness Center. In her study, "In Search of Truth: A Refined Approach to Collecting and Annotating Data for BERT-Based Misinformation Detection," Lotte explores the challenges of training machine learning models to detect nuanced misinformation.This episode, hosted by Jana

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00:26:22

#aBitOfCCS on Named Entity Recognition with Christian...

What is it about computational communication science? ·

2024/11/12

Tune in to the #aBitOfCCS Podcast as we explore state communication and public trust during the COVID-19 pandemic with Christian Schwaderer, a PhD candidate at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. Christian’s study, Navigating Trust: Comparative Insights into Crisis Communication Strategies and Public Perception, examines how government communication strategies on social media and in press conferences influenced public perception and trust in crisis management.In this conversation, hosted by Jana

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01:10:26

How crucial is credibility online?

What is it about computational communication science? ·

2024/08/14

Credibility is a crucial concept in communication science and received severely increased attention, again, with CCS. That is, it serves everybody as a signpost to navigate the web whilst also being scrutinized by some via (AI-driven) signals that suggest trustworthiness. Cuihua (Cindy) Shen is Professor of Communication and Co-Director of the Computational Communication Research Lab at the Department of Communication at UC Davis. In this episode, she, Emese Domahidi (Professor at TU Ilmenau) and

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00:52:03

How to fix platforms?

What is it about computational communication science? ·

2024/07/23

Ethan Zuckerman, Associate Professor of Public Policy, Communication and Information at the U of Massachusetts Amherst, is our guest, and he is on a mission to fix platforms. Not because he thinks they are inherently bad, but because there are several things about platforms that research (not least CCS) tells us are flawed. Emese Domahidi (Professor at TU Ilmenau) and Mario Haim (Professor at LMU Munich) talk with Ethan about why social media seems to be broken, what possible ways to fix it might

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00:35:01

#aBitOfCCS on information flows in Telegram with...

What is it about computational communication science? ·

2024/06/24

Join us in the newest episode of #aBitOfCCS Podcast featuring Dr. Mónika Simon, a Postdoctoral researcher at the UvA, unraveling Narratives of (Dis)Trust in the digital realm. In this episode, Dr. Simon discusses her research focused on tracing information flows in contemporary media, utilizing advanced computational methods and cross-platform analysis. Explore her paper "Linked in the dark: A network approach to understanding information flows within the Dutch Telegramsphere" co-authored

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00:29:06

#aBitOfCCS on document selection with keywords with...

What is it about computational communication science? ·

2024/05/22

Dive into the latest episode of #aBitOfCCS Podcast featuring Sean-Kelly Palicki, a PhD candidate at TU Munich, as he explores multilingual document sampling and the impact of keyword translation strategies on automated text analysis. In this engaging conversation with host Jana Bernhard, Sean discusses key findings from his study, "Selecting Relevant Documents for Multilingual Content Analysis," published in Computational Communication Research. Check out the full study at

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