Our Research

Below are a few of our on-going research projects

Mapping Global Digital Political Inequality

Examining how emerging forms of political behavior on social media can either address or exacerbate political inequality among Americans

Experimental Social Media

Developing tools for studying political behavior on social media

Funded by UCSB Carsey-Wolf Center
Identity Threats on Social Media

The goal of our project is to further develop the concept of “social media identity threat,” by conducting a comprehensive study of content and audience responses to identity-related TikTok content.

Publications

Lane, D. S., Moxley, C. M., & McLeod, C. (2023). The Group Roots of Social Media Politics: Social Sorting Predicts Perceptions of and Engagement in Politics on Social Media. Communication Research
Barnidge M., Diehl, T., & Lane D. S. (2023) News “Attraction” and Digital Inequalities: Incidental News Exposure and the Equalization or Stratification of Political Information, Digital Journalism.
Lane D. S., Weeks, B.E., & Kwak, N. (2023) A Repertoire Approach to Studying Inequalities in Political Social Media Use, Mass Communication and Society
Lane, D. S., Do, K., Molina-Rogers, N. M. (2021) What is Political Expression on Social Media Anyway?: A Systematic Review. Journal of Information Technology & Politics.
Lane, D. S., Do, K., Molina-Rogers, N. (2021) Inequality or Identity?: Testing Two Accounts of Racial Gaps in Political Expression on Social Media. Political Communication.
Lane, D. S., Thorson, K., Xu, Y. (2021) Uninterested and Unequal?: Examining SES-based Gaps in Youth Political Behavior on Social Media. Information Communication & Society

Working Papers

Lane, D. S., Chen, M., & Wang, Y. The An “Identity-Turn” in Political Communication?: Testing the Relationship between Media Use and Identity Alignment in the United States.