Professor Jennifer Stromer-Galley highlights the lack of transparency surrounding the numerous actors spending money on social media to target voters with messaging.
Professor Jennifer Stromer-Galley appeared on Al Jazeera to discuss how a fragmented information environment influences public perception of candidates. She explained that the inconsistency in media messages contribute significantly to how voters feel about the candidates.
Professor Jennifer Stromer-Galley helps utilize a Neo4j database, supported by a $250,000 vendor grant, to store and analyze political ad data collected via Crowdtangle and Facebook and Instagram ad library API.
Stromer-Galley analyzed more than 24,000 political ad buys on Instagram and Facebook that were placed by 1,800 organizations from Sept. 2023 through February. The findings were published by the ElectionGraph Project at Syracuse University’s Institute for Democracy, Journalism & Citizenship through a partnership with the data science firm Neo4j.
Research from the IDJC ElectionGraph project led by iSchool Professor Jennifer Stromer-Galley found that the millions paid for more than 24,000 ad buys and about 5,500 unique ads on Facebook and Instagram between Sept. 1, 2023, and Feb. 29, 2024.