Postdoc in Digital Media: Understanding Media Dynamics of Distrust

Join a cutting-edge NWO-funded project at the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis and Media Studies. This postdoctoral position explores the dynamics of distrust in digital societies, analyzing vast social media datasets to develop innovative, medium-centric theories. Collaborate on groundbreaking research addressing the rise of online toxic cultures, conspiracy theories, and post-truth phenomena, advancing our understanding of the digital age's complex communication landscapes.

Are you looking for a Postdoc position in Digital Media?
In 1964, in a ground-breaking work entitled 'Understanding Media', which first introduced the notion that "the medium is the message", Marshall McLuhan argued that the dawning era of electronic networked communication would have far-reaching effects on the organization of society into a "global village". While this vision of global interconnection would later be celebrated in Silicon Valley, it also had a darker side of increased "tribal" animosity and distrust - ever more evident with the rise of toxic techno-cultures like the "manosphere" and online conspiracy theories like "QAnon". Broadly positioned in relation to the McLuhanesque tradition, this Postdoc position is concerned with 1.) collecting and empirically redescribing "dynamics of distrust" within (large) social media datasets and 2.) contributing to developing a novel (medium-centric) theoretical framework through which to understand them. Building on disciplinary approaches that consider social media platforms as discrete "environments" with their own "affordances", the candidate and the project leader will work together to develop an empirically grounded approach to theorize intra- and inter-platform dynamics of media message propagation that goes beyond the much-used concept of the "meme", as the base unit of cultural reproduction. Defined by three main actors (algorithms, influencers, and crowds), these media environments both produce and thrive off of post-truth pseudo-events that may be better understood as involving "ritual" and "multi-directional" communications flows, than in standard terms of linear transmission, and top-down misinformation campaigns (Bastos & Tuters 2023, Tuters & Noordenbos forthcoming).

The research position combines empirical data collection and analysis with theory building. It involves working closely together with the project leader and his collaborators, to develop empirically grounded theories based on the analysis of existing datasets - e.g. a Twitter dataset (n=10M) focussed on the spread of 'conspiracy theories', post-covid - as well as potentially collecting and analysing dynamics of distrust within and across other social media platforms, using APIs, DSA requests, web scraping techniques or through other available archived sources. The position is situated in a department world-renowned for developing the "digital methods" approach of repurposing platforms affordances as the basis of social research - for example, by interpreting "hashtags" as "issue spaces". Building on such empirical methods, this project opens a dialogue with newer conceptual frameworks (including, but not limited to actor-network theory, assemblage theory, new materialism and agential realism), to help to understand evolving patterns and relations of consistency in social media datasets which may not be adequately described with 'off the shelf' concepts from social theory.

This is what you will be doing
Required:

• designing and conducting research under the guidance of the project leader, resulting in peer-reviewed academic publications in international scientific journals, edited volumes, and/or collaborating on a monograph with the project leader;
• participating in Trust RPA committee meetings together with PIs and post-docs;
• co-organizing expert meetings and a symposium with other post-docs inthe Trust RPA.

Optional:

• lead small collaborative data-sprints coordinated three times yearly by the Digital Methods Initiative;
• contribute to national and European-level funding applications intended to extend this line of research
• contribute to the research culture and output of the Open Intelligence Lab (oilab.eu)

The ideal applicant is conversant in both applied 'digital methods' and 'medium theory'.
Required:

• a PhD in media studies, a related field or equivalent professional experience.
• demonstrable interest and skill in combining empirical research with theory building.

Optional:

• ability to work new computational social science methods including NLP and LLMs, via Python or R
• demonstrable postdoctoral experience in publishing in leading international scientific journals;
• demonstrable postdoctoral experience in presenting scientific results at international conferences;
• a strong cooperative attitude and willingness to engage in collaborative research;
• enthusiasm for communicating academic research to non-academic audiences;
• excellent social, communication, and organizational skills;
• excellent command of English - working command of Dutch is an asset.

This is what we offer
You will be appointed at the Department of Media Studies of the Faculty of Humanities and will conduct the research in ASCA. The employment will be for sixteen months, with a 2-month probationary period. The preferred starting date is 01 April 2025.
Contingent on a positive performance evaluation and continuation of funding, the contract can be extended for 18 more months, at 1,0 fte.

This is where you will be working
You will work in a dynamic interdisciplinary research environment. While being based in UvA's New Media program, which has an international reputation as a leader in research on 'digital methods' and 'platformization' studies, you will also be affiliated with the Trust RPA, an interdisciplinary research collaboration between the Faculties of Law, Humanities, Social Sciences, Economics, and Computer Science on the trust dynamics in the digital society which currently includes three other postdoctoral researchers. You will have the opportunity to collaborate with these leading world renowned researchers and research institutes.

Please apply on January 12th at 23:59 at the latest. The preferred starting date is April 1st, 2025. We can apply for a working visa for you, which may take up to 90 days, in which case the starting date can be pushed back.

40 hours per week

Kloveniersburgwal 48