Yotam Ophir, Ph.D.

Welcome to wplace: A chaotic, collaborative digital canvas where users 'paint the world' A new online platform called wplace invites users to “paint the world” on a massive digital canvas. This ever-evolving map allows people to create art using a limited number of pixels over time.

@apnews.com spoke to Prof. Jessa Lingel and Annenberg alum @ophiryotam.bsky.social about wplace. The digital space allows people to express themselves over a map of the world, one pixel at a time. "In a way, every person is zooming in on what reflects them and who they are,” Ophir said. Read more:

🚨 New Episode Drop! 🎙️
Can You Really Trust Yourself Online? The Hidden Science of Misinformation
This week on The Disinfo Detox, Nolan Higdon sits down with Yotam Ophir, author of Misinformation and Society (Full episode link in comments) @nolanhigdon.bsky.social @ophiryotam.bsky.social

Misinformation and Society <p><b>A comprehensive guide to understanding and addressing political and scientific misinformation</b></p> <p>In our increasingly interconnected world, misinformation spreads faster than ever, influ...

I haven't read it yet, but for those of us concerned about disinformation (which is all of us, maybe?) this new book looks of interest:

www.wiley.com/en-us/Misinf...

Public perceptions of AI science and scientists relatively more negative but less politicized than general and climate science Abstract. Using a weighted 2023–2025 national probability panel of US adults, we compared the perceived Credibility, Prudence, Unbiasedness, Self-Correctio

🚨 new paper out in PNAS Nexus 🚨 Good news? AI science is not politicized (yet). Bad news? It's because everybody hates it and fears its unintended consequences. Stability over time suggests it's not just novelty/moral panic. Open access here:
academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...

Ta da!

When will the rest of the papers from the SI be published ?

Pre-ordered mine weeks ago :) can't wait to dive in

And also the process could be weaponized if done by partial people with conflict of interest

Our new paper, my 50th 😬, is out now. Led heroically by @wangrui.bsky.social it combines two novel methods for thematic analysis and engagement capacity to identify content that encourages deliberation. We validate the method on political discourse. paper here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/ref/10.1...

שמע. אני פרופסור לתקשורת עם 25 שנות השכלה ולא שמתי לב למרכאות בפעם הראשונה שהעפתי מבט (באפליקציה. בלי לפתוח כי לא עניין אותי). האדם הממוצע ישים לב?

שים לב שבשביל תשומת לב וקליקים, עיתון הארץ משתמש בכותרת מטעה וסנסציונית. אישה בגיל העמידה נפלה קורבן להונאה. לא "משהו גרם לאישה לתת מלא כסף לבראד פיט". וזה העיתון הכי טוב שיש לנו. עצוב

Rachel Maddow's Searing Remarks About Joy Reid's MSNBC Exit Touched On This Big Media Problem Experts weigh in on Maddow's remarks and one glaring issue that's been plaguing news media organizations for years.

I spoke with Huffington Post about the Joy Reid firing from MSNBC. We need strong independent and diverse media to hold power to account, but the failure of the commercialized advertising-based model in the last 15 years put us at a disadvantage: www.huffpost.com/entry/rachel...

Discourse and Misconceptions About Sexually Transmitted Infections in Lesbian Subreddits: A Health Belief Model Analysis Despite the increase in sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among lesbians, sex education and health services are often heterosexual-focused, leading them to be misinformed about their personal ...

🚨New paper out today🚨 in these trying times, we must protect and support the vulnerable, and remember and practice who we are, what we believe in. Our new work identifies educational and protective gaps in healthcare solutions around STIs for lesbians. #LoveIsLove 🏳️‍🌈

New AVMA guidance highlights the dangers of feeding cats raw food. Unfortunately, we find that public H5N1 concern is low, which may impede our public health response.

@stecula.bsky.social @thcallaghan.bsky.social @klunztrujillo.bsky.social @ophiryotam.bsky.social @drorwalter.bsky.social

Vaccine Hesitancy and Its Epistemic Antecedents: A Meta-Analysis Although much attention has been given to vaccine hesitancy, there is still considerable ambiguity regarding its epistemological antecedents. The current meta-analysis addresses this theoretical an...

🚨New publication out today🚨 led by my former advisee, Emily Andrews, this meta-analysis highlights the importance of trust and conspiracy theories in vaccine hesitancy, and the nuanced role each plays. Read here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Where is Plato, on behalf of Socrates: Writing is gonna f*ck us all?

When I find myself in times of trouble, I sit down and write.

My new book, Misinformation and Society, is now available for PRE-ORDER from Amazon and all other retailers!!
www.amazon.com/Misinformati...

Post a perfect album from the 90s that isn’t Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, or Alice in Chains.

Can you say a bit more, Siva about what you liked about it for a media intro class? I'm teaching one, too, so curious

My American Airlines pilot just said "Welcome to Buffalo, where the Chiefs gonna defeat the Bills tomorrow afternoon" and it went as well as you'd expect

In what could be described as both a perfect and horrifying timing, I will give a talk today at Penn Medicine on the politicization of science, the role of media, and the implications for vaccines and other health behaviors. Zoom link below if you're interested

Fighting conspiracy theories with comedy? That's what the Onion hopes after its purchase of Infowars It seemed like bad satire, or yet another conspiracy theory. The comic website the Onion buys Alex Jones' misinformation empire, Infowars, at a bankruptcy auction?

I talked to the AP about why celebrating The Onion's purchase of Infowars misses the point; the trolling and the court cases against Alex Jones will just make some of his most dedicated fans even more sure of his righteousness, seeing him as a martyr for free speech apnews.com/article/onio...

X Is a White-Supremacist Site Elon Musk has made one of Twitter’s most glaring problems into a core feature on X.

"The difference between X and a known hateful site such as Gab are people like myself... We are the human shield of respectability that keeps Musk’s disastrous $44 billion investment from being little more than an algorithmically powered Stormfront." www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

Academic book covers used to look really ugly back in the day, but man do I love spending some time with Innis!

The Long Shadow of the Big Lie: How Beliefs about the Legitimacy of the 2020 Election Spill Over onto Future Elections Abstract. Has the “big lie”—the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump—shaped citizens’ views of the legitimacy of other US electi

🚨 New and timely publication🚨 led by Matt Levandusky and with colleagues at Penn, we show the long term and lasting effects of election fraud misinformation on political grievances and distrust in the electoral system. Misinformation matters.
Read here: academic.oup.com/poq/advance-...

It's difficult to write one's first post. I'm really glad to be here, and I still have faith in the fundamental goodness in humanity. So I'll just leave it here: ♥️

Looking to follow smart people studying the internet? I created a starter pack to get you going.

Let me know if you want to be added or removed!

go.bsky.app/LVrPemK

Meta-theorizing framing in communication research (1992–2022): toward academic silos or profession... Abstract. Framing, a prominent communication theory, is often lamented as a fractured paradigm, leading some to offer radical changes to its conceptualization,

**POLCOMM PUBLICATION FRIDAY**
In the first highlighted reading of 2024, Dror Walter & Yotam Ophir take stock of 30 years of #PolComm research on one of the foundational concepts of our discipline: Framing 🖼
academic.oup.com/joc/advance-...
🧵⤵️

Violent political threats surge as 2024 begins, haunting American democracy

‘I believe people when they say that they want to hurt us or kill us. I don’t think they’re idle threats,’ a Wisconsin Supreme Court justice said

www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...