Big Data and Computational Politics | Interdisciplinary Lunch Series

Date/Time
Date(s) - 11/01/2013
12:00 pm

On Nov. 1, 2013, the UNC Center for Media Law and Policy will host its second “interdisciplinary lunch” of the year. The lunch is open to faculty and graduate students from across the UNC system. The topic will be “Big Data and Computational Politics,” led by Dr. Zeynep Tufekci.

The data crumbs we leave behind in our online and offline lives provide a rich source of information into our shopping habits, political leanings, social preferences, and more. As a result, many have praised “big data” for the potential to gain insight into large populations and uncover previously unseen connections. Big data has been used by many actors, including politicians, researchers, and marketers.  However, the use of “big data” raises fundamental questions of power, privacy, and surveillance. In this talk, we will discuss the new challenges of big data in the emerging field of computational politics, the study of social and political phenomena through numerical data.

Dr. Tufekci is an assistant professor at the School of Information and Library Science (SILS) with an affiliate appointment in the Department of Sociology at UNC-Chapel Hill. Previously she was a fellow at the Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton University and taught at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. She continues to be affiliated with CITP. Additionally, she was a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, where she is now a faculty associate. She blogs at http://technosociology.org/.

November’s lunch discussion will be held from noon to 1:15 p.m. on Friday, November 1 in the Halls of Fame Room on the first floor of Carroll Hall. We will provide box lunches and drinks. RSVP using the form below by Tuesday, October 29.

Background Readings:

• Beware the Smart Campaign, The New York Times
• The Pitfalls of Using Online and Social Data in Big Data Analysis, MIT Sloan Management Review
• Engineering the Public: Big Data, Surveillance, and Computational Politics (Draft Paper)

RSVP