Taewoo Kang 강태우 康兌宇

Too much time on social media? Check out the @cambup-polsci.cambridge.org Element in Politics & Communication!: "consuming news from newer media sources such as social media & messaging apps is typically associated across countries with less knowledge & more misperceptions about political matters"

New paper out! doi.org/10.1177/0894...

With @kthorson.bsky.social @snsoroka.bsky.social @dhrice.bsky.social @winsonpeng2011.bsky.social #SangukLee

The Journalism Benchmark Cookbook: A Template for Benchmarking LLMs in Newsrooms Our approach to creating a community-oriented AI benchmark for journalism

The Journalism Benchmark Cookbook, our attempt to create a framework for ecologically valid evals in journalism: generative-ai-newsroom.com/the-journali...

Yeah #OutNow

Trade-offs in a bigger pie: how the relationships between digital civic infrastructure and political participation vary across rural and urban communities – the case of Michigan This study draws on a survey sample of the U.S. state of Michigan, combined with public data, to test the interrelationships among local storytelling networks, broadband availability, and political...

Good Start to July with New Publication.

Our ICA 2024 Political Communication Division Top Paper is now published online in iCS.

🔑: While broadband access boosts voter turnout in urban areas, it can suppress turnout in rural(!)

Feedback and thoughts are most welcome!

doi.org/10.1080/1369...

I just launched my academic website! You can find my research program, recent publications, and many many working projects. If you're interested in algorithmic platforms’ potential in reshaping democratic systems from a communication perspective, feel free to take a look!

#LLMs #Platformization

** This suggests another psychological mechanism contributing to partisan polarization**

📊Key findings:

- Across partisan lines, individuals prioritize expert-directed verification over audience-mediated approaches.

- However, Republicans are more reliant on audience-mediated verification than Democrats, leading to a weaker preference for expert-direction overall.

Expert-direction: relying on traditional media or pre-validated sources.
Audience-mediation: seeking validation through peers or networked connections.

This matters because the ways people verify information may shape the "facts" they ultimately accept.

Our study identifies two key dimensions of information verification:

Subtle divergence, distinct paths: partisan variations in verification approaches This paper presents two studies that identify two distinct types of information verification strategies, as well as the role of partisanship in the variation of their interplay. Audience-mediation ...

📣 New pub alert!

My new paper with Drs. Esther Thorson and Rachel Mourão is now available online at JITP.

It is well known that conservatives fact-check less frequently than liberals. However, differences in how each group approaches verification remain underexplored.

Many feel that politics globally has become toxic and hostile over recent years.

But is this actually the case? And if so, who's to blame? What issues are driving toxicity?

We analyze 18M tweets from politicians in 17 countries to find out!

w/
@julianachueri.bsky.social

arxiv.org/pdf/2503.22411

Heartwarming to see citizens stand up to authoritarianism...

A scholarship program helped boost diversity at U of M. Trump’s DEI crackdown just killed it. The University of Michigan Alumni Association has ended the LEAD Scholars program, a merit-based scholarship that worked to improve enrollment for minority students.

New story from me: Imani* was in class when she discovered a scholarship program she relied on had been shut down.

“I don’t come from wealth ... Ending the program puts a burden on individuals who don't have it like most of the wealthy people here at the University of Michigan"

Bellwether Postdoctoral Scholar - School of Information University of California, Berkeley is hiring. Apply now!

Up to 4 postdocs in tech, social informatics, digital communications, algorithmic justice (and more - read full description it probably includes what you do!) at Berkeley -

aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF04845

I completed my comps defense last Friday and am now officially a PhD candidate! Huge thanks to my amazing committee for guiding me through this journey. @kthorson.bsky.social @tpvos.bsky.social @dhrice.bsky.social #MariaMolina This means I’m officially on the job market—wish me luck!

In this study, we propose that a code in a text may exist or not exist depending on one’s social space. Perhaps it’s time to rethink “intersubjectivity” in content analysis.

*This will be presented at the next ICA Comps Methods div. @kthorson.bsky.social @snsoroka.bsky.social @dhrice.bsky.social

Truth Default or Generalized Skepticism? The Role of Overconfidence in the Relationship Between Social Media News Use and Traditional Media Use - Taewoo Kang, Kjerstin Thorson, Chankyung Pak, 2025 This article examines a model positing that overconfidence in political understanding resulting from social media use for news and politics hampers traditional ...

🛎️New paper alert from Social Media+Society. Co-authored with the amazing #KjerstinThorson @kthorson.bsky.social & #ChankyungPak!

Our findings suggest how overconfidence among young adults may lead to a counterintuitive outcome—more active news consumption🧐

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Empowered by Curation: Spatial Differentiation in the Interrelationship Between Social Media Political Curation, Political Competence, and Trust—The Case of Michigan - Taewoo Kang, 2025 This study examines geographic variations in the relationship between social media political curation and political trust. Analyzing survey data from the U.S. s...

You should all read brilliant PhD student Taewoo Kang’s @greennail.bsky.social (first sole authored) paper in Comm Research (!) journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1... — fascinating relationships among geographic polarization, social media curation, efficacy, and trust.

Empowered by Curation: Spatial Differentiation in the Interrelationship Between Social Media Political Curation, Political Competence, and Trust—The Case of Michigan - Taewoo Kang, 2025 This study examines geographic variations in the relationship between social media political curation and political trust. Analyzing survey data from the U.S. s...

Hi 🦋! Let me introduce my first solo project! The study explores how spatial polarization in political trust relates to political curation practices on social media.

Hope this analysis adds a meaningful layer on this evergoing “polarization debate.” Thank you! journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...