TRONDHEIM ANALYTICA (TA) seeks to address one of the most profound challenges for democracy in the 21st century: the social media revolution and its attendant problems of fake news, message targeting, and echo chambers. When political campaigning moves from the public sphere of newspaper, television, and billboards to the public-private sphere of personalised news feeds on Facebook and Twitter, accountability is diminished and the scope for journalistic inquiry and political debate restricted. Alongside these pitfalls, this digital environment also holds potential to empower citizens. TA aims to study and improve democratic engagement via social media, by:
- developing tools for studying public opinion through merging big data analysis with qualitative analysis. This will allow a transparent sophisticated examination of social media content.
- raising awareness among decision makers, academics, and the general public as to the potentials and pitfalls of social media profiling.
- studying the strategies of successful social media campaigns and use the findings to develop strategies for future campaigns of democratic engagement.
