Media, AI, and Public Life
About
The Media, AI, and Public Life (MAPL) Vertically Integrated Project (VIP) team is open to students in all majors interested in better understanding the role of emerging media technologies in society to support healthier, more informed digital communication environments.
Students with backgrounds or interests in communication and journalism may find the team especially relevant. We also welcome students from related fields, such as public relations, marketing, political science, data science, computer or information science, particularly when their interests connect to media and technology.
This VIP team is led by School of Journalism Assistant Professor Zicheng Cheng and Yanlin Li.
Our Area of Focus
We interact with digital media every day in our daily lives. We scroll through social media, watch videos, read news, search for information, and use AI tools. Our team studies how these digital media experiences shape the way people find information, decide what to trust, form opinions, and participate in public life. Students in this team will explore the "How" and "Why" of media use. To start with, we may ask how social media platforms and AI influence what people see and believe. How do algorithm-driven content and influencers affect people's understanding of politics? Through hands-on research projects, students will learn methods such as surveys, interviews, content analysis, and social media data analysis to answer meaningful research questions. Our goal is to better understand the role of emerging media technologies in society and to support healthier, more informed digital communication environments.
Methods and Tech
Students do not need to have advanced technical skills before joining the team. They will have opportunities to learn research methods and contribute to projects based on their interests and experience.
Methods may include:
- Survey design, data collection, and statistical analysis
- Interviews and qualitative data analysis
- Content analysis of news and social media posts
- Social media data collection and analysis
- Experiments to test how different types of media content affect people’s attitudes, knowledge, or behavior
- Text analysis and computational methods for studying large amounts of digital content
- Basic use of tools such as Qualtrics, Excel/Google Sheets, SPSS, R, Python, and social media analytics platforms
Preferred Interests and Preparation
- Interested in communication about science issues
- Interest in social media, AI, news, politics, or digital culture
- Curiosity about how people use and respond to media
- Willingness to learn research methods
- Basic comfort with reading, writing, and organizing information
- Interest in working with data, such as survey responses, interviews, or social media content
- Attention to detail
- Clear communication and teamwork
- Reliability and willingness to meet project deadlines
- Experience with Excel/Google Sheets, Qualtrics, SPSS, R, Python, or social media analytics tools is helpful but not required
Get Involved
To express interest in this team, please complete the VIP Interest Form and select "Media, AI, and Public Life (MAPL)."
This team:
- Accepts students at the start of each semester
- Accepts fully online students
- Recruits students for both credit and and pay options (as available, including federal work-study) for VIP participation