The first IDJC ElectionGraph report released today reveals who spends the most on political ads on social media, their affiliations, and content patterns
SAN MATEO, Calif., May 7, 2024 /CNW/ — Neo4j®, the world's leading graph database and analytics company, today announced a $250,000 research grant to Syracuse University's Institute for Democracy, Journalism, and Citizenship. announced the use of gold and its software license (IDJC). The grant will support his year-long research initiative at the university to identify and map misinformation campaigns and sources that could mislead voters in the 2024 U.S. election. .
Neo4j Logo (PRNewsfoto/Neo4j)
The announcement follows the launch of IDJC ElectionGraph, which identifies the origins of misinformation campaigns in social media ad spending, initially focusing on Facebook and Instagram given their broad reach of more than half of U.S. voters. I guessed it. This project uses Neo4j's graph database and analytics to enable researchers to connect, traverse, and analyze massive connected datasets faster and easier than with any other technology.
This research project is led by Professor Jennifer Stromer Galley, senior associate dean of the School of Information at Syracuse University and a nationally recognized expert on political campaigns and misinformation. She collaborates on her research with IDJC Kramer Director Margaret Talef, a professor of practice at the Newhouse School of Public Communication and a journalist specializing in American politics, elections, and the White House. and IDJC Research Director Johanna Dunaway, a professor of political science at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and an expert on political communication, partisan polarization, and mass media.
IDJC will make regular reports on its findings and insights available to the public throughout the year, as well as interactive dashboards to help journalists investigate misinformation campaigns impacting U.S. elections.
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IDJC ElectionGraph: Initial survey results
The first report in the series was released today, titled “IDJC ElectionGraph: How Social Media Ads Mentioning Biden or Trump Shape the 2024 Election Information Landscape.” We analyzed paid ads on Facebook and Instagram that mentioned presidential candidates Joe Biden or Donald Trump from September 1, 2023 to February 29, 2024.
Conservative-leaning groups spend the most on advertising. Liberty Defender Group, the highest spender at more than $1.3 million, is not affiliated with any political organization, but their ads have shown a pro-Trump stance. The second-biggest spender of more than $1 million was AFP Action, or Americans for Prosperity, a conservative group that supported Nikki Haley.
More than 24,000 ad buys were made by more than 1,800 groups, totaling an estimated $15.3 million. The organizations that placed ads ranged from well-known organizations such as political action committees, political party groups, and other candidates to obscure organizations with less clear connections and objectives.
Pro-Biden ads use the title “President” for Biden instead of Trump, and vice versa. The ad showed how certain groups use the title “president” to refer to opponents. Those who answered “President Biden” and “Donald Trump” tended to support Biden, and those who answered “President Trump” and “Joe Biden” tended to support Trump.
Attack ads targeting Biden outnumber ads attacking Trump: Biden outnumbered Trump by about 7 to 1 in ads on Facebook and Instagram, compared to “attack” ads mentioning Trump. More “attack” ads mention (47%) (37%). In-depth analysis by Neo4j reveals that the top 10 groups with the most critical ad campaigns for Biden, including AFP Action, Judicial Watch, America First Legal, and We Deserve Better, outpaced pro-Biden groups such as Biden-Harris HQ. It has also become clear that it has surpassed that. , Senate Democratic Party or Democratic Governors Association. The survey also tracked the groups most critical of Trump.
How the Knowledge Graph supports investigative reporting
A knowledge graph is an interconnected data insight layer enriched with semantics, context, and meaning for accurate, transparent, and explainable results and decisions. Neo4j Knowledge Graph connects information from multiple data sources, enabling investigative journalists to identify and analyze hidden patterns within these datasets and uncover complex connections. As a result, investigative reporters can uncover unusual, important, and influential actors, networks, and behavioral patterns in ways that other technologies cannot.
In 2015, the International Confederation of Journalists (ICIJ) used Neo4j to expose one of the biggest global corruption scandals in history, the Panama Papers, which won ICIJ a Pulitzer Prize. Subsequent investigations included the 2017 Paradise Papers and his 2021 Pandora Papers. NBC used his Neo4j to expose Russian interference in the 2016 election. Computational journalists also used Neo4j knowledge graphs to support fact-based reporting in the 2020 election.
For the 2024 election, IDJC seeks insights that can address questions such as who are the most influential organizational networks disseminating information on which platforms? What kind of themes are in circulation? Who are the senders and spreaders? What kind of misinformation can be propagated in battleground states, how and with what impact? And how much false information is generated by AI? Among other questions.
support quotes
Jennifer Stromer Galley, Senior Associate Dean and Professor, School of Information Studies, Syracuse University
“Uncovering the details of advertising and messaging on social media is essential to providing transparency to the public and supporting accountability. Failure to do so could leave voters more vulnerable to manipulation. Neo4j's graph technology allows us to draw connections and reveal relationships within a complex web that would otherwise be impossible to leverage with election-related messaging on social media. We were able to quickly uncover richer insights that would have been difficult or nearly impossible. ”
Margaret Talef, Kramer Director, Institute for Democracy, Journalism, and Citizenship (IDJC), Syracuse University
“The IDJC ElectionGraph findings provide a glimpse into the firehose of information and misinformation reaching voters from groups with mixed motives, connections, and credibility in the lead-up to the 2024 election.Neo4j's graph algorithm , which helps uncover hidden connections and interactions within complex networks. Identifying the origins of these messages.”
Jim Webber, Neo4j Principal Researcher
“The challenges faced by digital researchers and computational journalists in uncovering the impact of AI-driven misinformation on democracies are enormous. At Neo4j, we help journalists and citizens make informed decisions about facts and fake news when they go to the polls. We are proud to support Syracuse University's mission to help students make the difference.”
Syracuse University's IDJC ElectionGraph and its results are independent and owned by Syracuse University and IDJC.
Visit https://idjc.syracuse.edu/2024-election-graph-project/ to read the full report and learn more about IDJC's ElectionGraph.
About Neo4j
Neo4j is the leader in graph databases and analytics, helping organizations discover hidden relationships and patterns across billions of data connections, deeply, easily, and quickly. Even as data grows, customers can leverage connected data structures to improve their most pressing business needs, from fraud detection, customer 360, knowledge graphs, supply chain, personalization, IoT, network management, and more. We uncover new ways to solve the above problems. Neo4j's complete graph stack provides powerful native graph storage with native vector search capabilities, data science, advanced analytics, and visualization, with enterprise-grade security controls, scalable architecture, and ACID compliance. . Neo4j's dynamic open source community brings together over 250,000 developers, data scientists, and architects across hundreds of Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, and NGOs. Visit neo4j.com.
About the Institute for Democracy, Journalism, and Citizenship at Syracuse University
IDJC is committed to nonpartisan research, education, and public dialogue to strengthen trust in the news media, governance, and society. This is a joint university initiative between the Newhouse School of Public Communication and the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.
Neo4j Contact:
playa goel
Neo4j@ruderfinn.com
Syracuse University contact information:
Keith Cobrand
kkobland@syr.edu
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