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Tracking social media’s impact on health and society.

Social media’s powerful sway on people’s lives is the challenging focus of the Social Data Collaboratory. We analyze a broad range of data to understand how people share, search for, and engage with social media content – and how that content shapes their opinions and behaviors.

The result: Our public and private clients are armed with deep insight into social media’s influence on subjects including tobacco product promotion, policies and use; climate change and disaster preparedness; cannabis prevention and dispensary promotional effects; the role of social media on mental health support seeking and stigma; and vaccine misinformation detection.

Social Data Collaboratory Lead

Social Data Collaboratory Experts

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We promote a healthy society with insights into the viral nature of social media.

how much is too much screen time?
Straight-to-Streaming Movies Require New Ways to Monitor Tobacco Imagery

COVID-19’s 2020 debut shuttered theaters and pushed film producers to release movies straight to streaming services, forcing investigators to reconsider how they study on-screen tobacco imagery and its effects, according to a pivotal NORC report.

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Menthol Cigarettes and Social Justice Views

Understanding the perceptions of those targeted by marketing of flavored tobacco

Client:

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Smoke-Free Screens Initiative

Updating surveillance of on-screen tobacco imagery after pandemic-driven changes in video viewing

Client:

Truth Initiative