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NORC at the University Chicago
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

Sherry Emery
Senior Fellow

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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How Right Now/ Qué Hacer Ahora

A communication initiative to increase people’s resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic

Client:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Foundation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

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