Excerpt from the The Miami Student
New research from Miami University has shown that a change in the Facebook algorithm may have increased the visibility of posts from local Republican parties. Professors from Miami and Wright State University (WSU) found that, despite posting more, Democratic parties received significantly less interaction on their posts.
Lee Hannah, an associate professor of political science at WSU, oversees the internship program for political science students. He had many students interested in working with campaigns and elections, but Hannah had trouble receiving responses from local parties.
This growing frustration with the lack of responsiveness sparked his interest in the expectations of local political parties.
“I initially came in with this very small question of, ‘What if we did an audit study of local parties and just … measured their level of responsiveness,’” Hannah said. “But fortunately, when meeting with Kevin and Ann, we talked more broadly about … observing the parties on multiple levels.”
Hannah, along with Kevin Reuning and Anne Whitesell, assistant professors of political science at Miami, and four student interns, two from each school, collected social media handles and websites for as many county and county-equivalent parties as they could find in the U.S.
