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Social media and other platforms used to communicate with large audiences are ubiquitous in todays society with the expansion of apps like TikTok and Twitter. A popular creator who features a lesser-known creator may experience the unintended consequence of contributing to the exponential growth of the latters followers or friends. The smaller creator then commands a greater audience to communicate with. For researchers in mis- and disinformation, the consequences of spotlighting are critical for understanding how false information spreads.

For Joey Schafer, a fourth-year undergraduate student in computer science, spotlighting was more than a phenomenon for research. After his response to an article in The Atlantic was retweeted by Carl Bergstrom, a UW biology professor with over 150,000 followers, Schafer watched his account skyrocket from several hundred followers to nearly 2,000 overnight.

Against his own expectations, Schafer became the subject of what he was studying through the Mary Gates Research Scholarship he received last fall. Schafers trajectory in research began as a first-year student watching Kate Starbird, professor of human centered design & engineering (HCDE), give a lecture on her research.

I really enjoyed hearing about [Starbirds research], Schafer said. It seemed like it was making a difference actually using computers to help people or help understand whats going on in our world. And that's when I knew that I wanted to help people.

Starbird is one of the co-founders of the Center for an Informed Public (CIP) where she conducts mis- and disinformation research as the current faculty director. Although the CIP has a variety of research areas, its affiliates mostly focus their research on mis- and disinformation spread regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and the most recent presidential election.

I thought, [The CIP] seems like something that's really cool, I'd like to get involved with this, Schafer said. But this was in my first quarter and I did not feel prepared for joining some sort of research lab with this incredible professor right away.

Schafer applied to join a research group and was accepted to work with Andrew Beers, a doctoral student in HCDE, on data visualization for online misinformation. Later, Schafer worked with Starbird and other professors from the CIP to conduct research on the 2020 election.

We were working on monitoring misinformation and disinformation about specific topics related to the election, Schafer said. Things like voter fraud, attempting to delegitimize the election, attempting to intimidate voters or provide them with false information about when the election was or where they could vote.

Schafer collaborated with researchers from Stanfords Internet Observatory to monitor mis- and disinformation in real-time. The CIP and the Stanford Internet Observatory are the two university-affiliated members of the Election Integrity Partnership, a research group that formed in July 2020. Their full report, The Long Fuse: Misinformation and the 2020 Election, is available online through the Election Integrity Partnerships website.

Jevin West, a CIP founding director, applauded Schafers advanced research abilities.

It has been such a pleasure to have Joey Schafer in the CIP here at UW, West said in an email. Joey is one of the most advanced undergraduate researchers I have ever worked with. We joke in the CIP that Joey should be applying to professorial positions and not just grad school. He is already producing faculty-level research that is having national impact.

After completing this project in the fall of his third-year, Schafer pursued independent research projects and publications.

You can apply to graduate with honors [in computer science] and one of the requirements for that is working on an undergraduate thesis research project, Schafer said. That's the project I'm working on now, and the one that the scholarship is for is to understand the impact of spotlighting on social media behavior, particularly in the context of misinformation.

Starbird commended Schafer for his work on several projects with the CIP that led to his honors thesis.

Joey has been a critical member of our research team for more than two years helping to visualize and analyze mis- and disinformation related to Election 2020 and Covid-19, Starbird said in an email.

Schafer will work with Starbird and Emma Spiro, a CIP co-founder and assistant professor at the Information School, during his award period to inform critical analyses of social media use. Schafer aspires to continue researching mis- and disinformation pertaining to socio-technical systems like social media, and how they affect society.

His current research examining the phenomenon of spotlighting in social media posts will help us understand how attention is shaped and conferred from one account to another in online spaces, Starbird said. Joey is a brilliant student and researcher, and an amazing collaborator. He contributes to our research at the Center for an Informed Public in so many ways. Were extremely lucky to have him on our team.

While navigating the complexity of becoming spotlighted by a well-known researcher, Schafer continued to work on research projects both independently and across departments to break academic silos and even had a paper accepted with minor revisions to a research journal.

I think that it's been really enriching to have these other disciplines to work with rather than just sort of get trapped in, you know, one bubble of like only computer science or only biology, or whatever other field you're in, Schafer said. I think there's a lot of value in that sharing process.

Schafer encouraged students aspiring to follow in his footsteps to find something they are interested in at UW and pursue opportunities outside their declared discipline. This mentality helped bring Schafer full-circle, by working with the professor who inspired his first-year trajectory and going on to receive the Mary Gates Research Scholarship to support his interests.

The Mary Gates Research Scholarship supports undergraduate students engaging in research through a $5,000 grant distributed over two academic quarters. Interested applicants may apply online during autumn or winter quarter.

Reach reporter Julie Emory at news@dailyuw.com. Twitter: @JulieEmory2

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Computer science undergraduate wins prestigious research scholarship to support work on misinformation and the role of social media - Dailyuw