the research assistant is ideally a (research) master’s student who considers applying for a phd and wants to get valuable research experience. enrolment on an ma or equivalent course of study in computer science or related disciplines (exempli gratia, data science, computational social science, media and communication science or other disciplines). relevant theoretical and/or applied understanding of media and politics, social media, and propaganda; affinity and/or desire to learn digital research methods, for example, algorithmic auditing, social media analysis, network analysis, natural language processing, et cetera excellent oral and writing skills in english; computational skills or an interest in acquiring them would be an advantage; affinity for working in a group setting and collaborating effectively.

The work of the research group is structured around the three elements of the information ecosystem: the online content, platforms’ algorithms, and online audiences. To analyse these elements, we employ a mixed-method research design that combines qualitative and quantitative content analysis, agent-based algorithmic auditing, and qualitative interviews. The student assistant could potentially become a co-author on project publications depending on the type and extent of the contributions made. Participation in the regular meetings of the team; Contribute to the work of various projects in the research group in the form of research tasks (computational analysis, coding in Python and/or R, quantitative analysis in Excel, language processing, data visualization); Participate in and contribute to the organization of research activities and events at the Weizenbaum Institute, such as workshops and colloquia;