UW–Madison’s CODE Lab, led by Ross Dahlke, uses large‑scale digital trace data to study how real online exposure shapes human beliefs and behavior.
Research and Insights
News about groundbreaking SJMC research.
UW-Madison Survey Assesses Changing Public Attitudes Since Trump’s Election
A study from the Center for Communication and Civic Renewal examines changing public attitudes since the 2024 presidential election.
From Classroom to Collaboration: A Research Partnership Examining Digital Politics
Professor Young Mie Kim and former student Ross Dahlke explore how digital campaigns impact voter turnout and political behavior.
Public Tech Media Lab partners with Factchequeado to train newsrooms across the country
PTML has partnered with Factchequeado to train newsrooms across the country on tools and techniques for conducting their own digital investigations with Open Source Intelligence.
Research shows social media advertising suppresses voting in targeted communities
A new study from SJMC professor Young Mie Kim is the first to quantify the effect of this kind of microtargeting on voter turnout.
Inside UW-Madison’s AI Terrarium: Recreating Human Belief in a Digital World
What happens when AI is built to think like people? Dive into the AI Terrarium, a bold experiment in modeling human belief and persuasion.
Shaping the Future of Journalism: SJMC’s Tomás Dodds Founds the Public Tech Media Lab
Tomás Dodds, Director of the Public Tech Media Lab, discusses the importance of equipping journalists with the right artificial intelligence tools in an ever-evolving world.
CCCR Survey Assesses Public Views of Trump’s First 100 Days
Four months into the Trump presidency, a new UW-Madison survey report finds surprising insights on how Americans think about Trump’s first 100 days.
2024 Election Survey Profiles the American Voter
A new UW-Madison survey report on American voters found surprising insights on what drove votes in the closest national vote for president since 2000. The survey found big gaps in partisan attitudes toward equity and prejudice in American society, consistent with past research by the research team and other scholars.
2024 Midwest Battleground Survey Shows What Divided Partisans in Key Swing States
A new Center for Communication and Civic Renewal survey report on voters in Midwest battleground states found surprising insights on the partisan divides that shaped voting patterns in critical Midwest battleground states.