Agent-Based Modeling for Communication Research

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

In communication science, emergent social phenomena – such as the dynamics of public opinion, collective attention, and collective action – are explained by the media use, decisions, and interactions of individuals. While macrosocial theories such as the spiral of silence or cultivation bridge the gap between individual observations on a micro level and emergent social phenomena on a macro level, these theories are mostly inaccessible to empirical testing as a whole. Empirical research instead mainly relies on statistical models for testing more or less isolated hypotheses in observational and experimental designs.
Agent-based modelling (ABM) offers a new actor-oriented systems perspective for understanding the underlying mechanisms bringing about the empirical macro patterns through computer simulations. The approach is particularly apt to drive theory development in our discipline and to push us towards asking the right questions to data.
In the panel, we feature cutting-edge research of seven authors pioneering the application of ABM in communication science in different areas. The goal of the panel is to introduce communication scholars to the main principles of ABM and to propagate this method to further fields of research. We do so by (a) reviewing the types of research questions that can particularly benefit from the use of ABM, (b) giving specific examples of ABM applications in communication research, and (c) show how ABM can be combined with empirical data.

Sub Unit

• Computational Methods

Chairs

• Annie Waldherr, U of Muenster

• Martin Wettstein, University of Zurich; IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research

Individual Presentations

• When the Sum is More Than the Parts: The Use of Agent-Based Models to Experiment With Social Dynamics - Sandra Gonzalez-Bailon, U of Pennsylvania

• The Contingencies of Silent Majorities: Revisiting the Spiral of Silence With Agent-Based Modeling - Annie Waldherr, U of Muenster; Marko Bachl, U of Hohenheim

• An Agent-Based Modeling Perspective of Understanding the Dynamic Spread of Misinformation and Its Correction on Social Networks - Hyunjin Song, Department of Communication, U of Vienna

• Simulating the Gaps: Using Agent-Based Models to Fathom Opinion Dynamics in Panel Studies - Martin Wettstein, University of Zurich; IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research

• Gender and Collaboration Networks in Online Worlds: Combining Empirical Analysis With Agent-Based Models - Cuihua Shen, U of California, Davis; Wensen Huang, Fudan U

• An Agent-Based Model of Online Community Joining - Jeremy Foote, Northwestern University; Benjamin Mako Hill, University of Washington

Respondent

• Martin Hilbert, U of California at Davis