Dr Patricia Rossini
- Senior Lecturer in Communications, Media & Democracy (Politics)
Biography
Research interests
Patrícia is a Principal Investigator in a grant awarded by Facebook to investigate perceptions of uncivil and intolerant discourse online in four countries, in a British Academy Small Grant to study democratic backsliding in the 2022 presidential elections in Brazil, and in a grant awarded by WhatsApp to study misinformation and political discussion in Brazil.
She is also co-PI in three externally funded projects: a grant awarded by Twitter to study conversational dynamics around polarization, incivility, and intolerance in discussions around contentious and non-contentious topics in the U.S. and the U.K.; a comparative research project funded by Facebook to study visual misinformation on social media and mobile messaging apps in eight countries across five continents; and a Knight Foundation grant to study social media advertising in the 2020 US presidential campaign, as part of the Illuminating project.
Grants
2022-2023 Principal Investigator. "Investigating the Causes and Remedies of Persisting Electoral Disinformation: The Aftermath of the 2022 Presidential Elections in Brazil." Google (Unrestricted Gift). $ 99,980.
2022-2023 Principal Investigator. “Democratic Renewal or Backsliding? Investigating Disinformation, Political Intolerance, and Polarization in the 2022 Presidential Elections in Brazil”. British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grants.£ 9,960.
2021-2023 Principal Investigator. "What Makes Social Media Content Harmful? A User-Centric Comparative Approach".Facebook Content Governance Awards (Unrestricted Gift), $ 99,834.60.
2020 Principal Investigator. ‘It’s on WhatsApp, so it must be true!’: Social media and news use as pathways to explain (mis)perceptions and behaviours about Covid-19. University of Liverpool Covid-19 ODA Rapid Response. £ 9,800.
2019 - 2022 Co-Investigator. "Devising metrics for assessing echo chambers, incivility, and intolerance." Twitter. $ 1.3 million.
2019 - 2020 Co-Investigator. Illuminating 2020. John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Grant. $ 148,396.
2019-2020 Co-Investigator. Visual Misinformation in Global Perspective: Platforms, Devices, and Users. Facebook Integrity Foundation Research Awards (Unrestricted Gift). $ 150,000.
2019-2020 Principal Investigator. WhatsApp as a source of political participation and (mis)information in Brazil.WhatsApp Misinformation and Social Science Research Awards (Unrestricted Gift). $ 49,739.
Supervision
I welcome Ph.D. projects focused on the interplay between politics and digital media, including:
- Online incivility
- Online harassment and abuse
- Political discussion
- Political campaigning
- The spread of mis- and disinformation (including its effects)
- Conspiracy theories
- Democratic backsliding
- Political participation
Teaching
Politics & Social Media (Honours)