Hello! My name is Aleksandra Urman, and I am a computational communication scientist with a passion for exploring the online world using computational methods.
Currently, I am a Postdoctoral Researcher at Social Computing Group, University of Zurich. Before joining SCG, I was a research assistant at the Institute of Communication and Media Studies at the University of Bern where I defended my doctoral dissertation on the comparative aspects of political polarization on social media.
I study communication processes in the online realm with a focus on two key areas: political communication on social media and algorithmic content distribution in online environments.
Through the use of digital trace data, statistical modelling, and a diverse range of computational methods, I aim to answer communication science-grounded research questions.
I have studied a variety of topics in the area of social media-based political communication, including polarization on social media, communication patterns of far-right groups on non-mainstream social media platforms, and social media-enabled mobilization in authoritarian regimes. I have also explored algorithmic information distribution, examining how AI-based recommendations work on TikTok and how text and image search results represent different social groups and contentious topics, with a particular focus on the biases that arise as an outcome of the algorithmic filtering and ranking processes.
Thank you for visiting my website, and please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or would like to learn more about my research.
You can read more about my professional experience in my CV! If you want to get in touch, check out the contact section or follow me on Twitter 🙂