The Hype Machine: how social media disrupts our elections, our economy and our health

Latest 100 | LSE Public lectures and events | Audio

• Episode: The Hype Machine: how social media disrupts our elections, our economy and our health
• Website: Latest 100 | LSE Public lectures and events | Audio
• Feed URL: http://www.lse.ac.uk/assets/richmedia/webFeeds/publicLecturesAndEvents_iTunesRssAudioOnlyLatest100.xml
• Duration: 00:59:26
• Published: 2021-03-24 01:00

Contributor(s): Professor Sinan Aral | Join us for this talk by MIT professor Sinan Aral who will draw on two decades of his own research and business experience and go under the hood of the biggest, most powerful social networks to tackle the critical question of just how much social media actually shapes our choices, for better or worse. In his new book, which he will be talking about, Aral shows how the tech behind social media offers the same set of behaviour-influencing levers to both Russian hackers and brand marketers—to everyone who hopes to change the way we think and act—which is why its consequences affect everything from elections to business, dating to health. Along the way, he covers a wide array of topics, including how network effects fuel Twitter’s and Facebook’s massive growth to the neuroscience of how social media affects our brains, the real consequences of fake news, the power of social ratings, and the impact of social media on our kids. In mapping out strategies for being more thoughtful consumers of social media, The Hype Machine offers the definitive guide to understanding and harnessing for good the technology that has redefined our world overnight. Meet our speaker and chair Sinan Aral (@sinanaral) is the David Austin Professor of Management, Marketing, IT, and Data Science at MIT; director of the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy; and head of MIT’s Social Analytics Lab. Edgar Whitley is an Associate Professor (Reader) of Information Systems at LSE Department of Management.