Prerequisite: Permission of instructor (ryaros@umd.edu)

Researchers explore journalism's most urgent questions: how audiences engage with news on social media and how artificial intelligence is reshaping news credibility and trust. Those choosing the social media track collect and analyze data through the Digital Engagement Lab's authorized access to TikTok and Meta's Instagram and Facebook APIs. The AI track tests new strategies to strengthen transparency, verification, and calibrated trust using tools developed by a new AI Credibility Lab. Quantitative, qualitative, computational, experimental, and mixed-methods approaches are welcome. Researchers are expected to leave the seminar with a completed empirical study and a manuscript for a conference or journal submission.