November 2024 round-up

The month started really well. The announcement that I got the ethics position was exciting. However, it ended terribly with the announcement that Sussex is chopping 300 jobs. I am trying not to worry unnecessarily, but… it’s hard to focus on starting new projects and building things up when things are so grim everywhere you look. … Continue reading November 2024 round-up

Can GenAI help me find the right gift for a GenZ?

Earlier this month, Perplexity, the search engine that uses LLMs to answer search queries, launched a shopping assistant. You enter the type of product you are looking for (e.g., Gift ideas for a male in his early 20s, who likes X and Y. My budget is Z). Then, you get recommendations, with links to where … Continue reading Can GenAI help me find the right gift for a GenZ?

Navigating Bluesky: Opportunities and Challenges for Content Creators

In the last few days, Bluesky has attracted millions of new users. Those that made the move (including me) are delighted at how non-hostile the environment is and, frankly, enjoying how much Bluesky is reminiscent of Twitter in the “good old days”. However, Bluesky uses a different architecture from traditional social media platforms like Twitter or … Continue reading Navigating Bluesky: Opportunities and Challenges for Content Creators

Handwritten Notes: A Simple Way to Increase Sales

Back in the summer of 2021, I bought some sunglasses online. They arrived in a box with a handwritten note. I even mentioned it in the review that I wrote at the time: I don’t know whether the company did that out of instinct or following careful testing, but it looks like I wasn’t the … Continue reading Handwritten Notes: A Simple Way to Increase Sales

From Writing Assistant to Teaching Tool: My Experience, so far, Using NotebookLM

Recently, I had discussions with a couple of people about NotebookLM: our experiences of using it, and the main pros and cons that we had identified, thus far. I have captured some of my thoughts, here, and would be interested to hear about your experiences, too. NotebookLM is tool developed by Google and powered by … Continue reading From Writing Assistant to Teaching Tool: My Experience, so far, Using NotebookLM

Recent publications #7

Here is my regular update on the key research outputs published in the last 12 months. They were: the second edition of the research methods book, one paper about decentralised social media and another one about sustainable value creation. The purpose of this yearly catch-up post is to make it easy for blog readers to … Continue reading Recent publications #7

AI Labels Undermine Trust in Real News and Reinforce Confirmation Bias

Social media content is pushed at us by algorithms trying to keep us engaged with the platform. And, because sensationalist content tends to hold our attention more than non-sensationalist one, our feeds often get polluted by disinformation. Disinformation is a serious problem for society, leading many to look for ways of increasing our alertness to … Continue reading AI Labels Undermine Trust in Real News and Reinforce Confirmation Bias

The challenges of emotion and sentiment analysis

This post is an extract from the chapter "Approaches to emotion and sentiment analysis" that I contributed to The SAGE Handbook of Digital and Social Media Marketing, which was edited by Annmarie Hanlon and Tracy L. Tuten. The study of expressions of emotion and sentiment is a valuable, and increasingly popular activity, not just as … Continue reading The challenges of emotion and sentiment analysis