Yang-Yang Zhou
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Assistant Professor, Political Science, University of British Columbia
Graduate Student Supervision
Master's Student Supervision (2010 - 2021)
This thesis aims to assess the relationship between social media usage for news and electoral violence. Using survey evidence of recent Kenyan and Ugandan elections, this thesis will look at the potential indirect effects of social media usage for news on the conditions for electoral violence to take place, namely, mobilization and social interactions as theorized by Yanagizawa-Drott (2014). Using survey evidence, I first I examine the variation in social media usage within Kenya, focusing on the former province of Nyanza and the Western province. I then extend this analysis to Uganda, a country where social media usage is less widespread than Kenya. Finally, I use the Afrobarometer dataset to examine descriptive patterns using regression analysis. Here, I examine the relationship between using social media as a news source and the propensity to protest, the propensity to join others to organize, and fear of violence or intimidation during election cycles, in both Kenya and Uganda. I conclude with a short discussion of the implications of this research, namely, I consider what avenues exist for fledgling democracies and/or unconsolidated regimes in stemming widespread disinformation on online platforms.
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Publications
- Navigating “Insider” and “Outsider” Status as Researchers Conducting Field Experiments (2022)
PS: Political Science & Politics, - Prolonged Contact Does Not Reshape Locals’ Attitudes toward Migrants in Wartime Settings: Experimental Evidence from Afghanistan (2022)
- Self-Efficacy and Citizen Engagement in Development: Experimental Evidence from Tanzania (2022)
Journal of Experimental Political Science, , 1--18 - When Pandemic Threat Does Not Stoke Xenophobia: Evidence from a Panel Survey around COVID-19 in Colombia (2022)
- Left Out: How Political Ideology Affects Support for Migrants in Colombia (2021)
- Reexamining the Effect of Refugees on Civil Conflict: A Global Subnational Analysis (2021)
American Political Science Review, , 1--22 - Team and Nation: Sports, Nationalism, and Attitudes Toward Refugees (2021)
Comparative Political Studies, , 001041402199749 - When Refugee Presence Increases Incumbent Support through Development: Evidence from Uganda (2021)
- Can Economic Assistance Shape Combatant Support in Wartime? Experimental Evidence from Afghanistan (2020)
American Political Science Review, 114 (1), 126--143 - Design and Analysis of the Randomized Response Technique (2015)
Journal of the American Statistical Association,
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