Data science

Medium Blog | Nov 9, 2022
How to extract domains in AWS Athena / Presto SQL
When you work with URLs, you might want to extract domains (for example, to match web visits to a list of domains that signify a certain type of browsing behaviour). Read on

Medium Blog | June 10, 2022
Fixed effects vs. random effects for web browsing data. A simulation
When you work with trace data — data that emerge when people interact with technology — you will notice that such data often have properties that open up questions about statistical modelling.Read on

Data journalism

Medium Blog | Sep 16, 2021
German candidates as unpopular as ever
In this post (in German), I look at fourty years of politician popularity data. German voters are not excited about the candidates for the chancellory. Read on

The Economist | August 15, 2021
Can Europe go green without nuclear power?
TEN YEARS ago, after a tsunami hit the Fukushima reactor in northern Japan, causing a nuclear disaster, Germany decided to phase out its 12 nuclear power stations... Read on

The Economist | June 28, 2021
Trust in the media has increased in the past year
ACROSS THE world, the relationship between the press and the governments it holds to account has grown increasingly vexed... Read on

The Economist | June 28, 2021
Will workers return to the office?
AS COVID-19 infections fall and economies around the world begin to open, companies are facing difficult choices about their work culture... Read on

Medium Blog | May 6, 2021
Scotland extends voting rights to non-nationals. Which parties might benefit?
When the Scots elect a new parliament today (May 6th), it’s a premiere: For the first time in Holyrood’s history, foreign nationals who reside in Scotland will have the right to... Read on

Medium Blog | Jan 10, 2021
"Israel critique" in the German media
In this post (in German), I examine the prevalence of the term "Israelkritik" in the German media: A strange term that often hides antisemitism and has become more common in the last twenty years. Read on

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Research-related commentary

ISPP Blog | June 24, 2019
Distrust in name only: News readers and fake sources.
The fake news problem has made politicians, companies, and academics wonder: How can we separate the Internet’s informational wheat from the chaff? And who can do it? In a novel study, I exposed news readers to content from sources with different degrees of trustworthiness... Read on

The Conversation | Feb 08, 2018
Online polls are everywhere: here’s why we should be wary before trusting them
Online polling is overhauling traditional phone polls, according to a New York Times analysis of the 2016 US presidential election campaign. Four years earlier, telephone surveys still had an edge of about four to one.... Read on

LSE EUROPP Blog | Feb 05, 2018
People rely on their attitudes more than the source when judging the accuracy of news stories on Facebook
In the digital age, anyone can publish. This has been hailed as a democratisation of news, but it has also raised the question of what sources to trust. The abundance of information available online further invites people to process political news according to their worldview... Read on

Washington Post Monkey Cage | Feb 01, 2018
Facebook wants its users to drive out fake news. Here's the problem with that.
Mark Zuckerberg announced recently that Facebook plans to ask its community to help rate news producers’ credibility. Randomly selected users will be asked whether they are familiar with an outlet, and if so, invited to judge its trustworthiness... Read on