Publications | Digital Political Inequality Lab

Mapping global digital political inequality

Daniel S. Lane, Emilija Gagrčin, &Ying Qi Pan

Cambridge Elements in Politics and Communication | 2026

We find that gaps in online political information reception and engagement are prevalent worldwide and growing over time. These inequalities are related to the resources held by individuals, the experiences of groups, and the economic, democratic, and technological development of societies. Moreover, we find that digital political media use is associated with greater participation in electoral politics and belief in democracy, while at the same time lower political trust and satisfaction with political systems.

An “Identity Turn” in political communication?: Testing the relationship between media use and identity alignment in the United States

Daniel S Lane, Melody Chen, & Yifei Wang

Journal of Communication | 2026

We offer a framework for theorizing this dynamic and apply it to examine the relationship between Americans’ media diets and on-going psychological alignment between political and social identities in the United States (i.e., partisan social sorting). We use data from 33,690 American respondents from three national surveys: one longitudinal (1972–2020) and two fielded in 2020.

Political identity threats on social media

Daniel S Lane, Yifei Wang, & Alcides Velasquez

Communication Research | 2026

This paper provides a theoretical and empirical foundation for studying political identity threats on social media. A pilot study (N = 931) established that individuals can recognize both realistic and symbolic threats when they explicitly appear in TikTok videos, but that, (a) threat types are not as discrete as theory suggests and (b) sensitivity to symbolic threat depends on strength of partisan identity. A second, pre-registered experimental study (N = 1,279) found that the presence of explicit threats to political ingroups/outgroups influenced emotions and willingness to engage politically on social media.

AI as “Artificial Immigrants”? A content analysis of the U.S. news media framing of AI threats

Ying Qi Pan, Stephanie Herrera, & Yifei Wang

Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media | 2026

Guided by media framing and Integrated Threat Theory, analyzing 1,005 articles from four U.S. outlets reveals five main topics. Realistic threats (material/physical) are emphasized over symbolic ones (identity-based). Multiple correspondence analysis indicates that tech-related coverage skews toward realistic framing, while labor and creativity coverage encompass both, though associations are not statistically significant.

A longitudinal test of political self-effects on social media

Daniel S Lane, Cassandra M Moxley, Gwen Petro, Arvin Jagayat

Media Psychology | 2025

This registered report details a longitudinal experiment testing political self-effects – changes in issue-related attitudes and indicators of political self-concept – resulting from political expression on social media. We also tested whether such effects were due to the composition or release of political messages on social media over time.

The story of social media: Evolving news coverage of social media in American politics, 2006–2021

Daniel S Lane, Hannah Overbye-Thompson, & Emilija Gagrčin

Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication | 2024

This article examines how American news media have framed social media as political technologies over time. To do so, we analyzed 16 years of political news stories focusing on social media, published by American newspapers (N = 8,218) and broadcasters (N = 6,064) (2006–2021). Using automated content analysis, we found that coverage of social media in political news stories: (a) increasingly uses anxious, angry, and moral language, (b) is consistently focused on national politicians (vs. non-elite actors), and (c) increasingly emphasizes normatively negative uses (e.g., misinformation) and their remedies (i.e., regulation).

Worn out & tuned out: Does politics fatigue on social media foster participatory inequality among Americans?

Daniel Lane, Nancy Molina-Rogers, & Emilija Gagrčin

Mass Comm & Society | 2025

In this paper, we take seriously evidence of growing politics fatigue on social media among Americans and consider how this fatigue might ultimately foster participatory inequalities on these platforms. We test two theoretical accounts of how social media (SM) politics fatigue is produced among those who (a) are disinterested in politics altogether (interest-based fatigue) or (b) hold strong political identities (identity-based fatigue).

An “Identity Turn” in political communication?: testing the relationship between media use and identity alignment in the United States

Daniel Lane, Melody Chen, & Yifei Wang

Journal of Communication | 2025

Despite a rise in identity-centric communication scholarship, there is a lack of theory and evidence regarding how media use relates to the on-going alignment between political and social identities (i.e., identity alignment). We offer a framework for theorizing this dynamic and apply it to examine the relationship between Americans’ media diets and on-going psychological alignment between political and social identities in the United States (i.e., partisan social sorting).

Me against myself: How right-partisan media use predicts support for redistribution across class and partisan identities

Yifei Wang, Miriam Metzger, Daniel Lane,

Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly | 2025

Despite rising economic inequality in the United States, lower-class Americans have yet to demand economic redistribution in overwhelming numbers. Analysis of the 2020 American National Election Study finds that right-partisan media use is associated with lower support for redistributive policies, and this relationship is strongest among individuals who identify as lower-class or Independent. We also found the relationship between right-partisan media use and taxing the rich was strongest among lower-class Republicans and upper-class Democrats. We discuss the potential for right-partisan media to breed system-justifying beliefs and shape opposition to economic redistribution among those who might benefit most from such policies.

Introduction: Race and ethnicity as foundational forces in political communication

Stewart M. Coles & Daniel Lane

Book: Race and Ethnicity as Foundational Forces in Political Communication | 2024

Despite the centrality of race and ethnicity in social and political life, they are often absent from studies of the urgent questions in contemporary political communication research. In this essay introducing a special issue focused on “Race and Ethnicity as Foundational Forces in Political Communication,” we examine factors that may contribute to the relative absence of race/ethnicity in the political communication scholarship, including: 1) structural inequalities in the field, 2) contested conceptualizations of race, and 3) the domination of certain epistemological and methodological traditions.

The group roots of social media politics: Social sorting predicts perceptions of and engagement in politics on social media

Daniel S. Lane, Cassandra M. Moxley, & Cynthia McLeod

Communication Research | 2023

Research on political partisans suggests that social media offer ideal playing fields for the group game of politics. This study considers how political and social identities interact to influence political communication on social media. Using an original two-wave survey of Americans fielded during the 2020 election period, we analyzed how social media users’ levels of social sorting—the alignment between racial, religious, ideological, and political identities—related to perceptions of and engagement in politics on social media.

Uninterested and unequal?: examining SES-based gaps in youth political behavior on social media

Daniel S. Lane, Kjerstin Thorson, and Yu Xu

Information, Communication & Society | 2023

Despite evidence that social media are transforming American political life, fundamental questions remain about their influence on political inequality among the next generation of citizens. This study examines whether youth political behavior on social media is stratified by socioeconomic status (SES) and if political interest is the primary mechanism. Analyzing two nationally representative surveys of young Americans (18–34), we find youth political behavior on social media is less stratified by SES than voting or offline campaign participation. In one case, social media political expression is counter-stratified.