Data, Media, and Society
About the Research Center
We use data generated by people and data about people to understand human behavior.
We study the ways in which we can use data to understand human behavior, and we address questions about how data and data processing are shaping how we work, how we live, and what it means to be a person in a networked, digitized world. We also design and build new tools for using data collections inside and outside of the University.
Our projects include uncovering the pattern of official secrecy by examining databases of declassified documents, a personalized news engine that creates a kind of algorithmic editorial voice, and a visual study of Thomson-Reuter’s Web of Science. Columbia has a long track record of startups in the new media field, including Newsblaster, MPEG, Dygest, and Musically Intelligent Machines.
We are a diverse group of creative technologists, designers and scientists. with participants from the fields of architecture, the humanities, the social sciences, education, journalism, computer science, and engineering.
Research Highlights
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This project uses natural language processing to analyze large amounts of textual and speech data, particularly interactive data, to find relations among people, and between people and propositions (such as sentiment or belief), and to identify when such relations change in an unexpected manner.
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The enormous growth in the number of official documents – many of them withheld from scholars and journalists even decades later – has raised serious concerns about whether traditional research methods are adequate for ensuring government accountability. But the millions of documents that have been released, often in digital form, also create opportunities to use natural language processing and statistical/machine learning to explore the historical record in very new ways.
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This is an NSF-funded project at LabROSA concerned with separating and recognizing acoustic sources in complex, real-world mixtures.
Committee
Data, Media, and Society
Manan Ahmed
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Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Associate Professor of History
Shih-Fu Chang
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Columbia Engineering
Dean - Morris A. and Alma Schapiro Professor
Lydia Chilton
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Columbia Engineering
Assistant Professor of Computer Science
Mark Hansen
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Columbia Journalism School
David and Helen Gurley Brown Professor of Journalism and Innovation - Director of the David and Helen Gurley Brown Institute of Media Innovation
Lena Mamykina
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Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons
Associate Professor of Biomedical Informatics
Kathleen R. McKeown
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Columbia Engineering
Henry and Gertrude Rothschild Professor of Computer Science -
Data Science Institute
Founding Director
Affiliated Member
Data, Media, and Society
Asim Ansari
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Columbia Business School
William T. Dillard Professor of Marketing
John L. Battelle
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School of International and Public Affairs
Adjunct Senior Research Scholar and Adjunct Professor
Emily J. Bell
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Columbia Journalism School
Professor of Professional Practice - Director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism
Natalie Benda
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School of Nursing
Assistant Professor of Health Informatics
Omar Besbes
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Columbia Business School
Vikram S. Pandit Professor of Business
Paulo Blikstein
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Teachers College
Associate Professor of Communications, Media and Learning Technology Design
Augustin Chaintreau
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Columbia Engineering
Associate Professor of Computer Science
Seth Cluett
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Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Director, Computer Music Center, Music Department - Lecturer in the Discipline of Music
Matthew J. Connelly
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Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Professor of History - Director of the Institute of Social and Economic Research and Policy
Rob Eschmann
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School of Social Work
Associate Professor of Social Work
Steven K. Feiner
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Columbia Engineering
Wang Family Professor of Computer Science
Hortense Fong
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Columbia Business School
Assistant Professor, Marketing Division
Kellen Funk
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Columbia Law School
Michael E. Patterson Professor of Law
Talia Gillis
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Columbia Law School
Professor of Law
Micah Goldblum
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Columbia Engineering
Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering
Vineet Goyal
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Columbia Engineering
Professor of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research
Luis Gravano
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Columbia Engineering
Professor of Computer Science
Ali Hirsa
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Columbia Engineering
Professor of Professional Practice in the Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research
Julia Hirschberg
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Columbia Engineering
Percy K. and Vida L. W. Hudson Professor of Computer Science
Kostis Kaffes
- Assistant Professor in Computer Science
Eunji Kim
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Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Assistant Professor of Political Science
Bruce M. Kogut
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Columbia Business School
Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Professor of Leadership and Ethics -
Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Professor of Sociology
Laura Kurgan
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Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation
Professor of Architecture, Planning and Preservation - Director of the Master of Science in Computational Design Practices Program in the Faculty of Architecture, Planning and Preservation
Colin Wayne Leach
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Barnard College
Professor of Psychology
Hannah Li
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Columbia Business School
Assistant Professor of Business Decision, Risk, and Operations Division
Hod Lipson
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Columbia Engineering
James and Sally Scapa Professor of Innovation in the Department of Mechanical Engineering
Michael Mauskapf
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Columbia Business School
Assistant Professor of Business
Dhrumil Mehta
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Columbia Journalism School
Associate Professor of Professional Practice
Tamar Mitts
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School of International and Public Affairs
Assistant Professor of International and Public Affairs
Giovanni Motta
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Teachers College
Lecturer in Applied Statistics
Smaranda Muresan
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Barnard College
Associate Professor of Computer Science
Suresh Naidu
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School of International and Public Affairs
Professor of International and Public Affairs and Economics
Gary Natriello
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Teachers College
Ruth L. Gottesman Professor in Educational Research
Shree K. Nayar
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Columbia Engineering
T.C. Chang Professor of Computer Science
Jason Nieh
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Columbia Engineering
Professor of Computer Science
Frank Provenzano
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Columbia University Irving Medical Center
Assistant Professor of Neurological Sciences (in Neurology and in the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain)
John Robertson
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School of Social Work
Special Lecturer in Social Work
Dan Rubenstein
- Professor of Computer Science
Juan Francisco Saldarriaga
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Columbia Journalism School
Associate Research Scholar
Henning Schulzrinne
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Columbia Engineering
Julian Clarence Levi Professor of Mathematical Methods and Computer Science and Professor of Electrical Engineering
Mario Small
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Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Quetelet Professor of Social Science
Brian Smith
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Columbia Engineering
Assistant Professor of Computer Science
Shuran Song
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Columbia Engineering
Assistant Professor of Computer Science
Dennis Tenen
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Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature
Duy Linh Tu
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Columbia Journalism School
Associate Professor of Professional Practice
Barbara Tversky
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Teachers College
Professor of Psychology and Education
Yamil Velez
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Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Assistant Professor of Political Science
Nakul Verma
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Columbia Engineering
Senior Lecturer in the Discipline of Computer Science -
Data Science Institute
MSDS Program Director
Katja Maria Vogt
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Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Professor, Philosophy Department
John Wright
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Columbia Engineering
Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering
Zhou Yu
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Columbia Engineering
Associate Professor of Computer Science
Renzhe Yu
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Teachers College
Assistant Professor of Learning Analytics/Educational Data Mining
Richard Zemel
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Columbia Engineering
Trianthe Dakolias Professor of Engineering and Applied Science and Professor of Computer Science
Changxi Zheng
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Columbia Engineering
Associate Professor of Computer Science