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Affiliate Position

  • Co-Founder, Center for an Informed Public

Biography

Kate Starbird is an Associate Professor in the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering (HCDE) and Director of the Emerging Capacities of Mass Participation (emCOMP) Laboratory. Kate's research is situated within human-computer interaction (HCI) and the emerging field of crisis informatics—the study of the how information-communication technologies (ICTs) are used during crisis events. More specifically, her research examines how people use social media to seek, share, and make sense of information after natural disasters (such as earthquakes and hurricanes) and man-made disasters (such as acts of terrorism and mass shooting events).

Starbird has explored three dimensions of this activity: 1) online organizing, i.e. how people connect and collaborate to help themselves and others in response to crisis events; 2) collective sensemaking and rumoring; and 3) the opportunistic exploitation of these events for the intentional spread of disinformation. This work touches on broader questions about the intersection of technology and society—including the vast potential for online social platforms to empower people to work together to solve problems, as well as salient concerns related to abuse and manipulation of and through these platforms and the consequent erosion of trust in information.

Kate earned her PhD from the University of Colorado at Boulder in Technology, Media and Society (2012) and holds a BS in Computer Science from Stanford University (1997).

Education

  • Ph D, Technology, Media & Society, University of Colorado at Boulder, 2012
  • BA, Computer Science, Stanford University, 1997

Awards

  • University Faculty Lecture Award - University of Washington, 2024

Publications and Contributions

  • Conference Paper
    LLM chain ensembles for scalable and accurate data annotation (2024)
    2024 IEEE International Conference on Big Data, pp. 2110–2118 Authors: David Farr, N Manzonelli, I Cruickshank, Kate Starbird, Jevin West
  • Journal Article, Professional Journal
    To Reply or to Quote: Comparing Conversational Framing Strategies on Twitter (2024)
    ACM Journal on Computing and Sustainable Societies, 2(1), pp. 1-27 Authors: Himanshu Zade, Spencer Williams, Theresa T. Tran, Christina Smith, Sukrit Venkatagiri, Gary Hsieh, Kate Starbird
  • Conference Paper
    Mobilizing Manufactured Reality: How Participatory Disinformation Shaped Deep Stories to Catalyze Action during the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election (2023)
    ACM Conference On Computer-Supported Cooperative Work And Social Computing, 7(CSCW1) Authors: Stephen Prochaska, Kayla Duskin, Jevin West, Kate Starbird
  • Journal Article, Academic Journal
    Selective and deceptive citation in the construction of dueling consensuses (2023)
    Science Advances Authors: Anna Beers, Sarah Nguyá»…n, Kate Starbird, Jevin West, Emma Spiro
  • Journal Article, Professional Journal
    Selective and deceptive citation in the construction of dueling consensuses (2023)
    Science Advances, 9(38) Authors: A. Beers, S. Nguyn, Kate Starbird, Jevin West, Emma Spiro
  • Journal Article, Academic Journal
    Auditing Google's Search Headlines as a Potential Gateway to Misleading Content: Evidence from the 2020 US Election (2022)
    Journal of Online Trust & Safety, 1(4) Authors: Jevin West, Himanshu Zade, Morgan Wack, Yuanrui Zhang, Kate Starbird, Ryan Calo, Jason Young
  • Journal Article, Academic Journal
    (2022)
    Nature Human Behavior Authors: Joseph Bak-Coleman, Ian Kennedy, Morgan Wack, Andrew Beers, Joseph S. Schafer, Emma Spiro, Kate Starbird, Jevin West
  • Journal Article, Academic Journal
    (2022)
    Journal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media (JQD:DM) Authors: I. Kennedy, M. Wack, A. Beers, J. S. Schafer, I. Garcia-Camargo, Emma Spiro, Kate Starbird
  • Journal Article, Professional Journal
    (2022)
    Journal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media, 2(Unknown Issue) Authors: Ian Kennedy, Morgan Wack, Andrew Beers, Joseph S. Schafer, Isabella Garcia-Camargo, Emma Spiro, Kate Starbird
  • Magazine/Trade Publication
    (2022)
    Nieman Lab Authors: Kate Starbird, Mike Caulfield, Emma Spiro, Renee DiResta, Madeline Jalbert, Michael Grass
  • Conference Paper
    (2021)
    CSCW 2021 Authors: Kate Starbird, Tom Wilson
  • Journal Article, Academic Journal
    (2021)
    Science Advances, 7(50) Authors: Ryan Calo, Christopher Coward, Emma Spiro, Kate Starbird, Jevin West
  • Newspaper
    5 types of misinformation to watch out for while ballots are being counted and after (2020)
    The Conversation Authors: Kate Starbird, Jevin West, R. DiResta
  • Journal Article, Public or Trade Journal
    (2020)
    Medium.com Author: Kate Starbird
  • Journal Article, Academic Journal
    (2020)
    The Conversation Author: Kate Starbird
  • Article
    (2020)
    Election Integrity Partnership Authors: Ian Kennedy, Andrew Beers, Kolina Koltai, Morgan Wack, Joey Schafer, Paul Lockaby, Michael Caufield, Michael Grass, Emma Spiro, Kate Starbird, Isabella Garcia-Camargo
  • Article
    (2020)
    Election Integrity Partnership Authors: Joseph Bak-Coleman, Michael Caulfield, Kolina Koltai, Rachel Moran, Kate Starbird, Tom Wilson, Ian Wisemore, Renée Diresta
  • Article
    (2020)
    Election Integrity Partnership Authors: Rachel Moran, Joseph Bak-Coleman, Tom Wilson, Ian Kennedy, Kolina Koltai, Andrew Beers, Ian Wisemore, Emma Spiro, Michael Caufield, Kate Starbird
  • Article
    (2020)
    Election Integrity Partnership Authors: Melinda Haughey, Andrew Beers, Kate Starbird
  • Journal Article, Academic Journal
    (2020)
    Mediawell / Social Science Research Council Authors: Kate Starbird, Emma Spiro
  • Journal Article, Academic Journal
    On the Misinformation Beat: Understanding the Work of Investigative Journalists Reporting on Problematic Information Online (2020)
    Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction Authors: Melinda McClure Haughey, Meena Devii Maralikumar, Cameron A. Wood, Kate Starbird
  • Article
    (2020)
    Election Integrity Partnership Authors: Isabella Garcia-Camargo, Alex Stamos, Elena Cryst, Joseph Bak-Coleman, Kate Starbird, Joey Schafer
  • Newspaper
    This covid-19 misinformation went viral. Here’s what we learned. (2020)
    The Washington Post Authors: Kate Starbird, Emma Spiro, Jevin West
  • Report
    (2020)
    Election Integrity Partnership (EIP) Authors: Kate Starbird, Michael Caufield, Renee DiResta, Jevin West, Emma Spiro, Nicole Buckley, Rachel Moran, Morgan Wack
  • Article
    (2020)
    Election Integrity Partnership Authors: Kolina Koltai, Jack Nassetta, Kate Starbird, Caryl Miller, Dylan Junkin, Kevin Lai, Malika Mehrotra
  • Conference Paper
    Detecting Journalism in the Age of Social Media: Three Experiments in Classifying Journalists on Twitter (2019)
    THE 13TH INTERNATIONAL AAAI CONFERENCE ON WEB AND SOCIAL MEDIA (ICWSM-2019) Authors: Li Zeng, Dharma Dailey, Owla Mohamed, Kate Starbird, Emma Spiro
  • Conference Paper
    Engage early, correct more: How journalists participate in false rumors online during crisis events (2018)
    Proceedings of the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Authors: Kate Starbird, Dharma Dailey, Owla Mohamed, Gina Lee, Emma Spiro
  • Conference Workshop Paper
    Alternative narratives of crisis events: Communities and social botnets engaged on social media (2017)
    Companion of the 2017 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing Authors: A.C. Nied, L. Stewart, Emma Spiro, Kate Starbird
  • Conference Paper
    Centralized, parallel, and distributed information processing during collective sensemaking (2017)
    Proceedings of the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Authors: P Krafft, K Zhou, I Edwards, Kate Starbird, Emma Spiro
  • Conference Paper
    Drawing the lines of contention: Networked frame contests within #BlackLivesMatter discourse (2017)
    Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 1(CSCW, Article 122), pp. 23 Authors: Leo G. Stewart, Ahmer Arif, A. Conrad Nied, Emma Spiro, Kate Starbird
  • Conference Paper
    Language limitations in rumor research? Comparing French and English tweets sent during the 2015 Paris attacks (2017)
    Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (ISCRAM) Authors: T. Wilson, S.A. Stanek, Emma Spiro, Kate Starbird
  • Conference Short Paper
    (2016)
    Proceedings of the International Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM), Poster Paper. Authors: Li Zeng, Kate Starbird, Emma Spiro
  • Conference Paper
    (2016)
    Proceedings of the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Authors: Kate Starbird, Emma Spiro, Isabelle Edwards, Kaitlyn Zhou, Jim Maddock, Sindhuja Narasimhan
  • Conference Paper
    (2016)
    Proceedings of the ACM 2016 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing Authors: Ahmer Arif, Kelley Shanahan, Fang-Ju Chou, Yoanna Dosouto, Kate Starbird, Emma Spiro
  • Conference Paper
    (2016)
    Proceedings of the ACM 2016 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing Authors: Cynthia Andrews, Elodie Fichet, Yuwei Ding, Emma Spiro, Kate Starbird
  • Conference Paper
    (2016)
    Proceedings of the Hawaii International Conference on Systems Sciences Authors: Li Zeng, Kate Starbird, Emma Spiro
  • Conference Paper
    (2015)
    Collective Intelligence Conference Authors: Kate Starbird, Emma Spiro, Ahmer Arif, Fang-Ju Chou, Sindhuja Narasimham, Jim Maddock, Kelley Shanahan, John Robinson

Presentations

  • Auditing Google’s Search Headlines as a Potential Gateway to Misleading Content: Evidence from the 2020 US Election (2022)
    Stanford Trust and Safety Research Conference - Virtual
  • Participatory Disinformation: How Witting Agents and Unwitting Crowds Collaborate in the Spread of Disinformation Online (2022)
    2022 ASIS&T Annual Meeting - Pittsburgh, PA
  • Rumors, Mis- and Disinformation About the 2022 Midterm Elections: A Conversation with the UW Center for an Informed Public (2022)
    UW iSchool - Virtual
  • A Changed Landscape: Conceptual and Institutional Foundations of the Conservative Dilemma (2021)
    George Washington University Institute for Data, Democracy & Politics Conference - Virtual
  • Ensuring Transparency (2021)
    The Social Media Summit @MIT (SMS@MIT) - Virtual
  • National War College Talk (as part of their Commandant's Project 1-6 speaker series) (2021)
    National War College - Virtual
  • Teaching Disinfo in Higher Ed (2021)
    Social Science Research Council MediaWell - Virtual
  • The Conservative Dilemma: Digital Surrogate Organizations and the Future of Liberal Democracy (2021)
    Institute for Data, Democracy & Politics at George Washington University - Washington, D.C.
  • The Long Fuse: Misinformation and the 2020 Election (2021)
    The Atlantic Council Digital Forensics Research Lab - Virtual
  • Unraveling the Big Lie: Participatory Disinformation and its Threat to Democracy (2021)
    2021 GeekWire Summit - Seattle, WA
  • Coexisting With COVID-19: COVID and the Truth (2020)
    UW Graduate School Public Lectures - Seattle, WA
  • Election 2020 Retrospective – Information, Policy, and Outcomes Forum (2020)
    Evans School Dean’s Forum - Virtual
  • Keynote (2020)
    National Science Foundation‘s 2020 Cybersecurity Summit for Large Facilities and Cyberinfrastructure - Virtual
  • Stand With the Facts (2020)
    KUOW Public Radio - Virtual
  • What happened: Disinformation in 2020 elections (2020)
    Election Integrity Partnership: the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab - Virtual
  • Who can we trust? Technology's impact on democracy (2020)
    Town Hall Seattle - Seattle, WA
  • `Automatic Misinformation Detection on Social Media Spaces during Crisis Events (2016)
    2nd Annual International Conference on Computational Social Science - Evanston, Illinois
  • A Network-based Approach to Scoping Rumor Stories in Social Media (2016)
    36th Sunbelt Network Conference (INSNA) - Newport Beach, California
  • Modeling rumor diffusion on social media during crisis events (2016)
    36th Sunbelt Network Conference (INSNA) - Newport Beach, California
  • Did You Hear about the Computer that Can Detect Rumors?: An Algorithmic Approach to Rumor Detection (2015)
    Undergraduate Research Symposium - Seattle, WA USA
  • Expressed Uncertainty and Denials as Signals of Online Rumoring (2015)
    Collective Intelligence Conference - Santa Clara, CA USA
  • What Should Count?: A Quantitative Approach to Scoping Rumors in Social Media (2015)
    Social Media and Society Conference 2015 - Toronto, Ontario, Canada