SMART Lab

The Social Media Analytics Research Team at Ohio University’s Scripps College of Communication. I founded the lab in 2015 and direct it today.

This page is my own view of the lab: the research programs I lead through it, what the team has produced, and how to get involved. For official information on facilities, affiliation, and university programs, see the SMART Lab page at Ohio University.

Jump to Research programs · Completed projects · The team · Work with us

What the lab does

Rapid technological change generates vast amounts of data that hold real value. Harnessed well, that data yields insights that help people and organizations make better decisions. Doing so takes three things in sequence: collecting the data, analyzing it, and visualizing it so the findings can actually be acted on. Social media analytics applies across health communication, politics, business, psychology, computer science, and journalism.

Because data is generated everywhere, the lab is deliberately interdisciplinary. Since its founding it has built collaborations inside and outside Communication, with research faculty from Business, Sociology, and Education taking part in lab initiatives.

The mission of the SMART Lab is to advance research and analysis on emerging big data challenges through academic collaboration, industry-academia linkages, and innovation. The lab offers education and training in data science and communication, giving graduate and undergraduate students the chance to develop technical and creative analytics skills, and serves as a space for students and faculty to undertake research that helps make sense of contemporary issues using data tools.

Research programs

The lab’s work clusters into six ongoing programs. Each draws on the same analytics toolkit and each has produced peer-reviewed output.

Audience engagement and platform analytics

How and why people participate on digital platforms

Building and testing frameworks that explain engagement across YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and X. Outputs include the self-determination study of YouTube participation in Computers in Human Behavior, the Public Engagement Model for digital diplomacy in the International Journal of Communication, and recent work on relatedness and brand pages for Oxford Intersections.

Crisis, health, and risk communication

Message design and public health under pressure

Evaluating the CERC framework and tracking the digital footprint of disease and protective behavior. Outputs span BMC Public Health, the International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, Information, Communication & Society, Health and Technology, and Technology in Society, covering COVID-19, HIV, Chagas disease, and N95 messaging.

Misinformation, media literacy, and epistemic resilience

How false information spreads and what slows it

Reasoned action and information literacy approaches to why people share unverified content, plus assessment of students’ news media literacy skills. Supported in part by a 2023 grant from the Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa, on understanding misinformation in online media.

Digital inequality and inclusion

Who gets access, and who gets meaningful use

Structural and behavioral barriers to digital participation in rural, marginalized, and transitional communities. The concept of Vital Information Use originated here, developed through survey research in Appalachian Ohio and published in Telematics and Informatics.

AI and emerging technology in communication

What generative AI changes, and for whom

Academic and student perspectives on generative AI, audience engagement with AI-related content, and methodological comparison of lexicon-based and generative approaches to sentiment analysis. Outputs in Interactive Learning Environments, the Journal of International Students, and Digital Business.

Culture, identity, and media narratives

Representation and heritage in screen and platform media

How digital and screen media shape identity, heritage, and transnational narrative. Includes the book Decoding Disney’s Arab and Muslim Narratives, filmmaker research across seven nations in Cogent Social Sciences, and work on naming and cultural heritage in Social Identities.

All publications

Research overview

Completed projects

Projects the lab ran between 2015 and 2021, with the work each produced. All are closed.

Digital divide and inequality

2015–2020 · Completed

Survey research in Appalachian Ohio on how demographics, internet access, and skills shape what people can actually do online. The project produced the Vital Information Use framework. Team: Laeeq Khan (PI), Howard T. Welser, Claudia Cisneros, Ika Idris, Michael Dickard.
Published: Telematics and Informatics (2020) and Information, Communication & Society (2019).

YouTube conversations on Chagas disease

2019–2021 · Completed

Analysis of user comments on news videos about Chagas disease, identifying active participants, dominant topics, and sentiment. Team: Aggrey Otieno, Jessie Roark, Laeeq Khan, Saumya Pant, Mario Grijalva, Scott Titsworth.
Published: Cogent Social Sciences, 7(1), 2021.

Social media use during the COVID-19 pandemic

2020–2024 · Completed

Examined Instagram as a channel for communicating preventive measures during the pandemic, analyzing the official accounts of the CDC, WHO, IFRC, and NHS, later extended to the GCC nations. Team: Aqdas Malik (PI), Laeeq Khan, Anabel Quan-Haase, and colleagues.
Published: International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction (2021) and BMC Public Health (2024).

Misinformation, fake news, and media literacy

2017–2020 · Completed

Focus groups and network analysis on how young people receive news and judge its quality. Team: Laeeq Khan (PI), Scott Titsworth, Bowen Gao, Nune Grigoryan, Ika Idris, Becca King.
Published: Behaviour & Information Technology (2019). The conference paper received 2nd Best Paper in the News Division of the Broadcast Education Association’s 2019 open competition.

Health and sport communication: Zika and the Rio Olympics

2016–2019 · Completed

Text analytics on a large Twitter dataset to trace perceptions of the Zika virus around the Rio Olympics and how that information moved through online networks. Team: Laeeq Khan (PI), Greg Newton, Zulfia Zaher, Bowen Gao.
Presented: International Communication Association, San Diego, 2017.

Social media for social change: the Wall of Kindness

2017–2019 · Completed

Twitter and Instagram analysis of informal charity and online advocacy across Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan, asking how online support translates into offline action. Team: Laeeq Khan (PI), Zulfia Zaher, Bowen Gao.
Published: International Journal of Communication, 12 (2018). Also presented at ICA, San Diego, 2017.

School shootings and social media debate

2018–2019 · Completed

Coding and analysis of Twitter conversation around gun control, race, gender, and immigration following a school shooting. Team: Stephanie Tikkanen, Laeeq Khan, Jessica Ford, Elizabeth Jenkins, Zulfia Zaher, Bowen Gao.

Government public relations via social media

2017–2020 · Completed

Social network analysis of Indonesian government ministries on Facebook, examining engagement patterns and the reputational risk posed by unmoderated spam. Team: Laeeq Khan (PI), Ika Idris.

The team

The lab is built around students. Since 2015 I have recruited and mentored an interdisciplinary team that has included 12 doctoral students and more than 20 undergraduate research assistants, alongside master’s researchers and collaborating faculty from Communication, Business, Sociology, and Education.

Students join the lab to work on live research rather than exercises. They learn to collect and clean social data, run text and network analysis, build visualizations, and write for publication. Several have gone on to co-author peer-reviewed articles and present at ICA, AEJMC, NCA, and BEA. The lab also runs the SMART Workshop Series, which trains faculty, staff, and students in current analytics techniques.

Collaboration extends well beyond Ohio. Lab research has been co-authored with colleagues at Aalto University, Western University, Sultan Qaboos University, NUST, the University of Ottawa, and institutions across the Gulf, South Asia, and Southeast Asia.

Work with us

For prospective students

Graduate and undergraduate

If you want to work on social media analytics, AI-mediated communication, digital inequality, or audience research, I would like to hear from you. I serve as Director of Graduate Studies for the Ph.D. and M.A. programs in the School of Media Arts & Studies, and I take undergraduate research assistants each year. Get in touch.

For organizations

Research partnerships, training, and consulting

The lab collaborates with agencies, newsrooms, nonprofits, and companies on applied analytics questions, and I deliver professional training and consulting independently. Recent partners include the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance, the U.S. Department of State, Teleradio-Moldova, and universities in France, Canada, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan. See training and consulting.