Sal Hagen
@hetsalwel.bsky.social
Postdoctoral researcher @ UvA | @d-eepculture.bsky.social | @digitalmethods.net | @oilab.bsky.social
This is ongoing work, and as Daniël mentions, we'll be hosting a "From Vectors to Vibes" reading group early next year. Open to all!
New article post! shorturl.at/yJBr5 I mostly blame this brave attempt at updating digital methods for the 2020s "vibes" era of platforms on @hetsalwel.bsky.social - and we're continuing this research in '26 as a reading group "From Vectors to Vibes" - email us if you're interested in participating!
Digital rhythmanalysis: Studying memetic and affective rhythms on the post-viral Web - Sal Hagen, Daniël de Zeeuw, Tommaso Venturini, 2025
How to do justice to the pulsing, ephemeral and multisensory dimensions of today's digital lifeworlds? Even as platforms increasingly push audio-visual str...
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November 17, 2025 at 10:41 AM
This is ongoing work, and as Daniël mentions, we'll be hosting a "From Vectors to Vibes" reading group early next year. Open to all!
Digital rhythmanalysis emphasizes time before space and can study moments of (viral) intensity as well as everyday digital life. We bring our framing in dialogue with recent 'affective' and 'aural' turns and discuss practical examples on how to operationalize it (led to this funky baby graph).
November 17, 2025 at 10:41 AM
Digital rhythmanalysis emphasizes time before space and can study moments of (viral) intensity as well as everyday digital life. We bring our framing in dialogue with recent 'affective' and 'aural' turns and discuss practical examples on how to operationalize it (led to this funky baby graph).
When searching for thematic questions (e.g. 'who should I vote for if I want less taxation'), the D66 party website ranked as the top source, cited even more than Wikipedia.
For more information on the data collection, see our Deep Culture project website: deep-culture.org/google-ai-ov...
For more information on the data collection, see our Deep Culture project website: deep-culture.org/google-ai-ov...
October 25, 2025 at 1:18 PM
When searching for thematic questions (e.g. 'who should I vote for if I want less taxation'), the D66 party website ranked as the top source, cited even more than Wikipedia.
For more information on the data collection, see our Deep Culture project website: deep-culture.org/google-ai-ov...
For more information on the data collection, see our Deep Culture project website: deep-culture.org/google-ai-ov...
This was also one of the more interesting methodologies I've worked on. We sourced ~3000 questions from 4chan and leftychan, rephrased them through LLMs, queried them on Google and Bing, and scraped the SERP contents through Selenium, 4CAT, and Zoekplaatje.
Code: github.com/sal-uva/radi...
Code: github.com/sal-uva/radi...
June 12, 2025 at 4:17 PM
This was also one of the more interesting methodologies I've worked on. We sourced ~3000 questions from 4chan and leftychan, rephrased them through LLMs, queried them on Google and Bing, and scraped the SERP contents through Selenium, 4CAT, and Zoekplaatje.
Code: github.com/sal-uva/radi...
Code: github.com/sal-uva/radi...
Google relies heavily on Reddit, showing up in 75% of SERPs(!). Controversial topics that are not enriched are thus often "relayed" to the amateur interpretations of Redditors (see below).
We call for continued SERP audits to interrogate the volatility of enrichment amidst changing political tides.
We call for continued SERP audits to interrogate the volatility of enrichment amidst changing political tides.
June 12, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Google relies heavily on Reddit, showing up in 75% of SERPs(!). Controversial topics that are not enriched are thus often "relayed" to the amateur interpretations of Redditors (see below).
We call for continued SERP audits to interrogate the volatility of enrichment amidst changing political tides.
We call for continued SERP audits to interrogate the volatility of enrichment amidst changing political tides.
We find that controversial searches get less components. Some keywords were even blacklisted from enrichment altogether, including "trump" and "biden".
This suggests Google and Bing tend avoid burning their fingers on certain political topics, raising concerns on the reliability of these systems.
This suggests Google and Bing tend avoid burning their fingers on certain political topics, raising concerns on the reliability of these systems.
June 12, 2025 at 4:17 PM
We find that controversial searches get less components. Some keywords were even blacklisted from enrichment altogether, including "trump" and "biden".
This suggests Google and Bing tend avoid burning their fingers on certain political topics, raising concerns on the reliability of these systems.
This suggests Google and Bing tend avoid burning their fingers on certain political topics, raising concerns on the reliability of these systems.
We find that controversial searches get less components. Some keywords were even blacklisted from enrichment altogether, including "trump" and "biden".
This suggests Google and Bing tend avoid burning their fingers on certain political topics, raising concerns on the reliability of these systems.
This suggests Google and Bing tend avoid burning their fingers on certain political topics, raising concerns on the reliability of these systems.
June 12, 2025 at 4:09 PM
We find that controversial searches get less components. Some keywords were even blacklisted from enrichment altogether, including "trump" and "biden".
This suggests Google and Bing tend avoid burning their fingers on certain political topics, raising concerns on the reliability of these systems.
This suggests Google and Bing tend avoid burning their fingers on certain political topics, raising concerns on the reliability of these systems.