معرفی
Marco T Bastos and Dan Mercea are academic researchers specializing in digital activism, social media, and political communication. Bastos is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Duke University's Franklin Humanities Institute and holds a PhD in Communication Sciences from the University of São Paulo, Brazil. Dan Mercea is a Lecturer in Sociology at City University London, with a PhD in Communication Studies from the University of York, UK.
- Marco T Bastos – PhD in Communication Sciences, University of São Paulo
- Dan Mercea – PhD in Communication Studies, University of York
Their research focuses on the role of social media in protest movements, civic participation, and networked activism. They have co-authored influential studies on serial activists, users who bridge geographically and linguistically disparate protests, and on Twitter-based mobilization in events like Occupy Gezi and the Brexit referendum. Their work challenges traditional models of influence by highlighting the role of non-elite, highly connected users in shaping political discourse.
Key research themes include digital prefigurative participation, connective action, bot networks, and narrative alignment between news and social media. Their publications appear in top journals such as New Media & Society, Sociology, and Social Science Computer Review.
Their recent work analyzes protest participation along a gradient (actual, potential, non-participants), examines familial engagement with locative games like Pokémon Go, and investigates how online communication fosters offline protest participation. They employ mixed methods, including big data mining, network analysis, and qualitative interviews.
Scientific Contributions:
- Coined and operationalized the concept of 'serial activists'
- Exposed the Brexit botnet of over 13,000 automated accounts
- Explored casual protest participation in Eastern Europe
- Analyzed movement learning on Twitter during UK austerity protests
- Studied prefigurative politics in digital activism
Advising and Grants: While specific students and grant funding are not mentioned in the provided texts, their multi-year empirical studies suggest involvement in funded research projects. Their collaborative work indicates mentorship of junior researchers and potential supervision of graduate students, particularly in digital methods and political sociology.
Labs and Teams: Bastos is affiliated with the Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University, which supports interdisciplinary research in digital humanities and media studies. Mercea’s work at City University London likely involves engagement with digital sociology and social movement research groups. Their joint research implies collaboration within interdisciplinary teams focused on computational social science and political communication.
