معرفی
Matthew A. Baum serves as the Marvin Kalb Professor of Global Communications and Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and Department of Government. He is affiliated with several Harvard centers including the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, and Women and Public Policy Program.
His research spans multiple interconnected domains examining how media, public opinion, and mental health intersect with political processes. A significant portion of his recent work investigates the relationship between mental health conditions (particularly depression and irritability) and political attitudes, including conspiracy beliefs, support for political violence, and voting behavior. His research also explores media effects, fake news, misinformation, and the impact of social media algorithms on political polarization. Baum has demonstrated through rigorous experimental methods that algorithmic recommendation systems have more limited effects on polarization than commonly believed.
Baum co-founded and serves as principal investigator for the Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review and the Civic Health and Institutions Project (CHIP50, formerly the COVID States Project), which has produced numerous reports on public health, political attitudes, and misinformation during the pandemic. His sponsored research includes the NSF-funded State Health, Institutions, and Politics Survey (SHIPS) and the Knight Foundation-funded Information Disorder Papers initiative.
His influential books include Soft News Goes to War: Public Opinion and American Foreign Policy in the New Media Age (2003), War Stories: The Causes and Consequences of Public Views of War (2009), and War and Democratic Constraint: How the Public Influences Foreign Policy (2015). Baum's interdisciplinary approach bridges political science, communication studies, psychology, and public health to address pressing questions about democracy, information ecosystems, and political behavior in contemporary America.
