Mathias Angermaier
Doctoral Researcher
A PhD researcher at the University of Graz studying dynamics in the spread of (mis)information on social media and in online news, and algorithmic breaching, the ways people regain agency in frictional relations with algorithms.
His work examines the dynamics in the spread of misinformation on social media and in online news, using data from Twitter and Telegram as well as the complete Reddit and Bluesky networks.
He also works on algorithmic breaching, which takes Harold Garfinkel’s breaching experiments and turns them on algorithmic systems. When an algorithm behaves against expectations, people have to repair the situation, and that repair makes their tacit expectations visible. Mathias studies how people regain agency in these frictional relations with algorithms, both conceptually and through traces of breaching in large-scale Reddit conversations.
Earlier in his PhD, he studied the computational detection and differentiation of conspiracy-theory topics in Telegram chats and the engagement and conversation patterns of conspiratorial communities.
