Mary Blankenship (Chemistry and Economics) co-authored "How Misinformation Spreads on Twitter" with Carol Graham, Brookings Institution Leo Pasvolsky Senior Fellow. The pair discuss that while social media has many advantages, information pollution is prevalent and in some cases "generate[s] more engagement than factually reliable news." To illustrate this, Blankenship and Graham refer to their Twitter research on mass shootings where they extract data, such as hashtags and emojis, and analyze their progression. Blankenship is pursuing a double major in chemistry and economics, and recently completed a minor in Brookings public policy.
