Yotam Ophir

Assistant Professor, Communication, University at Buffalo

Yotam Ophir (PhD, University of Pennsylvania, 2018) is an Assistant Professor of Communication at the University at Buffalo. His work combines computational methods for text mining, network analysis, experiments and surveys to study media content and effects in the areas of political, science, and health communication. Dr. Ophir authored and co-authored more than 30 peer-review academic papers, published in journals such as American Journal of Public Health, Health Security, Tobacco Regulatory Science, Risk Analysis, PLoS One, Journal of Communication, Communication Research, Public Understanding of Science, Journal of Public Health, Health Communication, Communication Methods and Measures, and more. His upcoming coauthored book (Oxford University Press) on the 2020 Presidential Elections in light of COVID-19, “Democracy amid Crises: Polarization, Pandemic, Protests, & Persuasion” will be available in December 2022. Dr. Ophir is the head of the Media Effects, Misinformation, and Extremism (MEME) lab, a member of the Center for Information Integrity (CII) at the University at Buffalo, and a distinguished fellow at the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania.

Participant In These Roundtable Discussions

Sat
Oct 15th
2022
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Coding and the New Human Phenotype

This conference explores the concept of life, knowledge, and experience through the lens of “code,” examining how meaning is encoded, transmitted, and transformed across biological, digital, and cultural systems. Through five roundtables, it investigates how we reconstruct the past, navigate authenticity in a digital world, interpret fiction and ideas, engage with AI-generated language, and consider the possibility that reality itself may be fundamentally computational—together asking what is gained, and what may be lost, as code increasingly mediates our understanding of the world.