Commentary
AI Violence: Thick Fakes and the Need for Grounded Policies
Seth K. Goldman is Honors Associate Professor of Communication at University of Massachusetts-Amherst, where he holds a joint appointment in the Department of Communication and Commonwealth Honors College. His research investigates the effects of mass media and political communication on stereotyping and prejudice, particularly around public opinion about race, gender, and sexuality.
Goldman is the author of The Obama Effect: How the 2008 Campaign Changed White Racial Attitudes (2014, Russell Sage Foundation), winner of the 2014 Frank Luther Mott-Kappa Tau Alpha Research Award for the best book on journalism/mass communication. His research has been published in academic journals such as the American Journal of Political Science, International Journal of Public Opinion Research, Journal of Politics, Political Communication, Political Psychology, and Public Opinion Quarterly. Financial support for his research has been provided by the Russell Sage Foundation, NSF-funded Time-Sharing Experiments for the Social Sciences (TESS), and the Face Value Project, funded by the Ford Foundation in partnership with the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University.
While a fellow at the Shorenstein Center, Goldman’s research will strive to answer the following question: Do media portrayals of minority groups suffering from bias, discrimination, and violence produce empathy, thus reducing prejudice and increasing support for minority rights? Or do victim narratives produce pity, thus increasing prejudice among majority group members and internalized stigma among minority group members?
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