Marianne Aubin Le Quere, a doctoral student in information science, is a coauthor of this fascinating research collaboration with the media company Upworthy.
The team created the Upworthy Research Archive, which contains thousands of randomized behavioral experiments Upworthy carried out to understand which of its article "packages" (read: headlines and images) got the most traction online. According to the linked CALS story, the new archive can help answer questions about the digital behavior of readers – like how they respond to headlines – and content producers – such as how organizations make decisions.
Co-leads on this research are Nathan Matias, assistant professor of communication in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and Kevin Munger of Penn State.
