Informational Asymmetries in Digital Media: How AI Affordances and Institutional Strategies Continue to Shape our Information Ecosystems
22 May 2026 (Fri)
On 4 May 2026 Dr. Subhayan Mukerjee from the National University of Singapore delivered a seminar titled “
Informational Asymmetries in Digital Media: How AI Affordances and Institutional Strategies Continue to Shape our Information Ecosystems”.
In the seminar Dr. Mukerjee challenged the dominant polarization paradigm in current discourse on digital platforms by presenting empirical evidence of a more complex structural reality. He traced a research trajectory that centres on the tension between political interest and large-scale indifference. Building on his prior work that identified the political non-political binary as a primary structural cleavage Dr. Mukerjee explored how this divide interacts with new technological affordances and institutional strategies. The first study examined the consumption layer investigating how users engage with novel AI assisted affordances for information verification on social media. Findings suggest that even within a landscape of general political apathy specific elite driven stimuli act as unique catalysts for user agency. The second study addressed the production layer proposing a model of strategic ideological differentiation. It found that media outlets actively calibrate their output to distinguish themselves from rivals a behaviour that is intensely domain specific and prevalent in the political sphere but notably absent in entertainment. Ultimately the research reveals a digital ecosystem where platform affordances and institutional behaviours co evolve to reinforce systemic divides even among an audience that remains largely politically disinterested.
The seminar drew faculty members and doctoral students from the Department of Media and Communication, who engaged in a vibrant and intellectually rich discussion. Dr. Mukerjee addressed various questions from the audience and provided insightful perspectives on the intricate dynamics of digital media platforms and online audience behaviour.
Dr. Subhayan Mukerjee (PhD University of Pennsylvania) is an Assistant Professor of Computational Communication in the Department of Communications and New Media at the National University of Singapore. Leaning into a meandering background in mathematics engineering and communication science his research employs advanced computational methods to map the complexities of digital media platforms and online audience behaviour.
