Harmony Labs

At Harmony Labs, much of our work explores how people’s values intersect with their media habits, and whether those patterns reveal opportunities to foster connection. As we head into the holiday season, we highlight shows and movies that might help bridge any divides that emerge around the table this year. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/eCcpKwRw

Really grateful to have been able to participate in Impact Guild's Democracy Forum yesterday, where Aditi Juneja and I shared preliminary findings from our new research with Democracy 2076 and Harmony Labs. Stay tuned for the full report in the next couple months. Thanks for having us, Chad Boettcher, Sam Rodriguez, Jared Ruga and the whole Impact Guild team. Sign up for updates from Democracy2076: https://lnkd.in/ev3mJSji

Frederica Conrey, Caroline Hayes, and I obviously wrote this post before election outcomes were in. But maybe it's a good one to share today. Let us know what you think of it. "The transgressive online behavior of young men may [represent] a canny resistance to the dominant cultural drive to self-define, to maximize, to produce. It may be a not so unskillful adaptive response to the mixed messages, moral confusions, and material challenges of impending adulthood . . . a way for young men to construct, deconstruct, and reconstruct themselves, without commitment to a chaotic, unforgiving marketplace of masculinities, while fully exposed in social media’s permanent record." https://lnkd.in/emAAhRH7

Harmony is hiring! We're looking for a Senior Research Scientist to join our team. In this role, you'll design and implement data-driven research to analyze cultural consumption and media narratives, while also helping communicate methodologies and findings to key stakeholders. Interested or know someone who might be a great fit? Learn more and apply here: https://lnkd.in/gERfbZiw

The latest from the lab: part 2 in our series on responsible AI at Harmony Labs. Here, we explore how our core organizational values and a human-led approach shape how we use AI in our work, from protecting partner data to ensuring that AI complements—rather than replaces—human creativity and analysis. These commitments underscore one key question we ask ourselves when considering creating something with AI: “Will people touched by this product be empowered and enriched, whether as users, audiences of its outputs, or as invisible contributors?” If you're interested in how we're balancing innovation with responsibility, you can read the full post below. We'd also welcome any feedback on our approach—as the data and tools we have access to continue to evolve, so will we. https://lnkd.in/gSUAfk4B

On Monday, September 30th, Narrative Initiative is releasing a new guide: The Narrative Election Guide for Immigrant Futures. Our guidance is based off of new findings from Define American and Harmony Labs, and is intended as a tool for movement organizers, advocates, and artists working towards immigrant futures. We are releasing the guide during a public briefing with Rinku Sen and Frederica Conrey, Principal Scientist at Harmony Labs. 🟢 Register here: https://lnkd.in/gk7MPB8B If you can't make it at 1 PM PT / 3 PM CT / 4 PM ET, no problem. All registrants will receive a copy of the briefing and the report.

We're thrilled to participate in this Narrative Initiative session as they launch their Narrative Election Guide for Immigrant Futures! Our Principal Scientist, Frederica Conrey, will be joining to share new audience research we did in partnership with Define American, exploring the "moveable middle"—a group of people who do not have a committed position on immigration. Details and registration link below. We hope to see you there!

Storytelling shapes the world. Define American, a media advocacy organization, provides tools for shaping stories that move audiences. Their recent study with Harmony Labs, “Move Them or Lose Them: Strategies for Deepening Engagement with Moveable Middle Audiences” examines the media consumed by audiences who do not have a committed position on immigration and shares tactics for reaching them. Read their findings 👇 https://lnkd.in/g2iQhxM4

Sem Devillart and I wrote a piece that tries to make visible how we extract patterns of meaning from the media we analyze. Check it out and tell us what you think? “There is something paradoxical in how much energy and active intention is required to maintain the open, yet focused awareness that supports effective observation and analysis. And there is something incredibly energizing and eye-opening about finally achieving it, finding yourself on the opposite shore from all the likes, dislikes, and other judgements that make up the everyday exercise of personality . . . resting for a moment in the bright spaciousness of undifferentiated experience.”

Opportunity alert for narrative work around economic mobility! Camber Collective is calling for grant applications. "False and harmful narratives about why people experience economic mobility are prevalent in the U.S. popular culture, media, and policy discourse. These narratives can distort the design of investments, policies, and programs that purport to support mobility from poverty, by grounding these efforts in incorrect or exclusionary assumptions. . . . Camber Collective issues this Call for Interest to organizations who seek to" evolve narratives "among defined audiences or localities, as part of our commitment" to propagate "more factual public understanding of economic mobility and economic exclusion." https://lnkd.in/eb9apgSi