iSchool Ph.D. candidate Shawn Walker was selected for the prestigious social science internship at Microsoft Research New England (MRNE).

Walker will be joining the Social Media Collective, a group of scholars at MSRNE who focus on socio-technical questions, primarily from a social science perspective. Researchers in the Collective work on critical questions that are important to the future of social science scholarship. They are interested in bridging the divide between academics and public scholarship.

"It's like a research playground. I get to work with amazingly prestigious academics, such as Kate Crawford form the University of New South Wales who will be my mentor," said Walker, who is interested in becoming a public scholar.

To be considered, Walker submitted a proposal outlining a couple of research project he wanted to do at MRNE. He was interviewed and was accepted based on his interest in political participation and social media.

"How we participate politically today is qualitatively different than how we used to participate. In the past, participation involved voting, going to a protest march, writing letters to the City Council or showing up at a Council meeting. Now we can post a picture on Facebook, tweet or sign online petitions."

Several characteristics differentiate new forms of political participation emerging from social media from traditional forms of participation, explained Walker.

In social media, there is more of an opportunity to stumble upon information accidentally through your network of social connections. And the structure of the network itself and how people are connected is different. For example, through social media, you are connected to people outside of your core circle of friends and can be influenced by what they are talking about or sharing.

The implications for these new forms of political participation are important for government.

How do citizens communicate with government and how does government communicate with citizens? Today, social media allows political information to be intermixed with what someone had for breakfast.

As a Ph.D. candidate, Walker works on projects for the iSchool's Social Media Lab, a group he co-founded with Professor Robert Mason and fellow doctoral students Jeff Hemsley and Josef Eckert.

His current work involves analyzing social media-based communication between the various Occupy Wall Street locations and helping to develop analytic tools and methods to visualize that data for better understanding.

What does he hope to do in the future?

"I really enjoy teaching and working with students. I also enjoy research, so I would like to do something that combines the two."