Signal

We are testing out a few SIGNAL resources that we hope will be part of our tool-kit for educators, policy makers, and the general public. Over the summer, part of the research team developed three new output features:

Research Briefs

Short-form, rapid-response outputs that spotlight research interventions into pressing current events or quick summaries of new research findings. This can function like an evidence-based op-ed or an overview of a project you are working on or have recently published on and want to promote to a wider audience. Typical length is no more than 1,000–1,500 words.

In-Focus Reports

Longer-form research reports offer an opportunity to publish on data or research findings that are scholarly in nature and that you want to share with non-academic stakeholders for broader public use. They allow you to translate more scholarly research and findings into a platform that can ideally inform direct action by those in other sectors.

Learning Modules

Teachable materials on specific topics that can be adopted and adapted by educators, community leaders, and caregivers for different non-academic contexts. These take the form of in-depth guides with lessons, definitions, quizzes, and reflection prompts. Shorter versions of these materials will also be offered as a slide deck users can adapt for workshop and lecture spaces. Our first modules, on Online Misogyny and Radicalization and on Building Pro-Social Media Environments, are being formatted and will be released throughout the fall.

Some of these are already live on the website and we are currently in the process of having the others finalized and formatted for broad circulation.

We undertook these ‘prototype’ projects in the hopes that they would become permanent features that we can build and expand on across different subjects related to our work at SIGNAL. Consider this an invitation to all members to pitch ideas to us for any of these featured sections. These will be peer-reviewed by an advisory board made up of members within the Network for scholarly rigour, accessibility to public audiences, and fit with the SIGNAL mandate. Information about submitting a proposal can be found in our submission guidelines.

Finally, we now have a glossary up and running on the website about how we use key research terms within the briefs, reports, and learning modules (thank you to Farinaz Basmechi, Spencer Kim, Cassie LaLonde, and Laura Blanco Murcia for the initial work done on this). It is a work in progress and new terms will be added as we continue this work. We see this as a living document and welcome feedback on missing concepts and any sources you think should be cited for any of the definitions.

The executive team is beginning preparations to reapply for the Partnership Grant in 2027. If you were part of the previous attempt, we will be reaching out in November to discuss the process for reapplication. Stay tuned!

SIGNAL member Dr. Karmvir Padda and co-director Shana MacDonald will be hosting a conference in early March 2027 at UW on the theme of Pro-Social Media, or, how we make the Internet a more generative space. The conference is funded by the Government of Canada’s Digital Citizenship Contribution Program. We will have a list of exciting keynotes from influencers, scholars, and policy makers, and we will be hosting panels and workshops to launch recent international reports on online misogyny, radicalization content in GenAI imagery, and new research approaches to countering hate and polarization. More details soon!

In other exciting news, as part of our continued rebrand we have changed the name of our Instagram account from @aesthetic.resistance to @signal_network.

The SIGNAL linktree is available on @signal_network on Instagram to stay up to date on our future events!

Surviving the Media UpsideDown Lectures: This hybrid lecture series invites scholars and community members to UWaterloo to discuss different approaches to countering online hate, TFGBV, radicalization, and social polarization. We have four speakers lined up for the Fall term and we couldn’t be more excited!