Partisan news users in the United States and India on either side seldom use fact checkers
Rik Ray, Sakshi Bhalla, Harsh Taneja
Journal of Communication, 2025
Rik Ray
PhD (ABD) @ Institute of Communications Research
Statistics, Data, and Survey Research Consultant @ Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
rikray2[at]illinois[dot]edu
Research
I primarily study how audiences take shape on digital platforms and the ways in which platform logics influence audience behavior. My interest in research design and methodology has also led to collaborations across topical domains such as strategic communication, public opinion, journalism studies, political communication, etc. My research spans:
Platforms and Audiences
How do structural factors and individual preferences collectively shape audience behavioral patterns on digital platforms? What are the implications for users, advertisers, industry, government, and institutional stakeholders?
Design and Methodology
Improving alignment between research objectives, design, data, measures, and methods. Development and application of new analytical tools, techniques, and approaches in industry and academia.
Data
Structured and unstructured platform data, surveys, observational data, media texts.
Analytical Approaches
Computational techniques, causal inference, regression, multivariate analysis, measurement theory, spatial econometrics.
Recent Publications
The journalists’ exodus: Navigating the transition from Twitter to Mastodon and other alternative platforms
Margaret Ng, Rik Ray
New Media & Society, 2025
When news is entertainment: explaining the persistence of misinformation through the information environment
Sakshi Bhalla, Rik Ray, Harsh Taneja
Information, Communication & Society, 2024
Online news platforms still matter: Generational news consumption patterns during the 2020 presidential election
Rik Ray
Online Media & Global Communication, 2023
Teaching
I have taught online and in-person courses in research methods, audience analysis, digital advertising, and public speaking. I also teach technical workshops on programming, data analysis, visualization, etc. My teaching experience includes:
Instructor of Record, ADV 483: Audience Analysis
Fall 2022
Designed exercises, lectures, and class activities.
Instructor of Record, JOUR 451: Research Methods in Journalism
Spring 2021 (Online)
Independently designed curriculum, lectures, exercises, class activities, and evaluations.
Teaching Assistant, ADV 305: Advertising Technology and the Digital World
Fall 2021, Spring 2022
Delivered guest lecture on online misinformation.
Teaching Assistant, ADV 150: Introduction to Advertising
Fall 2020, Fall 2023
Conducted weekly discussion sections.
Instructor of Record, COMM 1020: Introduction to Public Speaking
Fall 2018; Spring 2019, 2020
Teaching Assistant, JOUR 1000: Introduction to Journalism
Fall 2019
Statistics, Data, and Survey Research Consultant
Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning
January 2024 to present
Provide statistical and research design consultation to faculty, students, and staff. Conduct technical workshops on Python, R, Stata, and SAS each semester. Fully developed the two-part Python training sequence, also publicly available as CITL's official e-learning video series.
Projects
Global YouTube Trends
Automated data collection pipeline gathering trending video data from 110 locales. Overall trends collected hourly, 6 categories collected 4x daily. Deployed on Raspberry Pi, data stored on Box. Collected from May 2024 - July 2025.
Python YouTube, Box API Bash
IPA/CBN Social Media Monitoring
Social media listening and analytics solution for Central Bank of Nigeria's Consumer Protection Department. Developed data collection pipeline and a hybrid machine learning model to classify incoming data in near real-time.
scikit-learn NLTK gensim
citlR Package
Streamlining, packaging, and documenting custom R functions developed at CITL’s Data Analytics division. Used for internal projects including survey data analysis, visualizations, and report preparation.
R roxygen2 pkgdown
Illinois Resource Map
ArcGIS Experience dashboard for the I3 Social Studies Network, reaching 5,000+ educators across Illinois. Maps educational and community resources, supporting K-12 social studies teachers in creating inquiry-based, justice-centered learning experiences.
ArcGIS geopandas SQL
About
I'm a doctoral candidate at the Institute of Communications Research at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, currently wrapping up my dissertation on how YouTube is redrawing content genre boundaries, and its implications for audience behavior and industry practices. I currently work as a consultant for the Data Analytics division at the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning at UIUC, serving students, faculty, and staff across the university. Between 2018 and 2020, I was the editorial assistant for Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly.
I grew up witnessing the evolution of computers from i286 systems with 1MB memory and 40MB hard drive to smartphones with 12GB memory and 1TB storage. Some of my fondest memories are of building PCs with my dad, and trying to extract every last bit of performance out of older systems. After a brief detour in geology, I found my way back to computers, but this time focused on the intersection of computers and society. Over the course of my PhD, I fell in love with statistics and research methods, while simultaneously giving a formal shape to my curiousity about why and how people use computers and the internet.
When I'm not working, I'm usually playing my guitar, writing songs, trying my hand at analog photography, or attempting to decipher the genius of bad movies.