As of March 2026, every U.S. state had introduced at least one bill seeking to regulate social media or other digital platforms for people younger than 18. The wave of legislation would be difficult for anyone to keep track of, Researchers at the University of California, Davis, have built a public database to help.
From creating personalized maps of Alzheimer’s risk and designing next-generation cancer therapeutics to advancing AI-driven materials discovery and recovering nitrogen contaminants from water resources, the five projects that received this year’s Incentives for Large Grant Awards from the College of Letters and Science exemplify how UC Davis research is transforming science and society.
A new study in communication scoured the book buying histories and ratings of more than 35,000 Amazon shoppers and found that while some buy books that are similar to others they have enjoyed, people who were more curious were more likely to try something completely different and to like it.
On Presidents Day weekend, children at the SMUD Museum of Science and Curiosity, or MOSAC, in Sacramento played Wreathies, a game created by graduate and undergraduate students in the Department of Communication’s UC Davis Media Lab. The game is part of a scientific study to test whether kids between 8 and 12 years old prefer to have choices in their learning.
A new study in communication examined how the data-driven business models of TikTok and Spotify shape both the music artists make, and the songs people listen to. The study was published Feb. 27 in the journal Information, Communication & Society.
Federal immigration enforcement in Minneapolis is part of a larger history of government violence against citizens and non-citizens alike. However, today’s technology, rhetoric and legal tensions are changing what that violence means for society.
Jessie Murray, L&S Orange Cluster chief administrative officer, is finding new ways to both support students and take the sting out of budget uncertainty and cuts. For her work, Murray received the 2025 Chancellor’s Outstanding Staff Award for Exceptional University Management.
To provoke outrage is the point of rage bait. Research in communication is starting to explain how rage bait hacks the way our brains decide what we choose to read, watch and even click and swipe online. What’s more, the worse we feel, the more we seem to prefer it.
The booming growth of AI chatbots is similar to the trajectory of how social media radically changed our everyday lives, except with supercharged adoption rates and expectations. Some key lessons we are still learning from social media’s rise offer insight on how to avoid the same mistakes with AI.
Josie Peinemann remembers what it was like to take that first step to make connections and build community. All her efforts since then have been worthwhile.
