Chime In

Chime In is a research service that creates, tests, and promotes high-quality information on important public health issues, housed in the Center for Communication and Civic Renewal at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Chime In is funded by a research grant from the National Science Foundation. See grant details here.

How it works

  • Chime In amplifies high-quality information to communities using the sponsored-content features of social media platforms. You can access our tool at app.chimein.services
  • Chime In also empowers researchers, businesses, and practitioners who are interested in rigorously testing health promotional messages through randomized multi-arm A/B testing on social media. Chime In provides customizable technical support, scientific consultation, and implementation service to reduce barriers and improve equitable access to state-of-art causal inference techniques, machine learning models, and evolving sponsored-content systems across social media platforms.
Current research topics We currently focus on three vaccine-related public health issues — HPV Vaccines, MMR Vaccines, and Flu/Tdap Vaccines — to counter vaccine hesitancy and promote high-quality information consistent with best available scientific consensus. Over time, we plan to study other public health issues.

Our team

We are a team of experts in communication, tech, civic health, and statistics. Principal Investigator: Dr. Michael Wagner, William T. Evjue Distinguished Chair for the Wisconsin Idea; Director, Center for Communication and Civic Renewal; Director, Graduate Studies, School of Journalism & Mass Communication, University of Wisconsin–Madison Co-PIs and Senior Personnel: Dr. Porismita Borah, Professor, Murrow College of Communication, Washington State University Dr. Munmun De Choudhury, Assistant Professor, College of Computing, Georgia Tech Dr. Srijan Kumar, Assistant Professor, College of Computing, Georgia Tech Dr. Sijia Yang, Associate Professor, School of Journalism & Mass Communication, University of Wisconsin–Madison Dr. Dhavan Shah, McLeod Professor of Communication Research; Maier-Bascom Chair; MCRC Director; CCCR Research Director, School of Journalism & Mass Communication, University of Wisconsin–Madison Dr. Leticia Bode, Professor, Inaugural Research Director of the Knight-Georgetown Institute, Communication, Culture, and Technology, Georgetown University Dr. Emily Vraga, Associate Professor, Hubbard School of Journalism, University of Minnesota Dr. William Sethares, Professor, College of Engineering, University of Wisconsin–Madison University, Industry, & Tech Partnerships Georgia Tech — Kumar; DeChoudhury University of Minnesota — Vraga Georgetown University — Bode Washington State University — Borah AverPoint — Shouvik Banerjee, Founder Here Be Dragons — Eric Dunn, Co-founder and Executive Director; Alex Giedt, Analytics Director and Performance Marketing Lead   Our experience We have written over 60 studies on public health topics including online social support, vaccine hesitancy, and misinformation reduction.

Work with us!

Call to Action If you are interested in our services, please email us at: cccr_info@wisc.edu. Contact information Point of contact: Michael Wagner Email: michael.wagner@wisc.edu Phone: 608-230-5725 (office)