Research

My academic research is easiest accessed through my Google Scholar page.

Broadly, I work on social media and various forms of online influencing in India, particularly politicians’ use of Twitter.

Here is a selection of recent work.

• Gonawela, A., Kumar, R., Thawani, U., Ahmad, D., Chandrasekaran, R., Pal, J  (2020) The Anointed Son, The Hired Gun, and the Chai Wala: Enemies and Insults in Politicians’ Tweets in the Run-Up to the 2019 Indian General Elections. (HICSS 2020) Proceedings of the 53rd Hawaii International Conference on System Science. Page 2878-2887 (PDF)
• Pal, J., Panda, A., Twitter in the 2019 Indian General Elections: Trends of Use Across States and Parties Economic and Political Weekly 54 (51), December 2019 (PDF)
• Pal, J., Azhagu, M., Charles, D., Panda, A. (2019) How India Voted: The Use of Social Media, Seminar, 720, pp 75-79, August 2019 (PDF)
• Pal, J., Panda, A., Lalani, F. (2019) How #BJP fused with #StrongIndia in #2019 The Long Story, The Mint, May 10, 2019 (PDF)
• Pal, J. (2019) Social media is a key battleground in India’s elections — and Modi is currently king, Editorial: Global Opinions, Washington Post, April 30, 2019 (PDF)
• Pal, J., Gonawela, A., Panda, A., Ramarvind, KM, Sreevatsan, A. (2019) What tweet for tat tells you about Rahul Gandhi The Long Story, The Mint, Apr 24, 2019 (PDF)
• Pal, J., (2019) Legitimacy, Support and Endorsement: Narendra Modi’s Social Media Engagement with Celebrities Economic & Political Weekly, 54(7), 16 Feb, 2019 (PDF)
• Pal, J., Panda, A. (2019) Modi Matinee Show: Inside India’s Celeb Twitter The Long Story, The Mint, Jan 28, 2019
• Pal, J., Bozarth, L. (2018) Is Tweeting in Indian Languages Helping Politicians Widen Their Reach? Economic & Political Weekly, 53(25), 23 Jun, 2018 (PDF)
• Chakraborty, S., Pal, J., Chandra, P., Romero, D. (2018) Political Tweets and Mainstream News Impact in India: A Mixed Methods Investigation into Political Outreach. Proceedings of the 1st ACM SIGCAS Conference on Computing and Sustainable Societies (10)
• Gonawela, A., Pal, J., Thawani, U., van der Vlugt, E., Out, W., Chandra, P. (2018) Speaking their Mind: Populist Style and Antagonistic Messaging in the Tweets of Donald Trump, Narendra Modi, Nigel Farage, and Geert Wilders, Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), Published Online May 2018
• Pal, J., Chandra, P., Chirumamilla, P., Kameswaran, V., Gonawela, A., Thawani, U., Dasgupta, P. (2017)  Innuendo as outreach: @narendramodi and the use of political irony on Twitter International Journal of Communications, 11, 4197-4218
• Pal, J., & Gonawela, A. (2017). Studying political communication on Twitter: The case for small data. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 18, 97-102
• Pal, J. (2017)  The Technological Self in India: From Tech-savvy Farmers to a Selfie-tweeting Prime Minister ICTD2017 (Forthcoming, December 2017)
• Pal, J., Chandra, P., & Vydiswaran, V. V. (2016)  “Twitter and the Rebranding of Narendra Modi” Economic & Political Weekly, 51(8), 53.
• Pal, J. (2015) “Banalities Turned Viral: Narendra Modi and the Political Tweet” Television & New Media 1–10
• Pal, J. (2015) “@NarendraModi, or how I learned to stop worrying and love the brand” Kafila

 

• Raval, N., Pal, J (2019) Making a “pro”: ‘Professionalism’ after Platforms in Beauty-work Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction November 2019 Article No.: 175 (PDF)
• Pal, J. (2019). Women as Software Engineers in Indian Tamil Cinema. In C. Frieze & J. Quesenberry (Eds.), Cracking the Digital Ceiling: Women in Computing Around the World (pp. 290-298). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (PDF)
• Pal, J., Chandra, P., Kameswaran, V., Parameshwar, A., Joshi, S., Johri, A. (2018) Digital payment and its discontents: Street shops and the Indian government’s push for cashless transactions Interactions. In Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ACM. (Forthcoming)
• Pal, J., (2017) The Fallacy of Good: Marginalized Populations as Design Motivation Interactions 24 (5), 65-67
• Pal, J., (2017) Chi4Good or Good4CHI (Alt-CHI) In Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ACM.
• Mudliar, P. Pal, J. (2015) “Watching from an Arm’s Length: The Foreign Hand in Tamil Cinema” Culture, Communication, and Critique, Vol 9. 3
• Pal, J. (2013). Physical Disability and Indian Cinema. Different Bodies: Essays on Disability in Film and Television, 109.
• Pal, Joyojeet. (2012) “Rajnikant’s Laptop: Computers and Development in Popular Indian Cinema.” Information Technologies & International Development 6(2) (2010): pp-39. 

Other selected publications

ICTD

• Pal, J., Dasika, A., Hasan, A., Wolf, J., Reid, N., Kameswaran, V., Yardi, P., Mackay, A., Wagner, A., Mukherjee, B., Joshi, S., Santra, S., Pandey, P. 2017.  Changing data practices for community health workers: Introducing digital data collection in West Bengal, India. ICTD2017 (Forthcoming, December 2017)
• Hentschel, J. and Pal, J., 2015, May. Sada Vehra: a framework for crowdsourcing Punjabi language content. In Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (p. 41). ACM.
• Chirumamilla, P., Pal, J. “Play and power: a ludic design proposal for ICTD” ICTD2013, Proceedings of the Sixth Conference on Information and Communications Technology and Development
• Mudliar, P., Pal, J. “Aakash: The Anatomy of a Computer” ICTD2013, Proceedings of the Sixth Conference on Information and Communications Technology and Development
• Johri, A., & Pal, J. (2012). “Capable and convivial design (CCD): a framework for designing information and communication technologies for human development“.Information Technology for Development, 18(1), 61-75.
• Pal, J. and Lakshmanan, M. (2012) “The Culture of Workplace Visibility for People with Vision Impairments in Bangalore” ICIC ’12: Fourth International Conference on Intercultural Collaboration, May 23-24, 2012, Bangalore, India
• Pal, J., “Of mouse and men: Computers and geeks as cinematic icons in the age of ICTD“, iConference 2010, February 16, 2010 Urbana Champaign, Conference Proceedings
• Pal, J., Lakshmanan, M., Toyama, K. ‘My Child Will be Respected’: Parental Perspectives on Computers in Rural India” Information Society Frontiers, Vol 11 (2), March 2009
• Pal, J., Patra, R., Nedevschi, S., Pawar, U. “The Case of the Occasionally Cheap Computer: Low-cost Devices and Classrooms in the Developing World” ITID: Information Technology and International Development, MIT Press, April 2009
• Pawar, U. S., Pal, J., Gupta, R., & Toyama, K. (2007) “Multiple mice for retention tasks in disadvantaged schools” In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems (pp. 1581-1590). ACM
• Pal, J., Pawar, U.S., Brewer, E., & Toyama, K (2006) “The case for multi-user design for computer aided learning in developing regions” In Proceedings of the 15th international conference on World Wide Web (pp. 781-789). ACM.
• Brewer, E, Demmer, M., Ho, M., Honicky, R., Pal, J., Plauche, M., Surana, S., “The challenges of technology research for developing regions.” (2006) Pervasive Computing, IEEE 5, no. 2: 15-23.
  Brewer, E, Demmer, M., Du,B., Ho, M., Kam, M., Nedevschi, S., Pal, J., Patra, R., Surana, S., Fall, K., “The case for technology in developing regions.” (2005) Computer 38, no. 6: 25-38.
• Pal, Joyojeet “The Developmental Promise of Information and Communications Technology in India” Contemporary South Asia, Vol. 12(1) / March 2003, pp 103 – 119

 

Accessibility

• Pal, J. (2015) “Access Technologies and Accessibility for Inclusion” The International Encyclopedia of Digital Communication and Society, Mansell, R. and Ang, P. (eds). Wiley
• Pal, J (2013) “Assistive Technology for people with vision impairments: Engineering and workplace accommodation challenges for low-resource environments” in Heymann, J., M.A. Stein and G. Moreno (Eds.). Disability and Equity at Work (New York: Oxford University Press)
• Pal, J., Lakshmanan, M. (2013) “Mobiles as Primary AT in India” Symposium on Disability, Technology and Rehabilitation in Low and Middle Income Countries,
• McCarthy, E., Pal, J., Cutrell, E., (2013) “The “voice” has it: screen reader adoption and switching behavior among vision impaired persons in India” Assistive Technology, Vol 25, Issue 4
• Pal, J (2013) “Access Technologies and Accessibility in Low- and Middle-Income Countries” in Robin Mansell and Peng Hwa Ang (eds.) (2013) International Encyclopedia of Digital Communication and Society (Wiley-Blackwell)
• Chatterjee, S., Pal, J. (2013) CRPD Implementation and the outlook for accessibility and technology: A Study of India, Peru, Jordan, and the Philippines
• Pal, J. (2012). “The machine to aspire to: The computer in rural south India.” First Monday 17(2-6).
• Pal, J., Pradhan, M., Shah, M., & Babu, R. (2011) “Assistive Technology for vision-impairments: An agenda for the ICT4D community“, In Proceedings of the 20th international conference companion on World wide web (pp. 513-522). ACM.

Area Studies / Latin America

• Kumar, Priya, Maura Youngman, Sanjay Fernandes, Joyojeet Pal (2014) Cultura en un Mundo Conectado: Explorando el Trabajo de Observatorios Digitales, Report for the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Ministry of Information Technology (MinTIC), Government of Colombia. University of Michigan Ann Arbor. English version (Culture in a Connected World: Exploring the Work of Digital Observatories)
• Ludmila Ferrari, Edgar Nunez, Ingrid Sanchez Tapia, Joyojeet Pal (2013) Cultura Digital en Colombia, Report for the POETA program, Organization of American States (OAS). University of Michigan Ann Arbor
• Sydenham, K., Chatterjee, S., Pal, J. (2012) “Analyzing CRPD Implementations Across Industrialized and Developing Regions: An Examination of Argentina, Australia, El Salvador, Peru, Sweden and Tunisia” G3ict Report, May 2012
• Pal, J., Freistadt, J., Frix, M., & Neff, P. (2009). Technology for employability in Latin America: Research with at-risk youth and people with disabilities. Seattle: Technology & Social Change Group, University of Washington
• Frix, M., Freistadt, J., Neff, P., & Pal, J. (2009). New institutions and transformations: Computers and youth in low-income urban Guatemala and Brazil. 8th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children. Como, Italy, June 2009
• Freistadt, J., Pal, J., & Alves da Silva, R. (2009). ICT centers and the access gap to formal higher education for the poor in Brazil. Paper presented at the Community Informatics Conference 2009: Empowering communities: learning from community informatics practice. Prato, Italy, October 2009

Media

• Pal, J., Young, M.(2013) “Middle class as a matter of values: Women’s Jobs in Popular Hindi TV & Cinema” ICA2013
• Mudliar, P., Pal, (2013) “Watching from an arm’s length: The “foreign” in Tamil cinema” ICA2013
• Pal, J (2012) “Laptop Ladies v/s Blackberry Babes: Women and technology in Nigerian and Tamil popular films” NorthQuad Lectures

Advisees

• Priyank Chandra
• Vaishnav Kameswaran