What did Russian Trolls Want During the 2016 Election? A Closer Look at the Internet Research Agency’s Active Measures Interview with Katie Kovarik and Addyson Jackson

Interviews with TCU Students About their Research

Katie and Addyson’s work is primarily centered around the question: Why did Russian trolls want to interfere with the United States presidential election of 2016? They worked with Dr. Tricia Jenkins and were sponsored by the John V. Roach Honors College. Their role in the research consisted of research and an immense amount of coding pertaining to tweets during the time of the election. They sorted tweets with both extreme right and extreme left content. Their findings were presented at a global conference at Oxford in the United Kingdom where they learned of the impact of Russian interference in many international cases.

Comments from Mentors

“Katie and Addyson were such a joy to work with. They amazed me with their work ethic, curiosity, confidence and poise, especially when presenting our work to a group of PhDs at Oxford University in England. That experience could easily have been daunting for any undergraduate or graduate student, but these ladies nailed our presentation, and I am so proud of not only the research they did, but also the way they handled themselves in a professional, scholarly environment.”

– Tricia Jenkins